FALL | WINTER 2019|20
INSIDE: ✛ JOOCHE’S ✛ IMTT’S TANKS ✛ WALKING THE BRIDGE
Your health unites us.
Bayonne Medical Center is now in the UnitedHealthcare network. Call the CarePlus Concierge Service to connect with us today. 201-884-5329 carepointhealth.org /CarePointHealth
@CarePointHealth
ContEnts BLP
COVER 14 WHEELS OF FORTUNE Dave’s 33rd Street Auto Cover Image by Terri Saulino Bish TBishPhoto
FEATURES 18 BAYONNE HIGH Strolling over the Bridge
22 JOOCHES SWEET SHOP Coffee and Community
26 RWJBARNABAS HEALTH
18
Bigger and Better
30 IMTT’S TANKS Bayonne’s Industrial Landscape
40 THE LIGHT RAIL On the Right Track
48 WHAT’S IN A NAME? Pride and Politics
52 PIPE DREAMS Bayonne’s Church Organs
DEPARTMENTS 6 OUR STAFF 8 CONTRIBUTORS 10 EDITOR’S LETTER 21 DATES 36 HOW WE WORK Small Business
44 SPORTS Coach Pat Longo
48 EDUCATION What’s in a Name
50 HELPING HANDS UNICO Serves the Community
54 ON THE JOB OEM: The Invisible Force
57 POINT AND SHOOT Fall Flutters
58 WATERING HOLE Shorty’s
62
62 EATERY Cafe Bello
4 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
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Bayonne Life on the Peninsula is published by the Newspaper Media Group, 447 Broadway, Bayonne, New Jersey 07002, (201) 798-7800, Fax (201) 798-0018. Email bayonnemag@ hudsonreporter.com. Subscriptions are $10 per year, $25 for overseas, single copies are $7.50 each, multiple copy discounts are available. VISA/MC/AMEX accepted. Subscription information should be sent to BLP Magazine Subscriptions, 447 Broadway, Bayonne, NJ 07002. Not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or other unsolicited materials. Copyright ©2019, Newspaper Media Group .All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited.
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Bayonne Life on the Peninsula is a publication of Newspaper Media Group 447 Broadway, Bayonne, New Jersey 07002 phone 201.798.7800 fax 201.798.0018
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Victor M. Rodriguez
TERRI SAULINO BIS
H
PAT BONNER
MARILYN BAER JIM HAGUE MARILYN BAER
grew up in Hoboken and currently lives in Jersey City. She studied journalism at Ohio Wesleyan University and is now a staff writer for the Hoboken Reporter.
TERRI SAULINO BISH
is an award-winning graphic designer, digital artist, and photographer, capturing many of the iconic images featured in print and online publications across Hudson County. You can view more of her work at tbishphoto.com.
PAT BONNER
is a Navy veteran and one of the Bayonne’s 45th Street Bonners.
is a Jersey City native, who landed a job with the Hudson Dispatch in 1986. He has been the sports columnist for the Hudson Reporter Associates for the last 22 years.
RORY PASQUARIELLO
is a local journalist living in the Jersey City Heights. He grew up in Morris County and went to school in the Hudson Valley.
MAX RYAZANSKY
ALYSSA BREDIN QUIROS
is an award-winning designer and photographer. Her work is featured in numerous publications, including Hoboken 07030 and Jersey City Magazine. You can see her full portfolio at tbishphoto. com.
Jim Hague
VICTOR M. RODRIGUEZ
has studied publication design, photography, and graphic arts. “I’ve been fascinated by photography for almost 20 years,” he says.
contributors
B L P
MAX RYAZANSKY
is a photographer whose work has been exhibited in galleries and published worldwide. A recent transplant to Bayonne, he spends his spare time trying to figure out the best pizza place in town.
Tara Ryazansky RORY PASQUARIELLO
TARA RYAZANSKY
is a writer who moved from Brooklyn to Bayonne. She works as a blogger for Nameberry.com and spends her spare time fixing up her new (to her) 100-year-old home.
DIANA SCHWAEBLE
is an award-winning reporter and former editor of hMAG. She has covered Hudson County for more than a decade, writing about the arts, music, and celebs.
8 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
Alyssa Bredin Quiros
DIANA SCHWAEBLE
Editor’s Letter BLP
Perspectives on the Peninsula hough this is our fall/winter issue, we spent a good part of summer preparing this edition. Summer is a great time to reflect on our most distinctive feature. When you’re out and about, you can’t help but notice and appreciate the water that surrounds us on three sides. You can enjoy it from our parks, or piers and, increasingly, from on high. Most residents are of two minds when it comes to new, multi-storied buildings, but you might want to go to the top of one and look out over our coast and our communities. It gives you a fresh perspective on landscape, and on life. Tara and Max certainly got a different perspective when they walked over the new bike path on the Bayonne Bridge and talked to some of the folks who shared the experience with them. Try looking down on those mammoth container ships! Another summer institution is Camp Lewis. It used to be see page 33
Photo by Marie Papp
T
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WHEEL OF FORTUNE 14 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
Adam Amato has a passion for perfection.
By Diana Schwaeble Images by Tbishphoto
T
he road to any career can be paved with setbacks, pit stops, and course corrections. But to have a single-minded passion that turns into a career? Enter Adam Amato, owner of Dave’s 33rd Street Automotive Repair. He was always going to own his own business—as long as it had to do with cars.
A Family Affair Dave’s 33rd Street Auto has been an institution in Bayonne for more than 35 years.
Even those not familiar with the auto shop, know the locale. On the wall of the adjoining building recently loomed a mural of boxer Chuck Wepner, the famous Bayonne boxer who fought Muhammad Ali. Adam’s uncle, Dave Accurso, ran the business for 30 years before selling it to his nephew in the spring of 2014. The business was Dave’s baby. If anyone were to have it, he wanted it to be Adam. “It was a good transition,” Adam said. “He stayed here awhile and introduced me to people I didn’t know. He missed it just as much as anyone. He used to come here for lunch and hang out. He’d come and talk to all the customers.”
Adam It was fortuitous timing for both of them. Adam had been looking at various shops to buy, and Dave had a chance to work at BMW. “Finding a doctor, a dentist, a mechanic that you trust,” Adam said. “Probably the three hardest things you need to find in life.” Even with the introductions and the blessing of his uncle, it was hard at first with some of the customers who were used to Dave. “It was still such a struggle when I took over,” Adam said. “Just in general, mechanics get a bad rep. I had to work triple time to introduce myself, make them feel comfortable, make sure my work is on point to ultimately get their approval.”
Car Kid
Colin, Adam, Matt
Dave worked long hours when he first took over, working on Saturdays to accommodate customers. He still works hard, waiting hours sometimes to give customers the keys to their cars, but he takes the weekend off. He’s accustomed to long hours. If he’s passionate about a project, he’ll work on it whenever he can. He first discovered cars at the age of 14, when he’d restore cars on the street, using the curb to hoist a car up. He made some money restoring cars, racing them, and then flipping them. “I had no intention of being a mechanic,” he said. “I was going to build FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 15
cars. I started building cars when I was 16. That’s actually why I went to WyoTech. My goal was to do performance work, so I knew I had to be a great mechanic.” Adam went to WyoTech in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, studying automotive technology for nine months. With all his spare time as a teenager spent building cars, it’s no surprise that he finished at the top of his class. Before he graduated, he found there was a job available at Mercedes Benz. He interviewed and got the job. A year’s apprenticeship is required before technicians work alone. “I made it out in three months,” Adam said. “I had more experience than a lot of kids. So I actually got on the line in three months. After that, I just put my head down and worked my butt off. My intentions were to be the best at whatever I did, regardless of the job. Whether that was making subs or fixing cars. Whatever it is I want to be the best at it.”
New Technology Adam’s enthusiasm for cars is palpable. Especially when talking about one of his favorite cars, the Toyota Supra, ’9398, a legend in the car community. Though the Supra is a good-looking car, it’s known mainly for its engine and transmission. Adam says they call it the “bullet proof motor and the bullet proof trans.” He says the field is different now, and diagnosing a car problem is different because of the new technologies and computers. “We have an edge,” Dave said. “I went to school. I know all the new stuff. Mercedes is one of the hardest cars to work on. They say, if you can work on a Mercedes you can work on anything.” He said a Mercedes has valves that no other car has. “That’s a big thing nowadays. The car runs rough, and you do a software update, and that fixes it. You are programing a computer, and it is running 10 times better.”
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Because of his training at Mercedes, he has the skills to work on hybrids. Yet he says it is still rare to work on hybrids. To date, he’s only had three in his shop. He explained the nerve wracking work of changing the alternator on an electric car: “It’s 25,000 volts. If you mess that up, it’s done. We had to change an alternator for a Chevy Impala hybrid. The alternator is a crazy amount of money. It actually generates the entire car. I mean talk about sweating bullets. After everything is put back together, there is one final switch. I had a big rubber glove on. I turned it on. At 25,000 volts, see you later hair, see you later everything.” He has exacting standards for all repair work because he knows what’s at stake. Quality control is his responsibility, checking every single car, no matter how much he trusts his other mechanics. One mistake could cost a person’s life or his reputation. “I break in all my guys to be exactly like that,” Adam said. “It has to be totally professional. It has to be diagnosed once, correctly. It has to be fixed once, correctly. There is no in between. There is no guessing. There are no days off, no lazy days. You have to be on your A-game every day.”
Passion Project Adam sees all kinds of people in the shop, including Millennials, who are getting their first cars at 25 and not even wanting them. That’s a sentiment he just can’t understand. He’s always loved cars. For the last five years, Adam has focused entirely on building his business. Every hobby, every distraction took a backseat to his work at the shop. Before he owned his own business, he used to race cars. “I used to go to the track. I race it, I break it, I fix it, that’s the process,” he said. “It was a passion. I love going fast. I love building cars from scratch, you know? Like a painter who brings something to life by painting it? This is my art.”—BLP
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FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 17
BAYONNE
HiGH
Strolling over our beloved bridge By Tara Ryazansky Photos by Max Ryazansky
T
he Bayonne Bridge has a new and improved pedestrian and bicycle path that’s accessible from JFK Boulevard between West Sixth and Seventh streets. The 12-foot-wide concrete walkway, which opened in late May, spans the Kill Van Kull and ends on Trantor Place south of Innis Street in Staten Island. The journey across starts with a slight incline that’s just steep enough to make the walk feel like a gentle workout. Pick up the pace to a jog or even a power walk and you might
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feel it more. Cyclists and runners huffing and puffing on the way up prove the theory correct. Heading down the path are a Bayonne couple, Kevin and Kerry Boyle, who live in Bergen Point. It’s not the first time they’ve taken a stroll across. They agree that the new pathway is a big improvement from the walkway of their childhoods. “It was so narrow that two people could barely walk shoulder to shoulder,” Kevin says. “When we were kids we would ride bikes, and the railing was so low, like you could go right over.” Kerry is pleased that the new walkway runs along the east side of the bridge. “Now you’ve got that great view,” she says.
