APRIL 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY AIMEE LA FOUNTAIN
CORRESPONDENT |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Christie Kim
Six-year-old Ridgewood resident Christie Kim is making her Broadway debut as an ensemble member in Lincoln Center’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I”
The musical, which is directed by Bartlett Sher and opened on Thursday night, tells the story of an unlikely relationship between British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens and the imperious King of Siam.
Christie was thrilled to learn she was cast in the show.
“I was jumping up and down and I almost fell off my chair at dinner,” she said.
Christie auditioned for the show at the suggestion of her vocal coach, Jackie Moro.
“Because I’ve been involved in the entertainment business for a long time, I know what kind of child can go through the audition process,” Moro said. “I knew that Christie was the type of child who had the right stamina and work ethic.”
APRIL 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Board of Education unanimously approved the appointment of Mary K. Ferreri as the new principal of Orchard Elementary School, effective July 15.
Ferreri has spent her entire career in the Westwood Regional School District. She is currently principal at the Jessie F. George Elementary School, a position that she has held since 2010.
From January 2009 to June 2010, she worked as acting assistant principal at George and Ketler schools while also serving as supervisor of elementary programs and the district’s head teacher for kindergarten to grade 6. Prior to that, she taught first and third grades in Westwood from 2002 to 2009.
Ferreri, who will be paid $150,000 in Ridgewood, has a master’s degree in educational administration from Montclair State.
Superintendent of Schools Daniel Fishbein announced Ferreri’s appointment in a letter distributed to Ridgewood parents.
APRIL 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Mr. Met will be among the attractions highlighting a revamped Ridgewood Baseball and Softball Association (RBSA) Opening Day Parade and Family Fun Day Saturday at Veterans Field.
The New York Mets mascot is scheduled to march in the parade, which is expected to include more than 1,000 players from the village’s youth baseball and softball teams.
The 65th annual event begins at 9 a.m. at the Ridgewood train station and will proceed through town via East Ridgewood Avenue to Veterans Field, where the opening ceremonies will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Kasschau Band Shell.
The New Jersey Jackals minor league team is slated to make a guest appearance alongside Grand Marshals Gary and Nora Muzio, longtime supporters and invaluable members of the RBSA.
This year’s fair features a fresh new look and will include five of the area’s top food trucks, including Pizza Vita Brick Oven Pizza, Jersey Johnny’s Grill, and Oink and Moo BBQ. A pavilion will be set up where 30 vendors will showcase a mix of unique wares and sports-related items.
Also new to the events is a 60-item Tricky Tray and Silent Auction. Participants can take a chance on winning prizes such as tickets to professional sporting events, golf outings, a Rawlings pitching machine, Easton Mako and DeMarini Vendetta bats, spa packages, dining certificates and more.
APRIL 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Anticipating minor changes that might impact Ridgewood families, the Board of Education (BOE) hopes to approve the school district’s 2016-17 calendar by the end of this month.
Just weeks after they finalized and adopted next year’s calendar, trustees engaged in a constructive dialogue during Monday’s BOE meeting as they reviewed the calendar committee’s recommended schedule for 2016-17.
“We told parents that we would try to get the calendar over a year in advance because we keep hearing ‘I want to be able to schedule what we’ll be doing, what the kids will be doing’,” BOE President Sheila Brogan said.
Board members generally agreed with the committee’s suggested calendar, which incorporated elements that most education officials deem desirable: First day of instruction begins after Labor Day; February features a full week of recess; and last day of classes is June 22.
APRIL 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
An ordinance introduced last week to limit the hours motorists can park on Corella Court during the school day has nearby residents concerned that parking problems will now spill over onto neighboring Stevens Avenue.
From Sept. 1 through June 30, parking will be limited to two hours from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. on both sides of Corella Court. The ordinance also calls for a stop sign to be installed on the east side of the street at its intersection with Stevens Avenue.
The changes stem from an influx of cars parked on Corella Court for hours at a time each day, which was attributed to construction done at Hawes Elementary School that took away parking from employees, forcing them to the nearby cul-de-sac, said Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld.
“It is a serious situation at Corella Court,” Sonenfeld said. “We cannot get emergency vehicles in and out [and] people cannot back out of their driveways, so it really is a serious problem.”
Jim Brandes, a Stevens Avenue resident, said the current proposal will only move the problem further up the street to the area of Stevens Avenue north of Corella Court. Brandes said the situation will, in fact, become more dangerous because Stevens Avenue is busier and more narrow than Corella Court.
APRIL 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015, 3:43 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Municipal officials gave high marks to the Ridgewood school system for its overall work and offered preliminary support to the district’s proposed $101 million budget.
At the annual joint meeting between the village’s governing and education leaders on Monday, Board of Education members and district administrators reviewed their anticipated 2015-16 spending plan, which will be up for BOE vote later this month.
The schools budget calls for an average tax bill increase of approximately $195, a figure based on an assessed home value of $690,662.
