Wednesday March 15 News Updates Lakewood

Weather 46° Mostly sunny and windy. High 46F.  Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

- At the BOE meeting the board attorney publicly thanked Mr. Lang

- 6:30 pm: Power outage blackouts in  Lakewood central/Westgate/Jackson areas 1500 without power JCPL estimated restoration 10:30pm

- Lakewood BOE in person meeting tonight 6pm to introduce the school district budget which includes a request for a $73 million loan from the  state aid bringing the total amount owed by Lakewood tax payers to the state at $200 million. The request for a DOE Loan Against State Aid in the amount of $73,489,390 in order to provide a Thorough and Efficient education and that the Lakewood Board of Education requests the Commissioner to defer the repayment of prior year DOE Loans Against State Aid. The total budget is  $402,876,346  with a tax levy of  $112,123,194 from lakewood taxpayers. See budget info Here 

- R' Aaron Lang: The Appellate Division granted us everything we asked for except forgiving the loans. We still hope to get that but $200M is two years of school taxes for every homeowner in Lakewood. And still, you just keep on voting for them. This should have been handled two decades ago.

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- Bonei olam launching Lakewood community charidy fundraiser campaign starts in 3 days HERE https://www.charidy.com/bolakewood

Mesamchei lev matzos for $16.50 a lb has been sold out for more info call 718 705 6500

 

- High rise buildings of 150 feet coming to Lakewood an ordnance for first reading is  up for vote tomorrow at the lakewood township committee meeting where Lakewood Township officials are laying the groundwork for future high rise buildings - standing a proud 150 feet high in the area of the Garden State Parkway, near the Brick Township border, (bounded by Cedar Bridge Avenue and Route 70)  No schools are permitted. Faa reports the fire dept is aware of the proposal and planning on doing a study for high rise fire safety in Lakewood more

- The application for a major child care center on Spruce Street between Washington and Vine Avenue's  was postponed last night after heavy objection from neighbors

- Judge Ford ruling in January that the planning board can’t decide whether schools can build dormitories in residential areas is causing chaos at the zoning board APP reports “This decision is causing chaos in front of the zoning board right now,” board attorney Jackson said, citing other pending applications now awaiting zoning board approval, having already received zoning board approval for housing construction. Planning committee officials did not comment on Friday’s decision.

-  Mazel Tov  אם נולד בן זכר באותה המשפחה נתרפאת כל אותה המשפחה" a baby boy was born to Reb Avrohom Noach and  Devorah Paley,after losingr two young sons in a terrorist ramming attack  last month. The father made a bracha of hatov vehametiv.

- Last night major expansion approvals at the planning board. BMG plan for  600 apartments day care center and banquet hall approved at the newly purchased property at Georgian court behind Forest avenue. This will change the entire dynamic of the fourteenth street area and forest avenue with new roads constructed and thousands of cars coming and going. The yeshiva received $7 million in grants for infrastructure to build the roads and for the day care center from Congressman Chris Smith who said it would help alleviate traffic in Lakewood by opening more getaways to the 195.

- FAA: Lakewood Planning Board  last night approved a  mega shopping center at Cedarbridge  Corporate campus. The proposal is for 28 stores, 116,000 sq feet of retail space, with 571 parking spaces. There will be a traffic light installed at the intersection of Avenue of the Americas and Avenue of the states at the entrance to this project. FAA reports The traffic study also asserts that peak hours for retail shopping traffic are different than the peak hours for school bus traffic, and that much of the retail shopping center traffic will be "passers-by" who are anyways on the road for other reasons and they happen to stop in to the shopping center, as well "internal traffic" from residents who are already shopping or working in the Cedarbridge Corporate Campus. Unlike when Beth Medrash Govoha proposed  this mall, no members of the public commented on this application. Full story at Faa news  https://www.faanews.com/2023/03/breaking-first-report-lakewood-planning.html

- Couples returning from EY to the USA for Pesach are having trouble getting passports for newborns born since February after the US embassy changed the rule effective Monday, March 13, emergency appointments will be limited to those who are already documented as U.S. citizens and need to apply for a passport  No passport applications for undocumented applicants will be accepted, including children. The Embassy does not view ‘bringing a new baby to meet US relatives as an emergency’ parents need to  schedule for a appointment  to document their children as U.S. citizens and to receive a first-time passport. Th embassy blamed the changes after the emergency appointment system was abused as brokers bought up slots for appointments. "Unfortunately, even this system is being abused as we continue to see far too many applicants who do not actually have urgent, emergency U.S. travel. In particular, it is often used for first-time passports for infants who apply for an emergency passport and then return to us soon after for the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), without ever using the emergency passport for travel. This steals available appointments from people who truly need them".