The FBI is assisting Bergen County in its investigation of bomb threats that disrupted school Friday morning at five high schools and were declared to be hoaxes, said Doreen Holder, a public information officer for the federal agency
Bergen County Sheriff’s spokesman Anthony Cureton said all of the schools received threatening robo-calls. Schools in Bergenfield, Hackensack, Teaneck and Waldwick have been determined to be safe by the sheriff’s bomb squad. Mahwah High School was still being searched by authorities shortly before 11 a.m.
Teaneck High School students were evacuated this morning due to a bomb threat but have since returned, Police Deputy Chief Glenn O’Reilly said. The school was deemed safe after a search. The school’s Principal Dennis Heck said in an audio message to parents that the school was evacuated due to a threat, but he did not characterize the threat. Heck asked parents not to pick up their students. The principal at the Lowell Elementary School, which was not affected, characterized the incident as “swatting” in a message to parents.
As more patients become insured by Medicaid, hospitals are providing less charity care, one of the major factors in an $89 million decrease in state subsidies that left some hospitals losing nearly half their funding.
Executives at hospitals throughout New Jersey were digesting the numbers released Thursday afternoon from the state Department of Health, which are based on documented care provided in the previous year.
There were dramatic increases and decreases.
Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus, the state’s largest hospital, is receiving $19.9 million, far less than the $36.6 million received last year, while Hackensack University Medical Center’s subsidy more than doubled to $16.5 million this year, according to state data.
“Since HackensackUMC serves as an important safety-net hospital for the state, an increase in funding will enable us to continue our mission to provide world-class healthcare to everyone in the communities we serve,’’ said Robert C. Garrett, president and chief executive officer of Hackensack University Health Network, the hospitals’ parent company.
A spokeswoman for Bergen Regional said, “We are still in the process of assessing the impact this information will have on the Medical Center.”
Midland Park NJ, A large sinkhole on Woodside Avenue in Midland Park almost swallowed a small Midland Park Department of Public Works truck whole, and caused major disruption to water, waste water, and natural gas services in sections of Midland Park and nearby Ridgewood. The were no injuries reported in the calamity
Lawmaker proposes lowering New Jersey’s drinking age to 18
Republican Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll recently introduced the measure, saying it’s wrong that an 18-year-old can serve in the military but not be allowed to buy alcohol. The bill seems unlikely to pass, since lowering the drinking age would cost the state millions of dollars in federal highway funds
A New Jersey legislator wants to lower New Jersey’s drinking age from 21 to 18. Associated Press Read more
Last night a few of us went to the Freeholders meeting in Hackensack because the introduction of their ordinance to OK the BCIA funding our garage was on the agenda. We were welcomed and greeted warmly. Several came over to us before the meeting, introduced themselves, offered great support and adulation for our grass roots effort with the petition, explained the process, etc.
When one of us was speaking the timer went off, and instead of shutting the speaker down, they asked him politely to wrap it up and let him finish. It was unbelievable. Then I realized it was not unbelievable, it was simply not something that we are accustomed to after being beaten and bashed by the Council majority.
While our mayor calls the petitioners outright liars who are fueled by misinformation, these elected officials applauded our interest and passion. Mayor Aronsohn could take a huge lesson in civility by watching these truly fine individuals in action. Well it won’t be long until the three of them are gone and we will have peace, civility and decency once again.
The freeholders had already met with Aronsohn, of course, and they told us that Aronsohn assured them yesterday afternoon that it was going to be funded by Ridgewood and that he expected to have a vote on this by next week. At that point, we were told, the entire involvement of the BCIA and freeholders would go “poof.” (their word). In the meantime, they told us that they would be voting unanimously last night to approve the funding by the BCIA because they are not involved with design, height, location, or any of that. Their only job is to say yea or nay to the BCIA request, and they had no reason to say nay.
Two takeaways –
1. Aronsohn told them that it is definitely going to be funded in town. Interesting, because last night at the VC he refused to take the BCIA ordinance off the books and he continued to sing the praises of the BCIA.
2. Aronsohn will be taking full credit if it gets funded in town, when in fact the efforts of the petition drive is the sole reason that he got backed into this corner. Power to the people.
A former Westwood councilman pleaded guilty to federal charges on Wednesday, confessing that he sold phony massage therapy training certificates to women who worked as prostitutes at more than two dozen massage parlors in New Jersey.
Robert W. Miller, 67, of Westwood, who resigned from public office in 2015 after seven years of service, entered the plea in federal court in Newark to a single count of using facilities in interstate commerce to promote prostitution.
As a result of the plea, Miller could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi on May 19.
The defendant, bald and dressed in a gray pin-stripped suit, calmly answered a series of questions posed by the judge and a prosecutor during the hearing.
