Bayonne Hometown Fair set for June 8-9
The fifth annual Bayonne Hometown Fair will take place from June 8-9 on Broadway from 21st and 25th Streets and along 23rd Street from DelMonte Drive to Church Lane. On Saturday, the fair’s hours will be from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. Like every year, the fair will feature food, games, rides, vendors, and musical entertainment.
Amusements will include a 55-foot Ferris wheel, mechanical rides, and inflatable rides. Tickets must be purchased for mechanical rides, while inflatable rides, sponsored by the Bayonne Urban Enterprise Zone, will be free. The fair will also feature a skate demonstration, live art installations, Captain Bayonne, and a beer garden on 23rd Street hosted by Vic Tavern. A second performance space, the community stage, will be set up on Broadway by McDonald’s.
Various games will be set up to raise funds for local nonprofit organizations. For example, several nonprofit groups will use a dunk tank as a fundraiser. Interested organizations should contact the Bayonne Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) at (201) 858-6357 to find out whether any time slots are still available for the dunk tank. Judicke’s Bakery will host a donut-eating contest and will award the winner a trophy.
There is no rain date for the fair. In the event of rain, every effort will be made to continue or resume the fair on the scheduled days, as circumstances permit.
Farmers Market in full swing
May 28 was the official start of the Bayonne Farmers Market at Fitzpatrick Park on 27th Street and Avenue C. The market will be open on Tuesdays from 2 to 7 p.m. through November 26. The market will close only during periods of heavy rain.
Vendors include Alstede Farms; Doctor Pickle; The Empanada Lady; Gourmet Fruits and Nuts; Paolo’s Kitchen; Just Delicious Kettle Corn; Satori Unlimited (fresh baked bread and prepared foods); Sassy Sweets Kitchen (cookies, bars, scones, jarred desserts, and coffee cake); Just Like Mom’s (prepared foods); Our Woods Maple Syrup; and Velobar CBD (protein Bars). More vendors are expected to be added as the season progresses. New vendors will be profiled on Facebook and Instagram.
Produce vouchers issued by the State of New Jersey can be used to purchase fruits and vegetables at the Bayonne Farmers Market.
As was the case in previous years, the Bayonne Farmers Market offers a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In 2019, Alstede Farms replaced Ort Farms as the vendor for the CSA program. CSA programs allow residents to have direct access to high-quality, fresh produce grown nearby by regional farmers. As a member of CSA, you’re purchasing a “share” of vegetables. Weekly, from now until the autumn, farmers will deliver that share of produce to the Bayonne Farmers Market for pick up. CSA members pay for an entire season of produce upfront. Early bulk payment enables the farmer to plan for the season, purchase new seed, make equipment repairs, and more. Registration is ongoing.
Bayonne man arrested for alleged animal cruelty
An investigation into allegations of animal cruelty led to the arrest of a Bayonne man last week, according to police.
The investigation came from a citizen report of a 23-year-old man allegedly holding down his dog by the neck, a Husky named Brinks, and “repeatedly punch[ing] him about the head and face area,” while in the area of 20th Street and Newark Bay on May 28. The man was said to have allegedly carried the dog away by the neck and collar, with the dog’s legs suspended in the air, while again punching him in the face. The man dismissed the observer, who documented the incident on a video and sent it to the police. The suspect was arrested and the dog is now under the care of the Liberty Humane Society.
Man allegedly tries selling stolen car back to woman he stole it from
A Jersey City man was charged with allegedly trying to sell a Bayonne woman her own stolen vehicle for $1,200, according to police.
On the morning of Saturday, May 25, Bayonne police responded to Lexington Avenue on a report of a dispute and found the 23-year-old woman and the man charged with fencing and receiving stolen property. The woman told police that her vehicle had been stolen in Hoboken on Friday night.
The woman said the man called her earlier on Saturday and told her he had her vehicle and wanted to meet. When he arrived, he allegedly asked for $1,200 in cash. The woman then called police, the car was returned to her, and the man was taken to the Hudson County jail.
Murphy stands pat on higher marginal tax rate for the wealthy
At a news conference at Rowan University on community college funding last week, Gov. Phil Murphy offered remarks on the state budget. After the effort to legalize marijuana failed in the state legislature, which would have raised millions of dollars in revenue, Murphy is re-focusing his budgetary effort on those with the most money. Murphy’s proposed “millionaire’s tax” would raise income taxes of more than $1 million to 10.75 percent, up from the current rate of 8.97 percent. Many legislators, Hudson County Democrats included, disagreed with the governor last year and offered a counter proposal that would extend those rates only to people with incomes more than $5 million.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat, opposes the tax. He instead wants to “reform” healthcare and pensions for public workers, such as teachers and firefighters, by offering lower quality healthcare plans and cutting pensions. Meanwhile, Murphy said he would veto any budget that would not raise marginal tax rates on millionaires.
