Forget that spring diet — at least for a day — because March 15 is Free Cone Day at Dairy Queen. At non-mall locations throughout the Garden State, the ice-cream chain will give away a free small vanilla ice cream cone. There’s a catch, however. As with free pancake day last week at IHOP, DQ visitors…
Detective says Parsippany driver in fatal crash was visibly drunk
MORRISTOWN — The trial of a Parsippany woman charged with killing East Hanover community leader Ralph Politi Jr. in a 2012 DWI crash entered its third week Monday with the lead detective returning to the stand in a courtroom packed with Politi’s family and friends. East Hanover Police Sgt. Jack Ambrose, who was friends with Politi…
Freeholders Declare March as Red Cross Month in Morris County
MORRIS COUNTY — The Morris County Freeholders have proclaimed March, 2016, as American Red Cross Month in Morris County, asking residents to recognize and thank our “Everyday Heroes’’ – the selfless Red Cross volunteers and donors who give of their time and resources to help the community.
“The Red Cross responds to disasters big and small; and, in fact, every eight minutes the organization responds to a community disaster by providing shelter, food, emotional support and other necessities to those affected,’’ said Freeholder Director Kathy DeFillippo.
Kathy DeFillippo, and Hank Lyon
The proclamation was issued at the March 9 freeholder meeting in Morristown to Christy Hodde, Executive Director of the New Jersey Crossroads Chapter of the American Red Cross.
“Morris County is full of every day heroes. They are our compassionate Red Cross volunteers, selfless blood donors and generous supporters who help their neighbors when they need it most,” said Hodde. “We thank the Morris County Freeholders for honoring them during Red Cross Month for their outstanding service in our community.”
The New Jersey Crossroads Chapter serves a population of 1.1 million people in Morris, Union and Warren Counties, and Millburn and Short Hills in Essex County. Here are some statistics for the Red Cross in N.J. in 2015:
- Responded to 889 local disasters, helping 1,820 families displaced by fires.
- Collected 89,000 units of blood through blood drives and donation centers.
- Trained 117,000 people with life-saving skills, such as CPR.
- Provided assistance to 4,000 military families.
This was made possible by the generous contribution of time by 5,800 volunteers, including many in Morris County.
Hodde explained that Red Cross volunteers help families find shelter after a home fire, give blood to help trauma victims and cancer patients, deliver comfort items to military members in the hospital, use lifesaving skills to save someone from a heart attack, drowning, or choking; and enable children to be vaccinated from measles and rubella, among many of their contributions.
“Whereas, the American Red Cross depends on local heroes to deliver help and hope during a disaster, we applaud our heroes here in Morris County who give of themselves to assist their neighbors,’’ stated the freeholders’ resolution.
For more information on the American Red Cross visit the Crossroads Chapter click here.
Parsippany Dems celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
PARSIPPANY — The Parsippany Democratic Committee held its 17th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Lunch on Sunday, March 13 at Kafe Mozart. The event was standing room only with special guest speaker Jersey City Mayor and a 2017 gubernatorial hopeful, Steven M. Fulop.
Fulop was elected the 49th Mayor of Jersey City on May 14, 2013.
During his time as Mayor, he has shown what smart, progressive leadership can accomplish – and opened a new chapter for Jersey City.
Under his leadership, Jersey City became the first city in the state – and the sixth city in the country – to ensure paid sick leave. Steve has pioneered new ideas for helping prisoners re-enter society; he’s passed legislation to protect small businesses; encouraged more to open shop; made Jersey City one of the greenest towns in the nation. He’s undertaken sweeping public safety reform; the JCPD is now seen as a model for diversity around the nation. And he’s led the city to record economic development that’s benefited families of all income levels. All without raising taxes.
Steve is a first-generation American, a lifelong New Jerseyan, a Marine, and a triathlete. He grew up in a Jewish family in Edison, New Jersey, the son of Romanian immigrants. His mother was the daughter of Holocaust survivors and worked in an immigration services office helping others gain citizenship. His father owned a delicatessen nearby in Newark, where Steve worked behind the counter as a teenager.
Steve graduated from Binghamton University in 1999 and spent time abroad studying at Oxford University in the UK. After college, he joined Goldman Sachs, the investment banking firm, working in Chicago and later in Manhattan and Jersey City.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Steve was working in lower Manhattan when he saw the first plane strike the Twin Towers. A few weeks later, he decided to put his career at Goldman Sachs on hold and join the United States Marine Corps.
Steve’s Reserve Unit deployed to Iraq in January 2003. There, Steve served as part of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion. He traveled into Baghdad during the early weeks of the war.
