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Emerson • Hillsdale • Montvale • Park Ridge • River Vale • Township of Washington • Westwood • Woodcliff Lake
VOLUME 23 ISSUE 45
PA S C AC K VA L L E Y ’ S BEST H O M E TO W N N E W S PA P E R
AND DOMINIQUE Valentine’s FIGHTS ON Greetings
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Published in February 10th Edition SEE PAGE 2
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Foundation furthers a daughterʼs mission
BILL TO END RELIGIOUS VACCINE EXEMPTIONS DELAYED
BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
See VACCINES on page 304
TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON
8 NEW LOTS
WIN PRELIM APPROVAL BY DEFAULT Engineerʼs lapse eases high-end subdivision
BY JOHN SNYDER OF PASCACK PRESS
PASCACK VALLEY
Advocates for a bill to eliminate religious exemptions to vaccines—cited by an estimated 14,000 students statewide— vowed to reintroduce the measure soon after coming up one vote short in the last legislative session Jan. 13 after hundreds of vocal anti-vaccine parents and supporters rallied against its passage. The increase in unvaccinated children has jumped more than 600% from a decade ago, warned health officials, with measles cases also increasing nationally and a regional outbreak in nearby Rockland County, New York, in early 2019. Opponents said the bill violated their constitutional rights by requiring them to vaccinate their children against their will. Many opponents charge that vaccinations may cause more harm than good, though medical professionals vouch for the value of vaccines to prevent a variety of childhood infectious diseases, which may turn deadly if left untreated. Despite several last-minute attempts to reach a compromise by allowing parents to send unvac-
JANUARY 20, 2020
MICHAEL AND GINA FRANCO, parents of the late Dominique Franco of Park Ridge, stand at the wall plaque placed to honor Dominique’s contributions to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. The family has launched a foundation, Dominique Franco’s St. Jude’s Journey, to continue her devoted fundraising work against cancer.
BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
PARK RIDGE—Her legacy of giving—of time, money and love to help kids with cancer— lives on. In February 2019, resident Dominique Franco, 21, passed away while at the University of Rhode Island, leaving hundreds of family, friends and acquaintances in pain and mourning the untimely end of a young womanʼs life.
Her funeral Mass, at Our Lady Mother of the Church in Woodcliff Lake, drew nearly 1,000 mourners, including her sorority sisters from the University of Rhode Island. Prior to her passing, Franco, a junior at URI studying nursing, had been selflessly dedicated to holding fundraisers— she organized her first one at age 7—that contributed thousands of dollars to cancer research at Hackensack Meridian Healthʼs Tomorrows Chil-
TOP PHOTO COURTESY MICHAEL FRANCO
drenʼs Fund and St. Jude Childrenʼs Research Hospital in Memphis. Part of her motivation was loss she and her family suffered over the years: at 1 she lost her grandfathers to cancer. The disease took her great-grandmother when she was 4. Her uncle succumbed to it when she was 12. Moreover, a cousin was stabbed to death in 2014, the same year another of her grand-
Continued on page 20
Mayor Peter Calamari said “a breakdown in communication” led to a luxury home subdivision scoring preliminary major approval “by default” at the Planning Board reorganization meeting on Jan. 8. There was no notice given to abutters in the two towns affected, no advertisement in the newspaper, and no public hearing toward approval. Coming into sharp focus now are eight new Zone AAA singlefamily homes on approximately 9.3 acres at Wearimus Road and Gorga Place, near the Ho-Ho-Kus border. The applicant is 34 Maple LLC, managed by Joseph G. Berardo of Alpine, Julie Anne Papatheodorou of River Vale, Joseph A. Berardo of North Bergen, and Jennifer M. Berardo of the Township of Washington. 34 Maple LLC is subdividing Block 1201 Lot 1 and Block 1101.01 Lot 5.01 into eight conforming lots, two of which would have access to Wearimus Road. In order to provide access to the bulk of the lots, the owner is extending Gorga Place. Because the Planning Board engineer—Paul Azzolina of Azzolina & Feury Engineering— did not report out the application, and the matter lay more than 45 days without generating a review letter, municipal land use law
See DEFAULT on page 94
A SWEET SOUND
B ck in time...
Pascack Valley High School’s Tri-M Music Honor Society hosts its annual Winter Coffeehouse on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. in the school cafeteria. SEE PAGE 19
A reservoir in fair Woodcliff? In 1903, the town’s 400 residents were a people divided. Fortunately, Woodcliff Lake prevailed. SEE PAGE 4