Yearly Archives: 2018

Live On Stage, Local Live Theater

A FINE ROMANCE   Mile Square Theatre’s Driving Miss Daisy opens Jan. 31

 

  Pulitzer Prize Play Resonates in These Turbulent Times

 By Sally Deering

 Driving Miss Daisy Mile Square City Hoboken

A three-hander – a play featuring three actors – can be an intimate theater experience, especially when its performed in Mile Square Theatre’s gem of a performance space on Clinton Street in Hoboken. In this case, the three-hander is the Pulitzer Prize winning play Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry, the story of an aging Southern Belle, Daisy Werthan, and her aging African-American chauffeur, Hoke Colburn. During the course of the play, these two seniors, with a lot of history behind them, cover 25 years of a relationship that begins as a thorny dance between two strangers and develops into a deep love between two friends.

Driving Miss Daisy Mile Square Theater Hoboken
Count Stovall, Barbara Broughton, Matthew Lawler
star in “Driving Miss Daisy” at MST in Hoboken

Driving Miss Daisy opens Wed., Jan. 31, and runs through Sun., Feb. 25, and features Barbara Broughton, Count Stovall and Matthew Lawler. Broughton, who plays Daisy, was recently seen on Broadway in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. Stovall, who plays Hoke, was in Broadway’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Lawler, who plays Daisy’s son Boolie was in MST’s Betrayal and has been seen in ABC’s The Family. Continue reading A FINE ROMANCE   Mile Square Theatre’s Driving Miss Daisy opens Jan. 31 →

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Jersey City Medical Center Employment and Education Expo

Jersey City Medical Center

Jersey City Medical Center is hosting an Employment and Education Expo on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 from 12:00pm-4:00pm at the Mary Bethune Center, 140 Martin Luther King Drive. Jersey City, NJ 07305.  Hudson County residents looking for employment, a better job opportunity, or a new career direction will find a wealth of exciting opportunities at this employment and education expo.

Attendees will have an opportunity to meet face to face with local employers as well as schools offering specialized training to further prepare them for a sustainable career.

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Bayonne High School Juniors and Seniors Invited to Apply for Scholarship

Bayonne  Mayor Jimmy Davis announced that high school seniors and juniors who live in Bayonne are invited to take part in the Louis Bay Future Municipal Leaders Scholarship Competition.  The local competition
is open to high school juniors and seniors who are Bayonne residents who plan to continue their education after high school.  This scholarship program is sponsored statewide by the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, which is offering three $1,000 scholarships
to winners from across the state.

 The purpose of this scholarship is to advance the virtues of elected and volunteer positions in municipal government while raising awareness of municipal government in general.  The scholarship
competition is named in honor of Louis Bay II, former Mayor of Hawthorne, New Jersey.  

 Qualified students who are residents of Bayonne need to do two things to enter the scholarship contest: 1) Fill out an application form, which is available at the Office of the Mayor.  2) Write an essay on the theme

“What My Municipal Government Does Best.” The essay should be based on the student’s perceptions and experiences with the City of Bayonne’s municipal government.  The essay should consider the public contributions of your municipal government.
The length of the essay should be approximately 500 words.  Essays must be submitted to Mayor Davis’s office in hard copy by Friday, March 9, 2018, at 4:30 p.m., along with the application form. 

                Judging will be based solely on the essay.  Please do not include any other information such as transcripts or references.  Judging criteria will include the appropriateness of the essay’s theme;
effective articulation of the theme; originality; technical composition; spelling; and syntax.
                A committee established by Mayor Davis will judge the essays submitted by Bayonne resident students.  The Bayonne committee will select the winning local entry.  By April 2, that entry will be
sent to the New Jersey State League of Municipalities in Trenton, along with a list of all other entrants, who will receive certificates of participation.  On May 4, the League of Municipalities will announce fifteen statewide finalists and three statewide
winners.  Between May 9 and May 25, awards will be presented to the three scholarship winners in local ceremonies around the state.   

