Wednesday, January 9, 2013
The two councilmen were chose to serve as president and vice president of the body at Tuesday night's reorganization meeting.
The votes were in Tuesday night at the Woodbridge Council reorganization meeting, and it was unanimous. Councilman Charles Kenny was picked to be president for 2013, and Councilman Kyle Anderson was chosen to serve as the governing body's vice president. Kenny will replace outgoing Council President Gregg Ficarra. The counci meeting was packed with Boy Scouts and nominees for various positions filled by the council and Mayor John McCormac, who also stopped by the reorganization session. By far, though, the citizens who showed up for the reorganization weren't there for the festivities. They were there to express their concern about the aftereffects of Hurricane Sandy, more than two months after the superstorm's tidal surge wrecked their …
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Woodbridge governing bodies will be reorganizing this month. Here's the list of when and where.
It's a New Year, and time for the Woodbridge Council, the Board of Education, and other township bodies to schedule their organization meetings. Here's the schedule for the first meetings of 2013: Follow Woodbridge Patch on Facebook, Twitter and sign up for the daily newsletter.
Monday, December 31, 2012
You might be surprised.
What stories grabbed the biggest audiences this year on Woodbridge Patch? Some are the ones you might expect, but there are a few that might surprise you - particularly the biggest attention-grabber. School cheating, the resignation of John Crowe, and the turmoil surrounding the school district was high on the list. The death of Cpl. Kevin Reinhard, a huge apartment blaze in Avenel that left a hundred people homeless, and Hurricane Sandy all topped local news. A police officer who saved a woman being held hostage at Woodbridge Center was another big story, as was the collapse of the former Great Indoors parking deck and the news that Mayor John McCormac welcomed a medical marijuana warehouse to Woodbridge, whose arrival was veiled in …
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Mayor John McCormac is among 67 New Jersey mayors asking for changes in federal law in response to the Newtown, CT shootings.
Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac joined other mayors across the country today in sending a letter to President Barack Obama regarding the school shootings in Newtown, CT and the need to change gun legislation in the United States. McCormac is among several other local mayors - including Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, Edison Mayor Antonia Ricigliano, and Linden Mayor Richard J. Gerbounka - who have joined the coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The group, which includes more than 750 mayors nationwide and 67 in New Jersey, is led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The letter read, in part, "As mayors, we are charged with keeping our communities safe. But too many of us have sat with mothers and …
First it was a Nativity scene at the municipal building that was a problem...now it looks like a huge lighted menorah may be an issue as well.
The addition of secular holiday decorations and a 'Happy Kwanzaa' sign this holiday season might've made the constitutionality of the Woodbridge Nativity scene on Town Hall property a little more within the realm of law. There may still be a problem, though, around the other side of the building: the placement of a huge Menorah at the entrance to the Municipal Building. That may be a violation of the separation of church and state, said Patrick Elliott, an attorney with the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) who has taken issue before with the township's use of religious displays on public property. The menorah, a symbol of Hanukkah and Judaism's 'Holiday of Lights', may not be the issue, Elliott said, as much as the context in …
40.555569
-74.275928
Woodbridge Township Municipal Offices
1 Main St, Woodbridge, NJ
/articles/menorah-placement-at-town-hall-may-be-unconstitutional-says-atheist-group
750707
/locations/8425667
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Facebook users are, on the whole, overjoyed that the Nativity scene is up this year on township property.
The Nativity scene, a staple of holiday decorating in Woodbridge, was late arriving on town hall property this year. Letters written by the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) to Mayor John McCormac last year objected to the display. FFRF is an atheist activist group from Wisconsin that operates nationwide on situations they view as being unconstitutional - such as erecting Nativity scenes on public property. A nativity by itself on town hall property is "an unconstitutional endorsement of religion," said Patrick Elliott, an FFRF attorney. When the story that the Nativity was missing was posted on Woodbridge Patch's Facebook page early Monday morning, it drew a lot of comments. "One person complained and we cave..........very sad, …
40.555569
-74.275928
Woodbridge Township Municipal Offices
1 Main St, Woodbridge, NJ
/articles/woodbridge-residents-thrilled-nativity-scene-is-on-display
750707
/locations/8370768
The no-bid contract to upgrade camera surveillance at the skateboard park was approved by the town council.
