12 minute read
OBITUARIES
FROM PAGE 1
Ithaca College.
Pascack Valley Dance Team Parents Association President Dina Mattessich told Pascack Press, “With Coach Dena celebrating her 30th year, the decision was easy, the team honored her by choosing Autism Speaks. Coach Denaʼs son was diagnosed at the age of 2, so you could imagine the tears rolling down her face when she was told that fundraising efforts would support an organization near and dear to her heart.”
She added, “This is just a small token of giveback from the team for all the school and community support they have received over the years.”
The team is partly funded by the Pascack Valley Regional High School District and parentsʼ fundraising.
Assistant coach Valentina DeSantis, who has been working alongside Noone for nine years, joined the team in 2006, when she was in high school. She said under Nooneʼs direction the team has won 11 dance titles in pom dancing — whereby the dancers use pom poms as part of high-energy, athletic dance routines — and 21 national championships overall, including pom, team performance, hiphop, jazz, and kick line dancing.
DeSantis said members of the Pascack Valley dance team attended an Autism Speaks Walk on Sept. 24 at the Meadowlands Racetrack. She said team members greeted participants who entered the grounds and also performed at the end of the event.
She said the week before that, team members conducted a car wash and donated a portion of proceeds to Autism Speaks. The Hillsdale police and volunteer ambulance corps surprised them with a donation at the event.
DeSantis said Noone was there at the start of the dance team in 1988, when she was a senior in high school. After graduating from college, she was able to take the reins as head coach of the Pascack Valley Regional Dance Team.
Noone told Pascack Press that she helped form the Pascack Valley Dance Team with one of her best friends, and that MaryLou Allgor was the teamʼs first coach.
Noone said at one point, her sister was on the team; her mom coached the team about three years before she took over as coach.
“Our team motto is Never Me, Always We. Our focus is always on the team and the girls feel this way too. They say this motto before competitions, and we have it on posters,” said Noone.
Mattessich said the team hosts three “Tween Scenes” throughout the year (Sept. 30, Nov. 4, and Dec. 9) and children in grades 3–5 are welcome to attend the two-hour event to play games, dance, and socialize.
On Nov. 22, she said, the team is partnering with Domani for a dine-in/out fundraiser event.
On Dec. 4, she said, the team is hosting a dance clinic for grades K-8. She said kids learn the latest jazz, hip-hop and pom technique and routines. Naturally, she said, parents are invited back to watch their child perform what theyʼve learned.
On Jan. 29, 2023, the team will host the Sweetheart dance competitions for middle school, high school, and college dance teams from the Tri-State Area.
“We also welcome community members to come to the event to watch all the exciting performances,” she said.
Mattessich said the final showcase is the teamʼs send-off before varsity heads off to Orlando and Dance Team Union Nationals.
“Whether you are on jayvee or varsity, each team member plays an important role for each one of these events. They are the driving force behind making each one a success,” she said.
Letters:
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 34
met as parishioners at Zion Lutheran Church in Westwood. I was and am truly impressed by the labor of love that she took upon herself to inform and unify the Westwood community through her social media page in the early stages of Facebook. Public service announcements about local weather, traffic, detours, lost pets, sporting events and more — all were shared enthusiastically and instantly with her growing online followers.
Lesleyʼs passion for community service has continued with her involvement with local animal rescue groups — fostering animals until they have found loving homes has become a signature staple in her day to day schedule. Lending a helping hand with our boroughʼs food pantries and making grocery deliveries to those who may be homebound has become a meaningful way for her to connect with residents on a weekly basis.
Motivated by service to our community and outreach to members of the borough (human and animal) have been demonstrated by Lesley Whyard well before she volunteered to put her name on the ballot for this yearʼs Borough Council race. A thoughtful, steady and forwardthinking temperament are the characteristics that Lesley Whyard embodies as a potential member of our boroughʼs dais.
Erin Collins
Westwood councilwoman
L. SCOTTBERKOBEN, P.A.
AProfessional Corporation Attorneys at Law
A living will should be more than just a form to sign...
rather it should be crafted to fit your needs. Don’t leave it to others.
Experienced Municipal Prosecutors and Defenders 211 Center Ave., Westwood • (201)666-7770 Visit our website: www.lscottberkoben.com
PASCACK VALLEY
Walk to Reduce Suicide Oct. 16
The annual Bergen County Walk, hosted by the New Jersey Chapter will be held at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 16 at Saddle River County Park – Otto C Pehle.
