Archive for February, 2010
Winter Break: Skiing At Hidden Valley
The last few winters haven’t been particularly kind to ski resort operators in New Jersey. While this year’s snowfall isn’t much, it’s enough that you can consider heading to the mountains of the Garden State rather than to those of our neighbors to the north. So on Wednesday, we headed to Hidden Valley in Vernon, [...]
UNICO Sock Hop Will Aid Troops, Scholarships
The sock hop scheduled for February 27 and sponsored by Verona’s chapter of UNICO, the Italian-American Service Organization, has a double meaning and a double benefit: In addition to dancing to the oldies band “Joey Arminio and the Family,” attendees will bring socks to be donated to U.S. military personnel overseas. Proceeds from the event, [...]
Governor Warns Of 15% Cut To School Aid
Brace for impact: Gov. Chris Christie told school districts on Wednesday to prepare for a 15% cut in state aid in the fiscal year 2011 budget. According to NJ.com, the governor isn’t setting the cuts in stone–he told a roundtable discussion in Union that he wants to keep state aid flat. And he coupled his [...]
Carver Brings Climbing Tree To Life Again
The Climbing Tree provided a spark of fun for generations of kids in Verona. How fitting then that it may be reborn as a dragon. Joe Cielecki was one of the many Veronans who came to Verona Park on the snowy morning of February 3, the day we all discovered that the Climbing Tree had [...]
Verona Names On Olympic Hockey Roster
Maybe it’s the influence of Verona resident John MacLean, a former New Jersey Devils hockey player, Stanley Cup winner and, until last year, the team’s all-time leading scorer. Or maybe it’s something in our water. But names familiar to Verona residents keep popping up among the Olympic players currently wielding sticks in Vancouver. There’s Jamie [...]
Used Children’s Books Needed
Connie Pifher, Verona’s unofficial clearinghouse for charitable giving, is asking for contributions of gently used children’s books and magazines. The reading materials are being donated to the Paterson school district in response to a request from Pifher’s sister, a media specialist there. Pifher began collecting books from the Verona community for the Paterson schools last [...]
Tech Company Grows In Verona
Verona has a valley that runs through it. But even if you put the words “Verona” and “Valley” together, they probably won’t evoke cutting edge technology in the way that the words “Silicon Valley” do. And yet, at the north end of Grove Avenue, in the valley cut by the Peckman, is a company that [...]
Hilltop, Eagle Rock Closed Today, Thursday
The trails and parking areas in the Hilltop and Eagle Rock reservations are closed today, Tuesday, February 16 and they will be closed again on Thursday, February 18, for Essex County’s planned hunt to cull the reservation’s deer population. There will be marksmen in both parks from 5:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. The Highlawn Pavilion [...]
Snow What?
Here’s a little gift for all of you planning on getting in a few days of skiing over Winter Break: Another snowstorm is headed our way tonight. According to the National Weather Service, this will be a more modest snowfall than last week’s shovel-buster. Maybe two to three inches by tomorrow evening, with more to [...]
Winter Break: Experience The Titanic
Of the three of us who boarded the Titanic today, only one survived. For the last few months, the Discovery TSX Center near Times Square in Manhattan has been the site of an exhibit of artifacts recovered from the iceberg-damned luxury liner by the Ballard expeditions of the last two decades. “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” [...]