Community Corner

Street Fair, Counterfeit Currency Arrest, Area Five Delay Top Week's Local News

The week in review: this week's top local stories from Fort Lee Patch

Sunday’s ninth annual Fort Lee Arts and Music Festival featured two stages of live music, bounce rides and face painting for the kids, a Harley Davidson motorcycle show, a juried art show, vendors, crafters, a food court in the post office parking lot, a performance by a group of traditional Korean folk musicians and dancers, and for the first time ever, a “green fair,” sponsored by the borough’s newly formed Environmental and Beautification Committee.

The festival took place on Main St. between Lemoine Ave. and Center Ave. and spilled into the municipal parking lot off Center Ave., where the borough provided free parking.

There were over 130 vendors, a police command post in the municipal lot, along with the Harley show, and a Fort Lee Fire Department training vehicles display. (full photo gallery; video of Green fair; video of Korean folk music performance)

Find out what's happening in Fort Leewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

****

And for the first time in many, many years, the Fort Lee Arts & Music Festival was not a sweltering, heat stroke-inducing event. Although the skies vacillated between sunny and overcast, a cooling breeze was ever-present even in the sizzling heat of the food court. And this wonderful weather brought out more Fort Lee residents than ever. (full column)

Find out what's happening in Fort Leewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

****

Fort Lee police arrested two men and one 14-year-old girl Monday on counterfeit currency and forgery charges after one member of the trio allegedly attempted to pay with a fake $100 bill at a local bagel shop. (full story)

****

The Fort Lee Council passed a resolution at Thursday’s Mayor and Council regular meeting amending April’s settlement and escrow agreement that cleared the way for the two approximately eight-acre parcels of land, commonly known as “Redevelopment Area 5,” to become what officials hope will be a bustling retail and residential center near the George Washington Bridge.

Thursday’s amendment to the April 15 agreement among the Borough of Fort Lee, Tucker Development Corporation and Fort Lee Redevelopment Associates is a 90-day extension.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich said the extension is a necessary step in a process he called “very, very complex” and “one of many aspects of Redevelopment 5 that needs to happen.” (full story)

****

Patch also reported this week that the Fort Lee Mayor and Council heard an extended sales pitch at their most recent executive session from a company that wants to be the borough’s provider of red light camera enforcement services.

American Traffic Solutions (ATS) is the largest vendor of red light cameras in the country and the largest in New Jersey, according to attorney Paul Kaufman, who represented ATS at the meeting last Thursday. (full story)

****

A local thrift shop operated by the Fort Lee Community Fund, which provides assistance to Fort Lee residents in need, will close its doors permanently at the end of June after receiving notice that it had to vacate its current location and failing to find space to house it.

The Second Look Shoppe has been operating out of the ’s C.Y.O. basement for seven years, but fund officials received a letter from the church in April saying it needed the space for other purposes and that the thrift shop had until June to move out.

Fort Lee Community Fund President Joan Alter said Monday that in spite of their best efforts and those of others who tried to help, the community fund board couldn’t find an appropriate space to continue operating. (full story)

****

Actor Jon Seda, who starred in the HBO miniseries "The Pacific," helped wrap up the five-week Cliffhanger Spring Film Festival last Saturday at the Fort Lee Community Center, introducing the final screening and accepting the Fort Lee Film Commission’s 2011 Lewis J. Selznick Award. (full story)

****

Fort Lee High School students put on a beautiful dance recital Tuesday for a number of proud parents and instructors. The dancers from the Academy of Performing Arts' (APA) three classes held a short but sweet recital that ran just under an hour and included eight numbers. (full story)

****

Months of hard work on the part of a dedicated group of teachers and PTA members—the School No. 4 100 Year Birthday Committee—paid off Friday, when students at Fort Lee School No. 4 celebrated the 100th anniversary of their school with the unveiling of a commemorative statue and a plaque marking the occasion, as well as burying a time capsule. (full story)

****

This week’s Whiz Kid honors go to Fort Lee National Little League player Han Kyed Lee, who may not have won himself a suit from tailor and baseball fan Abe Stark for hitting a bull’s eye sign in centerfield at Ebbets Field, but did accomplish Mickey Mantle-like fame for hitting the Fort Lee Film Commission’s sign at the National League field, winning himself four movie tickets. (full story)

****

And our blog post of the week was turned in by Howard Pearl, who in a Swiftian satirical piece mused that with about one bank for every 1,500 residents, perhaps Fort Lee should consider marketing itself "as the banking capital of New Jersey, of the Tri-State area!" (full post)

The Week in Review appears every Sunday morning on Fort Lee Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here