SEPTEMBER 16, 2015, 9:43 AM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2015, 12:24 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
PARAMUS — A 27-year-old Clifton man who has an apparent affinity for Red Bull drinks was arrested Tuesday by authorities on three counts of robbery and kidnapping, and two weapons charges.
According to police, Eddie J. Johnson is accused of brandishing a knife and forcing men and women into cars, where he instructed them to drive to an ATM machine to withdraw cash for him or supermarkets to buy him energy drinks in bulk.
Paramus Police said Johnson first approached a woman back in February in the parking lot of Blink Fitness at the Outlets at Bergen Town Center, asking her for money. When she refused his request, Johnson had the woman drive him in her vehicle to an ATM to take out money.
Police said the woman purposely entered the wrong pin number for her account, so Johnson forced her to take him to the Pathmark in Elmwood Park, where he instructed her to buy $70 worth of Red Bull with her credit card. He fled on foot, energy drinks in hand.
Three-fourths of NJ sheriffs double-dip, led by 25-year ‘retiree’
By Mark Lagerkvist / August 30, 2015 / 6 Comments
For the past quarter century, Armando Fontoura has been looting a New Jersey state pension fund. But it won’t do any good to call the cops.
Fontoura is sheriff of Essex County. A dean among double-dippers, he draws $207,289 a year from public coffers – $144,896 in salary plus $62,393 from pension as a retiree of his own office.
Today is the 25th anniversary of Fontoura’s faux retirement. So far, he has collected $1.35 million in retirement cash without ever giving up his full-time county paycheck
On Friday, Aug. 31, 1990, Fontoura retired as county undersheriff at age 47. The following Monday, he returned to work at Essex County with the same salary and duties, but a different title – sheriff’s officer chief. One year later, he took charge as sheriff, a post he’s held ever since.
“Does it look bad? Yes,” admitted Fontoura. “No question about it, it looks bad. Was it legal? Yes.”
Worse for taxpayers, three-fourths of New Jersey’s county sheriffs – plus hundreds of other public officials – are taking advantage of pension loopholes to collect dual incomes.
A continuing New Jersey Watchdog investigation found the sheriffs in 16 of the state’s 21 counties are double-dippers. In addition, the sheriffs also employ 37 undersheriffs who returned to work after retiring as local, county or state law enforcement officials at relatively young ages.
In total, the 53 officers collect nearly $10 million a year from public coffers – $5.7 million in salaries plus $4.1 million in retirement pay – according to payroll and pension records.
By order of annual incomes, the double-dipping posse includes:
Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino (R), $267,987 – $138,000 salary + $129,987 pension as an Emerson Borough police retiree
Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik (D), $253,957 – $151,887 salary + $102,070 pension as a Clifton police retiree
Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy (R), $231,315 – $107,250 salary + $124,065 pension as a Toms River Township police retiree
Mercer County Sheriff John Kemler (D), $227,330 – $142,499 salary + $84,831 pension as a Mercer County sheriff’s office retiree
Camden County Sheriff Charles J. Billingham (D), $219,232 – $144,753 salary + $74,479 pension as a Washington Township police retiree
Somerset County Sheriff Frank J. Provenzano (R), $208,576 – $132,555 salary + $76,021 pension as Bridgewater Township police retiree
Warren County Sheriff David P. Gallant (R), $208,432 – $125,945 salary + $82,487 pension as a State Police retiree
Morris County Sheriff Edward V. Rochford (R), $200,838 – $139,203 salary + $61,545 pension as a Morris Township police retiree
Middlesex County Sheriff Mildred S. Scott (D), $200,796 – $139,455 salary + $61,341 pension as a retiree of the Middlesex County sheriff’s office
Hunterdon County Sheriff Frederick W. Brown (R), $197,796 – $115,868 salary + $81,928 pension as a retiree of Raritan Township police
Salem County Sheriff Charles M. Miller, $195,452 (R) – $119,386 salary + $76,066 pension as a retiree of the Salem County prosecutor’s office
Gloucester County Sheriff Carmel M. Morina (D), $191,996 – $128,547 salary + $63,449 pension as a Greenwich Township police retiree
Sussex County Sheriff Michael Strada (R), $170,124 – $121,212 salary + $46,973 pension as Mount Olive Township police retiree
Cumberland County Sheriff Robert Austino (D), $166,938 – $107,250 salary + $59,688 pension as a Vineland police retiree
Cape May County Sheriff Gary Schaffer (R), $161,654 – $107,500 salary + $54,154 pension as an Ocean City police retiree.