                The New Jersey State League of Municipalities is a voluntary organization created to help communities do a better job of self-government through pooling information, resources, and brainpower.
The League is authorized by state statute, and has been serving local officials throughout New Jersey since 1915.  All of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities are members of the League.  The highlight of the League’s activities is its annual conference, which is
held each November at the Atlantic City Convention Center.  At the 2017 League Conference, more than 16,000 delegates, participants, and guests attended, representing the largest municipal gathering in the country. 

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Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop Increases CCTV System By More Than 100%

Boosting Surveillance Capabilities and Other Crime Deterrence Efforts

In 2018, forty additional cameras in ten locations will be installed throughout Jersey City, for a total of nearly 200 CCTV cameras citywide

JERSEY CITY –
Mayor Steven M. Fulop and Public Safety Director James Shea announce today Jersey City’s new CCTV camera system is expanding with the instillation of 40 additional cameras in high crime areas.  Phase II of the CCTV project will be completed in the new year, which includes extending fiber lines in accordance with plans to expand the system even further.

“We’ve been working to modernize the antiquated and unreliable CCTV system we inherited with an updated, state-of-the-art system strategically mapped out with multiple cameras covering our problem areas,” said Mayor Fulop.  “The cameras will enable surveillance in real-time and for review, considerably enhancing our efforts to increase public safety citywide.”

When Mayor Fulop took office in 2013, there were 50 functioning cameras throughout Jersey City.  Upon the completion of Phase I, there are now 107 new cameras.  With Phase II moving forward
in the new year, 40 additional cameras are currently being installed and implemented for a total of 197 cameras citywide.  Each of the new 147 cameras are operating at 5-times more clarity compared to the city’s former 1-megapixel technology.

Phase II includes 10 new locations totaling 40 cameras:

1.
Dwight and Ocean Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

2.
Winfield and Ocean Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

3.
Bartholdi and Ocean Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

4.
Fulton and Ocean Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

5.
Lexington and Bergen Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

6.
Bayview and Garfield Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

7.
Monticello and Brinkerhoff Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

8.
Monticello and Belmont Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

9.
Monticello and Jewitt Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

10.
Monticello and Gardner Avenues (4 HD Fixed Cameras)

Phase I and Phase II total approximately $850,000 and are a combination of Department of Homeland Security Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) funds and capital
budget funds.  The cameras serve not only to assist the police, but can also be used for evacuation and emergency scenarios.

Phase II also includes laying down fiber lines as well as extending them from existing lines to the new and future locations.

“These new cameras use the latest technology, strengthening our other crime reduction efforts as we continue to see downward trends in violent and nonviolent crimes,” said Mayor Fulop.  “Strategically placing the cameras in our problem areas is multifunctional, serving not only as a crime deterrent, but the surveillance footage can also serve as a crucial piece of evidence in court.”

“We realized we were spending an exorbitant amount of money constantly repairing the old cameras, and therefore decided it would be much more effective to start from scratch,” said
Director Shea.  “The previous system used one user controlled, pan-tilt-zoom camera per location, and was oftentimes pointing in the wrong direction at the time of an incident being investigated.  We moved to a system with four stationary cameras at each location, providing more coverage at each location.”

This first part of Phase II brings the city to the halfway mark of the administration’s overall goal of over 50 locations citywide.

Phase I of the CCTV project includes 6 parks and 13 street locations.  The prior system, which was comprised of 150 cameras, was installed
in phases between eight and fifteen years ago using Urban Enterprise Zone funds, which meant they were placed in business districts throughout the city – not the most effective locations. The locations for the new cameras are based on crime data identifying
areas of historically higher crime, our municipal parks and using feedback from the community. Additionally, the old cameras hadn’t been serviced in several years once the state withdrew UEZ revenue from municipalities, which meant at times a third or more
were out of service.

