Marine View Plaza suspends ‘submetering’ program
The Board of Public Utilities suspended last week a “submetering” program at Hoboken’s Marine View Plaza buildings in the southeast corner of town. The moderate income buildings were part of a two-year experiment to let tenants pay based on their own energy usage rather than having a flat rate.
Some tenants complained that the amounts were out of whack, with certain people paying more when they used less. However, the electric company disputed this.
Several people wrote letters to the Reporter about the program, including this from Councilwoman Theresa Castellano three weeks ago: “To those residents who were not negatively affected, note the majority of your neighbors have been suffering.
In closing, we are moving forward with the next step to insure the relief to those tenants who have been treated unfairly. I will continue my efforts to make sure that this gets resolved as quickly as possible.”
According to the local daily newspaper, the BPU chose on Nov. 20 to suspend the program by Dec. 31 to investigate problems.
Healy issues statement on Beldini’s indictment
Mayor Jerramiah Healy issued a statement Monday afternoon on the new indictments handed down against former Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini.
Beldini, arrested on July 23 as part of the FBI investigation into money laundering and public corruption, was indicted again on Nov. 19 on three additional charges of allegedly accepting bribes and real estate commissions totaling $20,000 from the government’s cooperating witness Solomon Dwek, allegedly in exchange for Dwek to get approvals for Dwek’s purported development project on Garfield Avenue.
Some of the money was said to have gone to Healy’s ree-lection campaign. Healy has not been charged in connection with the investigation.
Beldini was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Newark.
Healy said, “This is an ongoing investigation, and as it evolves and new charges are filed, we continue to be dismayed by the negative light this has cast on Jersey City. That being said, we continue to conduct honest, open and efficient government and are focused on moving our city forward. Like all defendants in a criminal investigation, Leona Beldini is innocent until proven guilty and we will await the outcome of the court proceedings in this matter.”
Report: NB supremacist blogger was paid by FBI
Sunday’s edition of the Record of Hackensack included an article saying that the reporter reviewed federal records and found that North Bergen-based white supremacist radio DJ Hal Turner was paid thousands of dollars by the FBI to report on certain domestic supremacist groups, and even to head to Brazil to help with the battle against Iraqi resistance fighters.
Turner was arrested this year for allegedly making veiled threats against federal judges. But around the same time, he was serving as an informant paid by the feds, according to the Record.
The story notes: “As Turner took to his radio show and blog to say that those who opposed his extremist views deserve to die, he received thousands of dollars from the FBI to report on such groups as the Aryan Nations and the white supremacist National Alliance, and even a member of the Blue Eyed Devils skinhead punk band. Later, he was sent undercover to Brazil where he reported a plot to send non-military supplies to anti-American Iraqi resistance fighters… His dual life of shock jock and informant offers a window into the murky realm of domestic intelligence in the years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks — in particular, the difficult choices for the FBI in penetrating controversial fringe groups with equally controversial informants.”
Hoboken to start rec wrestling program
The city of Hoboken has announced that it will field a recreation wrestling team that will train at the well-known club Edge Wrestling. Edge just opened their Hoboken location this year, and they plan to expand.
Edge Wrestling Group is located at 352 Observer Highway, atop the Hoboken Car Wash.
For more information, contact Brandon Kinney at 517-214-5967 or e-mail Kinney.ba@gmail.com. You can also contact the city of Hoboken at 201-420-2096 for more information.
Bill Parcells donates $100K to St. A’s
St. Anthony’s High School on Eighth Street in Jersey City announced last week that former NFL coach and now football executive Bill Parcells recently donated $100,000 to the school.
The school is known as the home of the much heralded St. Anthony’s basketball team, the subject of an upcoming PBS documentary.
Parcells made the donation to the school after a friend of his, who is running a program for female students at the school, told him the school has to raise $1.2 million before June 30 every year.
“I get it; I’ve coached enough and seen enough to know how important a good, solid education is,” Parcells said. “I have a lot of respect for what the faculty and staff is doing at St. Anthony’s. I’m glad to help in whatever way I can.”
For more information on helping St. Anthony’s, or to get involved in mentoring, tutoring, providing internships, or volunteering, call the Development Office at (201) 653-5739. Or visit the website: www.stanthonyhighschool.org. – RK
Help sick kids and adults by donating blood in JC
New Jersey Blood Services is conducting blood drives that are open to the public. The following drives are scheduled in the near future:
Deutsche Bank, 100 Plaza 1, 8:45 a.m., Dec. 17.
Metropolitan Family Health, 935 Garfield Ave., 8:45 a.m., Dec. 22.
Properties Newport Tower, 525 Washington Blvd., 8:45 a.m., Dec. 23.
New Jersey Blood Services (NJBS), a division of the New York Blood Center (NYBC) calls upon the community to please remember the children and families whose lives are stricken by diagnoses that require frequent blood transfusions for recovery and survival. Among these diseases are leukemia and other forms of cancer, thalassemia and aplastic anemias, sickle cell disease, hemophilia and many others.
NJBS appeals to the public to take a few minutes from the holiday shuffle and donate blood. Winter holidays are a time when blood supplies diminish while hospital and patient needs remain the same. It is also a time when it becomes more difficult to find precise blood matches for patients who are very sick.
For more information, call 800-933-2566 or visit www.nybloodcenter.org.