The Observer 3/11/15

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March 11, 2015 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVII, No. 42

DIRECT on

COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD

Monitor will stay for now

RY

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• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY

‘Heightened’ prep

By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent HARRISON – The Town of Harrison, which has received special state aid for the past five years – and, with it, the special attention of a state fiscal monitor – recently tried to disengage itself from that arrangement. Sorry, not yet, was the state’s answer, according to Mayor James Fife. “We asked to have our transitional aid shifted to our regular state aid,” Fife told The Observer last week, and, in so doing, have the state end its role of financial overseer. However, Fife said he was told that because of administrative staff changes within the state Dept. of Community Affairs’ Local Government Services unit – and, in particular, the assignment of a new state monitor to Harrison – DCA needed more time to “evaluate” the town’s situation. “Possibly it might happen by next year,” Fife said. “We felt we were ready but they didn’t.” A state comptroller’s audit issued last year cited what the audit characterized as “weaknesses” in the town’s internal financial controls that resulted in health care premiums paid to dead employees plus “excessive” retiree sick leave, see AID page

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Photo by Ron Leir

Scott Burzynski leads cast through vocal warmups as they rehearse for “In the Heights.”

By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent KEARNY –

I

t’s only his second time on stage at Kearny High School, but senior Alex

Vazquez is rising to the task of tackling a lead. So says Michele Samoski, who is directing Alex and a cast of 33 in the high school’s spring musical, “In the Heights,” opening March 19.

The show, which focuses on a low-income neighborhood in the Washington Heights section of New York City whose residents rally round each other, features as many as 25 songs

– mostly ensemble-based – and six big dance numbers, all done to rap and hip hop stylings. It was produced on Broadway in 2008, with music and

OK to build but be careful driving By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent

KEARNY – Carlstadt builder Ed Russo can expand his residential project at Bergen and Schuyler Aves. now that the Kearny Planning Board has signed off on the proposal. The board, on March 4, vot-

ed – despite some reservations about traffic flow – to greenlight the project’s expansion to 311-337 Bergen Ave. with the demolition of several commercial properties and construction of two 3-story buildings with a total of 70 apartments plus 106 parking spaces. During the board’s hearing on the application filed by

201-460-8000 LYNDHURST OFFICE 761 Ridge Road, Lyndhurst, New Jersey C21Semiao@Century21.com

Wal Park Associates/Schuyler Crossing Urban Renewal LLC, several board members and a member of the public, Lawrence Handlin, voiced concerns about traffic going in and out of the development. Plans call for two driveways at the development site, both opening onto Bergen, but Handlin noted that at certain

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times of the day, “it takes upwards of 40 minutes” to drive along Schuyler to get to Harrison Ave. With what he called a “highdensity development coming into the picture, those traffic snarls are only going to get worse, Handlin said. “Be flexible, give up a driveway,” he see DRIVEWAYS page

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