Find out who’ll be cooking up a storm on the small screen on Food.

Tonight, at 7:30 p.m., find out what every parent should know about kids and sports from an expert panel at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center. Topics covered include the benefits/drawbacks of travel and club teams, what you can do to be a terrific sports parent and the myths and truths of college scholarships. Panelists include Dave Masur, St. John’s head soccer coach; Jerry Walker, former Seton Hall basketball star; Ken Bernabe of the NJSIAA; and Chris Politan, youth coach and sports parent.
Admission is $5. Call (973) 655-6891 or e-mail Museum director Dave Kaplan at david.yogi@montclair.edu to RSVP.
If you have or had kids active in sports, give us your best advice in comments.

In what sounds like a deja vu, a group of Montclair homeowners, who live within eyeshot and earshot of Montclair State University, are having another “there goes the neighborhood” moment after word filtered out about the university’s plan to buy a single family home at 36 Normal Avenue.
In August of 2007, the same community was up in arms about the university’s plan to convert a home they owned at 30 Normal Avenue to a graduate dorm. With the addition of another Normal Avenue home to the campus inventory, a resident (who prefers to remain anonymous) says there’s fear that the university’s grand plan is to eventually take over the whole block – expanding the campus too close to the family-oriented neighborhood. Uncertain how the property will be used, residents hope to learn more at a community open house scheduled on campus next Tuesday. That’s when the university will present its campus beautification project known as the “College Avenue Promenade and Carlisle-Normal Avenue Improvements.” A group of 30 concerned residents have asked for a meeting next week with Councilor Rich Murnick to discuss details and implications of the plans.
Community Relations Director Julie Adams said in an email, that the meeting will give the public the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed enhancement project. The open house will be held in Room 419 of the Student Center on campus, 3 – 7 p.m.

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Finslippy mama-bloggerista Alice Bradley is deserting Baristaville this weekend. She and her hubby gave suburbia a three year trial, but Brooklyn, always tugging at their citified heartstrings, won them back. So ok, Alpha-mom Alice can’t appreciate the burdens joys of home ownership and won’t look back. I love living in Baristaville, but would have to agree that gardening is over-rated – at least when you’ve got teenagers in the house. How does she really feel? Alice’s soul-barring RAQ (recently asked questions) rekindle the quintessential suburbs v. city debate. Tell us, would you ever, are you dying to go back?

The “PAWS” name is gone, and the projected opening date of Montclair’s animal shelter is now April 1, says town manager Joe Hartnett. When checking to see if the town will meet its goal to open next week, Hartnett told us extensive repair of the building – much more than originally anticipated – has set them back.
“We filled three dumpsters with debris, have had to fumigate three times for roaches (and there are still some), and are getting prices to get walls, ductwork, plumbing and counters repaired. The building’s not that old, but it’s in really bad shape,” says Hartnett.
The town’s plan is to make Montclair Animal Shelter a top-class facility, sheltering the town’s strays as well as those from Verona, Glen Ridge, and Nutley.

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Montclair resident and fellow blogger, Seth Harris, is headed back to Washington to serve in the Obama administration, the White House announced this week. From PolitickerNJ:

Harris is a professor at New York Law School and was an official on the Obama transition team for labor, education and transportation.
During the Clinton years he served as Counselor to the Secretary of Labor and Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy, according to an Obama Administration press release.

Congrats to Seth!