Tag: Bergen County

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Massive Cost Overruns for Bergen County Justice Center expected to grow by $1.3M

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JUNE 3, 2015, 7:50 PM    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015, 9:25 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

The Bergen County Justice Center project under construction in Hackensack will cost an additional $1.3 million to build and take about 14 months more to finish, county officials revealed Wednesday.

The freeholders approved a change order Wednesday that calls for paying $1,329,797 more to Gilbane Building Co., the New Brunswick-based construction manager overseeing the project.

The vote to approve was 4-0 with three freeholders absent.

The added payment will keep the firm on site for an additional 14 months beyond its original contract, which was to have expired on July 1, said Ray Dressler, the county’s public works director.

At $147 million, the multifaceted project was already the largest in the county’s history, even before Wednesday’s vote.

Besides a new six-story Justice Center on Court Street, the project includes a new Public Works garage in Hackensack, a Public Works facility in Paramus, a parking deck and renovation of the 102-year-old courthouse.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/cost-of-bergen-county-justice-center-expected-to-grow-by-1-3m-1.134812

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Mahwah council OKs signage for recall of mayor

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MAY 22, 2015    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2015, 2:46 PM
BY TOM NOBILE
STAFF WRITER |
MAHWAH SUBURBAN NEWS

Mahwah — Permission to post signs in an effort to recall Mayor William Laforet was granted by the Township Council on Thursday, May 21, despite allegations by one member that the mayor had pressured him to deny the request.
Prior to the governing body’s vote, Councilman Steve Sbarra read a statement on record claiming the mayor had approached him late Tuesday, May 19, after an Affordable Housing Commission meeting in an effort to sway the council’s judgment.

“[Laforet] then said, and I quote, ‘You need to talk to your fellow council members and make sure they vote ‘no’ to the signs or things in this town will get worse,” Sbarra stated.
He also referred to measures that have been implemented to improve relations and communication between the council and the police department. Police Chief James Batelli said in an interview Friday, May 22, that he had recently agreed to provide the council with a briefing packet of police activity every two weeks, in response to council complaints that information has been falling through the cracks.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/mahwah-council-oks-signage-for-recall-of-mayor-1.1341150

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Bergen County sheriff plans to equip some officers with body cameras

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MAY 20, 2015, 4:56 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015, 12:36 AM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office will join a growing number of police agencies around the country whose officers wear body cameras to record their interactions with the public, officials announced Wednesday.

Forty-seven of the county’s approximately 500 officers will use the cameras as part of a $70,000 pilot project to be financed with forfeiture funds, Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino said at a news conference. No date has been set to begin using the cameras, he said.

Saudino said he will first ask for guidance from a panel of law enforcement officials and community leaders selected by the Bergen County freeholders. The panel will address civil liberties and privacy concerns raised by the relatively new technology.

Saudino, who was accompanied at the news conference by County Executive James Tedesco, said they decided to start as a pilot program “because there are many valid issues raised regarding the proper operation of these devices.”

“My objective is to strike the right balance to implement this program on a permanent basis,” Saudino said. |“It’ll take as long as it takes to do |it the right way. We’re not in a rush.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/some-bergen-county-sheriff-s-officers-to-wear-body-cameras-under-pilot-project-1.1338683

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For Teaneck, American Pharoah’s Triple Crown quest is personal

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MAY 19, 2015    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY MARY DIDUCH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

TEANECK — Bergen County isn’t exactly horse country. Few here seem to closely follow horse racing, preferring baseball and football to the sight of thoroughbreds tearing up a dirt track at 40 miles per hour.

But this year may be different — in Teaneck, anyway.

That’s because American Pharoah, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes this month, is in a position to become the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. And the horse’s owner, Ahmed Zayat, an Egyptian-born businessman, has lived in the township for 30 years.

“It’s definitely a lot of buzz locally,” Mayor Lizette Parker said, adding that she has received messages from friends both near and far who have been watching the races, wondering if American Pharoah will be the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed, in 1978.

Around the township on Monday afternoon, many acknowledged that they don’t regularly follow horseracing. But those who know Zayat, who lives with his wife and four children on Warwick Avenue — a wide, quiet street in a section of the township with a large Orthodox Jewish population — said they have been tuning in to the races specifically to root for American Pharoah.

The Zayats’ neighbors described them as social and friendly people who are active in community and school affairs.

 

https://www.northjersey.com/counties/for-teaneck-american-pharoah-s-triple-crown-quest-is-personal-1.1337530

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Bergen County freeholders ID over $1M in cuts to budget

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MAY 18, 2015, 4:43 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015, 6:48 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
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The Bergen County freeholders have identified just over $1 million in cuts they want to make in the $531 million 2015 budget submitted last month by County Executive James Tedesco.

The proposed cuts are spread across several departments. An exact breakdown was not immediately available.

The cuts may be partially offset by an addition to the budget. The freeholders want to increase spending on the Bergen County Cooperative Library System by $125,000.

A formal introduction of the budget is expected expected later this month.

Tedesco proposed a budget that calls for a 1.7 percent increase in county taxes. That would translate into a property tax increase of $12.73 for a home assessed at the county average of $324,000.

