Holiday Hudson Reporter editorial and advertising deadlines
The Hudson Reporter newspapers will be closed on Monday, July 4. Thus, some of the Hudson Reporter newspapers will have special advertising deadlines.
For the Wednesday July 6 edition of the Bayonne Community News, the display ad deadline is 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 30. The classified deadline is noon on Friday, July 1.
For the Thursday, July 7 edition of the Midweek Reporter, the display ad deadline is 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 30 and the classified deadline is noon on Friday, July 1.
The office will be closed on Monday, July 4 for the holiday. It will reopen on Tuesday, July 5. If you have questions about these deadlines or any other issue, please call (201) 798-7800. Also check www.hudsonreporter.com.
State settles chromium lawsuit
New Jersey has reached a tentative settlement with three chemical companies to reimburse the state for cleanup costs associated with dozens of chromium-contaminated sites, including sites in Jersey City. Under the settlement, Honeywell International, PPG Industries Inc., and Occidental Chemical Corp. have agreed to reimburse the state $5 million each.
The settlement stems from a 2005 lawsuit filed the state filed in Hudson County Superior Court against the three companies.
For nearly six decades the Mutual Chemical Company, which was later taken over by Honeywell, ran a chromium production plant on Jersey City’s West Side Avenue. Elsewhere, PPG ran another chromium chemical plant on Garfield Avenue for nearly 40 years.
The Occidental Chemical Corp. ran a third similar facility in Kearny.
Since then, chromium, which produces a byproduct known as hexavalent chromium, has been linked to cancer and other diseases
The state lawsuit alleged that after the three companies folded their plants New Jersey taxpayers were left paying millions of dollars for land remediation and ongoing monitoring of these sites.
Under the tentative settlement the three companies have also agreed to accept responsibility for more than 40 formerly contaminated sites – known as “orphaned sites” – that no company had agreed to take responsibility for in the past. Most of these orphaned sites are located in Jersey City.
The tentative agreement between the companies and the state must still be approved by Hudson County Superior Court Judge Thomas Olivieri.
The settlement of this case has no bearing on a pending class action lawsuit filed by Jersey City residents against Honeywell and PPG in U.S. District Court. That case, filed last year under the Class Action Fairness Act, is now pending before U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton.
This place matters
The Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy is asking residents to cast a vote for the Sixth Street embankment in the 2011 This Place Matters Challenge, an annual contest run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
At stake are three cash prizes in the amounts of $25,000, $10,000, and $5,000.
The Embankment Preservation Coalition has for years tried to restore the remnants of the old Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Branch for use as a habitat-oriented park, a portion of which would be used for the East Coast Greenway biking and walking trail from Maine to Florida. The Embankment is located at 6th Street and Marin Blvd. Members of the coalition have said that any money won from the This Place Matters Challenge would be used to continue their preservation work.
But the Embankment has been tied up in legal wrangling between the city and New York resident Steve Hyman, who currently owns the site. Last year the city thought it had an agreement with Hyman to buy the property for $7.7 million and the City Council passed a resolution last summer to issue bonds to buy the land. However, Hyman later filed a lawsuit to have the elevated rail line torn down.
The Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy still hopes to prevail in matter and still plans to preserve the historic site for open space land use.
As of Thursday, June 23, the Sixth Street Embankment, officially known as the Harsimus Branch Embankment, ranked seventh in a field of 100 landmark conservation projects competing in the challenge and had received 2,688 votes.
To vote, visit www.preservationnation.org/communitychallenge. The Sixth Street Embankment is listed on the site under the heading “Embankment Preservation Coalition.”
Voting ends Thursday, June 30 at 5:59 p.m. EST.
Liberty Science Center receives grant to help stem childhood obesity
Liberty Science Center has received a $100,000 grant from United Health Care to develop an interactive education program that will help youths prevent and overcome obesity.
The program, “Keeping Our Bodies Healthy,” will be part of the Liberty Science Center’s Electronic Field Trip series, which provides interactive science-related lessons via live videoconferencing from the center to classrooms throughout the country.
The two-part “Keeping Our Bodies Healthy” series will focus on the impact of proper nutrition, promoting exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, and other health-related topics, all presented in a fun, engaging and culturally relevant manner. Two Liberty Science Center staff instructors will lead each of the 45-minute sessions, providing personalized attention as students conduct experiments with their teachers in their own classrooms.
The program will be developed and tested over the summer and initially rolled out to seventh, eighth, and ninth graders in Newark’s public schools this fall. The program will be made available to schools throughout New Jersey and nationwide at a later time.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 31 percent of young people between the ages of 10 and 17 in New Jersey are either overweight or obese, putting them on the road to lifelong chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. If left unchecked or untreated, obesity will affect nearly 43 percent of adults nationwide by 2018 and will add nearly $344 billion in that year alone to the nation’s annual direct health care costs, accounting for more than 21 percent of health care spending, according to America’s Health Rankings.
Liberty Science Center’s Electronic Field Trip series includes 18 programs that are available to schools across the United States. The series includes the programs “No Bones About It: The Skeletal System,” “Simple Machines Make Work Simple,” and “Bug Bonanza! Insects.”