Miller admitted that for a fee of $500 to $2,500 he offered to provide a massage therapy training certificate, as well as a transcript listing classes taken and grades received, to customers seeking to obtain a state massage license without actually receiving the required training.
Besides creating the fraudulent documents, Miller admitted he was willing to provide them to the New Jersey Board of Massage and Bodywork Therapy on behalf of his customers.
Miller acknowledged that between 1997 and 2013 he created at least 50 training certificates containing false information about the classes completed and grades earned by applicants for massage licenses, and provided them to about 25 different massage parlors in Passaic, Hudson, Union and Middlesex counties.
Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. McCarren, Miller admitted that he knew many of the massage parlors were fronts for prostitution and that the phony documents allowed the workers to engage in prostitution under the guise of providing legitimate massage services.
The charges specifically refer to fraudulent certificates and transcripts that he provided for five women working as prostitutes at a massage parlor in Middlesex County in June 2013. The documents falsely claimed the workers had completed 650 hours of training through Miller’s RWM Associates business in order to facilitate their real work as prostitutes, authorities said.
Miller, who also served as a councilman in Ridgewood from 1996 to 1998, also admitted that he operated a purported advertising agency in Westwood, known as A.R.M. Enterprises L.L.C., that could place ads in newspapers for massage parlors using discreet wording that signaled that the massage parlor was also a house of prostitution.
Miller placed ads in local newspapers for a number of massage parlors that operated as prostitution businesses and told many of the owners that he would give them advance notice of any law enforcement investigations into prostitution activities at their businesses, according to the charges.
Miller, who was released on a $50,000 bond, and his public defender, Linda Foster, declined to comment after the hearing.
North Bergen is poised to file a lawsuit challenging the tax exempt status of Palisades General Medical Center and The Harborage nursing home, whose 8.6-acre campus overlooking the Hudson River is some of the most expensive real estate in the world.
The filing, which the township’s Board of Commissioners approved Wednesday, comes on the heels of a precedent-setting Tax Court decision last summer in which a judge ruled that the non-profit Morristown Medical Center was not entitled to its property-tax exemption because its operations were little different from those of a for-profit company.
The ruling, and a subsequent $15.5 million settlement between Morristown and the hospital, raised the specter of a flood of legal challenges by cash-strapped municipalities seeking property taxes or payments in lieu of taxes from the 63 non-profit hospitals statewide. The state Legislature passed a bill in early January that would have circumvented more lawsuits by requiring non-profit hospitals to contribute financially to their hometowns based on the number of beds they have, but Gov. Christie vetoed it later that month without explanation.
Environmental regulators knew three months ago that a chemical that likely causes cancer was found for the first time at the Ringwood Superfund site, but on Tuesday defended their decision not to immediately disclose the information to the public, saying they do not consider it an imminent health threat.
Community leaders are angry they were not informed sooner. They said they should have been told shortly after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency received information in late November that the chemical 1,4-dioxane was detected at high levels in the groundwater just a few hundred feet from homes.
The EPA “should have called an emergency meeting,” said Vincent Mann, chief of the Ramapough Turtle Clan, a Native American tribe that has made the mountains its home for at least 200 years. “I keep saying it over and over and over again, they are leaving the human element out of their management of this site.”
The discovery of 1,4-dioxane was made by engineers for Ford Motor Co., which dumped tons of toxic paint sludge nearly 50 years ago in Upper Ringwood.
Water samples taken from three wells west of Sheehan Drive in August found concentrations of 1,4-dioxane at 50 to 95 times New Jersey’s groundwater standard.
It was the first time scientists had looked for the chemical in Ringwood; the EPA only began requiring that 1,4-dioxane be tested for at Superfund sites nationwide last year, said Elias Rodriguez, an agency spokesman.
A report on the findings, dated Nov. 25, was sent to the EPA, which for years has been criticized for failing to ensure that the site is adequately cleaned up.
photo courtesy of Maura DeNicola Packed Freeholder Meeting Room for the State of the County. — at One Bergen County Plaza
BY TODD SOUTH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
HACKENSACK — Bergen County Executive James Tedesco on Tuesday delivered his state of the county address, using the annual recounting of his administration’s accomplishments and plans to signal that the 2016 budget cycle will be tougher than its predecessor and that a tax increase is possible for 2016.
Employee health-care cost increases of $12 million and $3.4 million more for debt service on the largest construction project in county history will drive decisions on how to maintain services that Tedesco praised in his hour-long speech to a crowd of more than 100 mostly county employees and political office holders at the Bergen County Administration Building.
The combined $15.4 million increase for those two items alone is more than two thirds of the $22.6 million spending hike in the 2015 budget, which resulted in a 4.3 percent tax increase for property owners. Last year’s county budget totaled $530 million.
