October 30, 2013 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVI, No. 23
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
How to ‘stomp out’ bullying
• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
Local real estate market ready to move?
By Anthony Coelho Observer Intern
By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
HARRISON –
The concept of bullying needs no explanation. We’ve all experienced it—whether being directly involved, or just a bystander—bullying has been an ongoing war in schools all across the nation. One school in particular though, located on the corner of N. 5th St. and Harrison Ave., has been “stomping out” bullying in style. Last Wednesday, Washington Middle School in Harrison hosted its first annual, community-wide Stomp Out Bullying presentation. The event began with refreshments, baked goods and wristbands provided by the P.T.A. The lobby was decorated with handcrafted posters and banners created by some of the high school students. With a little help from the middle schools’ guidance staff — who like to call themselves the C.H.I.C.A.S. (Counselors Helping Individual Children Achieve Success)—the show featured an opening statement from Student Resource Officer Charles Schimpf, expressing the nature of bullying and how to act otherwise. “We really wanted to focus on creating a positive vibe,” said Michelle Lopes, Washington Middle School’s head counselor. “We’re giving them see BULLYING page
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and outdoor storage.” Because many of the buildings on the site KEARNY – are riddled by fire and structure code violations, igns of the beginthe town Construction ning of a Kearny Enforcement office has recovery from the denied certificates of ocnational recession’s grip cupancy to some existing are suggested by movement on four local fronts and prospective tenants. Plus, there are environto upgrade real estate. mental issues still to be First, there is the dealt with, notably the meadows-area property presence of chromium at known as Jeryl Industrial various portions of the Park at 590 Belleville site, for some of which Turnpike which, in June 2012, the Kearny Planning a company called Tierra Board voted to designate Solutions has agreed to take cleanup responsias an area in need of rebilities. development after hearAnd the private street – ing Red Bank consultant Turvan Road – that winds Susan Gruel describe the through the tract is 31-acre tract as a “dilapicompromised by cracked dated, deteriorated area with a significant numsee REAL ESTATE page ber of vacant buildings
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Photo by Ron Leir
Walgreens is eyeing the old Lynn Chevy dealership as a new location.
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In the spirit of Halloween . . . By Karen Zautyk Observer Correspondent KEARNY – Here is something fascinating I learned Friday evening at the Kearny Public Library: Never ask a ghost, “When did you die?” This is because some ghosts do not know they’re dead.
This bit of advice was garnered during an interview with L’Aura Hladik, author, researcher and founder of the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society (NJGHS), who was at the library for a pre-Halloween program on hauntings. I had asked Hladik for some ghost-hunting tips because, as much as I would like to, I have never encountered a
ghost. At least, to my knowledge. (Sometimes I wonder if people I shared NYC subway cars with late at night were actually among the living.) I have friends, people not given to flights of fancy, who claim to have seen a spirit, and others who have reported inexplicable experiences, such as feeling a cold breeze sweep over them in a shuttered
201-991-1300 KEARNY OFFICE 213 Kearny Ave, Kearny, New Jersey
C21Semiaokearny@Century21.com
room. But for me, zilch. It is now my intention to visit some of the reputedly haunted places in New York and New Jersey that Hladik described in her lecture. I had hoped to start with the Bridge Cafe on Water St. in Manhattan, but apparently it has been closed since being flooded by Superstorm Sandy. see GHOSTS page
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