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Emerson • Hillsdale • Montvale • Park Ridge • River Vale • Township of Washington • Westwood • Woodcliff Lake VOLUME 24 ISSUE 34
TRAUSE WAY
PA S C AC K VA L L E Y ’ S BEST H O M E TO W N N E W S PA P E R
NOVEMBER 9, 2020
HILLSDALE
‘COVID-26.2’ marathon man runs 14 towns, clocks personal best BY JOHN SNYDER OF PASCACK PRESS
Dignitaries and students help rename Ridgewood Road for hero Vito ‘Pal’ Trause. SEE PAGE 6
PASCACK VALLEY
W I N N E R S IN COU NCIL RACE S Count of provisional ballots starts Nov. 10
BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
Republicans gained or retained council seats in five of six Pascack Valley towns this year, while an upset in Woodcliff Lake gave For school Democrats three board results council seats, see page 12 according to unofficial election results provided by the county Board of Elections. Bergen County Superintendent of Elections Patricia DiCostanzo posted unofficial provisional vote tallies for area towns on Nov. 4. At press time, her office was vetting the provisional ballots— paper ballots filled out at polling places—and will begin counting provisional votes on Nov. 10, following final receipt of any mail-in ballots postmarked by Nov. 3.
See WINNERS on page 274
Family and friends cheered him on, kept him hydrated, and were at the finish line to help him celebrate. On Sunday, Oct. 18, resident Ian Sager won—frankly, crushed—what his wife dubbed the COVID-26.2, a marathon for one that wended through 14 towns in the Pascack Valley and Northern Valley: Hillsdale, River Vale, Old Tappan, Norwood, Northvale, Rockleigh, Closter, Demarest, Cresskill, Dumont, Haworth, Harrington Park, Westwood, and Woodcliff Lake. On the early morning route Sager, 36, passed what he described as luxurious open spaces, including a horse farm, that afforded him the chance to get out of his head, leave the pandemic and his job behind, and get into the zone. “It was a lot of fun, it was a really good time. Iʼve done a few of these [traditional marathons] about one a year, but this one was definitely the most fun,” Sager told Pascack Press on Nov. 4. The avid runner said his race time of 4 hours 17 minutes edged out his previous personal best, which he set at the 2010 New York City Marathon. He chalked up his approximately 15 minute improvement up to a lack of distraction.
BUSTING OUT OF LOCKDOWN: Hillsdale resident Ian Sager, 36, took advantage of the pandemic lockdown to train for a DIY marathon, which his wife plotted out for him. “I actually have found that I sometmes really struggle during And, undistracted, in the cool of 7 to approximately 11:15 a.m., prefer a little bit of solitude when a really busy marathon, say in Iʼm running, and I actually New York or Philadelphia, he enjoyed every moment. PHOTO BY TARA SAGER
Continued on page 36
HALL-WHO-WEEN?
B ck in time...
Pascack Press freelance photographer Danielle O’Brien was ready with her camera on Halloween in Woodcliff Lake. SEE PAGE 25
Kristin Beuscher brings us the true-life tale of Park Ridge’s famed marble doughboy statue, which once graced Triangle Square.
SEE PAGE 4