If You Ask Me Tony and Patty Bartos walk the path with Joe and Grace Porcelli. They echo the Boyle’s sentiments about the great view and improved width and safety rails, but they have a few suggestions as well. “I think they should add benches,” Grace says. “The Brooklyn Bridge has benches.” “Maybe they should add port-a-potties,” Tony jokes. The path is around a mile and a half long, so the roundtrip can take about an hour when taken at a leisurely pace. The benches and the Royal Flushes aren’t a bad idea because it’s the kind of place where you wouldn’t mind hanging out for awhile.
As we head up the walkway, the New York City skyline looks close enough to touch. It always amazes me how close we are to the city. Bayonne looks like a patchwork of green yards and black tar rooftops. It offers the perfect combination of suburban space and urban amenities. First Street Park looks miniscule from this height, but I can still hear the sounds of a baseball game down below.
Scenic Overlook The cranes across Newark Bay glow as the sun begins to set. A huge container ship slowly plies the waters some 214 feet beneath us. The wind turbine is spinning at full force, and the cool breeze feels is refreshing on a summer FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 19
evening. More than a few people are taking selfies against the backdrop of cityscape or seascape. It seems like every angle offers something worth capturing, whether it’s the colorful sunset or a cool architectural detail on the bridge itself. The newly opened walkway has brought out families as well as couples. Mohammed and Asia Bahou walk with their son, Amjad. “We really love it,” Asia says. “Kids enjoy it.” Mohammed agrees. “It’s wonderful.” Groups of friends gather on the walkway. Some are there to enjoy the view, but others use the pedestrian path to get from point A to point B. Alex Avilla, Tommy Papanier, and Charlie Quigley of Staten Island are on their way home after a visit to the Collins Park Skatepark in Bayonne. “We’ve been coming here from years ago for the skatepark,” Papanier says. “This new path is wider and safer,” Avilla adds. The trio heads back to Staten Island, walking their bikes side by side with room to spare. Cyclists heading into Bayonne whiz past, benefitting from the downward slope when traveling in that direction.
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Meeting in the Middle It feels like a victory to reach the center of the bridge. “We were waiting for it to open,” says Manju Kay who is strolling with Danush Wimalarathna and Sumith Dunawardana. “It’s good for the walk and the view. It’s good for the summertime and for the families.” The three notice familiar faces heading their way. Jayantha and Dhammi Hettiarachchi are enjoying a walk across the bridge with Bhante Kondannya, Chief Buddhist monk at the temple that they attend in Staten Island. The six are happy to run into each other, stopping to chat as the streetlights come on. On the walk back to the Bayonne side of the pedestrian and bicycle path, we meet Lisa Ortiz and her daughter Julia. The pair are walking with Sky, Lisa’s brother’s dog. The nine-year-old dog was rescued as a puppy from a fire in the Bronx. “I’m just going to go halfway with her,” Lisa says. “It’s my first time walking the dog here. I love it.” Whether you’re commuting, strolling, or cycling, the Bayonne Bridge has become the new go-to place for meeting friends or making new ones. – BLP
DATES BLP want your event listed? Please email us at bcneditorial@hudsonreporter.com and put “Bayonne Magazine calendar listings” in the subject line.
ongoing Bayonne nature club. every wednesday bird walks: from 9 to 11 a.m. Meet at the gate of rutkowski Park near the restrooms of stephen gregg hudson county Park, 48th street. Bring your binoculars, we’ll bring the scope. for saturday Bird walks see our website at www.bayonnenatureclub.org
faith & victory community services, a nonprofit organization, 118-120 lord avenue & 4th street, runs the Manna food and wellness Pantry which distributes food every second and fourth Tuesday of each month from 2:30 to 7 p.m. all households in need of food assistance may come with state of government photo iD and proof of hardship to receive a food donation.
see page 28
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Mike Giampaglia
The Sweet Spot This corner candy store has seen decades of coffee, conversation, and community Photos and story by Alyssa Bredin Quiros
M
ike Giampaglia is old school and proud of it. He still carries a flip phone, and his business doesn’t take credit cards. He’s the owner of Jooche’s Sweet Shop on the corner of 47th and Avenue B. You won’t find avocado toast here, but you will find a slice of friendship to go with your morning coffee.
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This 85-year-old neighborhood institution is a remnant of simpler times when community was all that mattered. Most of the regulars are Mike’s childhood friends. On most days you can find “the guys” hanging out in front of the store, shooting the breeze and reading the paper. “I’ve been coming here since I was 4 years old,” says TJ Johnston, who is now 61. Mike Masone and Johnny Viola went
to school with Mike across the street at Washington Community School. “Big Al” Alan Russotto is a newbie by Jooche’s standards. He’s been coming every morning for 30 years. Another newcomer, Maureen, serves herself a cup of coffee. “I’ve been coming for the past four years,” she tells me. “It’s the best coffee and conversation in Bayonne.”
All in the family Mike’s paternal grandfather and namesake opened Jooche’s in 1935 after immigrating to the United States from Italy. The name is a play on the Italian word Ciucco (or “Chooch” in Italian-Americanese) meaning jackass. “My grandfather used to say you had to work like a jackass to run a candy store,” Mike laughs. Mike grew up down the block from Jooche’s and went to Bayonne High School after attending Washington Community. He recalls the days when his family owned almost the whole block of 47th and Avenue B. After World War Two, Mike’s father, Joseph Giampaglia, took over the business with his brother-in-law, Dom Tagliareni. “My father taught me how to run a business,” Mike says. “He used to be open 20 hours in those days.” Mike and his three siblings pitched in as teenagers.
Mike, however, decided to break from the family tradition and start his own career. He joined the Army Reserves and worked at Western Electric all while attending night school at what was then Saint Peter’s College. He married Linda in 1974 and bought a home around the corner. In 1978, Mike lost his job at Western Electric and soon discovered his wife was pregnant. Meanwhile his father was in the process of selling Jooche’s and had already accepted a down payment from a buyer. Worried about his growing family, Mike decided to buy the store as a temporary measure. “It was only supposed to be for five years, but you can see how that went,” he laughs. The family tradition was saved. Mike’s four daughters often worked in the store, and Linda helped with the cooking. His parents came back to work for him as well. Joseph Giampaglia died in the ‘90s. Mike’s
92-year-old mother, Lil, “retired” only recently from working the candy counter.
40 years of memories Mike is overflowing with stories of his 40 years of running Jooche’s. One of his most cherished memories is of Colonel Robert Keller, a Bayonne native and former U.S. Marine Corp Chief of Staff. The Colonel no longer lived in Bayonne but was fond of Jooche’s and what it meant to his community. The Colonel heard from family members in town that the store needed $4,000 to fix the lottery machine, and sent a check. “He was always a hero of mine, and it was such an honor,” Mike says while pointing to a photo of the late Colonel behind the counter. Other notable customers over the years have included the famous and the infamous—local politicians,
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Bayonne’s own NFL star Kenny Britt, and boxing legend Chuck Wepner. Some customers may or may not have had “connections.” The store also got its time on the big screen as the set of the 1997 film Six Ways to Sunday, starring Norman Reedus and Adrien Brody. “I’ve always enjoyed meeting everyone who passed through the door here,” Mike says. “I’ve made many friendships over the years.” His best customers are the students from Washington Community who keep the store busy while school’s in session. As a grandfather of four, Mike has a soft spot for the kids. “I like to teach them ‘Jooche Economics’ when they have trouble counting money,” he laughs.
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Mike also recalls the not-so-fond memories, like when he was robbed at gunpoint in 2012. A parent from Washington Community saw what was going on and called the police. “I’ve never been so scared in my life,” he confides. He credits the Bayonne Police Department for its fast action in catching the perp as well as the stolen money.
‘And Now, the End is Near…’ Mike acknowledges that Jooche’s future is uncertain. He blames the big box stores and the younger generation’s preference for trendy cafes. He mentions Schnackenberg’s Luncheonette in Hoboken, an 88-year-old business that shut its
door earlier this year. “That hit close to home, when I read that in the paper,” he says. “Bayonne is changing, too.” But Mike is not bitter and maintains his sense of humor. His attitude can best be summed up by one of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ most famous songs, which he begins to sing jokingly during our interview. Mike did everything his way and has no regrets. For the time being, Jooche’s is open and ready to serve the public as it has for the last 85 years. So if you’re in the neighborhood of 47th and Avenue B, stop by—while there’s still plenty of coffee and conversation to go around.—BLP
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RWJBarnabas Health
Gets Bigger and Better The Bayonne facility is offering a host of new services
By Tara Ryazansky
E
ver since RWJBarnabas Health was built on Broadway and East 24th Street, area residents have been asking Jersey City Medical Center president and CEO Michael Prilutsky what’s going to be upstairs. The free-standing emergency room and radiology services building opened in 2017, and for those two years, the second and third floor of the building have remained empty. Local residents are curious about new services. One of those Bayonnites was Mayor Jimmy Davis. “He’s asked me the last few times that I saw him, ‘OK, when are you guys expanding?” Prilutsky says. “We wanted to establish a foothold in the community first. We feel like we’ve done that now.”
RWJBarnabas Health uses patient feedback from Press Ganey surveys to get an idea of what Bayonne might need. The first thing it learned from these surveys was that patients were happy with the current services provided by RWJBarnabas Health. Some of those services include inoffice testing and specialists in podiatry, gastroenterology, cardiology and endocrinology, among others. There are also pediatric services in cardiology, gastroenterology, hematology, neurology, immunology, and urology at the Bayonne location. “The feedback that we’re getting from the surveys has been phenomenal,” Prilutsky says. “The clinical care is top notch.”