Click here for the complete list of sheriffs and undersheriffs who collect pensions plus salaries.
New Jersey Watchdog began tracking double-dipping by sheriffs in 2011. The initial report found 16 sheriffs and 28 undersheriffs collecting a total of $8 million a year – $3.25 million from pensions plus $4.75 million in salaries.
Four years later, the tally has increased by nine undersheriffs and $1.8 million a year in total pay.
The investigative news site has also reported extensively on double-dipping by state legislators, administration officials, school superintendents, state police and the staffs of the attorney general and county prosecutors.
RELATED: ‘Seven deadly sins’ of New Jersey pensions
The millions being drained from retirement funds through double-dipping epitomize the woes of a pension system that faces $170 billion in underfunding – a point noted earlier this year by Gov. Christie’s blue-ribbon, bi-partisan Pension and Health Benefit Study Commission.
“It has great symbolic importance…as the double-dippers have become the ‘face’ of a dysfunctional public pension system,” the study concluded, citing New Jersey Watchdog’s reporting. “For this reason, the task force should consider ways to further limit this practice.”
Yet Gov. Chris Christie and the State Legislature have done little to halt the abuses that have profited well-connected Democrats and Republicans over the years.
One of the bigger beneficiaries is Sen. Fred Madden, D-Washington, a triple-dipper who receives nearly a quarter-million dollars a year – $85,272 from his state police pension, $113,810 as dean of law and justice of Rowan College at Gloucester County and $49,000 as a part-time state legislator.
“Obviously I don’t have a problem with people doing it,” Madden said in an interview with New Jersey Watchdog three years ago. “I’ve accepted that in my own personal life. I don’t have a problem with it at all.”
A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Red Bank, would stop most double-dipping. It would suspend pension payments to retirees who return to public jobs paying more than $15,000 a year. The retirement benefits would resume when they permanently leave public employment.
“The pension system is intended to support you at a time you are no longer working,” said Beck. “So when you are an active employee, you should not be able to tap into both.”
The reform proposal has gone nowhere since it was first introduced in 2011 by Beck and Sen. Steven Oroho, R-Sparta. Its current incarnations – S-883 and A-114 – are trapped in legislative committees, unable to get enough support to reach the Senate or Assembly floors for votes.
Meanwhile, Fontoura is a heavy favorite to win re-election as sheriff in a Democratic stronghold that includes Newark. A victory would enable him to continue his double-dipping ways in Essex County for at least three more years.
“I retired, I collect my pension, and I am your sheriff,” Fontoura told NBC 4 New York, which partnered with New Jersey Watchdog for a report in 2012.
County personnel records show the retiring and rehiring of Fontoura had been plotted in advance. Then-sheriff Thomas D’Alessio approved the move on Aug. 7, 1990, more than three weeks before the switch.
“I said, as long as I can do this legally without breaking any law – and I can collect my pension and augment it with a salary — that’s fine, I will do this,” Fontoura recalled.
The sheriff’s office did not respond to a new request from New Jersey Watchdog for additional comment
CHRISTIE ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES NEW INTERACTIVE FLOOD WARNING MAPS FOR PASSAIC RIVER BASIN
MAP DETAILS SIX-MILE STRETCH OF RIVER RUNNING THROUGH WALDWICK, HO-HOKUS AND RIDGEWOOD IN BERGEN COUNTY
Ridgewood NJ, The fourth in a series of online, interactive flood-preparation maps designed to aid emergency management personnel and to inform residents in the Passaic River Basin about flooding events in real time has been launched, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced today. The Ho-Ho-Kus Brook Flood Inundation Map, covering a 6-mile span of the river in Bergen County’s Waldwick Borough, Ho-Ho-Kus Borough and Ridgewood, is the fourth map designated for the Passaic River Basin in response to recommendations made by Governor Christie’s Passaic River Basin Advisory Commission.
