By Ray Smith / Reporter

WALLINGTON (Sept. 2, 2010) — Municipalities throughout New Jersey are certainly not immune to budget cuts. With the development of a large municipal public safety complex in East Rutherford, some towns are wondering if cutting costs could be achieved by combining municipal courts.

At the Thursday, Aug. 26 Wallington Borough Council meeting, the five council members in attendance voted unanimously to authorize a municipal court feasibility study.

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RUTHERFORD (Sept. 2, 2010) — The Rutherford Labor Day organizing committee has announced the line-up for entertainment that will be at the event. At the Hutzel Memorial Band Shell in Lincoln Park, String Theory will perform from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; followed by The Rum Runners (Jazz Trio) with Ashley Pettet singing from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.; and the Kootz Band from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

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(Sept. 2, 2010) — TO THE EDITOR:

Rutherford Board of Health President Wilms’ unprecedented and vituperous assault upon the professionalism, character and integrity of Dr. Jadwiga Warwas must be dealt with swiftly and decisively.

The good doctor’s public denunciation of waste, abuse and mismanagement at the health department deserves commendation, not castigation. Her contribution to our collective understanding comes at a time when these very issues are being raised in the statehouse, in the press and at our council meetings.

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(Sept. 2, 2010) — TO THE EDITOR:

Where is the justice? Does anyone care?

There has been a shafting of two businesses and three homes (174, 178 and 182 Route 17 South, between Summit and Elizabeth streets in Rutherford). A four-lane highway starts at Highland Cross to Elizabeth Street. Between Highland Cross and Summit, four homes have a 10 to 15-foot buffer. There is no problem for them.

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(Sept. 2, 2010) — TO THE EDITOR:

I truly can’t believe that we are considering laying off police officers. What’s next? Volunteer police officers to fill in when we don’t have coverage for the town?

When emergencies come up and the police officer is the first responder, I hope everyone remembers that there will be two less and so your first responder might not be available as quickly as we would have in the past.

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(Sept. 2, 2010) — TO THE EDITOR:

I am writing this letter in support of the Rutherford Public Library. It is especially essential now, when our freedoms are being slowly eroded, that we support open access to freedom of speech and press. As a democracy, it is vitally important that information be available and accessible at all times from every spectrum of the world. Our strength as a country is in our freedoms. We cannot and should not permit the loss of these experienced librarians from the Rutherford Public Library.

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RUTHERFORD (Sept. 2, 2010) — We were blessed with Andrew Jonathan Ortega on May 3, 1997. Born in Secaucus, and raised in Rutherford, Andrew was an integral part of his community. Andrew, 13, gave 150 percent at all that he endeavored. He played baseball, basketball and football in town with exemplary passion and skill. His sportsmanship was admired by coaches, teammates and parents alike. A Gifted and Talented student at Pierrepont School, Andrew excelled academically maintaining high honors.

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RUTHERFORD (Sept. 1, 2010, 9:55 a.m.) — The Borough of Rutherford’s revised 2010 collection schedule will be in next week’s The Leader.  Please be advised all borough offices are closed every Friday through Dec. 31.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

RUTHERFORD (Aug. 26, 2010) — For motorists making their way up and down the Route 17 corridor in South Bergen, the recent lane expansions and guardrail additions have largely been welcome news. Traffic and safety, for the most part, have been improved, especially in the locations in and around the four traffic lights that dot the highway from Hasbrouck Heights to Rutherford.

But did these improvements, which help thousands of motorists on a daily basis, come at the expense of local residents and business owners?

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RUTHERFORD (Aug. 25, 2010, 3:20 p.m.) — The storied history of The Leader Newspaper, South Bergen’s premier weekly publication, has seen a full suite of improvements and enhancements throughout its more than 100 years of publishing. For several years, it has lived up to its motto of being “The Pulse of the Meadowlands” for the local area.

Now, the newspaper, which serves eight communities in southern Bergen County, is ready to take a bold step into the 21st century media marketplace — and it has a few new friends to help it along the way.

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By Kyle Orlowicz / Reporter

RUTHERFORD (Aug. 26, 2010) — With the national unemployment rate nearing double digits, it is becoming impossible to ignore the victims of the current economic recession in the South Bergen region. The Rev. Gregory Rupright meets with some of these fated individuals monthly at Rutherford Congregational Church to offer his support in their quest for new work. With the help of career development and placement professional Carol Anderson, Rupright’s Job Seekers Support Group offers ailing and desperate out-of-workers spiritual therapy with a mix of expert career advisement.