Three plans for Port Authority Bus Terminal overhaul
Long-awaited plans to overhaul the 70-year-old Port Authority Bus Terminal were advanced at a Port Authority board meeting last week. The plans, which are now public, will be up for environmental review and public comment. The number of daily passengers at the bus terminal is projected to rise by 30 percent by 2040, while the interstate agency has earmarked $3.5 billion to capital improvements in its most recent 10-year plan.
One of the plans calls for a total rebuild of the existing site, which would require the construction of a new underpass connecting Ninth Avenue and the Lincoln Tunnel, a new ramp to connect additional floors, eliminating entrances on West 40th and 41st streets, and creating a new entrance at Dyer Avenue.
The second plan, proposed in a 2017 report by the Regional Plan Association, which studies urban issues in the greater NY region, proposes using the basement of the nearby Jacob Javitz Center for intercity buses coming from places like Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. The plan would reserve bus terminal space for commuter buses, such as those coming from Hudson County.
The third plan would transfer both intercity and commuter buses to the Javitz Center, using additional space from a nearby pier. Permitting and construction would be more complicated under this plan. The Port Authority Bus Terminal would then become available for private development.
At this point, anything to reduce the headache of commuting into Manhattan would be a welcome change.
Feds order NJ to figure out how to fix special ed-disputes
This month, the federal Department of Education ordered New Jersey to quickly become compliant with the 45-day rule: that is, to devise a plan to efficiently process special education legal disputes. The state has until August to meet the new deadline. The Murphy administration says it has been working on one plan that would employ independent hearing officers to adjudicate cases, and another that would move proposed legislation to install more judges, according to NJ Spotlight.
Public officials who commit sex offenses will have pensions removed
The state Senate unanimously passed a bill recently that would remove pensions from elected officials and public workers who have been convicted of sexual assault, sexual contact, and lewdness. There’s one other offense that would force public officials to relinquish their pensions: corruption of public resources to the tune of $500,000 or more. The bill now heads to Gov. Murphy’s desk to be signed.
3 of 4 NJ hospitals perform unnecessary C-sections
C-section surgery can be a risky procedure. For the woman, complications can include deep vein thrombosis, infection, and even death; for newborns, there’s an increased risk of asthma and breast-feeding issues. Last Wednesday, the Leapfrog Group released a nationwide maternity care report. Most hospitals in New Jersey did not meet its 23.9 percent C-section cutoff safety guideline. Only 11 did. The hospital that reported the lowest rate of C-sections compared to vaginal births was Cooper University Hospital in Camden, at 12.8 percent. The highest on record was reported by Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus, at 55 percent.
NJ sues oxycontin makers for role in opioid crisis
Last week, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced he has filed suit against the founders of Purdue Pharma, which launched OxyContin in 1996 and later admitted in federal court that the company understated the opioid drug’s profound risk of addiction. In February, STAT and ProPublica obtained a sealed court document from a 2015 deposition that revealed the extent of the deception. HBO’s John Oliver also did a segment on the Sacklers, who own Purdue. The show created a video series of celebrities bringing the deposition to life.
In April, Hudson County filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court against the makers and distributors of synthetic opioids like Oxycontin and Subsys.
In 2016, the most recent year in which data is available, 127 people died of opioid overdoses in Hudson County, including 77 from heroin and 32 from fentanyl (which is much more potent), according to the New Jersey Office of the State Medical Examiner. The county rate of 1.87 overdose deaths per 1,000 persons was an increase of 18.7 percent from 2015.
Rules to cover NJ first responder 9/11 volunteers
Less than 1,000 first responders who served at the World Trade Center site on September 11, 2001, were New Jerseyans, a researcher told a state committee this year, according to NJ Spotlight. A bill that cleared the state Assembly last week would enable these brave volunteers to be covered by the state’s police and firefighters retirement plans under “accidental disability,” which is more generous “than an ordinary disability,” since most were technically volunteering when they were assisting at the WTC site. It has bipartisan support.
Four new measures could tighten state’s gun laws
Four bills are under consideration by the New Jersey legislature.
One bill would criminalize acting as a straw purchaser as well as selling, possessing, or transporting a gun without a federal serial number.
A second bill would expand the crimes to carjacking and making terroristic threats. If someone is found guilty of these crimes, it would also be illegal for them to buy a gun in the state.
A third bill would require renewal of firearm identification licenses every four years, with proof of graduation from a gun safety course every time.
A fourth bill would formalize the tracking of ammunition sales, with reports to the state police. Ammunition sellers would be responsible for confirming purchasers are 21 years old or over, the same legal age for handguns.