The map was developed in a partnership between the DEP and U.S. Geological Survey. Fifteen additional maps covering critical areas of the basin will be produced in coming months as part of a cooperative effort between the DEP, USGS and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Flood inundation mapping is among the recommendations in the commission’s 15-point plan for short-term and long-term measures to help mitigate flooding impacts in the basin. Governor Christie formed the commission in 2011 in response to a series of damaging floods in the basin, which covers significant portions of Bergen, Morris and Passaic counties.
Key recommendations of the plan called for better information to help prepare for and respond to flooding emergencies. “The Christie Administration remains committed to addressing flooding issues in the Passaic River Basin through mitigation, property acquisitions, de-snagging efforts and emergency preparedness and response,” Commissioner Martin said. “These easy-to-use online maps offer real-time information to residents about conditions during significant rainfalls and will assist local, state and federal officials in making critical decision to protect the public in the event of flooding.” “This flood preparedness tool highlights how our agencies and local officials are working together to create more resilient communities, and to provide better flood preparedness and responses to flooding,” added USGS Associate Director for Water Bill Werkheiser.
In addition to this latest map, flood inundation maps are being developed for Lodi, Ridgewood and Upper Saddle River along the Saddle River; for Little Falls, Pine Brook, Chatham, Millington and Clifton along the Passaic River. Maps are also being created for Pompton Lakes, Mahwah and Oakland along the Wanaque River; for two locations in Wanaque along the Wanaque River; for Pompton Plains along the Pompton River; for Riverdale and the Macopin Intake Dam along the Pequannock River; and for Little Falls along the Peckman River. Previous flood inundation maps were produced for a 2.75-mile reach of the Saddle River in Lodi; a 4.1-mile stretch of the river in Saddle River Borough; and for a 5.4-mile span of the river running downstream from Ho-Ho-Kus Borough through the Village of Ridgewood and Paramus Borough to the confluence with Hohokus Brook in the Village of Ridgewood.
To view the Hohokus Brook map, visit: https://wimcloud.usgs.gov/apps/FIM/FloodInundationMapper.html?siteno=01391000. A click on the map shows the stream flows and water depths for the stretch of the stream that extends from White’s Lake Dam in Waldwick Borough, downstream through Ho-Ho-Kus Borough to Grove Street in the Village of Ridgewood.
Monitoring tools include current stream gauges, which provide real-time data via satellites to the USGS and the National Weather Service. The flood inundation map shows where floodwaters are expected to travel. Emergency management officials and residents can use this information to evaluate the potential threat of floodwaters to property and infrastructure.
Through the website, users will also have the option to receive email notifications in real time of critical thresholds reached in the river via the USGS WaterAlert. To view the Scientific Investigations Report (SIR 2015-5064) documenting the development and methods used to create the flood inundations maps, visit: https://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20155064 For current conditions for USGS stream gauge 013910000 Hohokus Brook at Ho-Ho-Kus, visit: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=01391000
For information on the Governor’s 15-point Passaic Basin plan and the Passaic River Basin Flood Advisory Commission, visit: https://www.nj.gov/dep/passaicriver/
AUGUST 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2015, 9:58 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Village of Ridgewood has a new director of Operations on board with the hiring of Rich Calbi, a longtime municipal engineer with a background in running public utilities.
A native of Lyndhurst, Calbi has his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and master’s degree in environmental engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He also has a professional engineering license and professional planning license. Calbi is also a certified public works manager and municipal engineer.
Calbi takes over for Frank Moritz, who retired from the post at the end of June.
Aside from serving as the head of Ridgewood Water, Calbi also takes over the director of Operations role, which includes oversight of departments such as recycling, fleet and sanitation.
The announcements of Calbi’s hiring and Moritz’s retirement took place on the same evening, May 27. Calbi started working for the village a few days before Moritz left to ensure a smooth transition during the changeover in personnel.
Calbi began his career working for the Army Corps of Engineers, specifically on the Passaic River Flood Tunnel project, which never came to fruition. He spent five-and-a-half years in the private sector doing flood abatement, storm water management and system design before going to work for local governments.
He started in the public sector in Clifton as the assistant township engineer before becoming the engineer in Maplewood Township in Essex County. Most recently, Calbi was the township engineer in Livingston, where he was also in charge of the Division of Public Works and Water Utility.
