Emerson • Hillsdale • Montvale • Park Ridge • River Vale • Township of Washington • Westwood • Woodcliff Lake
PA S C AC K VA L L E Y ’ S H O M E TO W N N E W S PA P E R
VOLUME 26 ISSUE 6
Seriously funny
APRIL 25, 2022
REFLECTION AND RENEWAL
Rosemarie DʼAlessandro on joining the fight
PARK RIDGE
BOROUGH
BONDING $2.2M OVER TOXINS Filters needed at three shuttered water wells; hearing April 26
BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
PV Theatre’s Lauren Kalfus of River Vale takes an award-winning comic turn in ‘Night Night, Roger Roger’ in state awards. SEE PAGE 22
HILLSDALE
250 LUXURY RENTALS GET MORE TIME IN HEARING
Special session April 30 over tweaks to 4-story joint redevelop proposal BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
The Borough Council has set a special meeting for Monday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. at town hall and on Zoom to discuss amendments to the redevelopment plan for a new proposal for a 250-unit, four-story luxury rental apartment complex spanning 5.4 acres at the former Waste Management site. This is the first proposal to come forward in the boroughʼs Patterson Street redevelopment zone. According to Mayor John
See LUXURY on page 324
Having endured a horror no mother should have to, Hillsdale’s Rosemarie D’Alessandro turned grief into coordinated action that continues to protect children and inspire those who protect the most vulnerable among us. She reached out in a hopeful video message near the 49th anniversary of her daughter’s sexual assault and murder.
W
BY JOHN SNYDER OF PASCACK PRESS
ITHIN A DAY of posting a video sharing her thoughts on the 49th anniversary of the loss of her daughter, Joan Angela, Rosemarie DʼAlessandro fielded dozens of messages of love. The 16-minute video was Rosemarieʼs sometimes searching, sometimes welling, always hopeful essay on “Joanʼs Anniversary, her passing, overcoming evil, and dealing with loss.”
The Hillsdale mother and the founder of the Joan Angela DʼAlessandro Memorial Foundation, or Joanʼs Joy, told her viewers the grim outline of her familyʼs loss: Joan left her home to deliver Girl Scout cookies on Holy Thursday in 1973. She said sheʼd be right back. She never returned. The 26-year-old high school chemistry teacher who lived three doors down confessed to beating, sexually assaulting, and strangling Joan, then wrapping her body, putting it in his car, and leaving it in Harriman State Park,
5ABOVE: ROSEMARIE D’ALESSANDRO SCREENSHOT; JOAN D’ALESSANDRO
in New York, where it was found on Easter Sunday. He was convicted and given a life term. He died in prison on June 5, 2021, ending the DʼAlessandrosʼ need to fight to keep him there, as a loophole had allowed him tries at parole. He next would have
Continued on page 13
A $2.2 million bond ordinance was introduced April 12 by the Borough Council to pay for water treatment systems at three Park Ridge Water wells to remove socalled “forever chemicals” that include PFOA contaminants, a toxic byproduct of a larger family of man-made chemicals. The public hearing for the bond ordinance will be April 26. It was unclear whether new water rates reflect costs for the bond, or if rates will rise as a result. Park Ridge Water did not reply to our requests for clarification. While total estimated bond costs equal $2,200,000, officials noted $105,000 of that is a down payment on the bonds, which means the maximum amount of bonding necessary for purchasing and installing the new filtration systems is $2,095,000. Public notifications were sent to the approximately 5,000 customers of Park Ridge Water — in Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake — in late December and again in late March. The notification were required by the state Department of Environmental Protection. (DEP). Water systems are required to
See TOXINS on page 314
SCHOOL SPIRIT
B ck in time...
Students Irene Antonopoulos, Jillian Suarez, and Sophia Loeser grace Pascack Valley High School with its first Panthers mural.
Pascack Historical Society president Kristin Beuscher walks us through what happened in the 1890s that saw our beloved borough confused with a neighborhood in Hudson County. SEE PAGE 4
SEE PAGE 20
