On Thursday, Patch took a look at some of the ongoing local stories that are likely to play out in 2012. We identified four issues/stories that have the potential to dominate the headlines from a month or two, to the better part of the year and beyond. Those four issues—by no means the only stories that will matter in the coming year—were as follows: Fort Lee Superintendent of Schools How long will Acting Superintendent of Schools Steven Engravalle continue to “act” in the role? He’s currently approved to do so only through February, and the Board of Education is going to have to decide …

The Fort Lee Board of Education is offering the first of five walking tours of the district's schools Wednesday. The board is also planning to hold three “community forum meetings” at the Jack Alter Fort Lee Community Center starting Dec. 12. The walking tours were planned to provide residents, taxpayers and other stakeholders a firsthand look at how roughly $30.2 million will if the school bond referendum passes in January. Now we want to know what you think. Are you going to take the school board up on the offer to show you what they mean when they say Fort Lee's schools are overcrowded and…

On Tuesday, Fort Lee voters will go to the polls to elect their mayor and two members to the Borough Council, in addition to county and state representatives. Locally, the Democratic incumbents seeking re-election are Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and Councilmen Armand Pohan and Michael J. Sargenti. Their Republican challengers are mayoral candidate Judith Fisher and Council candidates Martha Cohen and Alfred V. Norton. (Details) The District 37 race pits veteran Democratic Sen. Loretta Weinberg and her running mates, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, …

As late as Sunday night, thousands of Fort Lee residents remained without power after an unusually early snowstorm swept through the area Saturday, leaving downed tree limbs and power lines in its wake. Early Sunday, PSE&G was reporting the number of customers without power in Fort Lee at between 2,001 and 5,000, but later in the day, that estimate was increased to as many as 10,000 before being lowered again. “Because of the number of damaged trees and downed power lines, the utility is advising that full restoration may not occur until Wednesday,” PSE&G said in a statement Sunday. Meanwhile…

Last week, the Fort Lee Board of Education introduced an approximately $30 million school bond referendum that if passed would upgrade aging school facilities, add some classrooms at the middle school and address some longstanding infrastructure concerns. However, in the opinion of many Fort Lee Patch readers, it wouldn’t go very far in addressing overcrowding in Fort Lee Schools—something many see as the bigger problem. During the same meeting last Monday, the board also tabled a decision on replacing outgoing Superintendent of Schools Raymond Bandlow, who’s set to leave the school district …

It has been just over a week since the Port Authority's controversial toll hikes on Hudson River crossings went into effect. That may not be a long enough period of time for Fort Lee commuters who regularly use the George Washington Bridge to get to work or simply get to the big city on occasion to see a significant impact, but it could be just long enough for people who are forced to pay the increased tolls to extrapolate over a month, a year or longer. Last Sunday, on the very day the toll increases took effect, Democratic lawmakers, including State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, blasted the Port …

The Fort Lee Board of Education finalized the financial details of Superintendent Raymond Bandlow’s resignation at last Monday’s Fort Lee Board of Education meeting, authorizing a $41,155 payment for Bandlow’s unused sick and vacation days. BOE president Arthur Levine also told concerned residents the board would not initially hire a permanent replacement for Bandlow, who will leave the district Oct. 31. “We are going to be able to announce something at the next public meeting,” Levine said last Monday. Now we want to know what you think about the district’s future. What do you think would be…

Hundreds of Fort Lee residents, officials and others gathered at Constitution Park Sunday for Fort Lee’s 9/11 Memorial Commemoration Ceremony, marking the 10th anniversary of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. (Full Story) This week our question of the week is simple: As you take another look through the lens of photographer Donna Brennan, and whether or not you were in attendance Sunday, how did you feel on the 10th anniversary of 9/11? How do you feel about Fort Lee's new memorial or about the ceremony itself?

By early afternoon Sunday, Fort Lee had seen the worst of Irene. Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich said the borough’s emergency operations center at the Fort Lee Police Department was going to shut down, and the cleanup began in earnest. Earlier in the day, Sokolich told Patch, officials were dealing with a couple of downed trees, “pockets of flooding,” limited power outages, a pump station with a faulty generator and failed transformers behind Borough Hall, but that otherwise the borough was in pretty good shape in the wake of Hurricane Irene, which passed through early Sunday morning. “Fort lee …

After the dust had settled last week, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a scaled-back version of its plan to raise tolls on the George Washington Bridge and other Husdon River crossings, as well as PATH fares, an unprecedented amount. The timeline of events leading up to Friday's decision: Aug. 5 - The Port Authority announced its proposal late in the day on a Friday, calling for E-ZPass increases from $6 to $10 during off-peak hours and from $8 to $12 during peak hours starting in September; cash toll increases from $8 to $15 and PATH fares to increase by as much as $1, …