In 2006, Steve completed his service to the Marine Corps Reserve with the rank of Corporal.
After his service in Iraq, Steve returned to Goldman Sachs, leaving in early 2006 to take a position at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. That year, he also completed both his Masters in Business Administration at the New York University Stern School of Business and his Masters in Public Administration at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
Steve first tried his hand at politics, running for Congress in 2004. He lost.
But the next year, Steve ran for the Jersey City Council, and the result was different. He served as a councilman for eight years before becoming Mayor.
Also during the luncheon, the committee honored, Julia and Robert Peterson.
Brooklyn-born Bob and Parsippany born Julia met while working in a Rochester, Federally-funded Follow Through program. They lived there for over thirty years, bought a house and raised Jessica and Mark. They served on board of the Unitarian Church and Delphi (Bob) and the League of Women Voters and various (PTA’s). Bob worked for twenty-one of those years as a pre-shcool diagnostic psychologist with the City School District. Julie earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and papermaking and worked as a program directory linking performances and teaching artists with teachers.
They moved to Parsippany in 2004 to main the Livingston Benedict House, a national register property which has been in Julia’s family since 1857.
Bob serves on the board of Preschool Advantage, which gives scholarships to pre-school to families that cannot afford the cost. Julie servers on the board of Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms and is a member of the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee of Parsippany-Troy Hills.
Their ten years on the executive committee of the Democratic Committee have been filled with friendship and hard work. Thanks to all who have volunteered, run, canvassed and phoned. They have met and come to know a group of wonderful people, and will keep working to get good candidates elected.
Committee member MaryAnn Fisher said “Such a wonderful celebration of the Democratic spirit and of the most amazing couple that ignites that spirit. Thank you Bob and Julia Dutton Peterson for all that you do and all that you are!”
For more information on Parsippany Democratic Committee, click here.
Photos by Joanne Rich.
Letter to the editor: No Loss of Services, but Service Lost. BOE Property a Disgrace
Dear Editor:
Our township administrations speaks of no tax raises and no loss of services. These photos show perhaps a service that does not function as it should, which means paying for something your not getting, or service lost.
These three photos are the Lake Hiawatha Elementary School property, the above photo shows an on-going address that fails to put out the garbage and recycles properly on a regular basis.
The Sanitation crew here March 11 simply tagged the bag and left the debris in the street and right over a storm drain. How much effort would it have taken to simply collect the recycles? The fact that it could be left in this condition is revealing, in the lack of conscience discipline, employer expectations of duties and responsibilities and “Pride in Parsippany” which alledegly invest the town.
No fines or penalities are forthcoming, instead we have businesses and property owners along North Beverwyck that use municipal trash and recycle container (always mixed) for their private use, at tax-payers expense. No effort by this administration has been forthcoming in remedying this obvious and on-going condition. The North Beverwyck business district is a disgrace and will continue to be as long as the Mayor accepts this behavior and lacks the will to enforce ordinances.
In fact at Town Council meetings it has been stated ordinances are not law, and are only 
guidelines. This citizen conjectures there is more to it than that, that the lack of will to uphold ordinances is political in nature, in that if they were enforced financial contributions may not be forthcoming, so businesses and certain property owners are allowed to inflict costs on the average tax payers by using municipal receptacles for their businesses. Businesses should be made to provide their own recycle containers, and pay for their own waste collection service, not use town or common property. Their lack of discipline costs us all in accumulative effects at the tipping stations for mixed trash. This must already be occuring in relation to the situation on North Beverwyck . It was food waste that brought the rats.
Recycle laws have been in existence for a long time and recycling predates even the actual law. What excuses can continually be used not to force the ordinances? It has been mentioned that education is required. I give you the school yard where subconsciously children are impressed with the surrounding norms of condition and example. The other explanation about sanitation is the other cultures; true perhaps to a degree, but what culture exactly; the culture of garbage, convenience and disrespect allowed and tolerated, with apathy and corporate irresponsibility? The BOE claimed that it was the first time anyone ever complained about the school property, which says much.
All parents, teachers and citizens need to take a look around, community is the people who make that community, if there is trash in front of your street, or the conditions of where you go are unaccepatable or ongoing take action yourself or at least notice it, complain but do something about it. Citizens also need to make their sanitation crews held responsible while performing their duties; if they spill something and don’t clean up they should be reported. This town has one Sanitation Enforcement officer, not enough, and he is not being allowed to fine offenders but only give notice. It is pure nonesense that certain locations along North Beverwyck are constantly dumped on and the culprits identified by mail and other obvious evidence ,can not be given summons unless they are actually seen, Singas Pizza for one. This is a tactic used for political purposes only. The Lake Hiawatha Business district is costing all Parsippany tax payers.