APRIL 14, 2015, 6:06 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015, 6:08 PM
BY MARY JO LAYTON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
After a bitter years-long legal battle to keep Hackensack University Medical Center from expanding in Bergen County, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center will be joining forces with its former rival, officials said Tuesday.
Englewood will maintain its own operations, finances, board, physicians and employees, but launch a clinical and academic affiliation that will create a regional cardiac program as well as other ventures.
“Hackensack University Health Network is pleased to partner with Englewood Hospital and Medical Center,” said Robert C. Garrett, president and chief executive officer of Hackensack University Health Network. “Today’s health care model places emphasis on collaboration.’’
As the delivery of health care and reimbursements to hospitals and physicians changes nationwide, many hospitals are joining large networks like Hackensack, which continues to grow well beyond its Bergen County roots to emerge as a statewide force.
While officials said the affiliation is not a merger with Hackensack, the hospital is currently in the process of turning another affiliation into an acquisition. Three years ago, Hackensack announced a clinical affiliation with Palisades Medical Center, which gave Hackensack a foothold in Hudson County. In September, Hackensack announced plans to acquire the North Bergen hospital, a deal that is under regulatory review.
The hospital’s parent company is also in the process of merging with Meridian Health and its six hospitals in Ocean and Monmouth counties, allowing Hackensack to tap into a market with one of the highest percentages of older residents in the country. In addition, Hackensack, along with a for-profit partner, reopened Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood and owns Mountainside Hospital in Essex County.
And earlier this year, Hackensack announced plans to open a private medical school with Seton Hall University in 2017 at the former Hoffmann-LaRoche site in Nutley and Clifton.
MARCH 11, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY MELANIE ANZIDEI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* Up to $1 million could be raised for a start-up through small pledges
Small businesses and start-ups in New Jersey soon may have another avenue for reaching investors.
Legislation approved by the Assembly on Monday would enable emerging small businesses and start-ups to find investors through crowdfunding, a technique very much like an online fundraiser. The bill defines the process as the financing of a business venture using the Internet to raise small amounts of money from a larger number of investors.
The legislation, which passed 75-0 with one abstention, would allow businesses to invite small investors to offer capital through a pledge. Once pledges for a project reached a predetermined limit, the businesses would move forward with the funding. The funds will be released only if the target amount is reached.
To Mario Casabona, founder and chief executive officer of Tech Launch — a technology start-up accelerator in Clifton — crowdfunding offers an alternative way for start-ups to gain access to capital.
“It’s a good thing for entrepreneurs,” enabling more investors to fund a business, he said in a phone interview Tuesday. But, he added, “it doesn’t make it easier.”
Special Report: In Heroin’s Grip
UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2015, 1:39 AM
By REBECCA D. O’BRIEN
Photos by TYSON TRISH
Videos by THOMAS E. FRANKLIN
Today, The Record begins an inside look at the effects of North Jersey’s burgeoning heroin trade, which has linked the region’s suburbs with Paterson’s most impoverished neighborhoods in a cycle of ruined lives and streets, played out in the shadows of one of the most affluent areas of the nation. The unique online presentation below will run in print over the course of three days starting Sunday in The Record.
In the northwest section of Paterson, police patrols have been a rare sight in recent years. Gunshots ring out almost daily. Community programs have left town; churches have closed their doors.
On some streets in the city’s 1st and 4th wards — a few square miles bordering the Passaic River just south of suburban neighborhoods with manicured lawns and quaint downtowns — more than half the houses are abandoned or dilapidated, used as drug dens, makeshift shelters or rental units.
While south and east sections of the city contain stable, working-class neighborhoods, this part of Paterson has become increasingly isolated and violent.
The story of Paterson’s decay is not new; the city has eroded for decades as mills and factories closed. But the decline has a new engine at its core: heroin so pure and inexpensive that it is not only hastening the fall of this once vibrant city, but feeding on the wealth of nearby suburbs, towns like Glen Rock and Clifton, Mahwah and Waldwick.
Paterson is at a crisis point, one that reverberates in the towns that surround the city.
Gallup CEO: Number of Full-Time Jobs as Percent of Population Is Lowest It’s Ever Been
Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, February 5, 2015, 11:48 AM
Gallup CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton doubled-down on his comments earlier in the week on the misleading Obama unemployment rate.
Clifton went on America’s Newsroom today to explain the misleading government numbers.