When combined with the district’s outstanding debt service levy, the amount to be paid is a 2.04 percent increase over last year.
In explaining the proposal, Alfredo Aguilar, district business administrator, highlighted the various programs that the budget would support. Included in his list were four additional staff positions, 13 new class offerings throughout the high school and middle schools, and $1.5 million earmarked for technology maintenance and upgrades.
APRIL 16, 2015, 10:13 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015, 10:18 PM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
Moody’s Investors Service announced a downgrade of New Jersey’s credit rating Thursday night, citing a “lack of improvement in the state’s weak financial position” and recent pension-funding shortfalls.
The state’s bond rating fell one step, from A1 to A2, at a time when Governor Christie and state lawmakers are building a state budget for the coming fiscal year. Christie, a Republican, has proposed a $33.8 billion spending plan that would make a $1.3 billion contribution to the pension funds, less than half what is legally required under a 2011 pension overhaul he signed.
Shorting the pension payments for the third year in a row, as Christie proposes, would saddle the retirement system with more long-term costs. Moody’s raised concern that the system may run out of money in nine to 12 years unless state officials make further changes to pension laws.
By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Email the author
on April 14, 2015 at 12:33 PM, updated April 15, 2015 at 7:31 AM
Commuters could be hit with an NJ Transit fare increase that might reach 9 percent in fiscal year 2016, based on budget documents for the coming year.
NJ Transit’s budget documents said revenue from fares would increase by 8.8 percent, from the $928.6 million earned in fiscal year 2015 to $1.01 billion in 2016, according to an Office of Legislative Services’ review of NJ Transit’s financials.
“It is not clear whether this increase in fare box revenue reflects a possible fare increase or whether this represents estimated (ridership) growth before the impacts of a possible fare increase,” said the OLS analysis.
But that growth is unlikely to come from ridership. Total NJ Transit ridership only grew by two percent between Jan. 2014 and Jan. 2015 to 270 million passenger trips, according to the last agency ridership report. That is the highest ridership since fiscal year 2009.
NJ Transit Executive Director Veronique Hakim said if the agency decides to raise fares, a package of increases and service reductions would be announced by the end of the month. Hakim also said she wants to limit a fare hike to a single digit increase after fares raised by 22 percent in 2010.
BY EDDIE SCARRY | APRIL 15, 2015 | 12:51 PM the other theory Harry Reid was beaten up by his gay lover ?
holding Harry Reid to the same standard he hold himself ?
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who recently announced plans to retire, rebutted conservative media speculation on Wednesday that his severe injuries are the result of a run-in with the mob.
On CNBC’s “Speakeasy,” host John Harwood asked Reid about theories put forth by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and Breitbart News that the injuries Reid sustained at the beginning of this year, including a blow to his right eye, are not, as he has said, the result of an accident involving elastic exercise equipment.
“The last few days, a bunch of people are saying, Reid, he didn’t have an exercise accident, he got beat up by the mob,” Harwood said.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) today issued the following statement after President Obama announced that he will remove Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list:
“For over half a century, the Castro regime in Cuba has violently oppressed their people under a totalitarian regime, aided anti-American insurgencies, illegally shipped weapons, and continues to harbor murderers and terrorists. Today’s announcement by the Obama Administration that they will remove Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list is misguided, dangerous, and offensive to the families who have been torn apart because of Cuba’s active participation in terrorist activities. The Castro regime has refused to make a single concession or good faith effort to change the way they treat their people or denounce their history of terrorism. There is no proof that Cuba is no longer a hostile threat to the interests and security of the United States.”
Garrett has been a longtime critic of the Cuban regime and has repeatedly called on their government to extradite New Jersey cop-killer Joanne Chesimard and terrorist William Morales so they can face justice for their crimes.
New Hampshire man who confronted Chris Christie on ‘Bridgegate’ changes story
A New Hampshire man who confronted Chris Christie about his role in the Bridgegate traffic scandal on Wednesday was mistaken about being stuck in the paralyzing September 2013 traffic jam in Fort Lee, New Jersey, he told POLITICO.
At a restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Christie was greeting potential voters on his tour of the Granite State, Richard Moquin claimed to have sat in the infamous traffic jam with his wife as they traveled to Manhattan to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
APRIL 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY RICHARD NEWMAN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* Federal agencies checking for racial bias in lending
The sale of Hudson City Bancorp Inc. to M&T Bank Corp. may face a new obstacle: a government investigation into whether the parent company of Paramus-based Hudson City Savings Bank violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against protected minorities when making loans.
The Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are examining whether Hudson City ran afoul of the federal housing discrimination law, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.
“A preliminary CFPB review concluded that the firm denied loans to people in minority communities, including those in the New York area,” said the report, which attributed that information to “two people familiar with the matter.”
