By Ron Leir  LYNDHURST – The township’s chief executive is stepping down from the captain’s bridge but will remain part of the crew. With a year remaining in his term on the Township Board of Commissioners, Mayor Richard DiLascio plans to turn over the helm to fellow Commissioner Robert “Bobby” Giangeruso by month’s end. But – for now – Di- Lascio will continue as a member of the Board of Commissioners; he’ll be switching ...

By Anthony J. Machcinski KEARNY – Financial cuts that have weakened Kearny over the past couple years have finally started to “cut into the bone,” Fire Chief Steve Dyl said. At the May 8 Town Hall Meeting, Chief Dyl announced that the Kearny Fire Department would not be hiring anyone to replace the 14 fi refi ghters who will have left the department via retirement by July 1 and, as a result, ...

      By Jeff Bahr Nodding to the power of the “green” movement in the United States, a long- dormant landfill In Kearny now features the very first solar farm on a state-owned landfill. A group of agencies and corporations including PSE&G, Sundurance Energy, and the New Jersey Meadowlands Commisiion (NJMC) came to the site on May 8 to dedicate the new facility aptly dubbed the Kearny Landfill Solar Farm, which, when fully operable will ...

      By Jeff Bahr Four years ago when a group of 19 renewable energy neophytes (AKA greenhorns) first entered the Green Energy Academy at Essex County Bloomfield Tech, they didn’t know much about the emerging technology. Upon graduation, however, they’ve now become true “greenies.” As the first class of students to complete the four-year course of study, they’re also pioneers. With training focused on conservation and sustainability, the group will now move ahead ...

    By Ron Leir  LYNDHURST – The Little League and T-ball fields in Riverside County Park that Lyndhurst had previously placed off-limits due to environmental concerns are now deemed safe. But people should avoid wading in the polluted Passaic River mud flats contiguous to the park. So say agents of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who briefed township residents on “plans for addressing contaminated Passaic River sediment” at two public forums held ...

  By Lisa Pezzolla It’s funny how life repeats itself from one generation to the next. As a kid I would hear my parents and grandparents talk about what they did with their friends while growing up to keep busy. My grandmother and her friend would sit around and share stories with us how they met and walked all over the Bronx to take a train to Manhattan. I can hear them ...

After the New Jersey Devils defeated the Philadelphia Flyers to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals last Tuesday, I couldn’t help but think that winning and heading to the Stanley Cup would be the biggest slap in the face to the now Brooklyn Nets organization. After not being able to secure a stadium deal in New Jersey, the Nets, starting next season, will move to Brooklyn, leaving New Jersey with one ...

To the Publisher: I am writing this to you in the hope that it will be printed in your paper before the May 21 Board of Education meeting. All I can say to the BOE members is “WOW”! What were you people thinking at your special meeting? I am a parent/ taxpayer with children in Franklin School and I am honestly dumbfounded by your lack of concern for the education of ...

    By Ron Leir BLOOMFIELD – If your business was victimized twice by robbers within two months and then attacked by vandals about a year and a half later, would you be inclined to stay? Naresh Patel, a Bloomfield deli owner, did and he says he’s here for the duration. On May 5, his neighbors and local politicians rallied around Patel at his store, the A&D Deli, a block in from Watsessing Park, to ...

  By Anthony J. Machcinski  What a difference a year makes. A little over a year after I Am Fighting took the stage at Bamboozle Festival at the New Meadowlands Sports Complex, the band will return to the Bamboozle Festival debuting a new EP, “Not Afraid.” “This time, we went for the complete opposite (of last year’s upbeat CD),” said I Am Fighting lead vocalist Joe Gehrmann. Those words can never ring truer. In ...