“The number of full-time jobs, and that’s what everybody wants, as a percent of the total population, is the lowest it’s ever been… The other thing that is very misleading about that number is the more people that drop out, the better the number gets. In the recession we lost 13 million jobs. Only 3 million have come back. You don’t see that in that number. “
Here’s something that many Americans — including some of the smartest and most educated among us — don’t know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.
Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.
None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren’t throwing parties to toast “falling” unemployment.
There’s another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you’re an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 — maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn — you’re not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
Yet another figure of importance that doesn’t get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find — in other words, you are severely underemployed — the government doesn’t count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
There’s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.
And it’s a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual’s primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity — it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen’s talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.
Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America’s middle class.
I hear all the time that “unemployment is greatly reduced, but the people aren’t feeling it.” When the media, talking heads, the White House and Wall Street start reporting the truth — the percent of Americans in good jobs; jobs that are full time and real — then we will quit wondering why Americans aren’t “feeling” something that doesn’t remotely reflect the reality in their lives. And we will also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class.
Mysterious Statue Hidden for Decades Set to make Reappearance at Village Hall
December 4,2014
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Authorize Expenditure of Funds for and Placement of Federrici
Sculpture at Village Hall ( $2,500.) plus.
Where did this come from?Where is this statue now? How long have we owned it? What is the statue of? Where is it going to place in or on Village Hall grounds? Is Village Hall going to be the surrogate Arts Center that our Mayor
promised during his re election?
After several decades of being hidden from public view a Village owned Federrici Sculpture will be placed on front lawn near flag pole at Village Hall (secured in place there).
Sources tell the Ridgewood blog that the statue has been in storage at a location that is being kept under wraps to prevent item from being vandalized or stolen (reportedly it’s worth a fortune).
Sources also tell us that the Village has owned it for over 50 years and it was formerly installed at the old fire house on Hudson Street. The statue was taken down when building was demolished in 1990’s and placed in storage.
We know a photo was held up at the Council meeting last night, but I was too far away to see it.
We also know that the Ridgewood News attempted to get a photo today but was unable to.
The council does not want anyone to know where it is because they think it will be vandalized or stolen to which a tax payer has suggested it be moved inside somewhere, but so far the council has not heeded this lowly taxpayer.
Sources say the Library’s Ridgewood History room has a photo when it was mounted on the old Village Hall.
Federici, Gaetano
b. 1880
d. 1964
By Joseph D. McCaffrey
Star-Ledger Staff
March 14, 1997
In front of St. John’s Cathedral in Paterson stands a statue of Irish priest Dean William McNulty, comforting a barefoot orphan boy. The statue, completed in 1923, has come to symbolize nationally the pastoral role of priests in a working-class city like Paterson. It is also one of the best-known works of sculptor Gaetano Federici, whose outdoor sculptures abound in Paterson and other parts of North Jersey.
Federici died in 1964, at the age of 84, leaving a legacy of hundreds of public works.
Shortly after Federici died, his studio collection was sold by his family to an old friend and admirer, Clifton contractor John Saveriana. The studio collection includes models for some of Federici’s more famous statues, including Father McNulty, and for a World War I memorial in Paterson.
In 1978 Saveriana sold the items to Joseph Randazzo, a collector. Four years ago, Randazzo decided to sell all 215 pieces, and got in touch with an art auctioneer. A group of Paterson residents formed the Federici Collection Inc. in the hope of acquiring the collection. The Martini Foundation bought it on their behalf.
Federici, Paterson’s unofficial “sculptor laureate,” was one of New Jersey’s few native sculptors, according to one expert, and an extraordinarily prolific one. The Encyclopedia of American Biography in 1966 called Federici “an outstanding American sculptor . . . who won international acclaim for his work.”
According to Meredith Bzdak, New Jersey coordinator for a project called Save Outdoor Sculpture, Federici’s Collection is well worth saving. His works, she said, “are of great significance to us as a state in understanding our historical past.”
At least 40 of Federici’s major statues are within two miles of Paterson’s City Hall. Federici’s sculptures also are found in Cuba, New York, Hollywood, and in churches and cemeteries throughout the region. Bzdak said the studio collection represents the majority of Federici’s life work. “I feel the studio collection should remain intact – because it is one of the only collections of its kind. And because of the significance of Federici to us,” she said.
