Emerson • Hillsdale • Montvale • Park Ridge • River Vale • Township of Washington • Westwood • Woodcliff Lake
PA S C AC K VA L L E Y ’ S H O M E TO W N N E W S PA P E R
VOLUME 27 ISSUE 49
‘1776’ in Emerson
FEBRUARY 19, 2024
THE SAFE PLACE AIDAN BUILT Wellness Center at St. Joeʼs opens in blessing
WESTWOOD
BOROUGH SETS REC USES TO ENERGIZE ‘KMART PLAZA’ BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
March performances to delight at Emerson Jr-Sr High School. PAGE 8
WOODCLIFF LAKE
‘READY TO GO’ ON GALAXY GARDENS PARK BIDS
Advertising likely to go out in spring; amenities due residents are said long in the making
BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
Borough officials unanimously approved advertising for bids Feb. 12 on the long-awaited Galaxy Gardens Park in advance of official approval of their park design plans from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The parkʼs design was unveiled in summer 2022 by Frances Reiner, architect, DMR Architects, to much fanfare and was posted on the borough website. Council approved a resoluSee BIDS on page 54
A
Left to right in the Wellness Center: Grandpa Martin Huvane, SJRHS principal Michael Bruno, mom Sarah Rooney Huvane, dad Robert Huvane, Eagle Scout candidate Aidan Huvane, Fr. Bob Stagg, wellness counselor Bobby Rissetto, director of guidance Arlene DiFiore, muralist Marco Santini, and alumni mom (and designer) Colleen Daly Schuh. BY JOHN SNYDER OF PASCACK PRESS
HUVANE, Eagle Scout candidate with Troop 109 in Hillsdale, thanks all who gave their winning best toward his Eagle Scout project: establishing a wellness center at his high school, Saint Joseph Regional, in Montvale. The new center—previously the site of a drab storage room at the Roman Catholic boysʼ prep school, but since reimagined through love and community can-do spirit—officially opened on Monday, Feb. 5 with a formal IDAN
blessing led by Father Bob Stagg and Msgr. Peter Smutelovic. SJRHS says the site will
5PHOTOS BY BRIAN BODNER - SJR CLASS OF 2027
FROM THE HEART Members of the GFWC/NJSFWC The Woman’s Club of Westwood prepare cards for Brookdale Senior Living residents on the occasion of Valentine’s Day. PAGE 9
give students a place to talk with newly hired wellness counselor
Continued on page 27
Aiming to spur on tenancy at the Westwood Plaza—including at the now vacant former Kmart building—the Borough Council unanimously approved a zoning change Feb. 6 for its shopping center district that permits a variety of recreational businesses that operate entirely within a building. The last Kmart in the Garden State shuttered its doors last September, following nearly 41 years in operation at the plaza, where it served as anchor store for a variety of retail outlets, including TJ Maxx, European Wax Center, Mattress Firm, GNC, and The UPS Store. The change for shopping centers permits commercial indoor recreation “including instructional sports training businesses for a fee, courts for tennis, squash, handball and racquetball; skating rinks, including roller and/or ice skating, bowling alleys, golf driving range, gymnastics facility and similar recreational uses provided that their activities are carried on entirely within the enclosed building.”
See PLAZA on page 254
B ck in time... The photograph was snapped on Pascack Road (or Main Street, as it was called then) in Park Ridge on a winter’s day more than a century ago. Kristin Beuscher reports. PAGE 4