Rutherford industrial tract getting 2 hotels, 500 apartments, retail space
OCTOBER 7, 2014, 7:26 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014, 10:46 PM BY LINDA MOSS STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
North Jersey’s Meadowlands, once home mainly to warehouses and industrial sites, will be getting a new mixed-use redevelopment with two hotels, 500 apartments and retail space in Rutherford.
The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission has approved amendments that Lincoln Equities Group LLC sought to the roughly decade-old redevelopment plan for its Highland Cross project.
Lincoln Equities is ready to proceed with the project, set for 26 acres near the intersection of Routes 17 and 3, said Joel Bergstein, president of the East Rutherford-based real estate firm. The property, a former “brownfield” site, fronts on Veterans Boulevard and is behind the Meadows office complex on Route 17.
Construction is likely to start in about 18 months, Bergstein said.
Tick Tock regulars say ex-manager’s guilty plea won’t hurt diner
JULY 14, 2014, 6:49 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JULY 14, 2014, 11:27 PM BY ANDREW WYRICH STAFF WRITER
It has hosted governors and members of Congress, and even a president’s daughter. A neon beacon luring hungry motorists and regulars day and night, the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton somehow stands apart even in a state where diners are treasured not as kitsch, but as culture.
It’s also where a disgruntled manager mulled a plot to kill his boss with a couple of newfound pals. Georgios Spyropoulos, 47, the diner’s former manager, reversed an earlier not-guilty plea to admit in a Paterson courtroom that he had orchestrated the ill-fated plot to rob |and kill his boss, who also is his wife’s uncle.
As the news of his guilty plea spread on Monday, longtime Tick Tock patrons said not even a lurid murder plot could tarnish their beloved diner.
“There are bad people everywhere,” said Rodney Cauthen, 42, of Bloomfield. “If you don’t go to a place because of their management, you’d have to cross a lot of places off your list.”
Cauthen said that it’s all sad, of course, but he’s gratified that the former manager confessed.
He said the Tick Tock’s food and atmosphere are the draw that makes him a regular.
“Of the few diners my wife and I go to, this one is definitely one of our favorites,” Cauthen said.
Todd Knowlden, a 46-year-old East Rutherford man who was entering the diner with his family, said he believed justice was being served when he heard of the plea.
After years of Squandering Billions Identity crisis for NJ sports authority
JUNE 28, 2014, 11:48 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2014, 11:51 PM BY JOHN BRENNAN STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
With its finances in the red and its role sharply curtailed, questions are being raised about the long-term future of the agency that put New Jersey on the map of big-time sports.
But no matter what its fate, the hard truth is that the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which once netted tens of millions of dollars annually from The Meadowlands Racetrack and Giants Stadium, will likely be a lingering financial liability for state taxpayers.
A series of decisions by officials over time have left it marooned, with significant structural costs and little means to pay for them other than dipping into the state treasury. The agency continues along, its prime attractions now in private hands, sagging under obligations undertaken during more flush times and with a payroll that — while pared significantly — still includes executives with some of the highest salaries in state government.
“There are certain obligations entered into by prior administrations that we’re going to be living with for the next 25 years,” said Wayne Hasenbalg, who makes $225,000 as president of the authority. “Some of these costs we inherited — even if the authority went away today — are still going to be somebody’s obligations.”
Among those obligations are long-term pension costs for retired workers, more than $6 million in annual payments due to East Rutherford as the host town of the Meadowlands Sports Complex and $4 million per year toward operating costs of the state Racing Commission.
New figures break down New Jersey’s school costs by district
MAY 9, 2014, 6:06 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2014, 6:31 PM BY HANNAN ADELY STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
New Jersey districts spent an average of $18,891 per pupil in 2012-13, up 4.8 percent from the year before, according to figures released Friday by the state Department of Education.
By the Numbers:
Spending per pupil by school district in the counties of Bergen and Passaic in 2012-13
Top 10
Bergen County Special Service$93,953 Bergen County Vocational $33,685 Moonachie$28,733 Alpine $27,459 Carlstadt-East Rutherford$25,994 Passaic County Vocational$25,003 Hackensack$24,046 Teaneck$24,019 Saddle Brook$23,708 Pascack Valley Regional$23,472
Bottom 10
Prospect Park$15,237 Hasbrouck Heights$15,127 River Edge$15,076 Little Ferry$14,916 John P. Holland Charter$14,815 Elmwood Park$14,543 Fairview$14,030 Bergen Arts & Science Charter$13,822 Passaic Arts & Science Charter$12,288 Classical Academy Charter$8,440 Among regular districts in the counties of Bergen and Passaic, total per-pupil spending ranged from a high of $28,733 in Moonachie to $14,030 in Fairview.