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has nine public hearings on its proposed toll and fare increase plan scheduled for Tuesday, including one in Fort Lee at 6 p.m. and one online hearing webcast at 2 p.m. But if you want to ensure that your comments on the agency’s proposal to drastically raise tolls on the George Washington Bridge and other Hudson River crossings are heard, you can pre-register to comment at any of the hearings by 11:59 p.m. Monday. Pre-registration must be done online or by calling 212-435-6916. People who want to speak can also register at any of the public …

Commuters who cross the Hudson River into Manhattan on bridges—including the George Washington Bridge— and via tunnels and PATH could be hit with the largest-ever toll and fair increase next month, according to a plan announced by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Friday. The plan calls for the following, among other changes: Beginning in September, tolls for E-ZPass drivers would rise from $6 to $10 during off-peak hours and from $8 to $12 during peak hours. An additional $2 increase would be tacked on in 2014, which would double off-peak E-ZPass fares over the three-year period…

The President and Congressional leaders reportedly reached agreement on the framework for a budget deal late Sunday that would cut trillions of dollars in federal spending over the next 10 years, pave the way for an increase in the government’s debt ceiling and seemingly avoid potential default, the New York Times and other media outlets were reporting Monday morning. Last week, as Washington struggled to reach a compromise in the debt ceiling debate, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and others weighed in on what would have happened if the situation were not resolved. Reactions by Patch readers …

Fort Lee, Friday, July 22, 2011: This past January as we suffered what felt like an endless wave of frigid temperatures and snow that kept us confined and unable to travel, many dreamed of summer and longed for heat, unable to fathom that we would ever hold as much aversion to it as we did the nauseating cold. Welcome to July.  On what felt like the hottest day ever in Fort Lee, late Friday afternoon, temperatures went from a sauna-like 102-degrees to a sizzling 114-degrees in just an hour. No kidding. But Fort Lee, being what it is, filled with inventive people who will have fun and run …

As it turns out, the Fort Lee School District is getting an additional nearly $566,000 in state aid announced last week by the Christie administration as part of an extra $850 million it's investing in New Jersey’s public schools. That’s on top of the $951,643 the district was set to receive when the state budget was initially announced in February, bringing Fort Lee’s total increase in state aid to $1,131,919 over 2010-11. Last week, Fort Lee Board of Education president Arthur Levine told Patch the school district hadn’t yet received “firm guidance” on use of the additional funds. Now we …

The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) announced Friday the start of a $3.8 million construction project to remove and stabilize loose rock along the three-tenths of a mile stretch of Route 5 between Edgewater and Fort Lee. The closures will initially affect westbound traffic only—traffic heading toward Fort Lee from Edgewater—in the project’s early stages, but a 28-day “complete closure” is also planned, according to NJDOT officials. Now we want to know what Fort Lee residents think. How will the current and planned closures affect you (if at all)? Do you use Route 5 a lot, a …

The Fort Lee Board of Education last week passed resolutions to notify the parents of five students determined to be in violation of the district’s residency requirements that they are ineligible to attend Fort Lee schools and that the district intends to take legal action to recover back tuition. Fort Lee Board of Education president Arthur Levine said they are the first five cases since the school district formed a residency committee, hired a new residency officer and announced it would “more vigorously enforce” residency requirements and adopt stronger measures to ensure that students who…

Late last week, the New Jersey state Assembly backed legislation that will increase contributions by public employees to their health care and pension costs. The Assembly voted Thursday evening, three days after the state Senate’s 24-15 vote on the reform bill. But the ongoing debate over the landmark pension and health benefits reform package expected to be signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie on Monday will soon be heading to New Jersey's courts. The state Policemen's Benevolent Association announced Friday it will file suit against the legislation. The legislation affects almost …

Last week two things happened in Fort Lee that prompted this week’s question of the week: On Monday the Fort Lee Board of Education approved a proposal from a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in school security to provide a security and emergency management audit of Fort Lee’s public schools. School officials hope the $28,750 it will pay SERAPH, Inc. will result in recommendations for potential security policy changes for all six schools. And then just two days after the board passed the resolution—on Wednesday morning—21-year-old Luis Calderon of Fairview allegedly approached two …

The Fort Lee Mayor and Council are considering whether to implement a red light camera enforcement program in the borough. Recently, the borough’s governing body invited representatives from American Traffic Solutions (ATS)—a company its attorney, Paul Kaufman, called “the largest vendor of red light cameras in the country and the largest in New Jersey”—to an executive session to learn more about the services they offer. While there was mention at the meeting of the positive effects mounting cameras at intersections would have on traffic and driving safety in the borough, much of the …