BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield UNICO, the Italian service organization, held its 26th annual Columbus Day observance this past Monday morning, Oct. 10, at the Christopher Columbus monument on the Green, across Broad Street from the Civic Center. Always a charming public event in Bloomfield, it attracted a small gathering of fourth-grade essayists, parents, principals, police […]
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Glen Ridge School District has a new buildings and grounds supervisor. Robert Gomes was hired to this position Sept. 1 and comes to the borough with considerable experience. Gomes, 52, has his roots in the area, having grown up in Bloomfield, on Harrison Street off Newark Avenue. His paternal grandfather […]
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — William Indek, the former Glen Ridge High School cross-country and track coach, and guidance counselor, recently recalled how being a counselor informed his approach to coaching. Born in the Bronx, Indek, 75, grew up on Staten Island, attending Port Richmond High School, where he ran cross-country and track. He then attended […]
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — A public forum on solar energy attracted a handful of environmental activists to the Civic Center on Tuesday, Sept. 27, to hear four speakers. The forum, according to one speaker, was scheduled to take advantage of the hopes raised by the recent approval of a bipartisan federal bill, the Inflation Reduction Act. […]
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — September is a busy month for Bloomfield Public Schools students, and several districtwide activities were on display last week at Watsessing Elementary School. Hispanic Heritage Month, a national observance from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, was in full swing for each grade, and the yearlong, student-led Wingman program kicked off with an […]
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Sponsored by the borough’s recreation department, the popular Glen Ridge Singer/Songwriters Series takes the stage on Friday, Sept. 30, at 8 p.m., at the Glen Ridge train station on Ridgewood Avenue. Two acts fill the bill: Ed Seifert with Stimulus Package, and Loretta Hagen. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. There is […]
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — “Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern,” a biography of the seminal 20th-century dancer and choreographer, and a 14-year undertaking by Glen Ridge resident Neil Baldwin, began for Baldwin with probably the same experience as anyone else experiencing Martha Graham choreography for the first time: an epiphany. Baldwin, an emeritus professor of […]
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — One afternoon last week, Paul Williams, 85, related his experiences serving as Bloomfield High School’s running coach. He had been head coach for cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track from 1961 to 2002. Born in Jersey City, he moved with his family to Dearborn, Mich., due to his father’s employment with Ford […]
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Two decades of perseverance paid off Aug. 24, 2021, for Stephanie Orgueira-Aponte, 32, when she was hired as the first female Bloomfield Fire Department firefighter. A graduate of Nutley High School, Class of 2009, she moved to Bloomfield four years ago in the hopes of being hired. “I fell in love with […]
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Ask any number of writers how they go about their business and you will likely receive, boiled down, this answer: write, write, write. Simple enough. Ask Eda Uzuncakara, Glen Ridge resident and author of “Jumping on the Drips,” a collection of interconnecting short stories, and you will get two answers: draw, […]