Three charter school districts had the least spending per student, including the Classical Academy Charter School which spent $8,440 per student and the Passaic Arts and Science Charter School, which spent $12,288. Spending is lower in part because charter schools receive no facilities aid.
The Bergen County Special Services district, which serves severely disabled children, spends $93,953.
Of the 103 regular and charter districts in Bergen and Passaic, 19 saw their per pupil costs drop, while figures rose in the other 84.
North Jersey mayors supportive, skeptical of shared services
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 25, 2014, 8:24 PM
BY JIM NORMAN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Mayors across North Jersey had reactions ranging from support to skepticism for Governor Christie’s budget proposal calling for an $8.5 million fund to encourage municipalities to save money by consolidating and sharing such services as police and fire protection.
“It sounds great, but how far does $8.5 million go across the state of New Jersey?” Fairview Mayor Vincent Bellucci asked. “It makes good press, but it doesn’t make good reality.”
“It’s a gutsy move on his part,” Clifton Mayor James Anzaldi said of Christie. “Every little bit helps. I think that’s smart government.”
East Rutherford Mayor James Cassella said: “I don’t need anybody to push me to do it. Just show me the savings and we’ll do it. … A town is foolish if they’re not looking into it already.”
Mayor Mark Sokolich of Fort Lee said that although he hadn’t seen the governor’s proposal, he supports shared services. “We need to be as creative as we possibly can, and I think we need to be supportive of any creative measures,” he said.
“We mayors recognize that old ways of doing government are unsustainable and that it is incumbent on us to constantly explore new and better ways of delivering municipal services,” said Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn.
STAN FISCHLER COLUMN: Nothing positive to say about this ‘Stupid Bowl’
With a week’s worth of 20-20 hindsight, we can unequivocally label last Sunday night’s vaudeville show in East Rutherford, New Jersey what it was, The Stupid Bowl.
Except if you are a fanatical Seahawks fan, everything about the event ranked from ill-planned to just plain dumb.
Start with the zany promise that New Jersey Transit could even come close to handling the 33,000 fans leaving MetLife Stadium.
Belated memo to NJ Transit dreamers: this was not a bar mitzvah.
Let’s face it, the idea of tossing what should have been a purely New York City event in a relatively small New Jersey town was as colossal a mistake as the Broncos game plan.
Forget about the fact that New Jersey never should have allowed the Giants and Jets to camp at MetLife Stadium unless the Jints and Jets changed their name to New Jersey Giants and New Jersey Jets.
How much phony can geography get when a team calls the Garden State its home but puts another state’s name on its logo? Stupid as in Stupid Bowl.
Boy did these promoters sell New Jersey hoteliers, restaurateurs and other businessmen a bill of goods.
They promised sold out hotels, booming eateries and tangential bonanzas that were as fictitious as
Hoarding our road salt at MetLife Stadium, public safety on icy roads a public health hazard: Salt on our wounds, Jersey style
Read official Met Life brag sheet, below: “NJTA and NJDOT have the capacity to stockpile nearly 60,000 tons of salt within 30 miles of the stadium. Statewide, the storage capacity for both agencies jumps to 222,000 tons.” – official pr from state of NJ and Met Life Stadium
Thousands of pounds of precious and much needed road salt is sitting in East Rutherford at MetLife stadium, instead of being distributed to the hundreds of towns who have desperately begged for this life saving salt over the past few days here in New Jersey.
And, like a path of salt crumbs visible to all, this line leads from East Rutherford to Trenton.
The state Sports Authority, a department under the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s command, controlled the MetLife organization and plans for road safety, including the wise decision to protect Super Bowl day from potential snow or ice threats to travelers.
But the Super Bowl, as we all know, was a warm day, well above freezing.
Sit back and enjoy: This Super Bowl could be epic
Sunday February 2, 2014, 10:54 AM
BY ART STAPLETON
STAFF WRITER
The Record
The two best teams in football will step inside MetLife Stadium tonight for Super Bowl XLVIII in what promises to be a historic setting in East Rutherford.
They have dreams of bathing in team-colored confetti, a championship parade and taking turns hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
The Broncos have them. The Seahawks do, too.
