Fair Lawn Week in Review (Nov. 28 - Dec. 2)

Monday, Nov. 28

High school jocks are sometimes revered and sometimes reviled, but their athletic prowess tends to at least earn them a modicum of respect with fellow classmates.

That is, of course, unless they’re a bowler.

“All my friends just make fun of me, like, 'Hah, you’re bowling? Wow. Varsity Bowling,'” said Ellie Schuckman, co-captain of Fair Lawn’s Girls Bowling squad.

Last season, the team won its third league title in four years, but even that sustained success hasn’t been enough to persuade outsiders that the girls are legitimate athletes.

“[People] are like, ‘Oh, you bowl? That’s not a sport,” senior co-captain Chelsea Lawlor said. “I’m like, ‘You try it.’”

“It’s not easy,” Schuckman added.

Tuesday, Nov. 29

Jerry Rhodes, a Fair Lawn resident who previously worked as the director of both the Paramus and the Parsippany Public Works Departments, died over the weekend while riding his motorcycle in Sussex County.

Rhodes, 62, was killed after his motorcycle crashed into a vehicle trying to make an illegal U-turn on Route 94 in Hardyston, according to police.

Hardyston Police said Rhodes was driving his 2003 Harley Davidson southbound when he ran into a southbound 2007 Ford Expedition SUV being driven by 42-year-old Jason DeLeeuw, of Hamburg, Saturday at about 1:30 p.m.

 working an undercover detail aimed at cracking down on the purchase of alcohol by minors made arrests in two separate incidents at a local liquor store over the weekend.

Two Glen Rock men, ages 19 and 20, were arrested and charged with purchasing alcohol while underage, according to police reports. The 20-year-old man was also charged with possession of a false Pennsylvania driver's license...

The "Cops in Shops," program is a partnership between law enforcement and local retailers intended to deter minors from attempting to purchase alcohol and deter adults from purchasing alcohol for minors.

Undercover police officers pose as either store employees or customers at local liquor stores, and wait to apprehend underage individuals when they attempt to purchase alcohol.

Power across town has been restored in its entirety, Fair Lawn police said at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.

A report in the Bergen Record states that power was restored in waves across Fair Lawn over the course of the afternoon...

According to a statement from PSE&G, approximately 15,000 customers served by substations in Wayne and Hawthorne lost power at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday because of an issue with a supply line at a PSE&G substation in Wayne.

The Bergen Record reported that Totowa Office of Emergency Management Director Allen Delvecchio said PSE&G workers told him the problem started at Wayne’s Hinchman Avenue substation.

The supply line problems feathered throughout the region, causing outages across both Passaic and Bergen counties.

As many as 2,001 to 5,000 homes were without power in Fair Lawn as of mid-afternoon Tuesday, according to the PSEG's online outage map. Fair Lawn was the only town in Bergen County listed as having more than "1-500" outages.

Wednesday, Nov. 30

In recent months, Fair Lawn's  have come under fire from residents for granting variances and .

The issue came to a head at , when  repeatedly took the boards to task for allowing "overdevelopment," to occur in Fair Lawn, specifically citing the approval of a "McMansion" on Fair Lawn Avenue and a mixed-use building going up on River Road by the.

On the other hand, Democrats, including , have repeatedly defended the boards, which are bipartisan and composed of volunteers from the community.

Whether you've been pleased or displeased with the boards' decisions of late, the borough is putting a call out for individuals interested in volunteering to serve on its municipal authorities, boards and/or commissions. 

The storm-downed trees and brush left by the destructive duo of  and this year have made for the  in his 40 years working for the borough.

Like many towns throughout Bergen County, Fair Lawn has accumulated more wood debris from the storms than it can reasonably use.

"There's almost three times as much brush as we've ever had," Conte said. "We have a pile behind the  that you can probably hide half the  in."

 workers, as they've done each year since 1988, have created separate piles at the  for mulch, wood chips and firewood that residents can load up on for their personal use, free of charge. 

Thursday, Dec. 1

 graduate Lauryn Kahn has sold her first feature comedy spec to Hollywood A-Listers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay of Gary Sanchez Productions for $1.5 million.

Her screenplay, "He’s F*ckin’ Perfect"—a working title—will star Emma Stone and revolves around a cynical, internet-savvy twenty-something who digs up dirt on her friends’ potential dates. But when she uncovers the ideal man, she convinces a pseudo-friend not to date him and instead uses her skills to become his perfect match.

On Tuesday, Swain broached the subject of changing the way the borough conducted leaf pickup at the .

"I would like to boldly go ahead and see if we can eliminate the leaves from the street," she said, adding that her aim was to implement the change for next fall.

"People have to have either their landscaper haul the leaves to the  or the homeowner has to haul their leaves to the ," Swain proposed, clarifying that she was not calling for mandatory bagging, which Deputy Mayor Joe Tedeschi preferred, but rather that all leaves, loose or bagged, should be kept out of the street altogether.

Friday, Dec. 2

Fair Lawn's Environmental Commission and Green Team are in the early stages of coordinating an effort to mitigate Fair Lawn's flooding problem.

At a , the groups convened to discuss a stormwater management plan developed by Monica Moscovici...

As presented, Moscovici's plan would levy an annual fee on residents based on their property's amount of impervious surface (i.e. surface that water cannot pass through). Examples of impervious surface include paved areas like driveways or walkways, patios and rooftops.