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By Andrew Segedin / Reporter

RUTHERFORD (Aug. 26, 2010) — Standing tall with his long, bushy beard, Bob Joerger looks like a man who may have been called on to protect a castle in a past life. At first, he appears rather out of place — roaming through the hallway of the Rutherford Cooperative Day Nursery into the gymnasium of the Presbyterian Church with paint splattered over his clothes. With his faithful dog “Bo” (short for “Roshambo”) at his side, he laughs heartily while revealing what he’s working on. A castle — roughly 15 feet high — made entirely out of cardboard boxes.

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By W. L. Bill Allen, Jr. / New Jersey Sport/Action

RUTHERFORD (Aug. 26, 2010) — When it comes right down to it, championships that are earned via the one-and-done type tournament format frequently go to teams that happened to get hot for a while at just the right time, with those champions not always being the best clubs in their bracket.

Take for instance, the legendary Villanova win over Georgetown in the NCAA title tussle, or the classic Princeton shockers against top-ranked foes.

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WHO: Toddlers in Motion offers classes and birthday parties for children ages 12 months to 5 years old. We specialize in music, movement and art activities that parents and caregivers can share and enjoy together. We are a great place to meet new friends and be a part of a loving community.

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RUTHERFORD (Aug. 24, 2010, 2:50 p.m.) — The Rutherford Downtown Partnership will host a special event at the 35th-annual Labor Day Street Fair on Sept. 6. The partnership has been working these past few weeks in cooperation with Aetna Health Insurance to find the way to accommodate Aetna’s Healthy Food Fight (Healthy Recipe Regional Cook-off) at the Labor Day event.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

HACKENSACK (Aug. 19, 2010, 10:55 a.m.) — If it were up to most of the public officials in the South Bergen area, housing would be taken off the suggestion list for the future of the Meadowlands Sports Complex. But, realistically, is “a mini-city with 5 million square feet of housing” an option for the tract of land in the eastern portion of East Rutherford?

Jon F. Hanson, who heads Gov. Chris Christie’s advisory commission on gaming, sports and entertainment throughout the state, recently spoke of the financial advantages of adding a housing component in the Meadowlands, according to news reports. His comments, and the conceptual plans to privatize some of the public assets at the complex, such as the racetrack and IZOD Center, prompted Bergen County Freeholder Bernadette McPherson to draft a resolution calling for the abandonment of “any plan for housing in the Meadowlands.”

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By Susan C. Moeller / Senior Reporter

RUTHERFORD (Aug. 19, 2010, 8:50 a.m.) — Rutherford’s civilian police director, John Thompson, and the borough’s governing body agreed Tuesday, Aug. 10 to a new set of contract terms for the next three years. The council voted 4 to 2 in favor of the contract, with Councilwoman Kimberly Birdsall and Councilman John Parnofiello, both Democrats, dissenting.

The contract is Thompson’s first as director of the police department. Until now, the terms of his employment have been governed by ordinance only.

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By Andrew Segedin / Reporter

RUTHERFORD (Aug. 19, 2010) — It isn’t unusual for grade school students, curious of cultures different from their own, to exchange letters with a pen pal from another country. What is unusual is for those letters to continue more than 50 years later.

Such is the case with Carol Hughes of Rutherford who, as a student at West New York Public School 5, began writing letters to Jean Rolfe, a former student at Ashford County Grammar School in Kent, United Kingdom, in 1959. Since those first letters, Hughes estimates that they’ve written each other about once every month or so — never going more than two or three months without correspondence.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

RUTHERFORD (Aug. 18, 2010, 3:45 p.m.) — The New Jersey Department of Transportation announced Tuesday, Aug. 17 that work on the replacement of the Route 3 bridge over the Passaic River has started. The current moveable bridge will be replaced with a fixed span, which will connect Clifton with Rutherford and Lyndhurst.

The NJDOT estimates that 142,000 vehicles use the bridge every single day, making it one of the most heavily traveled spans in the state.

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By Susan C. Moeller / Senior Reporter

RUTHERFORD (Aug. 19, 2010) — Three of Rutherford’s employee unions have reached agreements with the borough, allowing for, among other things, 20 furlough days from now until the end of the year.

The furloughs will help the borough council close a multi-million-dollar budget gap for 2010. Beginning Aug. 20, all borough offices will be closed Fridays until the end of the year.

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