Congressman Scott Garrett, the U.S. Representative for New Jersey’s 5th congressional district, met with employees of Crestron on Monday to tour it’s the company’s Experience Center located at its headquarters in Rockleigh, New Jersey.
Crestron, a global organization with more than 90 offices around the world, employs 1,500 employees from Bergen County and the surrounding area at its worldwide headquarters and campus in Rockleigh, New Jersey.
The campus includes the Experience Center, Research Center, manufacturing plant, pre-production facility, and distribution center.
The tour provided Garrett with an in-depth look into the world of Crestron and its award-winning, advanced control and automation technology. Crestron’s solutions have led the way for over four decades, supporting Fortune 500 companies, government organizations, leading hospitals, universities and prestigious homes.
The Crestron Experience Center combines the finest design with cutting-edge technology, for the ultimate immersive demonstration of its innovative solutions. Congressman Garrett saw firsthand how the company has evolved from a pioneer in A/V and control systems, to the world-class enterprise management company it is today.
As you may be aware, many Ridgewood residents are opposed to bonding a parking garage in our Central Business District through the county.
A petition has been circulating widely around town to make this issue a referendum on the ballot of the May 10, 2016, election.
A large number of signatures has been obtained. These will be counted and validated shortly–but not bytomorrow.
We urge the Freeholders to refrain from acting on this matter until the referendum issue has been determined. We wish to handle our own project with internal funding.
Should a judge allow the referendum, any decision that you might make tomorrow would be nullified, and you would have wasted your time.
As a Ridgewood resident for 44 years and counting, I want only the best for my town. Self-funding of the parking garage would be far preferable to bringing in the county. I am also concerned about possible ramifications in the future.
Please consider removing from tomorrow’s meeting agenda the item regarding Ridgewood parking garage bond funding.
MAHWAH — The Bergen County-owned archery range at Campgaw Mountain remained closed over the weekend, as Bergen County officials investigate allegations in a power struggle splitting members of one of the oldest archery clubs in North Jersey.
Bergen Bowmen longtime members Joann and Joe Mills of Ridgefield Park say a band of “impostors” has taken over the non-profit club through improper elections in December and that they’re worried about the club’s future and that of the range its members have helped maintain for decades. But those who call themselves the new leaders of the Bergen Bowmen and their supporters argue online that they were fairly elected and that ousted members must turn over club records.
The tension is a notable low point for the 60-year-old storied club, which had a membership of about 70 last year and has drawn newfound interest among fans of the archery-heavy book series “The Hunger Games” and its film versions, as well as “The Avengers” movie. Over the years, the club has been a leader in promoting archery in North Jersey, while also backing state legislation expanding the black bear hunt and allowing hunters to donate venison to soup kitchens.
The county has stopped processing permits needed by the club to access the range until the two sides “completely” resolve the dispute, said a Feb. 5 letter by Deputy County Counsel John Libretti.
Jack Spoto, executive vice president of the United Bowhunters of New Jersey, said his organization isn’t “picking sides,” but called the infighting a “shame.”
“It means a lot of archers aren’t allowed to go to Campgaw and shoot and practice,” he said. “We’re trying to help the county get the archery range up and running until the infighting is over. We’d be willing to allow the county and archers to use our insurance policy.”
The fight over who are the “real” leaders of the club is playing out over competing “official” websites and Facebook pages — all named “Bergen Bowmen.” A key question is: Who has the legal right to obtain the $2 million in general liability insurance that Bergen County requires? The club must have it to be eligible for a $100, one-year club permit allowing members to shoot arrows at the Campgaw range.
The range also has been open to the general public. Typically, it costs a county resident $12 for an annual archery permit for the range, and $60 for a non-resident, who must show proof of homeowner’s or renter’s insurance.
Bergen’s nearby Darlington County Park is one entity handling archery permits. A park employee who answered the phone Friday said the range would “hopefully” reopen soon, but that it was closed over the weekend because “of a problem with archery clubs.”
The two factions are trading allegations of actions amounting to criminal conduct. Libretti, the deputy county counsel, wrote that the Bergen Bowmen members and affiliates can’t access the range “until further notice,” and that the county will “remove and prosecute as trespassers” any members or associates who try to do so.
“Meanwhile, various county departments are conducting investigations in an attempt to sort through the myriad of allegations alleged by all parties,” Libretti wrote to leaders of both factions, Joel Riotto of Demarest and Joann Mills, whom he addressed as secretary of the Bergen Bowmen.
Bergen County spokesman Mike Pagan said that given the investigation, county officials are not allowed to comment on any related matter.