Photo by John O’Boyle
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health in the neighborhood The surveys also revealed that many Bayonne residents regularly leave town to receive medical care. “There’s a significant outflow for obstetrics, oncology, general medical care, urology, and neurology,” Prilutsky says. “A large number of Bayonne residents, really too many, travel to get their services. We’re trying to bring those services closer to home because there’s a clear need.” Prilutsky thinks it’s important to have these medical services close by for patients in need of specialized care. He uses obstetrics as an example. Seeing a nearby doctor is especially important during a high-risk pregnancy. Based on utilization data findings, Prilutsky and his team can determine what should be on the second and third floors. “In addition to an OBGYN, we will also put in maternal-fetal medicine,” Prilutsky says, explaining that this office would monitor patients with advanced medical issues during their pregnancies. “At the end of the day JCMC has the only Level 3 NICU that is easily accessible to Bayonne residents. That allows those patients, when it’s time for them to deliver, to continue care with their physician with that NICU should they need it. That way they get to know their physicians locally. They don’t have to travel far to get them.”
looking up
Construction on the second and third floors of the building is expected to be completed by mid-January. After that, Prilutsky says that things will move quickly as the facility fills the new space. “We’ll start populating the building with specialists ef-
fective immediately,” he says, adding that RWJBarnabas works with physicians affiliated with Rutgers and the Cancer Institute of NJ. “I would say by mid-January there will already be some specialists in the building.” The second and third floors will house a wealth of medical specialists. Expected services include orthopedics; cardiology; neurology; vascular surgery; the aforementioned OBGYN and maternal-fetal medicine; cardiovascular imaging; pulmonary function testing; physical, occupational, and speech therapy; minor procedures; and general surgery. The facility will also meet the day-to-day needs of patients working to maintain their health. “It’s fun to talk about all these high-end specialty services, but really the primary-care services are the biggest need,” Prilutsky says. RWJBarnabas will focus on nutrition and mental health as part of primary-care services. “Just for convenience sake we’ll have a pharmacy,” Prilutsky says. The pharmacy will offer medical supplies. Plans for a lab and blood-draw services are also in the works. “We’re really looking forward to meeting the needs of the community,” Prilutsky says, adding that Barnabas Health is always looking for ways to support Bayonne beyond the field of medicine. He says that it was a major sponsor of the annual Bridge Arts Festival in September. “We are truly a part of the community,” he says. More residents are expected to find the local health services they need with the expansion at RWJBarnabas Health. “The goal is for this to be a medical arts pavilion,” Prilutsky says. “We’re very excited. We think it’s a home run. We think it’s needed. We do feel like for the first time Bayonne will get the level of physician coverage that’s equal to Jersey City’s.”—BLP
CEO Michael Prilutsky
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dates BLP
SELLING? BUYING? RENTING?
from page 21
Each Office is Independently Owned & Operated
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“With God’s Help We Go Forward” Trinity Parish in Bergen Point
An Episcopal congregation Holy Eucharist – 9:30 AM each Sunday Children’s Sunday School and child care Knitting Ministry – 2nd & 4th Saturday of each month Columbarium on site Mass on The Grass & Annual Parish Picnic Music Lessons through our mutual ministry with Grace Lutheran Church, Hand in Hand Music School
All Are Welcome & Invited to Our Communion Table Corner of 5th and Broadway Trinity Parish is the sponsor of the Windmill Alliance, Inc.
Plenty of on-site parking
201-858-4460
201-858-4460 | www.trinityparishbayonne.org 28 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
Bread to Life Kitchen is serving hot lunch every last Saturday of each month, 12-1 p.m. at 30 Prospect Avenue. Handicap Accessible via elevator. Opportunity to volunteer by calling 201-858-3825. Community hours for high school and college students accepted. Bayonne Farmers Market, Fitzpatrick Park, Avenue C and 27th Street, Tuesdays, 2-7 p.m., through November. Musical Mondays at the Museum, 229 Broadway, every second Monday of the month. Doors open at 6 p.m. and entertainment begins at 6:30 p.m. Call first 201-858-6971. For all library events and programs please visit Bayonnelibrary.org. Information can also be found on Facebook/ Instagram Bayonne Free Public Library. Monthly Atlantic City trips. First Thursday-Resorts Casino. Third Thursday-Golden Nugget. $32. Cash Back $25. Bus leaves @ 10 a.m. From Mt Carmel Church, E.22nd St. Contact Barbara @ 201-437-0902 or Eddie @ 201-437-5721. The Peninsula Women’s Club of Bayonne will meet every third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. Meetings are held at the 56th Street Senior Center at 56th Street and Ave. B. For additional information, email peninsulawomensclubnj@ gmail.com or call 201-407-4250. GFWC Peninsula Women’s Club is dedicated to working together to better our community through activities, collections, fundraising and events to promote education, wellness and awareness. Check out GFWC Peninsula Women’s Club on Facebook. We are
see page 29
Quality Care…Right Here in Bayonne
dates BLP from page 28 collecting gently used prom and communion attire to be distributed in our community. Drop off at our monthly meeting October 16 or November 13 or email for pick up. W.T.C.A.R.E.S After School Program through the Academic school year calendar, Monday to Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. at Wallace Temple A.M.E. Zion Church, 392 Avenue C. The Cost is $100 per week. Additional fees are applicable for early morning care. All are welcome to attend. For information call (201) 437-5214. The Bayonne Girl Scouts lead by creating, solving, building, climbing, trying, growing, and helping, just ordinary girls doing extraordinary things. The Girl Scouts of Bayonne have troops for girls in Kindergarten through High School. We are also looking to recruit adult volunteers as well. For info, contact girlscoutsofbayonne@gmail.com or call Jean at (201) 407-4250. The Bayonne Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) meets on the first Thursday of every month, unless otherwise noted, at 6 p.m. at Korpi Ice Rink, 2nd Floor, Multipurpose Room. For information, contact Elisha DeMaria at elisha. demaria@nyu.edu.
The mission of the Bayonne Community Mental Health Center is to address the mental health care needs of the people of Bayonne and the surrounding communities.
Services We Offer Include: Outpatient Groups • Introduction to Family Therapy • Managing Anxiety • Anger Management • Difficult Relationships • Coping Skills • Womens Group
• Mens Group • Bridge Program • Moving Forward from Trauma and Stress • Addictions Group
Outpatient Services • Adult Services • Child and Family Services • Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Counseling • Medication Management • Partial Care Program • Substance Abuse Services 601 Broadway Bayonne, NJ 07002 201.339.9200
bayonnementalhealth.org Red Hat Foxie Ladies meet the 1st Tuesday of every month in the Bayonne Public Library meeting room at 12:30 p.m. Call Connie for information at (201) 437-9677. NAACP - Bayonne Branch’s Monthly Meetings every 2nd Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m. at Friendship Baptist Church, 41-45 West 20th St., 2nd Floor. Downtown Senior Club is seeking new members 55 years old and older. Meetings are held second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 1 p.m. at Fourth Street and Story Court on the first floor. For info call Estelle at (201) 339-1729 or Alice at (201) 339-2595.
see page 38 FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 29
What’s in all those Tanks?
30 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
IMTT solves the mystery By Pat Bonner
or years, tanks have been part of Bayonne’s industrial landscape. Because they’re behind high fences, we’ve all wondered what was in them and what was going on behind the fences. Recently, I spent some time at International-Matex Tank Terminals, better known as IMTT. I was surprised by what I discovered. Though IMTT occupies the land formerly owned by Standard Oil and other oil companies, its core business is more like a Citibank than an Exxon or other major oil company. There are 620 tanks on its properties, but it doesn’t own the contents. The petroleum products and chemicals in these tanks are owned by third parties. IMTT is merely holding the liquid for them like Citibank holds your cash. So, why would third parties entrust IMTT with millions of dollars of their products? The answer explains what’s going on behind those high fences.
One of those who ensure that there is no contamination is Jimmie Johnson of West 7th Street. Johnson has worked at the terminal for 46 years, the most senior employee. He is a vac truck operator, vacuuming the pipelines and pumps to make sure they are clear of residue and traces of earlier cargoes before the new product is moved. No customer wants unleaded gasoline mixed with home heating oil as it leaves the ship at the pier enroute to a storage tank. The safety department boasts a director and 24 full-time staff members. IMTT has its own fire department with a 75foot industrial ladder truck. A fire chief, deputy fire chief, six fire inspectors, and 36 emergency responders oversee hot work or cutting. One of the state’s two Neptune Fire systems is at the terminal and maintained by IMTT for use in a major fire in the area. IMTT is a green company, ensuring that nothing contaminated enters the surrounding waters. Even the rainwater is treated. Bob Petrush of First Street, a 34-year employee, works at IMTT’s own sewerage treatment plant making sure that all wastewater and anything in its sewer system is treated before going anywhere. The water is tested constantly. Bio-essay tests monitor the quality of the wastewater.
Close and Secure
IMTT Never Sleeps
Photos courtesy of J. Krempa
F
For those who trade, distribute, or own liquid cargo, IMTT is ideally located. It’s in the center of New York Harbor and the Eastern Seaboard and close to railroads and highways. The 385 employees make it convenient for the customer to deliver and retrieve cargo but most of all, to keep cargo safe. That’s the key to IMTT’s success. All the tanks and miles of pipeline are certified in accordance with federal regulations, but they must be constantly inspected and monitored for leaks or wastage. Care must be taken not to mix or contaminate various cargoes.
Modern commodities trading requires flexibility. Markets change quickly. A cargo of crude oil could be bought and sold more than once as a ship crosses the Atlantic. IMTT is a 24-7 operation and thus can respond to sudden changes or orders. A London oil trader can sell a cargo at 9 a.m. London time and know that IMTT is ready to transfer the cargo to a barge at 4 a.m. our time. Since IMTT is certified by the New York Mercantile Exchange, the trader also knows that the transfer will be done in compliance with the NYMEX rules. FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 31
IMTT has its own fire department. The size of the terminal is also key. Tanks range in capacity from 5,000 gallons to 250,000 barrels. The terminal is certified to hold petroleum products as well as 65 different chemicals. This size also allows customers to store products as the price varies or the demand for it changes. Someone could buy home heating oil in the summer when the prices are low and store the product a few months until there is more demand in the winter. Another factor in IMTT’s success is the ease of moving products in and out of the terminal. Twelve barge berths handle about 3,000 barges a year, 400-450 tankers dock annually at the six recently dredged tanker berths, and about 7,000 loaded rail cars a year leave the terminal. IMTT has a nine-mile pipeline to Linden to connect with the United States pipeline system that includes about 173,000 miles of liquid pipelines.