 

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CHILLY-CHILI-BANG-BANG- Bayonne Heats Winter Brrrs with Chili Contest

  Bayonne Heats Winter Brrrs with Chili Contest

  Family Fun; Contestants Vie for Champ Title

 

By Sally Deering

Chili Chili Bang Bang  

If you’ve got a hankerin’ for some hot stuff to warm these frigid cold nights, then mark your calendar for Bayonne’s first ever Chili Cook Off Competition, where 15 professional chefs plan to do whatever it takes to walk away with the title of Best Chili Champ of Bayonne!

 

Bayonne 1st Annual Chili Cook Off

As temps drop to single digits, Bayonne will be heating up its pots and pans for the First Annual Chili Cook-Off Contest to be held Friday, Jan. 19th, from 6:30-11 pm at the Polish American Home on 22nd Street in Bayonne. There, residents and friends will taste the offerings of 15 qualified chefs competing for best chili recipe, but Chili Cook-Off attendees beware: this cook-off promises to bring on the hot stuff with crates of chili peppers, ladles of Cayenne and Cumin seasonings and gallons of tongue-lashing hot sauce guaranteed to set your taste-buds on fire. Continue reading CHILLY-CHILI-BANG-BANG- Bayonne Heats Winter Brrrs with Chili Contest →

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News from Bayonne for January 2018 -Bayonne Bridge Update -Black History Essay Contest

Bayonne Bridge Update

            The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has provided the City of Bayonne with updated information about Bayonne Bridge construction and demolition activities.

            Demolition of piers (columns), steel, and roadway segments of the old version of the bridge has been completed in Bayonne’s residential areas.  Demolition is taking place now between 1st Street and the Kill Van Kull.

            Bridge construction (roadway segments) is taking place over Juliette Street.

            Street closings: Margaret Street is closed until 2019.  Juliette Street is closed until some point in early 2018.  West 3rd Street is closed until mid-to-late 2018.  Gertrude Street is closed until May 2018.

 

Black History Month Essay Contest Announced for Bayonne Students

                Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis and the Bayonne Youth Center have announced a Black History Month Essay Contest.  The competition is open to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who are residents of Bayonne. 

                The purpose of the contest is to honor African-Americans and their contributions to the City of Bayonne or Hudson County.  Students competing in the contest must compose an essay discussing a particular African-American resident of the City of Bayonne or Hudson County (past or present).  This person should inspire the student, due to his or her significant achievements that have had an impact on our society.  This essay contest is an opportunity for the students to honor role models, community leaders, historical figures, or others.  Essays will be judged on content, grammar, spelling, and facts.

                The essay must address the following content: 1.) Discuss the contributions of this individual who has served to inspire and motivate.  2.)  How has this person impacted the City of Bayonne or Hudson County?

                Essay length should be 300 to 500 words.  The essays are due by 4:30 p.m., Monday, January 22, 2018, and are to be dropped off at the Mayor’s Office at City Hall, 630 Avenue C.  Winners will be contacted on Monday, January 29.  The winners and their immediate family members will be guests at Mayor Davis’s Jazz and Blues Social, which will be held on Thursday, February 8, 2018, at the Polish American Home.  Three prizes will be awarded: $400 for first prize, $250 for second prize, and $100 for third prize.

                Please address any questions about the contest by e-mail to either [email protected] or [email protected].

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Quick Check Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for New Bayonne Crossing Shopping Center Location

Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis prepares to cut the Ribbon at the new 5,496 Sq.ft Quick Check located at Bayonne Crossing Shopping Center.

 Mayor Davis and Quick Check Whitehorse Station CEO Dean Durling, and The Bayonne City Council, along with other Quick Check management and employees and members of the Bayonne High School Band took part in the new store location ribbon cutting.

The new Quick Check also has 8 pumping stations,

47 parking spaces, indoor seating for 10 and is open 24 hours.