When reached by phone, Riotto declined to discuss the dispute. The bergenbowmen.com website lists him as the 2016 membership data committee chairman and a past Bergen Bowmen president.
“It’s not a lack of a desire to cooperate,” Riotto said, “and again I caution you, do some due diligence before you quote anyone. You may find it’s possible that you’ve been misled.”
Waldwick, NJ , The most recognized professional writing association devoted to dogs, The Dog Writer’s Association of America (DWAA), has chosen local dog trainer and journalist, Dorice Stancher, MBA, CPDT-KA as one of four select finalists from thousands of entries in the category of broadcast journalism.
Stancher has been nominated for her appearance on the popular News 12 New Jersey program, “The Pet Stop with Dr. Brian Voynick” featuring a two-part segment on obedience and trick training via the Internet. She is an advocate and certified trainer with the “Do More With Your Dog” All-Star Team initiative which provides free online training videos. Stancher sees this program as a powerful tool to help keep dogs out of shelters and create a well-trained family pet regardless of income. “Many pet owners cannot afford to hire a trainer, and the “Do More With Your Dog” program can get them started off on the right track,” she said.
Her company, Canines Can Do, LLC, reflects her “can-do” attitude. Stancher, who bounced back from a traumatic brain injury after an ice skating accident, believes all dogs and their owners should train positively and live life with zest. Her own dogs, two Soft-Coated Wheaten Terriers, participate in dog sledding, surfing and dock diving in addition to being titled in formal obedience and conformation, sheepherding, and her passion, pet therapy. She was a featured presenter at the first Morristown Hospital Therapy Conference and is affiliated with The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs recruiting
and training teams. As part of their therapy mission, they are regular visitors to Camp Dream Street, a day camp for children with cancer.
Stancher is a certified trainer and also holds a degree in Journalism and MBA in Management from Seton Hall University. She previously won an award for magazine journalism in 2013 for an article appearing in the The AKC Family Dog.
To view the nominated video or to learn more about Stancher and her work with dogs please visit: www.caninescando.com Scroll down to view the video at the bottom of the page. Canines Can Do group lessons are held at The Madison in Waldwick, NJ
With a year to go before the contract with the operators of Bergen Regional Medical Center expires, county officials are weighing several options for the institution. That decision will affect tens of thousands of patients, renew scrutiny of the for-profit company that runs the hospital, and affect regional health care for decades.
The 19-year contract between the company that runs the Paramus hospital, Bergen Regional Medical Center LP, and the Bergen County Improvement Authority, is set to expire in March 2017.
Lawmakers, several county officials and others say it’s time for a change.
Critics complain the agreement has shortchanged patients and taxpayers and allowed a for-profit company to skirt millions in repairs while reaping substantial profits from the county-owned hospital.
“This was never a good deal for the people of Bergen County,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck.
There’s much more at stake than drafting a new agreement.
Experts say it’s essential to preserve Bergen Regional — a linchpin in New Jersey’s fragile mental health system as more psychiatric facilities close and other hospitals cut or eliminate unprofitable mental health units. The hospital’s services are needed more than ever for seniors, addicts and even children.
“Although it’s a county facility, Bergen Regional is crucial to the entire state mental health system,” said Phil Lubitz, associate director of the National Alliance on Mental Health of New Jersey.
In the next several months, county officials will consider fundamental questions: Should the hospital continue providing psychiatric, long-term and acute services? Is it wise to have a for-profit operator continue to manage the county’s facility? Are staffing and equipment adequate? Should Bergen County invest capital in a hospital that serves so many patients who don’t live in the county?
HILLSDALE, N.J. — In some neighborhoods of this placid New Jersey borough in Bergen County, they are seemingly everywhere — waddling by the dozen in the road, perched on car roofs, pecking at the tires of delivery trucks.
But wild turkeys, which were wiped out in the state by the mid-1800s, put on their most brazen display on Tuesday, when a letter carrier felt trapped in his truck and telephoned his boss for help.
“Hey sarge,” the postmaster said in a 911 call to the Hillsdale Police Department. “You’re not going to believe this, but I got a carrier that’s being attacked by wild turkeys and won’t let him deliver the mail.”
The letter carrier, who was not identified, was inside his truck on Esplanade Drive, surrounded by four or five turkeys, when two officers arrived, according to Capt. Sean Smith of the Police Department. “The first officer attempted to blow the siren and that didn’t work,” he said on Thursday. “Then the other officer got out of his car and ran aggressively toward the turkeys and that did the trick.”
It was just one of the latest skirmishes in suburbia’s wildlife wars. Turkeys have now joined the ranks of raccoons, foxes, coyotes, bears and deer, all of which have both fans and detractors and seem to make headlines with growing frequency.