Ship Shape All this cargo movement requires a lot of gauging and measuring ashore. IMTT provides this as well other services to the vessels. On one of my visits, the 75,000-deadweight ton BW Zambesi, a Singapore flag ship was discharging
IMTT cares for the old Van Buskirk family cemetery.
32 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
cargo that was loaded in Skoldvik, Finland. A vessel such as this may be in port once a month for a day or two and may have to send crewmembers home, arrange for medical treatment, repairs on the ship, or other issues. IMTT assists with the needs of the tankers and complies with all Homeland Security regulations. But it’s not all business at the IMTT terminal. In the middle of the tanks is a small cemetery containing about 140 graves of the Vreeland, Cadmus, Van Buskirk, and other old Bayonne families. The terminal is on land that was once part of the Van Buskirk family farm. The Van Buskirk Family Cemetery was maintained when Standard Oil purchased the land. IMTT continues to care for the cemetery. IMTT plays an active part in the civic life of the city. It supports local charities and sponsors teams in youth leagues. Following Superstorm Sandy, it provided generator fuel to Bayonne Hospital, Bayonne High School, the City Garage, and Liberty Science Center, which enabled it to save exotic fish that were part of an ongoing exhibit. IMTT has changed with the times. Its role in international trade and finance ensures that it will be around for years to come.—BLP
Employees Bob Petrush (left) and Jimmie Johnson
Editor’s LEttEr BLP Specializing in Bayonne & Jersey City Sales, Rentals & Investments
from page 10 just for Boy Scouts, but not anymore. The camp, created by the Maidenform founders, has branched out. Pat Bonner went back for a nostalgic look at his old stomping ground. Ever wonder what exactly is in IMTT’s tanks? Pat gets to the bottom of it in an in-depth report on Bayonne’s most iconic company. We’re starting a new department in this issue, “Young Entrepreneurs.” Diana Schwaeble kicks it off with a profile of Adam Amato, owner of Dave’s Thirty Third Street Auto. Our own sports legend, Jim Hague, profiles Pat Longo, one of Bayonne’s most astounding high school coaches. You won’t believe the stats this lady racked up in four decades of coaching volleyball and basketball. And speaking of eminent women, how about naming a Bayonne school after one? Rory Pasquariello surveys our educational edifices and wonders why Mary J. Donohoe is the only one who made the grade. Hmmm. So, here we are back at school, with fall in the air and winter around the corner. Whatever season, take us with you as you enjoy your life on the peninsula!
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FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 33
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Hudson County’s Peninsula City is on the Move! • Great neighborhoods with quality homes & new Luxury Development • New ongoing commercial & residential development • Easy transportation via Light Rail or bus • Beautiful Parks & Waterfront Walkways • 2-mile Main Street that includes shopping, dining & excellent healthcare • Art and Music Events & Family Entertainment • 3.3125% Sales Tax
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B AY O N N E M E A N S B U S I N E S S Interview by Diana Scwhaeble| Photo by Alyssa Bredin Quiros
Zara and Yi Wang
Yi Sushi Go
266 Broadway (201) 823-2011 yisushigo.com
T
he term family business often invokes a large family working toward the same goal. Yi Sushi Go has a staff of three. Head chef and owner Yi Wang and his wife Zara, who manages the restaurant, do most of the heavy lifting in this small, efficiently run establishment. For years, Yi worked for ShopRite in Bayonne, providing customers with the finest sushi. The restaurant, which opened on December 26, 2017, was a dream that was hard-won. Yi worked for more than a decade perfecting his craft and saving money before the couple was able to open their own place, focusing primarily on takeout business. “Our style is really a fresh standardized product. We make sure every roll looks the same,” Zara said. “Here, we only have three tables. That’s why the name is Go. We want to see the people order and take the food home to eat it. The restaurant is really small to eat in here.” Superb Food, Full Stop You go to a restaurant expecting certain things: A good product, timely delivery, and if not friendly, at least courteous service.
36 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
You might notice if the place is clean or if it has a pleasing decor. If there’s a long wait, a customer might give up and leave. Forget a dipping sauce or utensil? You’ll have dissatisfied customers when they get back home or back to work. A restauranteur must think of all these things. But without good food, the customer becomes a Yelp complainer. That is why Zara says it’s important to have affordable, fresh, standardized products that customers enjoy. Is the sushi tasty? Does it look beautiful? All points to consider if you want to make the customer happy. On a busy summer night, I watched Zara take orders from the counter and the phone. There’s an unrushed quality about her. While juggling five new walk-ins and the phone orders, she makes it seem that there is a staff of 12 behind her ready to execute the orders to the exacting specifications of her guests. She calls out the new orders. Yi barely looks up, so intent is his concentration as he crafts the sushi rolls. “We could have more business, but we don’t want to change the quality,” she said. “In the beginning, we were thinking, should we hire more chefs? But then, you are losing your quality. Everything would be fastfood style, and we wouldn’t be happy.”
Embracing Bayonne The Wang family has lived in Bayonne for 11 years. Yi supported his wife as she got a business degree at CUNY. When Zara gave birth to two daughters, she had to learn to juggle the demands of school and family. Through it all, the couple focused on their dream of owning their own restaurant. The work paid off, as the workload increased. They work six days a week, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. They love being busy, reveling in the dinner rush. The business has blossomed into a robust takeout restaurant. Is expansion in their future? Zara says they don’t want anything to take away from the quality of the food. “We could do it, but it’s really hard,” she said. “We don’t want it to be overwhelming. We don’t want the quality to suffer. Sushi is considered a skill. You have to do it properly. You don’t want the roll to fall apart while eating it.” It’s important to treat every customer like a friend, Zara says. They cook like they would for their own family. That policy extends to the “Tea of the Day,” which customers can help themselves to while they wait. The flavor may change, but the tea is always free. Says Zara, “We like Bayonne. It’s a small community. Hopefully, we will be here another 10 years.” – BLP
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dates BLP from page 29 Prime of Life meets every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month. If you have a relative in the military, you may post his or her name and photo on our bulletin board. Refreshments will be served and Bingo will be played. New members are always welcomed. Book Worms Wanted. Do you enjoy discussing books? If so, come join us at the Senior Center on Avenue B and 56th Street every Thursday afternoon from 1 to 2:30 p.m. You do not have to be a senior to join. For info, call Ralph at (201) 437-5996. Online applications for free and reduced price school meals available to all Bayonne school district students. The applications are available through the parent portal at www.bboed.org. For info, contact your child’s school. The Bayonne Women’s Club meets the first Thursday of every month at Grace Lutheran Church, 836 Ave C, at 7 p.m. For more information, please like us on Facebook at Bayonne Women’s Club. Chair Yoga for seniors with the Division of Recreation 56th Street Senior Center. Every
Wednesday 10 – 11 a.m. For information, contact the 56th Street Senior Center at (201) 437-5996. Andrean’s Senior Club is looking for new members 55 years old and over. This social group is not religiously affiliated. Group meetings are on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 12:30 p.m. at Fourth Street and Story Court on the first floor. For information, call Dottie at (201) 858-4104. Bayonne Feral Cat Foundation is looking for volunteers and foster homes for pets. If you would like to help, please call Kathy at 201-600-5941 Help Hudson County Animal League care for the homeless felines by clipping cat food and litter coupons. Send them to P.O. Box 4332, Bayonne, N.J. 07002. It is also looking for foster parents to foster an animal until their forever home is found. For info, call Kathleen at (201) 895-3874. Joyce-Herbert V.F.W. Post 226 Museum seeks military history, memorabilia and paraphernalia, and donations to support the growing museum. All items are either donated or loaned to our museum. Contact Commander Glen J. Flora. The museum at 16 West Ninth Street is open Saturdays, 12 - 4 p.m.
Young at Heart Seniors meet on the second and fourth Fridays of the month at 12:30 p.m. at the Senior Center at West 4th Street.
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Bayonne Quilt Club meets on the second floor of the Story Court Senior Center (Fourth Street and Story Court) on Wednesdays 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Fabric donations accepted. Drop off donations of cotton fabric at the meeting room.
019
2 1919 –
Trinity Parish Troop/Pack 27 Pack meetings are every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Troop meetings are Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. They are seeking new members, and boys 7 – 16 years old are welcome to join the fun. We’re located on 5th St. and Broadway. For information, contact Scoutmaster Frank Scibetta at (201) 926-6558. Hudson Toastmasters meets the first and third Tuesday of each month. Improve your public speaking ability, make new friends and advance your career. Join us at the Bayonne Public Library, 697 Avenue C (corner of 31st St.) at 7 p.m. We meet downstairs in the preschool classroom. Visitors and guest are welcome.
851 Kennedy Blvd. (at 33rd St.) Bayonne, NJ 07002
(201) 436-5500
EMAIL: MigliaccioFH@gmail.com www.MigliaccioFuneralHome.com Kevin Stapleton Manager – NJ lic.# 5009
GRASP (Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing) This group is for those who have lost a loved one to substance abuse. Meetings will be held at St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church, 979 Avenue C, entrance on 46th Street. Meetings will be on the third Sunday of every month from 1 to 3 p.m. in the rectory basement next to the garage. Please contact Aurora Chiarella (northernlight922@aol. com) or Franca Kirsch (kirschfranca5@gmail.com) or visit www.grasphelp.org for further details.
see page 39
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dates BLP from page 38
OCTOBER 19
THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST WILL TRANSFORM YOU
Community Flea Market Saturday, October 19 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 100 E. 22nd St. First Assembly of God Church. Vendor table registration $35 (Early Bird Special); $50 Day of the Event. Food will be sold. RSVP October 5. Checks made payable to First Assembly of God. Any questions, please call 201-858-3825. The Hudson County Animal League Santa Paws Tree tree lighting at the Bayonne Library 7-9 pm. Send images of your pets to Chris Reilly 201-437-8732 for more information.
20 St. Ann’s Society of Bayonne is celebrating its 85th Anniversary at their Annual Fundraiser at 12 p.m. at The Chandelier Restaurant. Our 85th Fundraiser tickets are $35 per person. For tickets, call Rachel at (201) 243-0678.
26 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Shoreline Cleanup at 16th Street Park. Meet at the boat launch parking lot. Dress for dirty work. Tools, garbage bags, gloves, snacks, and water will be provided. We’ll be removing plastic from the beach to protect bay and ocean habitats.