When becoming a citizen it must be taught to be respecttful in keeping common places trash free, including daily cleaning in immediate spaces, including the gutters and stormdrains. Without making this an issue of concern the Mayor is not doing his job and is putting business over community in hopes of gaining favor. No code of conduct would condone this apathy, at the same time alleging pride in Parsippany or patriotism of any sort.
Recently the County and local Police began advocating for three addition jobs to baby sit and spy on our school children in the name of possible terrorism, fear mongering. Two 50K one 75K a year with benefits. This is absurd. It would be better to hire sanitation inspectors that do their job and enforce ordinances by combing the whole town and keeping up with on-going offenders. This is what the times call for. This would also bring revenue and come to grips with those who place their own convenince above the responsibility of community and the collective. There are others ways to safe guard our children. We cannot live in constant fear encouraged by those whom stand to benefit from creating the very conditions that brought us to this state of social decay.
We need litter free school zones and sanitation crews that aren’t lazy; not police in schools that sanction fear while all things around us demise our quality of life and are passed on as norms.
Nick Homyak
Former State Pensions Director Agrees with Sierchio
In a story in the Daily Record, on Sunday, March 13, Former Director of State Pensions Fred Beaver confirmed what the taxpayers of Morris County already know: while there may be two candidates running for Morris County Sheriff, only John Sierchio has a plan that will result in actual tax savings.
The Daily Record compared the salary and pension plans of John Sierchio and James Gannon. Upon being elected, Sierchio will accept only the minimum Sheriff’s salary of $113,000, as required by law. Conversely, Gannon will “accept a sheriff’s salary that the Morris County freeholders deem appropriate” – which could be as high as $160,000 – and plans to freeze his state pension.
“While ‘freezing a pension’ may result in a good sound byte, it doesn’t result in any tax savings,” noted Sierchio. “I’m the only fiscal conservative in this campaign, and that’s why I pledge to accept only the minimum Sheriff’s salary as required by law. My plan is the only plan that will return dollars where they belong – back to the taxpayer.”
Don’t take it from us – listen to Fred Beaver, who served as Director of State Pensions and Benefits for eight years, in yesterday’s Daily Record:
“Fred Beaver, a past director of the state Division of Pension and Benefits, agreed with Sierchio that a candidate’s freezing of a pension would result in no savings to taxpayers because his pension already has been funded, with contributions no longer being given by the governmental employer.”
“The former Director of State Pensions said it himself: Jim Gannon’s pension plan will not save any tax dollars,” said Sierchio, who served as Chairman of the state’s Police and Fireman’s Retirement System. “Candidates like to call themselves ‘fiscal conservatives,’ but I’m the only one with a proven record of saving tax dollars, and the only one with a plan to do it again as Sheriff.”
John Sierchio served 27 years in the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, the Essex County Police Department, and as Detective Sergeant on the Bloomfield Police Department. John served as Chairman of the state’s Police and Fireman’s Retirement System, where he was called a “crusader” by the Star-Ledger for saving millions of dollars for taxpayers by exposing fraudulent pension claims. John is a Member of the Boonton Township Board of Education and is a Life Member of the National Rifle Association.
Morris County 2016 Open Space Grant Applications Now Being Accepted
MORRIS COUNTY — The Morris County Department of Planning and Public Works, Division of Planning and Preservation, has announced that the 2016 grant application for funding of open space projects under the Morris County Preservation Trust are now available online on the Planning & Public Works – Open Space Preservation by clicking here. In 2014, the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills submitted an Open Space Trust Fund Application with Morris County requesting funds to purchase the rear property of the controversial Waterview tract, but the committee did not approve the application.
The Township submitted an application for purchase of nine acres of the Waterview Tract for $3.5 million dollars. The Township appraised the property at $4 million, and the county appraised the property for $3 million. At the Council meeting on Tuesday, October 14, 2014 Township Attorney John Inglesino explained to the approximately 40 people in attendance that an Open Space Grant application submitted to the Morris County Freeholders would need to be amended due to the fact that the County’s appraisal of a portion of the Waterview tract was substantially lower than the Township’s. As part of a proposed settlement with RD Management, Mayor Barberio’s administration had requested $3.5 million from the County to purchase a little over nine acres of mostly steep slopes and an area in which approximately two thirds of it was already protected as a buffer zone in the current master plan.