Sheriff Michael Saudino told the freeholders that folding the County Police into his department will save the county nearly $2 million through retirements. The freeholder board approved consolidating the two agencies last year after several years of debate.

Prosecutor John Molinelli told the board that he plans to hire seven former County Police officers to fill vacancies for investigators within his office.

The county will save about $730,760, Molinelli said, because money for those salaries is already in his budget. The savings are based on the presumption that the Sheriff will not fill the vacancies in his department left by the departing county police officers.

Molinelli said four of the seven new hires will continue as members of the regional SWAT team, but they will no longer receive an extra stipend for that work.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-county-freeholders-id-over-1m-in-cuts-to-budget-1.1337274

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Tenafly resident’s arrest meant to better ties between Koreas; statement met with suspicion

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Won Moon Joo in a photo from his 2012 Tenafly High School yearbook.

MAY 5, 2015, 4:28 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2015, 11:19 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY AND MINJAE PARK
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD

The college student from Tenafly detained in North Korea sought to be arrested and hoped his arrest would lead to better relations between North Korea and South Korea, he said in an interview that aired Tuesday on CNN.

Speaking at a hotel room and appearing relaxed, even smiling at times, Won Moon Joo, 21, said he intended to cross into North Korea from China. To do so, he had to pass two barbed wire fences and a cross a river before he was stopped by soldiers.

Joo, a student at New York University, was vague about his motivations for entering the country.

Related:  Tenafly resident detained in North Korea says he crossed into country on purpose

“Once the thought of entering the DPRK seeped into my mind, I couldn’t really escape it. I guess I constantly thought about it,” he said, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the name North Korea gives itself.

https://7online.com/pets/wyckoff-residents-protest-after-dog-shot-by-police-at-wrong-address/699290/

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Wyckoff family whose dog was killed by police at loss for answers

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MAY 5, 2015, 6:05 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2015, 11:15 PM
BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

The Vukobratovic family of Wyckoff returned to their “empty house” on Tuesday night, but they did so knowing that the tragic story of Otto, their German shepherd shot by a policeman during a mistaken burglary call, is likely to get a formal review by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

That was the result of a sometimes emotional Wyckoff Township Committee meeting where the family had gone demanding answers to what happened — step-by-step — last Wednesday in the moments leading up to Patrolman Kyle Ferreira’s shooting 5-year-old Otto twice in the back yard of family’s Lawlins Road home.

The meeting also saw boisterous picketing outside Township Hall by about 60 people — some with their dogs — who questioned the appropriateness of Ferreira’s response to what police say was an attack by Otto. And it included an apologetic Police Chief Benjamin Fox again expressing his department’s pain and regret over the incident, as well as Mayor Kevin Rooney’s stern condemnation of how Ferreira has been pilloried on social media even as a police review of the incident is continuing.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/wyckoff-family-whose-dog-was-killed-by-police-at-loss-for-answers-1.1325929

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Tenafly residents detained in North Korea says he crossed into country on purpose

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Won Moon Joo in a photo from his 2012 Tenafly High School yearbook.

MAY 4, 2015, 9:02 AM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2015, 10:06 AM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

TENAFLY — An interview that CNN aired Tuesday morning with a Tenafly college student detained in North Korea shed little light on why he entered the country or what will happen to him.

Won Moon Joo, 21, told CNN that he purposely crossed into North Korea from China, passing two barbed wire fences and a river before he was stopped by soldiers. Asked why: “I thought by my entrance — illegally I acknowledge — I thought some great event could happen and hopefully that event could have a good effect in the relations between the north and south,” he said, appearing relaxed and even smiling during the interview.

The interview did little to answer the questions that have swirled in North Jersey’s Korean neighborhoods since North Korea announced Joo’s arrest on Saturday for having illegally entered the country. In community centers, groceries and media offices, people have been asking how he ended up in such a terrible situation and worrying for his family.

It’s a nightmare for any family — hearing that a son with so much promise travels abroad and takes a risky action that ends with him in prison. North Korea’s government detained Joo on April 22, and while South Korea is fighting on his behalf, his fate remains unclear.

“I hope I will be able to tell the world how an ordinary college student entered the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) illegally, however with the generous treatment of the DPRK that I will able to return home safely,” he said in the interview.

Joo also told CNN he has had no access to phone or Internet and has not been able to talk to anyone from the U.S. or South Korean governments yet, but has been treated well.

“I’ve been fed well. I have slept well and I have been very healthy. I would just like to apologize for creating a lot of worry among my loved ones,” he said in the interview.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/tenafly-residents-detained-in-north-korea-says-he-crossed-into-country-on-purpose-1.1324910

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Bond-issue typo shorts Bergen County project $10M

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APRIL 30, 2015, 11:06 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015, 11:10 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

What a difference a digit makes.

Bergen County officials revealed this week that a simple error may result in a $10 million shortfall in the money available to pay for a new public works facility in Paramus.

Everyone agrees that the facility, which is expected to open by September, will cost about $18 million.

When the freeholders approved a $115 million bond issue in 2012 to pay for the facility and the new justice center in Hackensack, the facility’s cost was listed as $18 million, county officials said.

