Directors retire; interims expected
City directors Fred Bado, Jim Ronga, and Bill Bergin are all retiring as the new administration enters City Hall, but new Mayor Peter Cammarano has not yet finalized his recommendations to the City Council for the new city directors.
Bergin said that he has been asked to stay on until a new director of Public Safety is selected.
However, the positions in the departments of Community Development and Environmental Services may need interim directors while Cammarano makes his recommendations to the City Council, according to Michael Novak, transition team chairman.
The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22, three weeks from this past Wednesday.
Council President Dawn Zimmer said part of the reason it was pushed back is so the council can organize an ad hoc committee to review the directorial recommendations before voting on them.
Robert Lisa, the former acting police chief, also retired last week after being passed over for the chief’s position. Lisa was offered a position as deputy chief by the state, but decided instead to retire after 31 years on the force.
Hudson River paddle trips
The Hoboken Boathouse will be sponsoring a series of public paddle trips on the Hudson River this weekend. Destinations will be determined the day of the trip, based on river conditions. Given a small fleet of borrowed boats thanks to the New York City Downtown Boathouse, the first few dates will be a trial.
On Sunday, July 5, at 2 p.m. the trips will be leaving from the Downtown Boathouse in New York City at Pier 96, 56th Street and West Side Highway, and paddling to Hoboken Boathouse at the Maxwell Place Park.
A return trip is leaving the Hoboken Boathouse on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. heading back to the Downtown Boathouse.
Trips are limited to approximately 10 paddlers total per trip and reservations are required.
For reservations, please e-mail info@hobokencoveboathouse.org and participants will be confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. A follow-up e-mail will be sent providing all necessary info.
Trips are roughly one to two hours in length and require that all participants be able to swim and be fit for medium aerobic activity.
A suggested donation for each trip is $20 per person (or more); all funds raised will be used towards the purchase of kayaking equipment for the Hoboken Boathouse.
Shakespeare comedy in the park
T he Hudson Shakespeare Company continues its 18th season of free plays with a series of lesser-done and darker comedies, including “Troilus and Cressida.” They will be performing in Hoboken on Monday, July 13 at 7 p.m. at Sinatra Park, 525 Sinatra Drive, and on Monday, July 20 at 7 p.m. at Shipyard Park, Constitution Court behind the Hoboken Historical Museum.
The company will be following up this sword and sandal epic with the comic farce “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in August. All shows are free to the general public; audience members are encouraged to bring lawn chairs. For more information, please call (201) 758-5137 or visit hudsonshakespeare.org.
South wing of Viaduct closed Monday night
The Hudson County Division of Engineering announced today that the Manhattan Avenue Viaduct south wing (between 14th street Viaduct and Paterson Plank Road), Union City will be closed between the hours of 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. the next morning on Monday, July 6. There will be no closure on the Fourth of July weekend.
Detours will be set up and all vehicles shall follow the detour. Local access to the Doric Tower is only allowed from the southern end of the Viaduct at Paterson Plank Road.
This closure is needed to perform scaling down of the existing rockface.