Funds from the walk will support the American Foundation for Suicide Preventionʼs research, education and support efforts and will help the organization achieve its bold goal to reduce the annual U.S. suicide rate by 20% by the year 2025.
The Bergen County Walk is one of more than 13 Out of the Darkness Walks taking place this fall in New Jersey. The walks will bring together more than 9,000 walkers and raise one million for suicide prevention efforts. In 2021, the Bergen County Walk, raised over $125,000 with 880 participants. This year the goal is $130,000.
Local sponsors for the Bergen County Walk include: Platinum Sponsor: Sefcik Productions; Gold Sponsors: CBH Cares, McCann Health, Jim and Lynne Tosone, North Jersey Health & Wellness; Silver Sponsors: Inserra Supermarkets, Wegmans, A Work of Heart Counseling.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide. AFSP creates a culture thatʼs smart about mental health through education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide.
Learn more about AFSP in its latest annual report, and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following AFSP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
OBITUARIES
Molly J.
LADEMANN
Molly J. Lademann, 92, a long-time resident of Park Ridge, passed away on Sept. 29, 2022. Molly was born in Xenia, Ohio on Nov. 29, 1929, the daughter of the Hon. Judge Frank Johnson and Mary Ruth Hodge Johnson.
She was married to the late Ernest E. Lademann on June 20, 1953.
Molly was a graduate of Ohio State University. She completed graduate studies at the University of Virginia and William Paterson College of New Jersey. She taught elementary grades in Columbus, Ohio, Alexandria, Va., and Paramus. When her children were older, she substituted in Montvale, Woodcliff Lake, and Upper Saddle River school districts.
She loved traveling the United States with Ernie in their RV, and spent many enjoyable days in their cabin in the Adirondacks. Her happiest moments were with her family when they were all together.
She is survived by her sisterin-law Patricia Johnson, four children Patricia Grisolia and her husband, Albert, of Westwood; Ernest Lademann III and his wife, Maria, of Raleigh, N.C.; Carol Hansen and her husband, Chris, of Milford; and Christine Hartner and her husband, Jim, of Wyndmoor, Penn.
She has nine grandchildren: Dawn Elmore; Brittany, Victoria, and Alec Lademann; Christian, Connor, and Carley Hansen; and Knoll and Rae Hartner.
Visitation 5–7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at Robert Spearing Funeral Home Inc., 155 Kinderkamack Road, Park Ridge, rsfhi.com. A brief funeral service will be held at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to a charity of your choice.
Mary Jane A. LESKO
Mary Jane A. (Fitzgibbons) Lesko, 90, of Whiting, N.J., formerly of Westwood, passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. She is predeceased by her beloved husband, Joseph Sr.
Mary Jane is survived by her loving children Joseph Jr. and his wife, Cathrin; Mary Ann Izone and her husband, Donny; as well as Michael and his wife, Cathy; and her grandchildren, MaryEllen and Carly, Kate, Kevin, and Sharon.
Mary Jane loved the beach and had a passion for sewing, ceramics and other crafts, and board games. She enjoyed reading on her porch in her chair. Mary Jane had a special place in her heart for her granddogs, Jane and Lucky, Darby, Timothy and Prada. Being a grandmother was her favorite role and she cherished her time with her grandchildren and family.
During her life, Mary Jane worked at the St. Andrewʼs cafeteria, Oritani Savings and Loans, Bethel Cedar Park Cemetary, BD, the Lakewood Blueclaws Stadium, sold badges at Harry Wright Lake near her home, and was a school bus aide.
The family will receive guests at Becker Funeral Home, 219 Kinderkamack Road, Westwood on Monday, Oct. 3 from 4 to 8 p.m.
A Mass celebrating Mary Janeʼs life and faith will be held at St. Andrew R.C. Church in Westwood on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 10:30 a.m. Interment at St. Andrew Cemetery in River Vale to follow. Memorial contributions can be made in Mary Janeʼs name to the American Heart Association.
FROM PAGE 8
the cost of removing/reallocating shoals to stabilize, reinforce and restore both sides of the Pascack Brook all along its travel through Westwood would range $5 million to $20 million (plus the 15% added to the final amount), depending upon the mix of applications employed in a final scope of work.