The cost to monitor the goings-on at a Woodbridge skateboard park will cost a tenth of the price of the skateboard park itself. The Woodbridge council approved a resolution that will fund an almost $55,000 camera surveillance system to be upgraded at the skateboard park located next to the Evergreen Center in the Colonia section of the township. The skateboard park itself cost $500,000 in borrowed money. It still hasn't been officially opened yet, but that hasn't stopped skateboarders, including some with New York license plates, from using the park on a daily, and noisy, basis. The skateboard haven is located cheek-by-jowl with St. John Vianney Church, whose proximity to the township-run skateboard park has proven to be a headache. …
40.599391
-74.320386
St. John Vianney Roman Catholic Church
420 Inman Ave, Colonia, NJ
/articles/township-bonds-55k-for-skateboard-park-surveillance-system
1853742
/locations/8368992
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
But the legal wrangling over a religious display on public property might not be over yet.
Just when you might've thought all was lost, Woodbridge's traditional Nativity display made its way back onto Town Hall property late Monday afternoon. It was in its normal place on the busy corner of Main Street and Rahway Avenue. But this year, the creche display had some company. A lit up Santa Claus, a Christmas tree of lights, and several reindeer accompanied the display on one side, while a big green "Happy Kwanzaa" sign decorated the other. That was the township administration's nod to a protest lodged last year by the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), a national atheist education and lobbying group in Wisconsin, about the display of a religious display on public property. The sudden addition of secular holiday decoration …
40.555569
-74.275928
Woodbridge Township Municipal Offices
1 Main St, Woodbridge, NJ
/articles/nativity-scene-is-back-this-year-at-town-hall
750707
/locations/8359115
Monday, December 10, 2012
Get your pet's picture taken with Santa this Sunday.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- Deborah Bell
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Monday, December 10, 2012
It will be five years since the Woodbridge Animal Shelter and Pet Rescue Center opened its doors, and on Sunday, they'll be celebrating. The volunteer group, which helps run the township-owned shelter, will mark the event on Sunday, December 16, from 12 noon to 4 pm at the facility on Woodbridge Avenue in Sewaren. Anyone with a pet can have their picture taken with Santa for a $5 donation. Refreshments will also be offered, and a special effort is made to gather adopters and their pets to the shelter for a joyful reunion. For more information, go to their Facebook page or call 732-855-0600, ext. 5007. Follow Woodbridge Patch on Facebook, Twitter and sign up for the daily newsletter.
40.553529
-74.266212
Woodbridge Animal Shelter & Pet Adoption Center
195 Woodbridge Ave, Sewaren, NJ
/articles/woodbridge-animal-shelter-to-celebrate-5th-anniversary
1835356
/locations/8348668
Thursday, December 6, 2012
The Woodbridge councilman explained the circumstances of an unpaid traffic ticket and a bench warrant arrest in November.
Timing is everything, and Councilman Kyle Anderson admitted his timing last month between paying for a traffic ticket acquired over the summer and being pulled over the next day for a broken headlight couldn't have been worse. Anderson said in public session at the December 4 council meeting that he had been arrested on a bench warrant for a speeding ticket he hadn't paid from late summer. The worst part about it is that Anderson was pulled over for the headlight on Tuesday, November 13, the day after he had sent the payment in to Westampton, the Burlington County municipality that handles ticket monies for Turnpike traffic violations in that part of the state. The clerk there confirmed to him on Wednesday they had received his payment. "…
Mr. Jessie Ponce
5:47 am on Thursday, January 10, 2013
Congratulations Kyle, keep up the good work. A well earned and deserved position and a great future for woodbridge. more ›