No one ever contemplates what coming up short will feel like until it happens.
The top team in one conference will win. The top team in the other will not.
That’s as rock-solid a Super Bowl guarantee as any made by Joe Namath.
“I don’t think we envision ourselves losing. We wouldn’t play the game if we did,” Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett said. “We would just forfeit it and not waste our time doing this media [availability]. We could be home with our families, at Disney World or maybe Turks and Caicos or something like that.
“We don’t envision ourselves losing at all.”
Added Broncos safety and Paterson native Mike Adams: “Nobody remembers who finishes as Super Bowl runner-up, so nobody thinks that way.”
Xanadu : A monument to NJ greedy self serving politicians ?
Empty shell of American Dream, MetLife Stadium’s ugly neighbor, still awaits makeover
Saturday February 1, 2014, 11:36 PM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER
The Record
When Marianne Krause goes to a concert in another city, she keeps an eye out for beautiful buildings nearby. But when millions of people look to East Rutherford this weekend to watch the Super Bowl, Krause hopes they keep their eyes locked firmly on the game.
That’s because right next door to MetLife Stadium sits a gigantic, empty, multicolored mall once known as Xanadu, the long-dormant retail and entertainment project that Governor Christie once called one of the ugliest buildings in America.
The fewer people who notice it, Krause figures, the better.
“I’m embarrassed by it, and I think the state will be embarrassed by it,” said Krause, 29, of East Rutherford. “It’s really ugly.”
When developers originally proposed building a megamall in the Meadowlands in 2003, they envisioned a completion date sometime in 2006. In the years since, the project now called American Dream has blown through two developers, one name change and $2 billion. Across the parking lot, one stadium was razed and a new one was built.
Bergen County Exec: Suspicious Packages Sent To Several NJ Hotels Contained Corn Starch
Initial Tests Show White Powder In Letter Sent To Giuliani’s NYC Office Non-Toxic January 31, 2014 5:33 PM
CARLSTADT, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) – Two days before the Super Bowl will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the FBI and Hazmat crews responded to suspicious packages sent to several hotels in the area.
The packages contained white powder which turned out to be corn starch, Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan told 1010 WINS.
Someone at an Econo Lodge in Carlstadt found the substance in an envelope, and similar mailings arrived at the Homestead Inn in East Rutherford and a Renaissance Inn in Rutherford, Carlstadt Police Det. John Cleary said.
Friday January 31, 2014, 7:54 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — A celebratory spirit was in the air Friday evening, as residents both young and old saluted the Super Bowl’s coming to East Rutherford with a range of games while raising money for charities.
More than 40 village families gathered inside the old Bank of America building on E. Ridgewood Avenue, where the village-sponsored entertainment included a magician who dazzled the kids with slight-of-hand trickery. There were video games, pinball machines, and foosball on site, as well as bean bag games, ping pong tables and a putting green.
Police, hazmat converge on hotels near MetLife Stadium on ‘unknown substance’ calls
Friday, January 31, 2014 Last updated: Friday January 31, 2014, 1:00 PM
BY JAMES M. O’NEILL AND MATTHEW MCGRATH
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
Bergen County has dispatched hazmat and bomb squad teams to three hotels near MetLife Stadium after a suspicious white substance was delivered to the hotels.
The substances were delivered this morning and reported to county officials at 11:42 a.m., said Jeanne Barratta, chief of staff to Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan.
She said the substance was delivered to two hotels in Carlstadt and one in East Rutherford. She said she did not know if anyone at the hotel was exposed to the substance. The FBI and New Jersey State Police are also working the case, she said.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/carlstadt/Police_converge_on_Carlstadt_hotel_on_hazardous_material_call.htm
A Super Bowl Message From Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan
The Super Bowl is literally just around the corner and I wanted to take this time to express how exciting it is to have this major event right in our own back yard! The Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks with their fans from around the world will be coming to this region to the biggest event in sports. With this influx of visitors, I strongly encourage residents to keep informed on traffic delays and to plan accordingly.
Traffic and Public Transportation: The Getting to the Game website (www.nj.gov/superbowl) is a collaborative effort involving the New Jersey State Police, the Department of Transportation, the Port Authority of NY/NJ, New Jersey Transit and other state public safety and transportation agencies. The website will serve as a location for state government and public transportation agencies to post important information for state residents and out-of- town visitors as New Jersey gears up for the Super Bowl.