Blood banks begin summer slump
Every day in the U.S. approximately 39,000 units of blood are required in hospitals and emergency medical facilities to treat accident and trauma patients, people with cancer and other diseases, or to support organ transplant recipients.
New Jersey Blood Services (NJBS), a division of the New York Blood Center, is urging area residents to donate blood to ensure an adequate summer blood supply this year. The blood supply in New Jersey, like in other parts of the nation, is typically low during the summer months, in part because of the loss of college-based blood drives.
Student-run blood drives currently account for about 25 percent of the local blood supply, according to New Jersey Blood Services. With most schools closed for summer, blood banks cannot rely on those donations at this time of the year.
New Jersey Blood Services is asking other local residents to donate now to help fill the void.
Residents can donate at a scheduled blood drive, or by hosting a drive in their communities or community or workplace. Every blood donation is critically needed by our hospital patients who rely on the generosity of anonymous blood donors.
Generally, donors should be between the ages of 18 and 75, weigh a minimum of 110 pounds, and be in generally good health. Donors must present a signed photo ID. Teens ages 16 and 17 who meet the other requirements can donate with parental consent. People over age 75 can donate with a note from a physician.
Depending on their overall health, cancer survivors and those with diabetes may also be eligible to donate.
To make an appointment to donate blood, or for further information, call (800) 933-BLOOD (2566), or visit www.nybloodcenter.org.
To schedule a blood drive, contact Marie Forrestal at mforrestal@nybloodcenter.org.
More lanes for Turnpike near Bayonne exit
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority announced on June 22 that it will add three lanes to the extremely congested Turnpike Extension 14A exit into Bayonne.
A study conducted several years ago by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority showed that with the exception of interchange 8A in Monroe Township, the Bayonne exit is the least functional of any interchange in the state.
Even on days when there is no accident or breakdown on the Turnpike bridge that connects Bayonne, Jersey City, and the Holland Tunnel to the main branch of the Turnpike near Newark Airport, backups at rush hour are routine and can often leave drivers frustrated and enraged.
This represents a shift in plans that were proposed earlier this year when the Turnpike officials seemed to be leaning toward a plan that would divert truck traffic from Bayonne to the Jersey City exit.
In the 1950s and over the years, main arteries of the Turnpike have been widened, but not the Turnpike Extension servicing exits 14A, 14B, and 14C – this despite the fact that some estimates suggest as many as 100,000 vehicles now use the extension each way daily, and that traffic into and out of Bayonne will increase dramatically with the city’s continuing development.
This is part of a $500 million reconstruction effort of the Turnpike extension, which will include work on the Newark Bay Bridge. If everything goes according to schedule, the interchange work will be completed by 2016.
A public hearing is planned for July 12 at the Washington Community School in Bayonne and on July 13 at the Fred Martin School in Jersey City. Both meetings will run from 5 to 7 p.m. with a presentation at 6 p.m. of the proposed plans.
PSE&G announces public workshop for Jersey City–Bayonne project
Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) will hold a public workshop on Thursday, June 30, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Casino in the Park in Jersey City to answer questions about the Jersey City–Bayonne Third Circuit Upgrade project, a new 5.3-mile underground transmission line that will provide power to more than 50,000 customers in Jersey City and Bayonne.
Casino in the Park is located in Lincoln Park in Jersey City. PSE&G representatives will be available to discuss the project and answer questions from residents.
With this project, PSE&G will add an additional electrical circuit between its Jersey City Switching Station and the Bayonne Switching Station starting in July 2011 and ending in September 2012. The new circuit will be 138 kilovolts (kV), the same as existing circuits in the area.
PJM Interconnection has determined the third circuit must be installed to guarantee reliable electricity to customers in the event one or both of the circuits should fail or if one circuit is shut down for maintenance. PJM is a regional transmission organization that manages the high-voltage electric grid and the wholesale electricity market that serves 13 states, including New Jersey and the District of Colombia. Through its authority from the federal government, PJM identifies projects utilities must perform to guarantee the reliability of the regional electrical system.
PJM also requires upgrades to the Bayonne Switching Station for the new circuit and future expansion, if necessary. A new gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) building and control room will be built in the station. GIS allows new electrical switching equipment to be built in a smaller footprint than traditional, outdoor air-insulated technology.
PSE&G will work with local officials to keep all travel lanes open during peak hours of the day. Construction will take place between 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. There will be no parking on both sides of the street where crews are working, and notices will be posted prior to construction. At the end of each day, traffic and parking lanes will reopen. The schedule of construction is as follows, although it is subject to change: From July to September 2011, construction will take place on Kennedy Boulevard from Stuyvesant Ave. to Virginia Ave.; starting in fall 2011, construction will continue on Kennedy Boulevard from Virginia Ave. to Greenville Ave.; in the spring 2012, connections will be made from Greenville Ave. into the Bayonne Switching Station at W. 63rd St.; in the summer 2012, construction will take the circuit from Stuyvesant Ave. along Corbin Ave., Broadway Ave., Duffield Ave., and Van Keuren Ave. into the Jersey City Switching Station.