To put the cost scale of the worst-case scenario into perspective: $23,000,000 is more than Westwoodʼs entire 2022 municipal budget. It is almost 30 times the cost of our 2022 road milling and paving program. And itʼs about the cost of the latest round of Westwood Regional School District expansions and improvements to the districtʼs learning infrastructure.
The physical improvements cited above address purely local conditions. Improving the flow of the Pascack Brook along both sides of its Westwood banks will send more water, more swiftly to the next unimproved stretch in a downstream town. The bottleneck simply follows the path of least resistance.
Still — strictly as a thought experiment — were Westwood, River Vale and Hillsdale to join together and get this done, it would be an impressive drive downfield, setting rushing records and scoring touchdowns. It might win a welcome reprieve of some duration for the residents along the brook in our respective towns. But it doesnʼt win the war against an endless cycle of erosion, silt accumulation, and destabilized stream banks that are ever shallowing the drainage conduits, now carrying more runoff from overdevelopment along the watershed, dropped there by the increasing intensity of rain events. That would require a coordinated, regularly maintained top-ofdrainage-basin-to-bottom, federally or state-funded effort that has not been forthcoming.
Whether that failure to launch is due to the aggregate cost of such an effort, the priorities of state and national politics, or simply inertia, the fact remains that the individual municipalities will never be able to fund capital projects to restore channel capacity and flow in any meaningful way.
A full-blown, more universally effective stream stabilization effort along the entire length of the drainage basin would generate costs that are many multiples of the spreadsheet analysis — and even more out of reach.
In the meanwhile, FEMAʼs recent Risk Rating 2.0 shifts more of the cost burden of its taxpayersubsidized flood premiums on to the covered property owners. This is intended to dissuade new construction in flood prone areas. It also analyzes the unique risks to a particular property (actual distance from water and 100% value of replacement cost) versus the general standard of a homeʼs elevation relative to a designed flood zone.
By FEMAʼs own internal estimates this approach could, due to unaffordable premium increases, force one million ratepayers to forego flood insurance by the end of the decade.
Since inception of the new pricing parameters, 165,000 households nationwide have already left the NFIP. These homeowners will risk catastrophic losses, which may generate ancillary, public-safety-net costs.
Such statistical data indicates most cost-effective flood mitigation for our Pascack Valley residents and businesses is the passage of S790 and A4200.
The piecemeal approach the Pascack [Valley] towns might implement via stream stabilization/restoration, while providing highly localized relief, can nevertheless produce other problems downstream even as it multiplies the municipal debt service. Compelling the water utilities to manage their product can significantly mitigate physical damages, alleviate the upward pressure on flood premiums, and reduce the scope of stream stabilization projects to a more cost-effective level.
Recent events underscore yet another reason why the status quo makes no sense. Weʼve had a dry summer with no appreciable rain since the Memorial Day week. Weʼd flirted with flood then, yet the reservoir level, with the gates set to summer mode at 95 feet, had room for the influx due to the drought. On Sept. 1 the gates, on schedule, automatically went into winter mode at 91 feet, with the reservoir level at 89.5 feet.
Heavy rains that passed through the area over a 24-hour period (Sept. 6–7) came with flood advisory alerts from Bergen County OEM as the rain and runoff quickly filled the newly narrowed headroom, crested the gates and began to overspill.
After hearing all summer about drought conditions, this scenario begs the question of why the gates were not raised to retain more water. Were the dam operators subject to more flexible and situational interventions, more of the water asset might have been retained.
And, had the gates been moved higher than the rote winter mode protocol, the flood alert would have been unnecessary, rendering the inevitable stress on our residents and business owners avoidable.
S790 has not moved in committee since it landed there on Jan. 18 of this year. Neither has A4200. Our local flood association — NJ Flood Solution Advocates — has collected as of this writing over 650 signatures in support of this legislation.
It deserves a hearing and a debate before the next Ida or its ilk wreaks havoc upon our towns.
MEDIA SALES ASSOCIATE
Join our ever growing sales team as as Sales Associate for the Pascack Press, Northern Valley Press North and South and near future publications. Applicants should be self-starters with drive to succeed. In this position, you will sell advertising space to new and existing accounts into our weekly newspapers and various other publications as well as digital media. Responsibilities will also include cold calling, outside sales and excellent customer service.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 201-664-2105 OR SEND RESUME TO: jobs@thepressgroup.net Ray Arroyo Mayor of Westwood
— Itʼs your turn. What do you think? See our Letters guidelines on page 2, and sound off!
