PARSIPPANY — Sonia Diaz (nee Florian) passed away suddenly on Monday, April 8, 2024, in Parsippany. She was 75.

Born in Santa Marta, Colombia to the late Heriberto Florian and Filadelfa Urango, Sonia immigrated to the United States in 1979, settling in Hudson County. She had lived in West New York, and Florida before returning to New Jersey several years ago to live with her daughters in Bayonne and Parsippany.

A homemaker, Ms. Diaz was a loving mother and grandmother.

She was a member of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Bayonne.

Sonia is survived by her four loving children, Endrina Sullivan and her husband, Mark of Redding, CT, Amabilis Dario Fergusson and his wife, Monica of Panama City, Panama, Ninoska Fergusson and her husband, Marcos Zipitria of Parsippany, and Sonia Brown of Bayonne; seven dear siblings, Saul Florian of Englewood, Jorge Florian of Colombia, Marcial Florian of Venezuela, Lady Florian of Colombia, Ledy Florian of Colombia, Heriberto Florian, Jr. of Colombia, and Ligia Lucia Florian of Colombia; and her eight beloved grandchildren, Endora McNeary, Frankie McNeary, Mina Rakel Perez, Nino Fergusson, Lani Brown, Zachary Brown, Brittany Fergusson, and Junior Fergusson.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend the visitation on Saturday, April 13, 2024, 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at S.J. Priola Parsippany Funeral Service, 60 North Beverwyck Road, Lake Hiawatha. Private cremation will follow as per Sonia’s wishes.

Following the visitation, all are welcome to join the family at their home, 540 Vail Road, Parsippany, for food, and refreshments, and to celebrate Sonia’s life.

MORRIS COUNTY — The Morris County Board of County Commissioners unanimously adopted a 2024 Budget on Wednesday, April 10, with no increase in the tax rate as funding expanded for public safety, infrastructure, human services, education and training, and economic development.

Click here to view the budget presentation.

“Strong ratable growth and prudent financial planning made this budget possible,” said Commissioner Deborah Smith, Chair of the Commissioners’ Budget Committee. “We can increase services such as public safety and veterans’ affairs while maintaining a flat tax rate. We are very sensitive to the plight of the taxpayer amid inflation, despite increasing costs on the county.”

The $365.3 million 2024 Budget includes the 2024 Capital Spending Plan which puts nearly $35 million towards county infrastructure. This year’s fund balance grew by $2.5 million bringing it to $63.2 million, safeguarding Morris County against economic shifts and ensuring it maintains its triple-A Bond rating from both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

“Morris County has maintained a triple-A rating for 48 years,” Commissioner Director Christine Myers said. “This impeccable rating saves everyone money by allowing our towns, schools, and county to borrow funds for integral community projects at the most competitive finance rates.”

The county’s robust financial health also helped the budget committee address growing expenses forced by mounting state mandates on operations at the Morris County Clerk’s Office and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.

The 2024 Budget allocates $38.1 million for Human Services and Health Services, which includes doubling to $300,000 a line item in emergency assistance funding to shelter and support people experiencing homelessness. The budget also commits another $150,000 toward funding allocated to prevent people from becoming homeless.

A combined $77.8 million will go towards public safety, including full dispatch services to 23 municipalities and daily back-up services to local Basic Life Support and Emergency Medical Service units for all 39 Morris County towns. Morris County’s Basic Life Support Emergency Medical Service Unit responded to more than 3,862 Emergency calls in 2023.

Critical Community Investments

The Preservation Trust Fund Tax will stay level for 2024, at 5/8 cent per $100 of total county equalized property valuation. It has financed many county park improvements, preservation programs, and restoration projects through grant programs like Farmland Preservation, Open Space Preservation, Historic Preservation, Flood Mitigation, and Trail Design and Construction.

Among the educational, cultural and economic development incentives included in the 2024 Budget are:

• $9 million to support the Morris County Park Commission which manages 20,455 acres of parkland, making it the largest county park system in the state.
• More than $24 million to support education, including career training at the County College of Morris and the Morris County Vocational School District.
• A record $900,000 for Economic Development and Tourism, including $100,000 for the celebration of America’s 250^th Anniversary.

Critical Infrastructure Investments

The county’s 2024 Capital Spending Plan designates approximately $35 million toward enhancing road resurfacing, improving intersections along the 287 miles of county roadways, and replacing bridges and culverts.

PARSIPPANY — Fast fashion plays into the idea that your social relevance is incumbent upon staying abreast with the latest runway trends and outfit repetition is a fashion gaffe. Feeding into this Gen Z and alpha frenzy are fashion houses replicating runway trends at breakneck speeds. The Fashion Industry is a $1.2 trillion Industry. There was a time when there used to be 2 fashion cycles in a year, in comparison there are 52 fashion cycles today. We spend $1,700 on clothes every year, each one of which has on average 103 items in the closet of which only 20% are ever worn utmost 7 times before being tossed.

