Holiday Hudson Reporter advertising deadlines
Because of the Thanksgiving Day holiday, some of the Hudson Reporter newspapers will have special advertising deadlines.
For The Secaucus Reporter, The North Bergen Reporter, The Union City Reporter, The West New York Reporter, and The Weehawken Reporter, the deadline for classified and display advertising is Tuesday, Nov. 22, at noon.
The Hoboken Reporter and The Jersey City Reporter, the deadline for display advertising is Wednesday. Nov. 23,at noon.
The office will be closed on Thursday, Nov. 24, for the holiday. It will reopen on Friday, Nov. 25. If you have questions about these deadlines or any other issue, please call (201) 798-7800. Also check www.hudsonreporter.com.
Environmental Commission wants new stormwater fee structure
The Jersey City Environmental Commission has recommended that the city revise its stormwater fee structure to help offset the costs of a federally-mandated upgrade to the sewage system that could cost an estimated $52 million.
Under a consent decree signed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Jersey City, the city’s Municipal Utilities Authority must upgrade and repair the local sewer system, which the EPA alleged violated the Clean Water Act. The consent decree specifically requires the city to, among other things, maximize sewage flow to treatment plants and stop the flooding of public and private property.
To mitigate the expense of these repairs and upgrades, the city’s Environmental Commission has proposed that the city set user fees for non-metered properties – such as malls, shopping centers, rail lines, and garages – which currently pay no stormwater fees, but which are the primary generators of stormwater runoff.
The commission has asked the City Council to set stormwater fees for these structures that are based on the amount of impervious land the structure, center, or facility has.
Currently, only metered properties (i.e., private homes and small businesses) in Jersey City pay stormwater fees, even though they generate little stormwater runoff.
New Jersey Citizen Action circulates petition re: Christ Hospital
In the latest petition drive to circulate in the city this year, New Jersey Citizen Action has launched a petition to, according to a release, “protect the mission” of Christ Hospital, a nonprofit acute care facility in Jersey City Heights.
In July, Christ Hospital officials announced that they had signed a letter of intent to sell the 381-bed facility to Prime Healthcare Services, a for-profit company that owns and operated 14 private hospitals in California.
The New Jersey attorney general is currently reviewing the $15.7 million sale, which Christ President and CEO Peter Kelly has said is needed to save the hospital, which loses about $800,000 each month.
Christ officials and attorneys for Prime have requested that the state expedite the sale and approve the deal by Dec. 31, despite mounting questions about Prime’s management of its hospitals in California.
“The people of Jersey City need to know that Christ Hospital, its services, and our health care providers will always be here for our families,” said Jersey City resident Paulette Eberle, co-chair of New Jersey Citizen Action, the state’s largest citizen watchdog coalition. “That’s why a team of NJCA canvassers will be talking to Jersey City families about the sale. It’s our hospital. It’s been a pillar of the community for nearly 140 years. We need to make sure decisions are made with the input of residents instead of behind closed doors.”
Prime Healthcare and its network of hospitals have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years.
One investigation of Prime’s hospitals by California Watch alleged that the company admitted patients based on business strategy, not medical need. Specifically, the organization alleged that the company was prone to admit out-of-network patients and keep them hospitalized at Prime facilities rather than transfer them to an in-network hospital, according to the report.
Kaiser Permanente, one of the health insurers whose customers were allegedly subjected to this practice, has denounced this policy.
In August 2010, California State Sen. Elaine Alquist, chair of the Senate Health Committee, asked the California Department of Health to “investigate Prime and support other state and federal investigations of Prime’s practices.” Specifically, Alquist asked the Department of Health to join an investigation by the California Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services into allegedly high rates of septicemia (bacterial infection) at five hospitals owned by Prime Healthcare.
California’s attorney general, Kamala Harris, also sued Prime Healthcare for closing a psychiatric center it had allegedly promised to keep open, Harris confirmed last month to the Reporter. The promise to keep the center open had been a condition of one of its hospital purchases. After the state sued, the company reopened the psychiatric facility, Harris said.
Two New Jersey state legislators, Assemblyman Ruben Ramos (D-Hoboken) and Assemblyman Herbert C. Conaway, Jr. (D-Delran), recently asked the New Jersey attorney general to look into these and other allegations involving Prime Healthcare before approving the sale of Christ Hospital.
Before the sale can be finalized, it must be approved by the attorney general, the Department of Health and Senior Services, and the state Health Planning Board.
Food fight
On Saturday, Nov. 26 at 7:30 p.m. the Revolutionary Wrestling Corporation and Jersey City Peace Movement will co-host a fundraiser for the New Jersey Food Bank. The fundraiser will take place at JC Resident, 3487 JFK Blvd.
The event, “The Wild Wild Wrestling Show,” will feature a “lucha libre” (free fight) match with “luchadores” (fighters) from Mexico.
Organizers of the fundraiser request that attendees bring two items of new, packaged or canned foods, especially canned vegetables. Other food bank needs include: canned tuna, salmon, spam, chicken, ham, powdered milk and infant formulas, boxed pasta, boxed potatoes, boxed rice, canned stews, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, jelly (plastic jars only).
Participants who choose not to donate food are asked to instead make a donation to the JC Resident.