27 Phyllis & Adelaide are running a fun filled bus ride to the Balleys Casino Atlantic City Oct. 27. $36 per person with a $20 Slot Play. Bus leaves at 10:30 a.m. SHARP! from East 35th Street. Refreshments, raffles. For more information or to purchase tickets call Phyllis @ 201 339-4517 Purchase tickets in advance. All proceeds will benefit various charities in Bayonne.
Hometown . Local. Expert. Claudia Kufta
Sales Associate LIFELONG BAYONNE RESIDENT Over 18 Years Experience in the Real Estate Industry Expertise in Hudson County Residential Real Estate and Jersey Shore Relocations OFFICE: 201.795.5200 MOBILE: 201.206.3005 claudia.kufta@sothebysrealty.com
see page 43 FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 39
Story and photos by Pat Bonner
M
any residents do not fully appreciate the light rail anymore. The uptown stations have been active for 19 years, and the novelty has worn off. Some remember mornings walking downtown on Avenue C, waiting to cram themselves on to a packed 14 bus on the way to the PATH station. Bayonne was isolated in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s with no easy way to get in or out of New York City. The light rail has been the catalyst for development and has helped us take advantage of the city’s assets.
Assembly Speaker Joseph Doria pressed to have it extended to Bayonne. In 1994, the extension was approved. When the Hudson Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) system opened in April 2000, it went as far as 34th Street. The 22nd Street station opened in 2003. Due to construction of the viaduct around 11th Street, the section to 8th Street didn’t open until 2011.
Ode to the Light Rail
Back in the Day In the ‘60s, industries were closing, and residents were moving to the suburbs. We were on the Jersey Central Railroad main line. Close to 100 passenger trains a day passed through Bayonne from the Shore and western New Jersey to and from the Jersey Central’s ferries at the foot of Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City. Many of them stopped at the four local stations to carry commuters to the ferries. But the Jersey Central was losing money. It was the only commuter line that did not connect with the
On the right track
PATH. When Jersey Central appealed to the state, it saw a way to provide better service for the growing suburbs, such as Westfield and Cranford.
Railroaded Enter the dreaded Aldene Plan, which diverted the Shore and West Jersey trains near Elizabethport to Newark to connect with the PATH. In the process, Bayonne was cut off from its former rail service. Bay-
40 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
onne Mayor Francis Fitzpatrick enlisted my father to be the plaintiff in the city’s lawsuit against the state. When the suit was dismissed in New Jersey Superior Court in 1966, Bayonne was left without commuter rail service for the next 33 years. By 1985, the state was considering a light rail system on the “Gold Coast” – the North Hudson-Bergen waterfront. Bayonne Mayor Dennis Collins and
Worth the Wait By just about any measure, the system has been a rousing success. Kevin Corbett, current executive director of New Jersey Transit, says, “We were the first out of the box.” NJ Transit was first in the nation to design, build, maintain, and operate a modern light rail system. With about 52,000 passengers a day, 24 stations, and an on-time rate greater than 95 percent, the HBLR has spurred development along the route. Other cities have studied the system, serving as a model throughout the country. More than 60 trains a day go north, and the same number goes south. The HBLR is on the old Jersey Central right of way.
Bayonne was on the Central Railroad main line.
The stations are located where the old Jersey Central ones were. The stations feature local scenes depicted by local artists. At the 45th Street station, for example, a glass windscreen features St. Vincent de Paul Church. “A Day in the Park” is composed of a wall of tiles made by Bayonne public school students. “Animal Tracks,” engraved on the floor, represents animals that may have been at the old Robinson’s Farm. A decorative archway and metal structure stand at the entrance. In fact, most, if not all, the HBLR stations display works by local artists.
Validate your ticket! The fares cover only half of the cost of the system. The state makes up the difference. Like most light rail systems, the HBLR uses a proof-of-payment method, requiring riders to buy tickets before boarding. There are efforts to curb fare cheaters, but Corbett said that studies have shown that the cost and inconvenience of a closed system with turnstiles and additional employees is not viable. He said a more economical
approach is the San Diego system’s with higher fines, graduated fines for repeat offenders, and increased enforcement. Get ready to show your validated ticket more often to the Fare Enforcement officers in the future.
Room for Improvement Corbett identified two problem areas. One is more dependable financing. The last two years have been good, but there were a number of very
Staten Island Pipe Dream?
lean years before that. Expansion of transportation systems requires long lead times, which includes training on new equipment. You cannot plan if your budget varies greatly from year to year.
The second area is personnel. Many of the experienced workers and mechanics are getting older and retiring. The growing system needs young people to take the jobs that will be available.
HBLR is doing the preliminary engineering work to extend the West Side Avenue branch west, passed Route 440, and adding a new station. NJ Transit has approved a 10-mile extension that will finally take the HBLR into Bergen County. It will have seven stations in North Bergen, Ridgefield, Palisades Park, and Leonia and three in Englewood. Passengers will be able to ride the system from 8th Street to Englewood Hospital, 27 miles on one fare.
45th Street Station
There’s been talk for years about a rail connection between Bayonne and Staten Island. A CUNY professor tried to quantify the number of Staten Island commuters in a study published in 2017. The New York City MTA runs the S89 bus from Staten Island to the 34th Street HBLR. This bus carries about 350 Staten Islanders a day to the HBLR. A license plate check at the 34th Street parking lot on June 14, 2010, showed that 70 percent of the 424 spaces were taken by cars with New York plates. The professor concluded that a Staten Island connection to the HBLR would stimulate Staten Island’s development and reduce congestion and emissions. Corbett said that there were no plans to expand into Staten Island, but he would not be opposed to it. Port Authority would have to be involved, and there would have to be a benefit to New Jersey. Comparing the development along the HBLR corridor to that in Port Richmond, Staten Island, makes a linkage seem inevitable, perhaps when the Port Authority finishes upgrading its bridges. “I am proud of the light rail system,” Corbett said. “It has served Bayonne well.” As someone who used to walk downtown on Avenue C in the mornings hoping to squeeze onto a 14 bus, I couldn’t agree more.—BLP
dates BLP from page 39
Gift Certificates Available
NOVEMBER 7 Video showing of “Paris to Pittsburgh” produced by National Geographic at Bayonne Public Library Ave. C and 31st Street from 7 to 8:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Questions: email at info@bayonnenatureclub.org Visit: http://www.bayonnenatureclub.org
9 9 to 11 a.m. Shoreline Cleanup at Rutkowski Park. Meet at the gate near the restrooms in S. Gregg Hudson County Park, down from 48th Street. Dress for dirty work, wear boots. Tools, garbage bags, gloves, snacks and water will be provided. The Hudson County Animal League Casino Bus to The Wind Creek Casino, Bethlehem, Pa. at 10 a.m. sharp. The bus departs from side of Catholic War Veterans building at 23rd Street off Broadway. Tickets are $35 with $35 play back. Call Cindy Gincel, Chris Reilly, or Lorma Wepner at 201-4377263 or E-mail Lormalady@aol.com.
16 The Bayonne Feral Cat Foundation will host a tricky tray at Heart Of Jesus Church hall, 290 Ave E, 6-10 p.m. $15, complementary refreshments. Contact Phyliss 201 339-4517. Cat food donations welcomed.
see page 66 FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 43
I think I can, I think I can, Coach Pat Longo wracks up a record-setting 1,589 victories
By Jim Hague If you think you are beaten, you are; If you think you dare not, you don’t. If you’d like to win, but you think you can’t, It is almost a cinch – you won’t. If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost; For out in this world we find Success begins with a fellow’s will It’s all in the state of mind. If you think you’re outclassed, you are; You’ve got to think high to rise. You’ve got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win the prize. Life’s battles don’t always go To the stronger or faster man; But sooner or later the man who wins Is the one who thinks he can!
44 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2019- 20
Pat Longo
P
at Longo can recite the words to Walter D. Wintle’s 1905 poem, “Thinking,” without missing a beat. She’s certain that many of the players whom she’s coached over her astounding 42-year career could also bark out the words. She’s coached high school basketball and volleyball, as well as college softball and basketball. The poem hangs on the wall of Bayonne High School, where Longo remains the highly successful boys’ and girls’ volleyball coach. Longo’s now the all-time leader in the state, reaching 1,589 victories over her career in three sports, boys’ and girls’ volleyball and girls’ basketball. “I had no clue,” said Longo, who reached 1,000 wins in volleyball this season. “I’m honored and frankly shocked. I just come to work and do my job. That’s who I am. If you wanted to find me, I was in the gym. When one season was over, I had a week off, and went on to the next one.” Pat Longo is Bayonne, through and through. Born and raised here, she remains a proud resident. Her mother, Mary, died when Patricia was just two. Her father, James, married Anna Scerbo when Pat was four. “She raised me like I was her own,” said Longo, who grew up with four Scerbo boy cousins. “There was always a softball glove or basketball around our house,” Longo said. “My father was a softball pitcher on a team in Staten Island.”
Junior Jock Longo attended St. Andrew’s Grammar School. “I used to go to school in a limo,” Longo said. “Dad was a driver for O’Brien’s [Funeral Home] and would take me to school. Sometimes, he would get out of the limo and let me out. A lot of people thought we were rich. Because of my Dad,
SPORTS BLP
I wanted to be an undertaker when I grew up. He said it wasn’t for girls.” Apparently, neither were competitive high school sports in New Jersey in the 1960s. “I was very competitive when I was younger,” Longo said. “I would wait for the bus and play with my yo-yo.” She became so proficient that she went to a national yo-yo competition when she was 10. “I came in third,” she laughs. In the late 1960s, Longo began playing competitive softball in the parks of Bayonne, where a man named Don Ahern was Bayonne’s director of recreation. Ahern would eventually become the legendary coach of the Bayonne High School football team. The stadium behind Bayonne High School was renamed Don Ahern Memorial Veterans Stadium when Ahern died in 1995. “We would go to different parks to play softball and basketball,” Longo said. “I just loved playing. I used to go bowling with my father after Mass on Sunday. I became a pretty good bowler.” But Longo had something else in mind.