The acquisition by M&T, valued at $3.7 billion when it was announced in August 2012, has been delayed several times in part because of a federal regulator’s concerns about the strength of M&T’s anti-money-laundering defenses. Hudson City said this month that it had been advised by Buffalo, N.Y.-based M&T that the deal would not close on May 1, the previously announced target date.
Hudson City Chief Executive Officer Denis Salamone and Susan Munhall, head of the bank’s investor relations, did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment on the Bloomberg report.
Representatives of the consumer board and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey said they had no comment.
Jumbo-mortgage lender Hudson City makes a majority of its loans in New Jersey and New York and focuses on the higher-end real estate market. It has received an overall “satisfactory” rating on its latest Community Reinvestment Act exam and a “low satisfactory” rating on the community lending subsection of the exam.
The Record reported in 2012 that fair-lending watchdogs in New York City and New Jersey had asked the Federal Reserve Board to hold hearings on M&T’s merger application. They were concerned that Hudson City’s black and Hispanic loan-denial rates were higher than those for whites and that the bank made very few conventional home purchase loans to black borrowers. No hearings have been held, but the acquisition has been delayed amid regulatory concerns, and the Federal Reserve has not ruled on the merger application.
APRIL 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* Bergen, Passaic benefit, aided by rise in port activity and need for warehouses
Spurred by increased activity at the port, industrial space remains in high demand in New Jersey, with a vacancy rate of 8 percent in the first quarter, according to a new report from the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield in East Rutherford.
Space is even tighter in Bergen County, with a 7 percent vacancy rate in the first quarter, down from 8.3 percent in the first quarter of 2014, and Passaic, with a 5 percent rate, down from 7 percent.
The growing demand for industrial space reflects a 7 percent rise in activity at the Port of New York and New Jersey, which has increased the need for warehouse and distribution sites in the state, according to Ron Lo Russo, president of Cushman & Wakefield’s tri-state region.
“As both online retail sales and manufacturing are expected to trend higher, the New Jersey industrial market is earning a position as one of the healthiest markets in the nation,” Lo Russo said in a statement.
A rise in e-commerce has led to more demand for warehouse space in this densely populated region, as online retailers aim for quick deliveries to their customers.
Prosecutor: Montvale businessman made “tens of millions” in fraud
APRIL 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015, 1:21 AM
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* Faces up to life in prison and $134.5M in fines for a scheme that bilked the federal government
“April 15, tax day, is a fitting date for Mr. Furando to accept responsibility for his crimes, which defrauded U.S. taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars.”
JOSH J. MINKER, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA
A Montvale businessman earned tens of millions of dollars as part of one of the largest frauds in Indiana history, prosecutors said on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and other charges.
Joseph Furando, 49, and two companies he owned, Cima Green LLC and the Caravan Trading Co., both in Park Ridge at the time of the crimes, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Indiana to participation in a scheme that prosecutors said fraudulently sold more than 35 million gallons of fuel that cost $145.5 million.
No date was set for Furando’s sentencing.
The pleas, following a guilty plea in August by a Ridgewood businesswoman who worked for Furando, Evelyn Katirina Pattison, also known as Katirina Tracy, leave three Indiana-based defendants to face trial in the case beginning on May 11 in Indianapolis.
“April 15, tax day, is a fitting date for Mr. Furando to accept responsibility for his crimes, which defrauded U.S. taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars that Congress appropriated for energy independence and a cleaner environment for all of us,” said Josh J. Minker, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.
Furando, who described the scheme to colleagues as “alchemy,” abused a federal program that offered companies a tax break for using environmentally friendly biodiesel, which contains recycled oil, prosecutors said.
Although the program awarded only one tax credit for each gallon used, Furando and his companies bought biodiesel that had already earned the tax credit and sold it to an Indiana company, E-biofuels, as newly produced fuel, prosecutors said.
E-biofuels then sold the fuel and claimed a new tax credit, selling the fuel at an inflated market price because it had the credit attached, prosecutors said.
The scheme realized “huge per gallon profits” for all the conspirators, sometimes more than $12,000 a truckload, prosecutors said.
N.J. releases figures on opt-out rates for new state tests
APRIL 15, 2015, 7:17 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2015, 7:43 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
TRENTON — The state education commissioner is urging students to sit down for the second round of new state tests, which starts in two weeks in many schools, even if they were among the thousands who opted out in the first round of testing.
Refusal rates for the tests ranged from 4 percent to 15 percent, depending on grade level, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the state Department of Education. The numbers were part of a snapshot of testing that Commissioner David Hespe provided Wednesday.
“We are encouraging school leaders to reach back out to parents and students and the school community and continue the message of how important participation is and how valuable those school reports are going to be,” Hespe said in an interview with The Record.
Hespe described the first round of tests known as PARCC as “successful,” despite refusals and protests from parents and teachers who argue that they take up too much time and resources and are too difficult. The commissioner noted that 98 percent of students took the test by computer – the highest rate of the 11 states that gave the tests – and that there were few, mostly minor problems with technology.
