Category: Independent Opinion

  • James Everett Thomas

    Mr. Thomas, 83, of Toms River, died May 18, 2010, at home. He was born in Union Beach and resided in Holmdel before moving to Toms River. Mr. Thomas was a sales manager with West Furniture, Keyport, for 46 years, retiring in 1992. He was a founding member of the Holmdel First Aid Squad and…

  • Aberdeen, Matawan call for $421K school budget cut

    Administrators’ 4.6 percent salary hike remains in budget BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer ABERDEEN — The Matawan Borough Council and the Aberdeen Township Council passed resolutions to reduce the 2010-11 school district budget by $421,970 at their regular meetings on May 18. Voters rejected the district’s proposed budget of $59,925,000 on April 20 by a…

  • Students ‘kick it up a notch’ at Iron Chef competition

    Team of MHSN students tops teachers in culinary battle BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer The students cranked up the heat — and the stakes — inside the cooking laboratory at Middletown High School North’s fifth annual Iron Chef Throwdown competition on May 20.   Clockwise from top: Alexis Thompson (l-r) and Aimee Tillyer serve a…

  • Solving the real housing crisis

    New Jersey has not one but three affordable housing crises. There is the real crisis. There is a huge backlog of need for workforce and special-needs housing in the right locations and no plan for the future. There is the temporary crisis. The Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) was led into a regulatory disaster that…

  • Speak out against off-shore drilling

    One would think that 200,000 gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico every day would change an opinion. One may also think that this environmental disaster, which has devastated wildlife including birds, oysters, shrimp and fish as well as shutting down the small businesses associated with that wildlife, would change an opinion. The…

  • Thomas F. Madden

    Mr. Madden, 79, of Hazlet, died April 8, 2010, at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick. He lived most of his life in Brooklyn, N.Y., until moving to Hazlet in 1971. Mr. Madden was a retired truck driver for Yellow Freight Lines. He was predeceased by his brothers, David and Gerard Madden. Surviving are…

  • Millicent C. Hoppe

    Mrs. Hoppe, 98, of Matawan, died April 12, 2010, at Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank. She had been an office worker at the Bergen County Municipal Court House before her retirement. Mrs. Hoppe was predeceased by her husband, Albert Hoppe. Surviving are her children, Roberta Pfister of Colts Neck, John Albert Hoppe and his wife,…

  • Stella “Babci” E. Rucinski

    Mrs. Rucinski, 91, of Hazlet, died April 18, 2010, at Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, Md. She spent most of her life in Bayonne until moving to Hazlet in 2000. Mrs. Rucinski’s husband, Victor J., predeceased her in 1978. Surviving are her children, Victoria Kretkowski and her husband, Dr. Ronald, of Annapolis, William Rucinski and…

  • Carl W. Bonilla

    Mr. Bonilla, 55, of Middletown, died at his residence on April 9, 2010. He lived most of his life in Bayonne before moving to Aberdeen and most recently Middletown. Mr. Bonilla was predeceased by his parents, Carlos and Lena Camillery Bonilla, and a brother, Mark. He is survived by three brothers, Raymond Bonilla and his…