Eyes on the Prize “I wanted to go to Holy Family Academy and play for Maureen McLaughlin,” Longo said. “I just knew the name and the success she had. I also wanted to go to college, so I thought that was my best chance.” McLaughlin became Maureen Wendelken after marrying Hoboken basketball legend John Wendelken. “She had some big players and won a lot of league [North Jersey Girls’ Catholic League] titles,” Longo recalled. “They had some battles with Roselle Catholic, Benedictine Academy, St. Dominic, and the Academy of St. Aloysius. She was just an awesome coach.” Longo went to HFA to play for Wendelken. “She’s a tremendous coach and person,” Longo said. “I learned about concepts, team unity, strategy. She’s a great role model.” Wendelken remembers Longo well. “She was a kid who wanted to learn and wanted to play,”
Wendelken said. “She never missed a practice. She became a good player. And she was always around the program.” Longo has her own memories. “My mother was a good cook and baker, so she invited Maureen over the house for dinner,” Longo said. “She drove by me as I waited for the bus home. I took the bus instead of getting a ride there. I was respectful. She was the coach and I was the player. I was thankful for what she did for me.” Longo played basketball at Newark State College, now Kean University. She majored in health and physical education and played under Coach Philomena Scuderi, averaging close to 18 points a game. Longo was already thinking like a coach “I saw something once that I thought would work,” she said. “We tried it, and it worked. Coach then said to me that if I had any more ideas, that I should come and talk to her. So I did.” Longo also played competitive softball at Newark State, playing shortstop and pitching.
Catching the Coaching Bug While in college, Longo was asked by Wendelken to watch practices at Holy Family. “She wanted me to come and help her out, so I did,” Longo said. Longo became an assistant basketball and softball coach at Newark State and also spent time with Wendelken at Holy Family. In 1977, Longo was hired to become the firstever head softball coach at St. Peter’s College. While coaching softball at St. Peter’s, Longo received a call from Wendelken, who was coaching at both Holy Family and Montclair State. “I was also teaching in Hoboken full-time,” Wendelken said. “Looking back, I don’t know how I did it. I just loved coaching both teams.” Wendelken coached both for three years, but in 1978, she called Longo after sitting in traffic on Route 3. “It was a tough decision, but I just couldn’t do it anymore,” Wendelken said. “I knew the program would be in good hands. She was a great advertisement for Holy Family. She FALL | WINTER 2019- 20 ~ BLP• 45
was a graduate, someone who played for me. I had respect for her, and she had respect for me. She put the time in and deserved it.” “Maureen was like a sister to me,” Longo said. “I was her maid of honor. I was very fortunate to be able to step in and take over. The first year [1978], the team went to the state finals [against Notre Dame of Trenton].” At the same time, Wendelken took a Montclair State team, led by Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer Carol Blazejowski, one of the greatest women’s basketball players ever, to the NCAA Final Four, where they faced UCLA in the famed Pauley Pavilion.
Hometown Rival Longo went to Holy Family “to coach basketball, not bring in players,” she said. Her fiercest competition ironically came from her alma mater and the district where she taught, namely Bayonne, coached by another legend, Jeff Stabile. “For more than 20 years, we didn’t talk,” Longo said. “Our most competitive games were against Bayonne. And in the heat of battle, Jeff had the upper hand. We only beat them once.” Stabile, who won more than 700 games as the girls’ basketball coach at Bayonne and another 500 as the softball coach, recalled the battles. “Right from the start, the games were competitive,” he said. “I never knew Pat before coaching against her. It was a hometown rivalry. The kids all knew each other. She did a good job with her players. The energy was at a high level. You never knew what Pat was going to do, either on offense or defense.” Later, the late Bill DeFazio arrived at Marist and created a three-team Bayonne rivalry. “It became even tougher after that,” Longo said. “Three teams in the same space. They were characters but very good coaches. The respect was there with the three of us.” DeFazio’s daughter Stacy played for Longo, while his other daughter Missy played for her father at St. Anthony.
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No Experience Necessary In 1984, Longo was approached by then Bayonne assistant superintendent Anthony Barone. “He said, ‘You teach in this district, but you don’t coach here,’” Longo said. “’I’d like to start a volleyball program here, and I want you to coach it.’” Longo didn’t have any background in the sport, but she went to clinics with friend Maria Nolan, the legendary coach of Secaucus and later Immaculate Heart Academy in Bergen County, the state’s all-time leader in girls’ volleyball coaching victories. “At one clinic we went to, I won a volleyball, and I said to Maria, ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’” Longo said. “The USA coach Doug Beal signed the ball, ‘Good luck with your new sport.’” For Pat Longo, a new sport was like a news sports car. In 1989, she added the Bayonne boys’ volleyball team after running a co-ed intramural league. “Back then, there were only three teams in Hudson County,” Longo said. “It was Memorial, North Bergen, and Bayonne. We traveled all over to play, Lakeland, West Windsor, Cherry Hill, Wayne Hills, and Wayne Valley. The bus rides were longer than the matches.” Longo’s team posted a 2-18 her first season, but started winning soon after. For the longest time, Longo coached three sports, girls’ volleyball in fall, girls’ basketball in winter, and boys’ volleyball in spring. “I would take a week off in between seasons and keep going,” Longo said.
End of an Era In 2012, Holy Family Academy closed its doors forever, ending Longo’s 35-year coaching stint at her alma mater. “I was just devastated,” Longo said. “Everyone was.” “No one expected the school to close,” Stabile said.
SPORTS BLP 2018) and two NJSIAA North Section 2 state titles in 2012 and 2018. Her teams were ranked No. 7 in the state in 2012 and No. 8 statewide in 2018. The girls’ volleyball team won county titles in 2007 through 2009. Longo captured county titles with HFA in 1989 and 2007.
Hoop Dreams
Longo then focused on coaching the two volleyball teams. The boys’ team has become a state-wide powerhouse. “I’m shocked the way the boys really took off,” Longo said. “It’s a program now. You can see they have the love of the game. They’ve become a force to be reckoned with.” In 2007, it was Longo’s last great year of three-sport glory. All three of her teams won a county championship. “I’ll always remember that year,” she said. The boys’ team won eight Hudson County Tournament championships (1996, 2006 through 2009, 2012, 2013, and
Longo has amassed 500 wins in all three sports. She has 510 wins currently with the boys’ team (510-224); 511 wins with the girls’ team (511-228); and 568 wins during her tenure at Holy Family (568-239 from 1978 through 2012). The 1,589 victories netted Longo the most wins in the history of NJSIAA athletics. But Longo still misses coaching basketball. “I think they’ll bury me with a basketball in my hand,” she said. “I watch it all the time, looking at teams play different defenses and things.” She’s a huge Duke basketball fan. “It was a big thrill for me to meet Coach [Mike] Krzyzewski a few years ago,” Longo said. “Maureen and John came down, and we went to a Duke practice. It was tremendous.” So has been the career of Patricia Longo, one that continues on after an amazing 42-year run. “Of course, I have great pride for someone I’ve known for so long and once coached,” Wendelken said. “She’s had a very good career. And she’s not ending any time soon.” Doesn’t look that way.—BLP
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What’s in a Name? Pride and politics in the naming of public spaces By Rory Pasquariello
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ast year, school district officials renamed Midtown Community School for another Medal of Honor recipient, William Shemin, the last school not named for a person. Nicholas Oresko was another Medal of Honor winner for whom a school was named. Today, there are no more P.S. ones, twos or threes. When the district considered renaming Midtown Community, some residents objected to Shemin. For one thing, he spent his adulthood in the Bronx, not Bayonne. Second, some thought Dr. Patricia McGeehan was worthy of consideration. She was the school’s first principal, who’d earned the school the esteemed National Blue Ribbon Award and later went on to be the district superintendent. The sole school named for a woman is Mary J. Donohoe. Who is Mary Donohoe you might ask? We called on Bayonne historian Joe Ryan who told us that Ms. Donohoe was the principal of the school for many years and the sister of Mayor Lucius Donohoe.
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The only other space named for a woman is the Dorothy R. Harrington council chambers in city hall, named for Bayonne’s first woman city council president. Other entities in the state of New Jersey are wrestling with the naming issue. Several buildings at Princeton University are named for former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, as is one of Bayonne’s schools. Princeton students are calling for his name to be removed from campus buildings because he re-segregated federal government agencies that were integrated after the Civil War.
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Location, Location, Location Names for public spaces often reflect geography. First Street Park is now Dennis Collins Park, named for the former Bayonne mayor. The historic Bayonne Park is now named for a Medal of Honor recipient, Stephen R. Gregg. But most people still call these parks by their original names, out of habit, nostalgia, or a sense of place. Which is why most people still embrace the Newark Bay Bridge, though it was recently renamed for Bayonne resident and former state assemblyman Vincent R. Casciano. The Mario Cuomo Bridge anyone? Just about everybody still calls it the poetic and historic Tappan Zee.
The Name Game In his State of the City address last January, Mayor Davis said that the influx of new residents coming to live in our new high-rise apartment buildings will necessitate the building of new schools. Bingo! Time to come up with some more creative names. If you happened to pick up a copy of the 150th anniversary issue of Bayonne: Life on the Peninsula, then you know that Bayonne has lots of notable figures who could grace the front of a school: The Sandra Dee Community
Tammy B lanchard
School? The Tammy Blanchard Community School? Gay people have no representation in the name game. How About the Barney Frank Community School? Other choices include Bayonne’s first NAACP chapter president, Clarence Hilliard. Or James Fair, a Navy veteran wrongfully accused of rape during a 1960 visit to Georgia. His family, with the assistance of the late U.S. Representative Cornelius Gallagher, successfully fought to clear his name. These are apt choices for school names, considering that the student body of Bayonne High School, which has yet to be named for an individual, is less than half white. Look at the names who achieved the Circle of Ten designation. They include kids who are of Indian, Arab, Latina, Asian, European, and African descent. Names attached to public spaces matter. No one wants to be excluded from the community’s shared identity. —BLP
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HELPING
Good Neighbor Policy
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UNICO has been serving the community for 70 years By Tara Ryazansky
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NICO National is an Italian-American service organization that serves the entire Bayonne community. “We’re not just here for Italian-Americans,” says chapter president, Jim Sucato. “We’re here to serve everyone regardless of race or creed.” The mission of UNICO is to promote a positive image of Italian-Americans and to provide charitable support to scientific, cultural, educational, and literary projects. The name UNICO comes from the Italian word for unique, but it also stands for Unity, Neighborliness, Integrity, Charity, and Opportunity. The Bayonne chapter was instituted in 1949, making this year its 70th anniversary. In that time, the organization has done a lot of good for Bayonne. It’s paid for and prepared more than 40,000 meals for Bayonne’s soup kitchens and food pantries. “We used to prepare our meals at Our Lady of the Assumption School. After it closed down we financially contributed to the other soup kitchens in Bayonne,” Sucato says. Prior to becoming president of the Bayonne Chapter of UNICO, Sucato was on the Bayonne Columbus Parade committee which disbanded in 2012 when Our Lady of Assumption Church closed. During his time working on that committee he was a member of UNICO as well. After Bayonne’s final Columbus Day parade in 2012, Sucato put his energies into working with UNICO. The Bayonne UNICO chapter is 66 members strong, ranging in age from their early thirties on up. “I think our oldest member is in his mid-eighties,” Sucato says. Most members live and work in Bayonne. Members who have moved stay active in the Bayonne chapter. “Their roots have always remained here in Bayonne, and they continue to give back to Bayonne and the community,” Sucato says, noting there is one important requirement for membership. “One of the prerequisites is that someone in your family has to be of Italian ancestry,” Sucato says. “We have
an application process. We look for members who are very active in the community, who are hardworking in service programs.”