Any of Morris County’s 39 municipalities and qualified charitable conservancies are eligible to apply for grant funding, said Barbara Murray, open space program coordinator.
The 2016 application process begins as the freeholders on Wednesday approved continued funding for the county’s Preservation Trust Fund, which generates revenues through a voter-approved special county tax.
The tax, set at 7/8 of a cent per $100 of tax assessment, should generate about $8 million this year. Of that money, the county allocates 2/8 of a cent to the Park Improvement Trust used by the Park Commission to restore facilities and 5/8 of a cent is allocated to the other Preservation Trust Programs.
In addition to open space projects, the county’s preservation fund also is used to help finance farmland and historic preservation, county parkland acquisition, and the purchase of residential properties prone to flooding.
“Preserving our open spaces to create parks, connect trails, offer recreational opportunities for our residents, or just to make sure we have green spaces in each of our towns, is vitally important to maintaining our great quality of life in Morris County,’’ said Freeholder Director Kathy DeFillippo.
The freeholders in 2015 approved funding for six open space preservation projects, at a cost of nearly $1 million and totaling more than 113 acres in five Morris County towns. Included were two projects in Washington Township and one each in the town of Boonton, Hanover, Jefferson and Mendham Borough.
More than 13,500 acres of open space have been preserved with the assistance of grant funding from the county program since its inception in 1993, according to Murray.
The deadline for submitting 2016 open space applications and appraisals is Friday, June 17.
Additional information may be obtained by contacting the Morris County Division of Planning and Preservation at (973) 829-8120.
Opinion: Trumping Freedom of Speech
Whether you like Donald Trump or not doesn’t give you the right to obstruct his right to free speech. The Chicago mob that shut down Donald Trump’s campaign speech last week should have been put in jail. Trump’s campaign was hosting the rally. This was Trump’s party. Your right to free speech does not Trump someone else’s right to free speech.
Ronald Reagan’s most famous line may be, “I am paying for this microphone Mr. Green.” The statement was made in Nassau, New Hampshire leading up to that state’s primary. Reagan was trying to explain to the crowd why the debate was being delayed when the Nassau Telegraph newspaper editor told the soundman to turn off Reagan’s microphone. Only he and George H.W. Bush had been invited to debate but Reagan thought that was unfair not to include the other candidates and insisted that Bob Dole and the others running at the time be on the platform. Dole had previously complained to the Federal Election Commission about the debate stating the Telegraph was making an unfair campaign contribution to the Bush and Reagan campaigns. The Commission agreed and hence Reagan’s campaign agreed to foot the bill. The Nassau Telegraph newspaper editor whose name was Jon Bren and not Green asked that Reagan’s microphone be turned off when Reagan began to say something. Reagan responded with the famous statement.
When Lyndon Johnson paraded through Inez, Kentucky in 1964 nobody dreamed of trying to yell down the President. I was there. When Barack Obama came to Indiana I stood in line for three hours to hear the Senator speak to almost 13,000 people. Everyone was courteous. No one yelled out or tried to interrupt Obama. My son and I went to hear Hillary Clinton a few years back. We went down and shook hands with her. No one tried to disrupt her speech. In each scenario it was Johnson’s, Obama’s or Clinton’s party, people were invited to listen and not to make buffoons of themselves.
If you have something to say free speech gives you the permission to say it. Rent your own convention space. Announce you have something to say and then stand up and say it. Have a party at your house, subdivision or stand in front of your courthouse or state house and say what you want to say. People should listen without interrupting you if they are interested in what you want to say.
Freedom of speech does not mean forgoing all civility. If you are having a hamburger party in your backyard and want to espouse all your reasons for smoking Cuban cigars then so be it. You don’t expect people to show up and shout you down.
There are many ways to foster your first Amendment right. However, trying to Trump someone else’s speech with your speech is out of line especially when that person is paying for the microphone.
Glenn Mollette is an American Syndicated Columnist and Author. He is the author of eleven books and read in all fifty states.
Parsippany PAL Girls Compete in All-Star Game
PARSIPPANY — After clinching the PAL Girls 7,8,9 Division Championship, the girls played in an All-Star game. Pictured with their medals: Back row standing left to right: Coach Pete Hernandez, Coach Laurie Howell, Alexandra Bond, Neha Deshpande, Stephanie Hernandez, Alena Tran, Coach Jeff Levine. Front row kneeling left to right: Jordana Levine, Kiersten Koch, Anjali Ramesh, and Lauren Hernandez.