Fiorina said she remembered her grandfather as always at work in his studio. She has family snapshots of him, a short, sprightly man with a carefully trimmed goatee and a beret. The pictures are of a grandfatherly figure smiling warmly into the camera while working on huge figures in his studio.
Gaetano Federici was born in Castelgrande, Italy, in 1880. In 1887, he and his mother left their mountainous village to join his father, Antonio, in Paterson. Antonio Federici was a stone mason who had become a successful contractor in the booming industrial city.
Federici showed artistic promise as a Paterson High School student. By that time, his father could afford to allow the boy to get artistic training. As a young man Federici was apprenticed to some of the leading sculptors of his time. He studied in New York with the Art Students League.
According to Bzdak, Federici was trained in the academic tradition and would never stray far from it. Experts called him a conservative sculptor: While European sculptors were doing avant-garde work, Federici stayed with classical themes. He was painstaking in his attention to detail, yet always attempted to capture the personality of the subject.
I-Team: Many Tri-State Schools Use Football Helmets That Don’t Protect Well Against Concussions
By Pei-Sze Cheng and Gabrielle Ewing
When 16-year-old Tom Cutinella died after collapsing on the field following a collision during a football game at his Long Island high school, questions arose about concussions in sports and the safety of the children playing them.
While what happened to the Shoreham-Wading River High School student is extremely rare, research shows concussions in school sports are not uncommon
A survey of high school sports-related injuries compiled by researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health shows that football-related concussions are on the rise. In 2005, there were 55,007 reported concussions from football games and practice. By 2012, that number had more than tripled to 167,604.
“We tell our guys, we get anyone with a head injury, they are immediately out of it,” said Mike Carter, who oversees Bloomfield High school’s football program in New Jersey.
Football Helmet Safety Questioned at Tri-State Schools
With football-related concussions on the rise in high school sports, the I-Team set out to find out what kind of helmets schools in the tri-state use and how they measure in a ranking that evaluates the likeliness of football helmets to reduce concussion risk. Pei-Sze Cheng reports. (Published Monday, Nov 3, 2014)
Carter says his students wear some of the newest helmets available on the market. But the I-Team discovered that not all students at area schools have access to such equipment.
Over a period of two months, the I-Team asked about 200 schools in the tri-state area what kind of helmets they use and found many use helmets that received low marks in a Virginia Tech study that evaluates the likeliness of football helmets to reduce concussion risk.
To determine how well certain helmets absorb impact, Virginia Tech researchers placed them on a device and slammed them onto a steel block. Helmets were given one to five stars based on how well they absorbed impact — or how likely they would be to prevent concussions.
“The better the helmet, the better it cushions the impact and the more it lowers acceleration,” said Virginia Tech professor Stefan Duma, who helped author the study.
The VSR-4 helmet, for example, received only one star in the Virginia Tech study and was labeled as “marginal” in terms of its ability to reduce concussion risk. Riddell discontinued the helmet in May 2011.
“The game has since evolved significantly making room for major advancements in helmet technology,” Riddell said in a statement. “Riddell has programs in place to encourage those playing football to transition to new helmets that incorporate more advanced technology.”
Though Riddell’s VSR-4 was discontinued more than three years ago, Clifton High School in Clifton, New Jersey, lists mostly that helmet in its inventory, the I-Team found.
Clifton High School’s athletic director, Tom Mullahey, thanked the I-team for bringing the outdated helmet’s safety ranking to his attention and said the school purchased 26 new helmets for the team.
In a statement, Mullahey said, “This is the first we’ve heard of this study,” and that he ordered new helmets so that “every football player in our program is wearing a Revolution ( four stars) or Revolution Speed (five stars).”
Brentwood High School on Long Island, Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Yonkers Public Schools in Westchester County also use one and two star helmets, the I-Team found. Among the Yonkers Public Schools, Yonkers Montessori Academy had the most low-star helmets.
Some of those schools stood by their helmet choices.
Ridgewood Football stays unbeaten with 47-12 victory over Clifton
OCTOBER 11, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2014, 1:21 AM BY JIM MCCONVILLE SPECIAL TO THE RECORD THE RECORD
CLIFTON – Coming into the season, Ridgewood knew it had to make the most of the first half of the schedule. With a young and inexperienced team, the Maroons had five winnable games to open the year.