Rewarding Work The Bayonne chapter of UNICO holds a Man of the Year event annually. The man they select to honor each year exemplifies the UNICO motto: “Service above Self.” “This year’s man of the year is Christopher L. Patella, a prominent attorney not only here in Hudson County, but in New Jersey,” Sucato says. “He’s a past president of the organization.” The group honors the Man of the Year with a dinner that recognizes other key community members. This year it honored Richard Baccarella as the Joseph P. Tagliareni Community Service Award recipient, Marguerite Simpson who was the Service Above Self recipient, and Joseph Marchitto, the Lifetime Achievement recipient. The event was held in March. Another annual event is a Christmas gift collection for the needy. UNICO also awards youth scholarships and supports programs for kids. The organization helped provide a home economics kitchen to teach culinary skills to special needs students at the Lincoln Community School. The facility was dedicated in honor of Joseph P. Tagliareni, a deceased UNICO member who once served as president and was a former Man of the Year. “He was a very giving person, not only of his time, but also his efforts, energies and resources,” Sucato says. “He never said no to anyone.” Sucato believes that these qualities are typical of ItalianAmericans. “Our family who first came to this country lived a life of honor, loyalty, and were called to service at all times,” Sucato says “We’re proud to be Americans. Our ancestry is from Italy, but we’re true blue Americans.” UNICO embodies those values. It’s made up of “hardworking, giving people just continuously promoting the community and efforts to achieve the goals of the American Dream, or whatever you want to call it,” Sucato says. “Giving back to the community is number one.” — BLP
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Pipe Dreams Bayonne’s church organs have Mass appeal Photos by Sandra Paton
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he organ is little appreciated outside of churches, horror movies, and baseball and hockey games. Bayonne is rich in one of those categories. A former resident, pianist, and organist who now lives in Pennsylvania returned to write about some of the city’s historic church organs. She dubbed her trip the “organ crawl,” and visited three churches: St. Vincent de Paul, St. Henry’s, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Sandra Paton is organist and choir director at Grace Alsace UCC Church in Reading, Pa. Paton started playing the organ again in 2015 after playing at Trinity Cathedral in Trenton in the 1990s. After rediscovering her passion for organs, she returned to Bayonne with a friend and Bayonne native, Jim Konzelman, an organ builder. “Some organs make you shove the music through. Others pull it out of you,” said Konzelman, who founded Konzelman Pipe Organs in Hoboken. Paton, who holds a master’s degree in musicology from New York University, has written about Bayonne’s churches and their organs for a coffee table book yet to be published.
Held in esteem Organists are treasured in the church community, and are usually listed right after the priest in the bulletins handed out at Mass. “It’s the organist who brings the people closer to God than the priest. People are singing, raising their voices, getting carried into the emotion,” said Paton, who likens the organ to an orchestra because of the many wind sounds it can create. Paton said that an organist plays “voices” and is responsible for delivering the tenor, soprano, alto, and bass components of a hymn. “A fine organist can move people,” she said. “It’s like having an orchestra at your fingertips.” Organs are large instruments with multiple “manuals,” the organ-equivalent of a keyboard. Though they can resemble a piano, organs are wind instruments. Pedals allow the player to release air through a pipe. The sound is controlled by how much air is pushed through. Nowadays, a low-voltage electric component pushes air through the pipe. In the early days of pipe organs, young
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boys would hide behind the organ to move parts that would allow air to pass through. The space that houses the organ is, in many ways, part of the instrument. Its sound depends on the size of the space and the materials from which the church is made, whether, for example, the room is lined with carpeting or tile.
St. Vincent de Paul Growing up in Bayonne, Paton attended St. Vincent de Paul Church and was baptized at St. Henry’s. She still marvels at the architecture of these two churches. “St. Vincent de Paul demands your immediate attention from the exterior,” Paton writes in her book. “The granite exterior walls are accented beautifully by a red tile roof. Getting into the church requires some effort. A long and wide staircase extends along the front of the church. I was in grade school at St. Vinnie’s when the railings were installed following an unfortunate incident when a woman fell down the staircase.” Paton said that the organ at “St. Vinnie’s” never met her musical expectations until she returned. Konzelman rescaled the organ, installed new chorus reeds, and adjusted the tonal balance of the flutes and mutations. He rebuilt the pedal organ using pipes donated by the Masonic Temple on Avenue C. “Mesmerized by the beauty of the services, especially the solemn high funeral Masses, I attended Mass as often as possible,” Paton writes. “It was my retreat house. Unfortunately, St. Vinnie’s organ had never met my musical expectations, until I returned for the crawl.”
Our Lady of Mount Carmel When Konzelman first encountered the organ at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, he described it as a “festival of dead notes, but the best of the organs on the tour in terms of tonal beauty and musical integrity.” The organ required a complete re-leathering, a common repair in which the leather where the pipes meet a wooden casing is replaced.
St. Henry’s Konzelman’s father was an altar boy at St. Henry’s and had been a pillar of that church’s community. For his father’s
90th birthday, Konzelman donated and installed a full rank of pipes to the church. His father gleefully played the organ, calling it the best birthday present ever. Konzelman completed a partial re-leathering of that organ and replaced various other flutes and pipes.
Organ appreciation “A lot of the misconceptions about organs are associated with the player,” Paton said. “You get a little old lady there, and she’s going to play a hymn, and it isn’t going to be good. It’s pretty awful.” It’s difficult for the lay listener to appreciate all that goes into an organ. The only way to appreciate the instrument is to hear and see it in person.
St. Vincent de Paul
St. Henry’sl
Jo Anne
“It’s like if you’ve never heard an orchestra before, and you’re going to hear a bunch of instruments together, if you don’t know what that is, it’s not going to make sense to you,” Paton said. “You have to hear it. I would recommend the layperson ask for a tour of their church’s organ. If only the church had the organist up there demonstrating while the parishioners sat downstairs.” Coming back to her hometown was the “most moving experience” of Paton’s life. “It was an incredible experience to be there and to think about my parents in town,” she said. “We had such a good time.” — Rory Pasquariello
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
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THE INVISIBLE FORCE
OEM’s got your back By Tara Ryazansky Photos by Max Ryazansky
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roadway is bustling during the weekend of the Hometown Fair. The street is lined with booths. Carnival rides spin, leaving patrons dizzy and smiling. The smell of sausage and peppers fills the air as folks line up to taste the offerings of food trucks and other vendors. Edoardo “Junior” Ferrante, coordinator of the Office of Emergency Management, has been working at the fair since 6 a.m. He assisted a police officer with the traffic division in clearing the street of vehicles, and blocking cross streets. There’s a lot more that goes into making the event safe than what fair-goers see on the surface; for example, planning an ambulance route, so that the hospital can be accessed while Broadway is closed to traffic. Now that the fair is safely underway, Ferrante is working with the fire department as they prepare to perform a rescue demonstration. “They’re going to do a rope-rapelling operation,” he says. “So they’re going to put the fire ladder up.” He gestures toward a group of firefighters, who are stepping into harnesses. Ferrante’s job rarely has any down time, but the demonstration will be a fun moment to kick back and watch the department that he works with so closely show off what it can do. “Today’s a good day,” Ferrante says. “It’s beautiful out. A lot of people are going to have fun, and that’s what we want. We want the city of Bayonne to enjoy themselves and have a good time.” Just then the radio crackles to life, and a dispatcher rattles off a series of numbers. “Hold on, I’ll be right back,” Ferrante says. His voice is calm, but his pace is fast and efficient as he reports for duty. The fire engine that was preparing for the show starts up, and firefighters remove the roadblock from 22nd Street, ready to swing into action. But just as suddenly as he departed, Ferrante returns. The cones are replaced, and the fire department starts raising the ladder again to set up for the rapelling demonstration. “There was smoke coming from a new building,” Ferrante says, explaining that a call had alerted him to a possible emergency on 19th Street. “It was actually workers,” Ferrante says. “People were all standing there pointing. There were some flames and some smoke, but it was workers.” He says that if there had been a fire, the demonstration would have been suspended, and those firefighters would have reported to the incident. A crowd starts to assemble around the demonstration, eagerly waiting for the show, oblivious that a crisis was averted only minutes earlier.
Edoardo “Junior” Ferrante
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On the job BLP The OEM duties used to be the responsibility of Chief Keith Weaver of the fire department. Weaver and his family are out enjoying the Hometown Fair. They stop by to watch the fire rescue demonstration and to say hello to Ferrante. “Watching Junior do it, he’s really on top of it, so when conditions change, the public is really informed with the best information possible,” Weaver says. “One of the greatest assets has been the way that he utilizes social media to get the word out for various things. He’s really taken it to the next level in terms of responding to incidents, but also keeping the public informed. And when the public is informed everything seems to flow better. He gives the most timely, factual information that’s available, and he’s very good at updating it. He has really upped the skillset.”
Tweeting the Truth
A plane crashing on a residential street is not business as usual.