According to earth.org, 1.92 million tons of textile waste is produced each year. Approximately 90 million tons of garments produced end up in landfills each year. The textile industry is responsible for 8-10% of global CO2 emissions greater than aviation & shipping combined. The textile industry uses 79 trillion liters of water and 98 million tons of non-renewable resources annually. 35% of all microplastics and 20% of industrial wastewater come from the clothing industry. Only 1% of garments are recycled back into the industry. It takes up to 80 years for garments to break down in landfills. 

There are many ways to put the brakes on this issue. Becoming conscious consumers is one of them. We can reuse and repurpose by thrifting, renting, and swapping. Clothing swaps divert textiles from landfills. As textiles decompose, they emit harmful greenhouse gases directly contributing to climate change. Keeping textiles out of landfills reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and microplastic pollution in land and water, and significantly curbs energy and water consumption.

Anika Arora, a Junior at Parsippany Hills High School, has undertaken several initiatives to educate and motivate citizens on steps they can take to mitigate the effects of climate change. Anika, under the guidance of Janice McCarthy, Chair of the Parsippany Environmental Advisory Committee, is organizing Parsippany’s first Dress & Accessories Swap in town. While fulfilling her Girl Scout Gold Award requirements, she sincerely hopes to encourage conscious consumerism and swap not just clothes & accessories but also behaviors. To register for the swap please visit Register For Dress & Accessories Swap. To find out more about Anika’s work, please visit https://www.simply-green.org or follow @_simply.green_

PARSIPPANY — Parsippany-Troy Hills Township will Review and Discuss the Mayor’s 2024 Budget Recommendations on Tuesday, April 9, starting at 5:30 p.m.

Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Law by filing the notice in the Office of the Township Clerk and by posting the meeting notice on the bulletin board at the Municipal Building on March 27, 2024, where it has remained posted since that date. A copy of this notice appeared in The Daily Record on April 1, 2024, and was faxed to The Star-Ledger on March 27, 2024. 

5:30 – 5:45 – 2024 Budget Summary – Administration & Finance

5:45 – 6:30 – Police Department

6:30 – 7:15 – Public Works, Parks and Engineering Departments

7:15 – 8:00 – Planning, Zoning and Building Departments

8:00 – 8:30 – Water Department

8:30 – 9:00 – Sewer Department

9:00 – 9:30 – Knoll Utility

Click here to download the agenda.

Mayor James Barberio
Council President Paul Carifi, Jr.
Council Vice President Frank Neglia
Councilman Justin Musella
Councilman Matt McGrath
Councilwoman Judy Hernandez

PARSIPPANY — Over a hundred residents from Parsippany gathered at the main branch of the Parsippany Public Library on Saturday, April 6 to interact with Councilman Justin Musella on various local hot-button issues — ranging from overdevelopment in the township to traffic congestion overburdening Lake Parsippany, to a much-needed solution to the arduous, drawn-out permitting process.

Residents actively participated during the extensive interactive question-and-answer session with many in the audience noting the constructive dialogue empowered them and fostered a sense of community involvement among attendees.

Musella has been holding monthly “office hours” with residents since his election to the Township Council in 2021. Now Musella is offering residents a more expansive platform to express their opinions and grievances in detail and collaborate on potential solutions. The conversational format of Musella’s town hall is in stark contrast to the traditional township council format that only allows residents five minutes of speaking time without any response from or dialogue with township officials. Many times, the five-minute public speaking time at council meetings is arbitrarily shortened by the sitting Council President, as was the case during many controversial township proposals including the highly controversial PILOT projects.

Parsippany Board of Education members were on hand to speak about their ongoing feud with the mayor regarding the impact of the PILOTs on their funding. Board Member Tim Berrios addressed the crowd saying, “Unfortunately the Mayor continues to ignore the Board of Education and has not responded to our many attempts to meet.” Musella emphasized that a collaborative approach to the Board of Education would bring many benefits to the taxpayers of the town as “There are millions of dollars in savings by sharing services and the only people the mayor is hurting by punching down at the Board of Education are the working families of the town.” Musella was also asked for some advice for blue-collar municipal workers on getting a fair contract from Mayor Barberio, to which he quipped “They should hire John Inglesino as their attorney since we all know the magic he can work on the (mayor’s) administration.”

Assemblyman Brian Bergen joined Musella’s town hall offering residents additional insight into how state and local governments collaborate on a wide array of matters and how his office’s constituent services help residents navigate around the complex state sub-agencies. 

The meeting ended with residents thanking Musella for caring about residents during a time
when other municipal officials avoided answering tough questions. There were also calls from the audience for Musella to run for mayor which was met by a long, robust applause from the crowd.