Caldwell Diner Damaged by Fire

Saturday, Aug 28, 2010 8:12am  |  COMMENTS (8)

caldwell diner fire.jpg The building is still standing, but there will be no pancakes this morning at the Caldwell Diner, following a three-alarm fire that erupted around 3:30 a.m. Although there were no flames, tendrils of smoke still wafted from the diner, at 332 Bloomfield Ave. in Caldwell, at 7 a.m. Units from Caldwell, West Caldwell, Essex Fells, Fairfield and Cedar Grove were on the scene. The Caldwell Fire Chief wouldn’t give information on the scene but promised a release on the fire later today.

Christie Fires Schundler For $400 Million Mistake

Friday, Aug 27, 2010 4:28pm  |  COMMENTS (29)

New Jersey’s schools — and now state education commissioner Bret Schundler — are paying for a blunder that cost the state close to $400 million in funding from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competition, reports the Star Ledger. Gov. Chris Christie says he fired Schundler because he “misled” him. Schundler has said he asked to be fired, rather than agree to resign, in order to receive unemployment. The NJEA is blaming Christie. One thing is certain: Someone really blew it for NJ schools.

Millburn Man Arrested for Sexually Abusing Teen

Friday, Aug 27, 2010 4:25pm  |  COMMENTS (2)

olsen2.jpgThis just in (8/27) from the Office of the County Prosecutor:

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino announced today the arrest of Mark W. Olsen, 41, of Millburn on multiple counts of sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl. The abuse allegedly started earlier this year when the girl was 14 years old.
Olsen, who is self-employed, is married and has children of his own. He is accused of touching the girl and kissing her at his home and other locations. The girl was an acquaintance of the family.
Olsen is charged with one count of witness tampering, four counts of endangering the welfare of a child and three counts of criminal sexual contact.

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Tuxedo Cat Missing in Glen Ridge

Friday, Aug 27, 2010 3:50pm  |  COMMENTS (5)

twinkie.jpg
A reader writes that his black-and-white tuxedo, young, female cat went missing in the vicinity of Baldwin Street/Forest Avenue/Outlook Place/Essex Avenue and Clinton Road in Glen Ridge. Her name is Twinkie.
If anyone has seen Twinkie, please contact pets@baristanet.com

This Weekend in Baristaville: A Carnival, Free Chocolate and Charity Concerts

Friday, Aug 27, 2010 3:00pm  |  COMMENTS (1)

st seb carn A.jpgEven though summer is slowly coming to an end, the events occurring throughout Baristaville this weekend are filled with food, music, and fun. Combined with the promise of continued beautiful weather, it’s shaping up to be a good time to get out and about.
Bike/Walk Montclair’s monthly Courteous Mass ride is tonight (Friday, Aug. 27) at 7 p.m., leaving promptly from the Upper Montclair Train Station. Friendly ride, bring a helmet.
This year marks the 84th Annual Saint Sebastian Feast and Carnival, a long-time Italian tradition that will run all weekend at Kaveny Field in Montclair. The festival begins at 5 pm on Friday, and 3 pm on Saturday and Sunday. A procession will take place at 3:30 pm Sunday starting from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

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Cedar Grove Family Become Farmers

Friday, Aug 27, 2010 1:00pm  |  COMMENTS (1)

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“I always loved gardening, and I always said, ‘Some day when I can afford it, I’m going to buy a farm,’” says Anthony Bracco.
Anthony, a graphic design business owner for the past 27 years, realized his dream in 2009. He and his wife, Christa, who live in Cedar Grove, purchased a 25-acre farm on Pine Island, a hamlet in the Town of Warwick in Orange County, New York that is known for its fertile soil.
For the past year, Anthony, Christa and their seven-year old son, Anthony Jr. have overseen Bracco Farms’ entire operations, from planting and harvesting the vegetables to marketing and selling them.
“Organic farming takes a little bit more care — we have to make sure we keep weeds and pests off the vegetables. Other than that, I find that we really don’t have to do much. As long as we treat the earth properly, it works out great,” says Anthony.