Earth, Wind, and Fire “From OEMs perspective if there is a fire my focus would be helping all of the displaced,” Ferrante says. “I work with the Red Cross. With some of the bigger fires we have a lot of displaced occupants. We work to find them shelter right away, which sometimes we do at the ice rink. We work very closely with the Board of Ed. They’re excellent partners.” Ferrante has a role in every emergency and potential emergency here in Bayonne. “One of the biggest roles that I have is to keep the public informed,” Ferrante says. “We’ve got a city of 65,000-plus. There’s always some activity.” The day before, it was a truck that rolled over on 440, closing the major roadway while the fire department worked to free the trapped driver. “When something like that happens we’ve got to notify the public,” Ferrante says. “We put it on social media. We’ve got a text alert that we put out because there was such an impact on traffic.” Over the prior weeks, Ferrante informed Bayonne residents online and via text alerts about everything from tornado warnings to air quality warnings after a fire in a chlorine facility in Kearney. “Even though we were never in any danger, they were taking readings, but the smoke can be bothersome,” Ferrante says. “There was never actually any chlorine that came into the city itself. We want everybody to be aware. We want to not have anybody fearful of what’s happening. The more the public knows the better.”
Upping Their Game “Office of Emergency Management used to be a function of the Deputy Fire Chief, and Mayor Davis realized when he got into office that due to the city growing and changing we needed to be more proactive,” Ferrante says. “He wanted to ramp up OEM, and he really wanted to ramp up the public awareness.” So Mayor Davis decided to bring in a civilian for the job.
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Ferrante took the job in March of 2016 and was recently reinstated for another three-year term. Since he took the position he’s maintained a very active Twitter feed and Facebook page. “There’s so much good to social media,” he says. “Unfortunately there’s another side to it, and that is false information. We had an incident last year where there was a terrible accident on Halloween night, a motor vehicle accident involving a stroller, and social media took off with stories about a child being killed by a drunk driver. I was with the mayor, the police chief, and the fire chief, and we were all together on the scene, and there was no truth to that at all. You have to guard against that. That’s why I think that it’s important that we send out the proper information. I work very closely with the police and the fire departments to make sure that what we’re putting out there is true, accurate information because we want to make sure that our population is aware of reality, not rumor.”
Team Effort Over at the stage area, the firefighting demonstration is about to begin. The crowd on Broadway and 22nd Street grows larger. Ferrante has to attend to the event before it starts. “What’s good in Bayonne is that we have really, really good, bright professionals in the police and fire departments,” he says. “I’ve got to tell you, public safety director Kuburt and Police Chief Geisler and Fire Chief Weaver and everybody that I deal with, they’re just amazing. The cops, the firefighters, more than anything they’re very compassionate. It’s good to have partners like that. I also work with EMS. McCabe, they’re top shelf. And of course DPW is a big part of OEM. They don’t get the accolades ‘cause they’re not in uniform. DPW and the dispatchers, nobody ever hears about them or sees them, but they take all the 911 calls. I have them in my ear right now as I’m talking,” he says, tapping an earpiece, so he can hear the steady stream of information. “We just want everybody to be safe,” Ferrante says. – BLP @Bayonne_OEM on Twitter facebook.com/BayonneOEM/
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SHOOT senD your Bayonne PhoTos To BayonneMag@ huDsonrePorTer.coM. Be sure To wriTe “PoinT & shooT” in The suBJecT line.
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Shorty’s | 279 Broadway
WatErinG hoLE BLP
Photos by Terri Saulino Bish
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horty’s is a classic watering hole—classic because it’s a serious corner bar for regulars who like to drink cold beer, play pool, and listen to great music. The bar doesn’t serve food, but you’re welcome to order in. On the Tuesday afternoon we visited, Hudson County’s three-month monsoon season had just ended. The sun suddenly appeared, and temperatures shot
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up to the high-80s. So it was a relief to enter Shorty’s dark, cool inner sanctum. The space is jam-packed with an eclectic mix of neat art, signs, license plates, beer signs, a shark, a life preserver, and a bank of skateboards donated by Gary Inannitelli of Bayonne’s Collins Park Skatepark. Because music is an important part of the bar’s gestalt, the DJ booth is a key design element in Shorty’s décor. The DJ booth is made from the front end of a classic Cadillac, donated by Robbie Toolen. A pool league meets on Mondays and Tuesdays, organized by co-owner Mark Lavery. Heidi Curko and her husband, J. Colangelo, own DC’s in Hoboken, a bar a lot like Shorty’s. They bought the Bayonne space about two years ago. It was formerly a Latin bar. “It was a blank slate with good bones, a nice bar,” Heidi says. They made it their own, with Heidi selecting the Victorian red wall paint.
Heidi Curko and Mark Lavery
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“It’s a rock-and-roll music bar with a pool table, good cold beer, mixed drinks, and a decent glass of wine,” Heidi says. Shorty’s is a nickname given to Heidi by her husband, who makes his living as a roadie. “J. grew up in punk rock and hardcore rock-and-roll as a kid in the ‘80s,” Heidi says. Shorty’s presents events such as ‘90s Night; Open Minds Open Hearts Open Mic Night; Classics Night; All Vinyl All the Time Night; Soul Funk; and even Meet the Mayor Night. Heidi says that Shorty’s is more interested in attracting locals than transients. “What we do is get a lot of different people together in a room, local professionals and old-timers, and create an environment where people mix and mingle.” —Kate Rounds
PRE-PLANNING CAN BE EASY SPECIAL OPEN HOUSE 0% INTEREST
Holy Name offers choices from the most elegant to the most economical
OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND
Saturday November 9th & Sunday November 10th 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Stop by our Open House and speak with an advisor. No appointment needed. No obligation required.
Open House Special 0% Interest for 48 Months Available on new purchases — for a limited time only
Holy Name Cemetery & Mausoleum 823 West Side Ave., Jersey City NJ 07306 0337 www.HolyNameCemetery.org 888-621-0337
Cafe Bello By Marilyn Baer Photos by Alyssa Bredin Quiros
O
n the corner of 51st and Avenue C sits an Italian eatery that even your Nona would approve of. Here you can expect traditional Italian dishes, new discoveries, and a warm atmosphere.
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Upon entering for the first time, you’re greeted like a regular by friendly staff and patrons. Owner Phil Trebour who’s behind the bar chatting with the lunch crowd, welcomes the newcomers. At 1 p.m. on a Thursday, there are only a few seats available at the bar. Pizzas sizzling in the brick oven behind the bar might have something to do with it.
A margarita pizza turns golden brown before my eyes. Natural light bathes the dining room, with its pristine white tablecloths. A mural runs the length of one wall. Trebour follows our gaze, smiles, and relates that a regular had asked to paint it. Trebour’s only request of the artist? To include some of the regulars and staff who make Café Bello a truly exceptional customer friendly dining experience.
EATERY BLP
Lorenzo, Maitre D’
Phil, Owner
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Alyssa and I pan the room trying to spot which regulars or staff members are depicted in the Italian inspired scenes, dancing, stomping on grapes, or enjoying the Mediterranean views. We take menus and begin a decadent afternoon with a chocolate martini and a cosmopolitan that would do Carrie Bradshaw proud. The menu offers traditional Italian staples like rigatoni a la vodka, orecchiette with sausage and broccoli, and pollo giardiniera. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the daily rotation of creative specials all made with the freshest ingredients. We begin with freshly baked bread and of course, pizza.
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Bagels D
We keep it simple with a margarita style, featuring homemade dough, fresh tomato sauce, topped with mozzarella and fresh basil, and baked at 570 degrees. Other options include Picante, Ai Funghi, Ortolana, and Selvatica. The crust is crisp, the cheese gooey and fresh. Next we try the halibut with cauliflower, pan-seared in a garlic tomato sauce. It’s tender, the sauce layered beautifully with a combination of flavors. Next we split the Portofino shrimp and scallops, served atop freshly made pasta. This satisfyingly filling entre is topped with a refreshingly light cream sauce, transporting you to the Amalfi coast. My favorite item on the menu was the next dish, which could make vegetarians switch sides. The perfectly pink filet mignon comes with a delectable Bardolino wine eduction sauce, served with zucchini, yellow squash, and creamy mashed potatoes seasoned with fresh rosemary. Not even Nona’s cooking could compare. Feeling more than satisfied, Alyssa and I pack up her equipment and head for the door, knowing we will return, whether for a pizza-fueled lunch or a decadent meal with friends, family, or a first date.—BLP
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SH • B AGEL
Bagels • Spreads • Breakfast Sandwiches • Omelettes Egg Platters • Breakfast Wraps • Pancakes French Toast • Classic Sandwiches • Gourmet Wraps Salads • Baked Goods
CATERING AVAILABLE
Call 201.620.9535
Follow Us on facebook, instagram and twitter
everythingbagelsdeli.com
Open 7 Days
91 E 22nd St. Bayonne NJ
Cafe Bello 1044 Avenue C 201-437-7538 cafebellobayonne.com
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dates BLP from page 43
DECEMBER 6 Golden Ages of Bayonne will take a trip to Hunterdon Hills Playhouse, Hampton, NJ to watch “It Happened One Christmas Eve” on December 6. Includes transportation, lunch and show. Bus leaves from 4th St and Broadway at 9:30 a.m. If you’re interested, contact Loretta at (201) 3393956.
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Party tray sPecials for all holidays
Reserve your seat for a trip to Lancaster Pennsylvania Sight and Sound at 8:30 a.m. Bus will leave From Saint John Paul II Church on E. 22nd Street. $140 per person, which includes transportation, lunch and show. To reserve your seat, call Elisabetta at (201) 858-2069, Rachel at (201) 310-6607, or Lucia at (201) 858-8582. The Hudson County Animal League presents the Holiday Extravaganza Tricky Tray, at the Heart of Jesus Polish National Catholic Church Community Hall, 290 Avenue E at 23rd St, Bayonne. Doors open at 2 p.m. Event runs 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 plus a can or more of Friskies cat food. For tickets contact Cheryl @ 201-736-7560, Maureen @ 201-436-7416, Chris @ 201-437-8732. You can also go to http://www.HCALnj.org and purchase tickets with PayPal.
14 The Hudson County Animal League Casino Bus to The Wind Creek Casino, Bethlehem, Pa. at 10 a.m. sharp. The bus departs from side of Catholic War Veterans building at 23rd Street off Broadway. Tickets are $35 with $35 play back. Call Cindy Gincel, Chris Reilly, or Lorma Wepner at 201437-7263 or E-mail Lormalady@aol.com.
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Building a Great Community The City of Bayonne Mayor James M. Davis THE BAYONNE CITY COUNCIL Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski Council Member At-Large Juan M. Perez First Ward Council Member Neil Carroll III Second Ward Council Member Sal Gullace Third Ward Council Member Gary La Pelusa, Sr.
for
150 Years