Week in Review: Housing Development Approved for Kinderkamack Road

With changes to the location of three refuge bins onsite and an offer to complete the remaining 200 feet of Kinderkamack Road streetscape, the Now Atkins LLC project for a  at 230 Kinderkamack Road in River Edge received the borough's Planning Board approval.

For an additional $142 increase on their tax bills, River Edge taxpayers will be getting a $14,262,064.93 municipal budget in 2012 that does not include any employee furloughs for the first time in several years. The budget will receive final approval later this month.

Coming in under the state mandated 2% tax levy cap may have been the easiest thing so far for the Borough of Oradell as work continues on the 2012 municipal budget. Currently, the governing body is looking at a budget that comes a mere $165 under cap but is facing several unknowns including how many delinquent taxes they could be facing.

Just in time for World Autism Awareness Day, members from the River Edge Girl Scout Troop #160 who attend  organized a "Light It Up Blue Day" in all three River Edge Elementary Schools for Monday, to help shine a light on autism. Each of the Girl Scouts were "buddied" together with students from the Building Bridges program at  who are on the autism spectrum.

It's been almost two years since Stephen Farrell of River Edge lost his fight with melanoma cancer. Diagnosed in 1998, he spent many years dedicating his life to his children and the RiverDell youth by coaching various athletic leagues from soccer, basketball, baseball and softball. This year, Farrell's family along with members from the  boys lacrosse and wrestling teams along with the youth Blackhawks will participate in the  in his honor while raising funds for the Susan Fazio Foundation for Melanoma Research.

For many the prospect of leaving home for a better life follows a specific path - go to school, move out on your own and make a living. Silvana Raso did things a little different because at the age of two, she and her parents left all of their belongings in Communist Romania and fled to South Africa. Eight years later they came to California and moved around the states before she found herself in Oradell in the early 1990s. A partner at law firm Schepisi & McLaughlin in Englewood Cliffs, she has dedicated her law career as an advocate for family law including protecting domestic abuse victims and neglected children.

River Dell school funding hearing set

Hearing dates have been scheduled for July 16 and 17 for the state Office of Administrative Law to decide whether a new formula should be instituted to fund the River Dell Regional School District. The hearing, a result of a petition from Oradell to the state, will be the latest step in the borough's quest to change the way the district is funded.

This June when votes take to the polls for the Primary election, candidates for local council positions will already be set. Instead residents can focus on who will represent the November ballot Freeholder candidates. Former River Edge Mayor Peg Watkins is seeking one of two open positions on the County Freeholder Board. Running for two three-year terms in River Edge are Democrats Robert Levine and Vito Acquafredda, incumbent Republican Paul Cordts and his running mate Anthony Cappola. In Oradell incumbent Republicans Donna Risse Alonos and James Koth are seeking releection for two three-year terms in an uncontested race.

For a group of former third graders in Ridgewood, the volunteer age requirement to be a part of the Waldwick Habitat for Humanityproject last year wasn't even considered a deterent. Instead five young boys as part of the  classes baked over 100 pies to donate to the organization for their upcoming .