New School Report and United Water Hearings Top Weekly News

Elementary school students a tBerkley Street and BF Gibbs schools in New Milford were found to be lagging behind their peers while the middle school was found to be high performing when compared to their new peer groups and the state according to the new School Performance Reports. Academic achievement results were not available for New Milford High School.

The New Milford Zoning Board of Adjustment will now have the bare minimum of five sitting members for a quorum as Joseph Binetti recused himself from the remaining United Water hearings on Tuesday night.

After years of the borough providing documentation showing that the United Water property would be best utilized for affordable housing units, the project planner for the proposed development of the 13-acre United Water property has stated that by New Milford's inaction, the mixed-use project is inherently beneficial to the town.

Dan Harmatz, President Emeritus of the Public Library's Board of Trustees, and long-time community volunteer has died at the age of 91. Harmatz passed away on April 8, 2013.

Approximately three years since its creation, Wings of Refuge (WOR) held a spring benefit dinner on April 9 to showcase how far the organization has come in such a short time. The non-profit group was co-founded by New Milford native Alexa DeMiglio in May 2011 to help construct a children's home in Petionville, Haiti.

A New Milford man suffered serious head injuries after he was thrown from the motorcycle he was driving Tuesday night in Fair Lawn, police said.

Saran Holmes, 40, crashed a relative's motorcycle on Grunauer Place near Ward Street in while out for a test drive around 9:50 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

New Milford Little League officially opens their 2013 season with their Annual Parade and field ceremony. The ceremony included members of the Town Council and handing out the 2012 New Milford World Series Trophy to the Marlins.

For the rest of the week, New Milford and Bergen County will be well represented as five members of the Ridgewood YMCA Breakers swim team dive into a national competition in North Carolina. 

Jesse Smith of New Milford along with several teammates previously qualified to compete in the 2013 YMCA National Short Course Swimming Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in North Carolina. The National Championship is expected to include approximately 1,500 swimmers.

Future New Milford filmmakers were awarded third place in the Montclair State University's "French Day" student film competition last month by beating out fellow New Jersey and Pennsylvania students.

The eighth grade David E. Owens Middle School class under the supervision of French language teacher Issam Helwani won with their entry “The Québec Café Catastrophe." The third-place video was an original creation set in Quebec where the student actors had to resolve a problem while only speaking French. 

Over 150 runners hit the ground running on Saturday in the first annual Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County 5k Race to Build for Little Ferry victims from Hurricane Sandy.

The race, which raised over $3523, to benefit the affiliate’s ‘Repair. Rebuild. ReStore’ Hurricane Sandy rebuilding program in Little Ferry, was held at United Water's offices in Harrington Park next to the Oradell Reservoir.

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