But in April 2014, the board approved a revised bond of $147 million to add a sixth floor to the justice center.

That’s when someone apparently “dropped a 1” in the paperwork and recorded the cost of the Paramus facility as $8 million, County Administrator Dominic Novelli said in an interview.

Those documents were not available on Thursday, county officials said.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/bond-issue-typo-shorts-bergen-county-project-10m-1.1322976

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7 of the 10 counties in America with the highest property taxes are in N.J

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7 of the 10 counties in America with the highest property taxes are in N.J., study says
By Paul Milo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
April 28, 2015 at 12:36 PM, updated April 28, 2015 at 1:12 PM

Counties in New Jersey dominate the top 10 nationwide for property taxes, according to data compiled by real estate Web site Zillow.

It’s no secret that New Jersey homeowners are hit with some of the highest property taxes in the nation. But just how high, relative to other parts of the country, might be a bit of a shock.

A typical homeowner in Bibb County, Ala., paid just $228 in property taxes in 2013,according to an analysis by Zillow, the real estate website. Compare that to someone paying the median in Paramus or Ridgewood in Bergen, who shelled out $9,546 — about 45 times as much.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/7_of_the_10_counties_in_america_with_the_highest_property_taxes_are_in_nj_study_says.html

Highest:

Westchester, N.Y., $13,842
Rockland, N.Y., $10,550
Bergen, NJ, $9,546
Essex, N.J., $9,288
Nassau, N.Y., $9,091
Passaic, N.J., $8,978
Union, N.J., $8,926
Morris, N.J., $8,549
Hudson, N.J., $8,407
Hunterdon, N.J., $8,392

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Bergen and Passaic counties, see little price improvement but an uptick sales activity

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APRIL 23, 2015    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

* Employment, interest rates cited as Passaic, Bergen home sales rise

Fueled by a stronger job market, housing sales activity is picking up steam, with existing home sales up 6.1 percent nationwide in March, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

A separate report, from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said that home prices nationwide were also on the rise — up 5.4 percent in the 12 months ending in February. But prices were up only 2.6 percent in the Middle Atlantic region, which includes New Jersey.

That story was reflected in Bergen and Passaic counties, which saw little price improvement but an increase in sales activity.

“After a quiet start to the year, sales activity picked up greatly throughout the country in March,” said NAR economist Lawrence Yun. “The combination of low interest rates and the ongoing stability in the job market is improving buyer confidence and finally releasing some of the sizable pent-up demand that accumulated in recent years.”

Existing-home sales nationwide in March were at an annual level of 5.19 million.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/jobs-encourage-housing-1.1316077

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Rabies found in another coyote as hunt in Bergen County continue

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APRIL 22, 2015, 11:45 AM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015, 12:01 AM
BY SCOTT FALLON AND LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD

A coyote that was killed by a state wildlife officer this week after it attacked the tires of a police car in Norwood has tested positive for rabies — and the hunt continues for another coyote that could also have the disease, state officials said on Wednesday.

Officials say the coyote with rabies may be the same animal that bit a man in the borough on Sunday, but they noted they can’t be sure.

“There is no guarantee that we got the right coyote, which is why we’re still out here,” David Chanda, director of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, said at a news conference in Norwood.

It is only the seventh time that rabies has been confirmed in a coyote since 1989, when the variant of the disease that spreads through raccoons first entered the state from Pennsylvania, said Colin T. Campbell, the state public health veterinarian.

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/coyote-that-attacked-norwood-police-car-tests-positive-for-rabies-1.1314726

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Marauding coyote caught in Norwood; two dens found near school

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Marauding coyote caught in Norwood; two dens found near school

APRIL 20, 2015, 5:05 AM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015, 6:31 AM
BY DEENA YELLIN AND STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Print

NORWOOD — A strangely aggressive — and possibly rabid — coyote that had bitten a resident’s leg Sunday night and later attacked a police cruiser was captured Monday evening and sent to a state laboratory for testing, borough police reported.

Delivering the news on their Facebook page, police also issued an additional caution: They said two coyote dens had been found near the Norwood Public School and that traps would be placed near the dens.

“The aggressive Summit Street coyote was just captured and is [en] route to the State Lab for testing,”  a police statement issued about 8:40 p.m. stated. “Unfortunately, two dens have been found near the school and it is unknown if our Summit Street problem has been solved.”

State wildlife staff members had set traps in the borough’s Fox Hill area to catch — and potentially kill — the coyote.

At one point during the search Monday evening, borough police reported that the coyote had just attacked the tires of a police car on Villa Court and then had escaped capture. “Please be careful,” statement warned.  “This is in the area of the NORWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL!!!”

To resident inquiries after the coyote’s capture, police advised that school children not be allowed outside activities while investigators made sure the dens were clear. But in late evening, other residents reported on the department’s Facebook page that they had seen two other coyotes in the area.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/marauding-coyote-caught-in-norwood-two-dens-found-near-school-1.1312786

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NJ’s industrial space in high demand in first quarter

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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.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/demand-for-n-j-industrial-space-growing-1.1310550