The quintet was completed Friday night as Ridgewood scored on the first play from scrimmage and never looked back. The 47-12 defeat of Clifton sets up an intriguing matchup next week with Paramus, the first team with a winning record the Maroons will face.
“Now we’ll find out how good we are,” Ridgewood coach Chuck Johnson said. “I can tell you that we are a whole lot better than we were at the beginning of the season, but just how good will be determined.”
The Maroons certainly took care of winless Clifton, which was playing its first game at the newly renovated Joseph Grecco Field. After the opening kickoff went out of bounds, Drew Granski was able to stretch out a sweep left and find a hole, racing 65 yards for a touchdown.
Ridgewood stenographer keeps transcripts in good hands
OCTOBER 3, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014, 12:31 AM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Sometimes, when Ridgewood’s court reporter Laura Carucci is “in the zone” at a hearing, typing up a transcript at between 180 and 270-plus words a minute, her mind will drift off for a few seconds. She’ll think of grocery lists, or of what she’s doing after work.
But, in a testament to her training, her fingers keep doing their magic, flawlessly. The transcript will still be fine, devoid of any mention of needed snacks or household supplies.
“I’ve never actually written about what I’m thinking,” she said.
Still, sometimes as a joke for her mother, herself a long-time stenographer who occasionally copy edits Carucci’s transcripts, Carucci will write something into her notes, like “I’m so tired,” or “This person is speaking too fast.”
“She can read it. She thinks it’s funny,” Carucci said, chuckling.
For nearly 15 years, Carucci has been the stenographer for the village zoning board, also handling big Planning Board meetings, including The Valley Hospital and multi-family housing hearings. She also works for Englewood, Hackensack, Clifton, Fair Lawn and Rockleigh.
She has worked in other venues, including her most high-profile job taking depositions during the original O.J. Simpson murder case.
Friends from his days growing up in Ridgewood went to New Orleans to show their pride when Peter Gautier was promoted to rear admiral in the Coast Guard. From left: Chris Bujara, Shuya Ohno, Rosa and Peter Gautier, John Tees and Jon Haas.
RHS alum named rear admiral in Coast Guard
OCTOBER 3, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014, 12:31 AM BY BETSY MURPHY CORRESPONDENT THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
“Yes, frocked is the word,” says Peg Gautier, referring to her son, Peter. Rear Admiral Gautier, that is. Peg was there to see it all happen, June 27 in New Orleans. With her older son, Andrew, who lives in Connecticut, Peg joined Peter, his wife, Rosa, children, Natalie, 11, and Drew, 12, and other family members to celebrate. They all met at Peter’s house for a party, a gathering of out-of-town guests, before attending the ceremony the next morning on the banks of the Mississippi, with the Marine Band playing for 400 guests. Among those guests were four Somerville and Ben Franklin classmates, who traveled from Oregon, Washington, D.C. and New Jersey: Jon Haas came from Oregon, Shuya Ohno from Washington D.C., John Tees from Hoboken and Chris Bujara from Clifton.
“Peter made two speeches during the ceremony,” says Peg. “I’m so proud of him!” Of her late husband, she says, “Lou would be beaming!”
At a reception following the ceremony, four members of his Coast Guard Academy class were there. That evening there was dinner at a historic building in New Orleans. Next day a luncheon near Jackson Square had people snapping photos from the balcony of the restaurant. There was even a wedding, with guests walking to the reception accompanied by a New Orleans jazz band. Peg admits to being happily exhausted.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/friends-cheer-on-new-rear-admiral-1.1101651#sthash.f3X0dIbo.dpuf
Ridgewood police: Bus driver transporting child with autism arrested on warrant
SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 5:25 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 5:31 PM BY CHRIS HARRIS STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — The driver of a mini-van ferrying a child with autism to school was arrested on Monday on an outstanding warrant.
Hansel De Lo Santos, 25, of Clifton, was stopped by Ridgewood Police Monday morning after he allegedly failed to yield to a pedestrian.
De Lo Santos, the police would learn, has no license. He also had an active warrant out for his arrest, police said.
De Lo Santos was directed by police to drive the boy to the Mt. Carmel School as officers trailed him. They then arrested him in the school’s parking lot.
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