Fire Injures Two, Police Charge Two Alleged Burglars in Top Local News

One firefighter and one civilian sustained minor injuries Monday morning when an underground transformer fire broke out in a PSE&G vault at a residential high-rise building on Bridge Plaza North, forcing evacuation of the building, according to the Fort Lee Fire Department. (Full Story)

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Fort Lee police arrested two men Thursday night in connection with two residential burglaries on Riverdale Drive, after a woman found one of the alleged burglars still in her home before he ran away, police said.

Police officer Dennis Pathos caught up with two men fitting the description provided by the homeowner walking near 1541 Lemoine Ave. after a brief search of the area. The two, who turned out to be brothers, had “numerous pieces of jewelry” in their possession, Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli said, adding that police believe the loot was taken from at least two homes on Riverdale Drive Thursday night. (Full Story)

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The Fort Lee Police Department learned this week it would be receiving about $8,000 to purchase or replace body armor vests for its officers. The funding comes from the Division of Criminal Justice, which is distributing nearly $3.6 million to over 500 New Jersey law enforcement agencies. (Full Story)

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Schools in Fort Lee opened as scheduled Monday morning in spite of the damage done by the unexpectedly early snowstorm last weekend, but Fort Lee High School was forced to close early, with PSE&G reporting that as many as 5,000 customers in the borough remained without power as of Monday afternoon.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich said Monday afternoon that the borough had done everything it could in the aftermath of the storm and was "hundcuffed" by PSE&G, as thousands of residents waited for their power to be restored. (Full Story)

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Tuesday started like any other day for Steven Engravalle. He arrived at the Fort Lee Board of Education central offices on Whiteman St. earlier than anyone else—4:45 a.m. on that particular occasion—and he knew he would be the last to leave.

But Tuesday wasn’t just another day at the office for Engravalle; it was his first as Acting Superintendent of Schools, a role he will serve in for at least the next four months, and there was a lot of work to be done. (Full Story)

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Fort Lee school officials once again led a group of more than a dozen community leaders, as well as candidates for local office, on a tour of a couple of the district’s schools Thursday to provide a firsthand look at infrastructure woes and overcrowding problems and attempt to drum up further support for the school board’s roughly $30 million referendum.

Similar to the tour Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and Fort Lee Councilman Jan Goldberg took in mid-October, after which both said they supported the referendum and agreed that the schools were in dire need of infrastructure upgrades and repairs, the tour on Thursday brought council members, candidates, PTA and other local leaders through and —they did not hit the high school Thursday as they did in October because of time constraints—where they got to see overcrowded lunchrooms and hallways, classrooms in what were once storage closets, music classes taught in hallways and stairwells, libraries doubling as media labs, leaking ceilings, antiquated boilers and hopelessly outdated and inefficient science labs, among other problems school officials believe the referendum would go a long way toward addressing. (Full Story)

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NorthJersey.com reported this week that Fort Lee will reallocate grant funds for  about 50 sidewalk ramps in in the borough in order to become ADA compliant. According to the report, the $175,000 will come from 2009 and 2010 Community Development Block Grants. (Full Story)

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CBS New York reported that 35 truck drivers have been caught “manipulating their license plates” in an attempt to evade tolls at the George Washington Bridge since increased tolls went into effect in September after Port Authority police caught yet another trucker "flipping" his plates this week. (Full Story)

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NorthJersey.com also reported that a Fort Lee man and three others plead guilty to chages stemming from a large-scale identity theft and bank-fraud ring allegedly run by a Palisades Park man. (Full Story)

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And the Port Authority lit the “necklace lights” on the George Washington Bridge green Wednesday night to mark the kickoff of the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting. (Full Story)

The week in review appears every Sunday on Fort Lee Patch.