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Hot Blooded at the Wellmont

Friday, Aug 27, 2010 12:00pm  |  COMMENTS (5)

ticket winners.jpgRead to the end for CD giveaways.
Last night, Foreigner declared it “party night in NJ” at The Wellmont Theatre, and the crowd of concert fans boisterously approved. Amongst the audience were four lucky Baristanet readers who won tickets to the show, including Montclair’s Doug Elam — a longtime Foreigner fan and Montclair High School alumnus. Doug also won our grand prize, and got to meet the musicians before the show (pictured here with his wife, Ivelisse on his left, the band and Baristanet Editor, Erika Bleiberg).
“Seeing Foreigner at the Wellmont Theater is a really big deal to us,” Elam told Baristanet this morning. “I was a member of the Montclair High School chorus when this band’s first album came out, in 1977. I still have it — it’s a vinyl 33 1/3 rpm record, from 33 1/3 years ago!”
Elam remembers that he bought the album when Star Wars was playing at the Wellmont, back when it was a movie theater. “Having lived down the street from this theater for the past 20 years, it’s very exciting to see them booking big shows and events so close to home.”

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Montclair: Where “Coming Soon” Is The New “I’ll Call You”

Friday, Aug 27, 2010 10:25am  |  COMMENTS (40)

fiveguysnotsosoon.jpgDo we have to add “coming soon” to the lines we’ve stopped believing, like “the check is in the mail” or I’ll call you? Flagrant abusers of “Coming Soon” signs in Montclair include the mysterious Baby Pedro’s and of course, Upper Montclair’s phantom outpost of Five Guys. The fast-growing Virginia-based burger chain that counts President Obama as a fan, is moving at slower than a snail’s pace in Montclair (make that a ceramic snail since nothing appears to be moving at all). The dark interior, tired-looking “Coming Soon!” banner, menacing Keep Out sign, and yellowing window permit dating back to July 2009 (remember way back when Elevation Burger opened?) have created a Miss Havisham-vibe at 622 Valley Road.
When I called Five Guys Corporate offices this week to ask when the Upper Montclair location would finally open its doors, a helpful woman who answered the phone told me to hold on while she looked up the store on her computer. “Montclair?” she said, sounding as though she couldn’t find it, and then, “OK, I found it. Upper Montclair. Here it is. They have it down for December.”
December? Coming Soon??? Huh?

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Behind the Scenes with NJ Transit

Friday, Aug 27, 2010 9:00am  |  COMMENTS (8)

PSNY Yard 3x11.jpg
The night of Tuesday, August 17, was a fairly ordinary evening for trains moving in and out of Penn Station, unlike this past Tuesday, when an Amtrak power outage crippled train travel throughout the Northeast (We really have to worry about “low voltage” now, too? Sheesh). No rolling heatwaves or snowstorms had the system backed up for hours; heck, I’d even gotten to work on time that morning.
But it was still a pretty unusual commuting day for me, because I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the super-secret spots where every moment and movement of every train on the tracks are organized: Amtrak’s Penn Station Central Control (PSCC) and NJ Transit’s Transit Operations Center (TOC).

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My Big Walk: A Town So Safe You Can Lie Down in the Middle of the Street

Thursday, Aug 26, 2010 3:00pm  |  COMMENTS (12)

MyBigWalkEssexFells.jpgEssex Fells is a tony, leafy hamlet, population 2,162, nestled between Caldwell and Verona, just south of Bloomfield Avenue. Judging from the news reports (or absence therefore), nothing much ever happens in Essex Fells.
Wary of walking only in places that might be deemed controversial, I set out Friday night – a week after my first official Baristaville walk — to find out a few things about Essex Fells after dark: Is it safe? Is it pretty? Is it interesting? And do the police come out to investigate if people are spotted actually walking in the streets?
The first thing anyone who sets out to walk in Essex Fells needs to know is that it’s almost impossible to find. No less than three times on Friday evening we parked our car on what we thought was a peaceful, residential, sidewalk-free street in the borough of Essex Fells only to discover that the barking dogs, the laughing neighbors, and streetlights illuminating the sidewalks were all part of Verona.
“Verona?” Lori exclaimed. Her husband, and mine, echoed her. By the way we were gazing up at the street signs, mouths agape, you’d think we’d wandered into Oz.

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Featured Comment

I was very glad to see this post. The running in the street around here drives me crazy, mostly because the the majority of the runners I've encountered (not every runner)seem to think that it's their right to take up half the street when what they are doing is in fact illegal. And let's not be silly. Yes, concrete is hard on the joints, but the pavement isn't that much better. It's not like the roads are made of track rubber.
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sadie07

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