The website will give users access to an interactive map showing real-time traffic delays in the area of MetLife Stadium. The Port Authority has provided links to information on bridges, tunnels, airports, and PATH subway services. New Jersey Transit has provided links to bus and train schedules, rail maps, and fare information. Real-time weather information for the East Rutherford area is posted. The website also allows local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to post public safety information.
Teterboro: Speaking of traffic, it will not only be cars. Be aware that you will hear an increase in airplane traffic at Teterboro Airport. There is a no-fly zone established on February 2 that will shut down air traffic at Teterboro from about 4:00 p.m. until one hour after the game ends. Then there will be a rush of traffic from about midnight until 5:00 a.m. on February 3. With that exception of post-game operations, the voluntary restriction on operations between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. will remain in effect and mandatory departure noise limits will be in effect. Aircraft with an operating weight in excess of 100,000 are not permitted to land or take-off. The increased air traffic at Teterboro will also increase car traffic in the area.
Events: There will be many events and celebration leading up to the game. In an effort to keep you up to date with the most current information, I have compiled the following links that will help residents to stay informed about the game, traffic, events and anything else you will need! These sites and more can also be found at the county’s website at www.co.bergen.nj.us.
FAQs – This Frequently Asked Question site is provided by the Super Bowl of NY & NJ Host Committee. Here you will find answers to your questions ranging from information about the stadium, NJ Transit, parking, events and the game itself. If you have a question, here you will find the answer.
A Guide to Staying Healthy for the Big Game – The New Jersey Department of Health has created this “Guide to a Safe Super Bowl” for both residents and visitors alike. It will provide you information on health-related issues that are specific to this Super Bowl – such as how to deal with extreme cold weather – as well as information on food safety for those having parties and how to reduce the spread of infectious diseases. Here you will find videos, posters, facts sheets and other information that will help you stay healthy and enjoy this exciting game and the activities surrounding it.
NJTransit Super Bowl Information – NJTransit’s Super Bowl Page has all the information you will need to get around the “First Mass Transit Super Bowl”. Information on NJTransit’s SUPER PASS as well as a complete regional transit diagram can be found on this site.
Super Bowl Host Committee of NY & NJ – The site provides information such as a calendar of events, a NY/NJ visitor guide, game information and much more.
NorthJersey.com’s Fan Guide – North Jersey.com has compiled an evolving list of Super Bowl events in and around Bergen for you. New Jersey has all sorts of activities planned for Super Bowl week, including concerts, parties, family fun, ice skating, tastings, celebrity appearances and more. Check back frequently for new additions and updates.
Bergen County is honored to be home to the Super Bowl. To those visiting Bergen County for the first time – Welcome! Most importantly to residents and visitors alike, please be safe and enjoy the game!
How Much Will The Super Bowl Cost Taxpayers? Impact On New York/New Jersey Residents In 2014
By Christopher Zara
on January 28 2014 7:19 AM
On Sunday, Super Bowl XLVIII will descend upon MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., with the force of a thousand polar vortexes. And while more than 100 million eyeballs are expected to be glued to their TVs that evening, it’s worth pointing out that not everyone will be watching the big game. (A rerun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” is on ABC if anyone’s interested.)
But whether you care about the Super Bowl or not — if you live in New York or New Jersey, you’re paying for it, and not just with traffic disruptions and rowdy bar-goers. Taxpayers in both states will have to shoulder some of the burden: Security, mass transit, local promotions — it all costs money, and the region is apparently sparing no expense.
New Jersey Taxes Could Eat Up All Of Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl Earnings
This is a guest post from K. Sean Packard, CPA, who is Director of Tax at OFS. He specializes in tax planning and the preparation of tax returns for pro athletes. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at @AthleteTax.
Peyton Manning has the opportunity to pull a John Elway and ride off into the sunset as a Denver Bronco after winning his second ring, not that he wants to retire. His career will hinge upon an offseason exam on his surgically-repaired neck, according to ESPN ’s Chris Mortensen. Obviously, the most important implication of the exam will be Manning’s health. But whether his career continues will have an effect on how much tax New Jersey can collect from him for his appearance in the Super Bowl XLVIII.
Should the Broncos beat the Seahawks, Manning—and the rest of his teammates—will earn $92,000. The loser’s share in the Super Bowl is $46,000. So why does Manning’s future beyond February 2 matter to New Jersey? It would seem logical that the Garden State would apply its tax rates on the $92,000 or $46,000 Manning earns for his week in East Rutherford. Unfortunately, we are dealing with tax laws, not logic.
