January 21, 2015 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVII, No. 35 Visit our
BUSINESS DIRECT on
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
$3.7M deficit confirmed
RY
Page 22
• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
4th year for CANstruction
By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
BELLEVILLE – Well, now it’s official. An audit of the Belleville Board of Education for the 2013-2014 school year has confirmed what school officials and the district’s state monitor had suspected all along … that the district did, indeed, overspend its budget. As best it could determine from BOE records available, the Fairlawn auditing firm of Lerch, Vinci & Higgins LLP has estimated that deficit at $3,712,426. Jeff Bliss, a CPA and a partner in the firm, offered an overview of why it happened at a special BOE meeting last Tuesday and, as he proceeded, each revelation elicited groans from members of the audience filling much of Belleville High School auditorium. Copies of a summary of the audit’s findings were available for public view at the meeting and the BOE also posted more detailed explanations from the audit on its website. Bliss said the audit report contained a whopping 67 recommendations – an unheard of number for a typical school audit. Of those, 15 deal with what Bliss characterized as “material weaknesses in internal [fiscal] controls” which reflect “material errors see DEFICIT page
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Photo courtesy Cindy Guzman
Getting ready for another season are Kearny CANstruction volunteers ( from l.) Kearny High School Principal Al Gilson, the Rev. Joseph Mancini, Mayor Alberto Santos, Kearny Board of Education Vice President Cecilia Lindenfelser, Councilwoman Carol Jean Doyle, KHS seniors Ricardo Silva, Marco Martins and Bryan Rodriguez, Superintendent of Schools Patricia Blood, Robert Neu, Kearny BOE President James Doran and Melody LaRossa.
By Karen Zautyk Observer Correspondent KEARNY –
S
everal years ago, Paul Rogers of Kearny visited a unique exhibit in Manhattan. Sponsored by
We’d guess that 99% of the people who saw that exhibit left it thinking, “That’s nice.” And then went about their business. However, Rogers is not 99% of people. He left inspired. He left determined
a group called CANstruction, it featured wonderfully imaginative “sculptures” that students created from canned goods. Following the project, the food would be donated to the needy.
Medical school will be Roche tenant By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
NUTLEY – Roche USA, the Swissbased pharmaceutical company that is marketing its 118-acre property straddling Nutley and Clifton, continues to seek a buyer for the site
but has inked a tenant for part of the site. Roche spokeswoman Darien Wilson said last week that the Tom Lyon, vice president of Roche Nutley (as the property is designated), has signed a “letter of intent” with Robert C. Garrett, president/CEO of Hackensack
University Health Network, for the leasing of one of Roche’s former research buildings for the operation of a medical school. Terms of the lease remain to be negotiated, Wilson said. At the same time, Wilson said, Roche -- which last year paid $7.1 million in taxes to
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to bring CANstruction to his hometown. And what started with one man has expanded into an annual event involving high school and college students, see CANSTRUCTIONpage
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Nutley (supplemented by $2.7 million in special state transitional aid) -- is “still in the process of identifying a buyer for the [entire] site.” Asked when Roche anticipated a sale, Wilson said: “We’re very close see ROCHE page
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