Week in Review: Car Chase Passes Through Fort Lee on Way to Edgewater Crash, GOP Freeholder Candidates Visit

A report of an attempted theft at the Home Depot store in Nanuet, NY on Thursday led to a chase that raced across Route 59, through Fort Lee and eventually ended in a crash in Edgewater, according to police.

A Fort Lee police car was struck during the chase near Center Avenue and Bridge Plaza North, according to police. No police officers were injured in the crash, but the truck sustained heavy front-end damage.

Police continued their pursuit of the gray Dodge pickup south on River Road into Edgewater, where the chase apparently ended near the Hess Oil Terminal. The suspects fled on foot into a vacant building, police said. The truck also struck a civilian vehicle in Edgewater on River Road, according to police.

A Pennsylvania man was arrested after he and another man ran from their wrecked truck, police said. Police were still seeking the second man involved.

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Five of the nine Republican candidates vying for the party’s two freeholder nominations at the Bergen County Republican Organization convention in March were in Fort Lee on Tuesday. Invited to the VFW by the United Republican Club of Fort Lee, the freeholder hopefuls came to introduce themselves and speak about their policy positions for the upcoming elections.

“We always bring candidates in,” said Fort Lee Republican Club president David Cohen. “The candidates are all different. They’re all unique. And we have to hear them to evaluate them.”

Noting that Fort Lee’s 19 districts means the borough has 38 committee members voting at the BCRO convention on March 16 in Hackensack, Cohen said, “That’s a huge chunk of delegates that they can get in their corner by coming to Fort Lee, so it makes a lot of sense for them to come. It gives people to ask questions on where these people stand on taxes, on services, providing the same amount of service for less money.”

Speaking Tuesday at the VFW in Fort Lee were Woodcliff Lake Councilman Jeff Bader,, Oradell Councilwoman Donna Risse Alonso, former Ramsey Councilman Jeffrey Heller, former Ridgefield Councilman Nick Lonzisero and East Rutherford Councilman Joel Brizzi. Former Montvale Councilman Arthur Lavis was also on the agenda but did not appear.

Also not making the visit to Fort Lee were Rutherford Councilman John Genovesi, Joseph McAllister of Rutherford and Anthony Rottino of Franklin Lakes.

The two freeholder seats that will be contested are currently held by Democrats David Ganz of Fair Lawn and Bernadette McPherson of Rutherford.

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New Jersey's acting education commissioner unveiled a plan Wednesday afternoon that would revamp tenure for teachers, requiring them to meet a set of performance standards.

In a speech at the Lewis Library at Princeton University, Christopher Cerf called for “demonstrated student learning” to be part of the tenure process, along with yearly evaluations and a plan to strip tenure from teachers who are not meeting requirements.

Under the proposal, teachers rated effective or highly effective for three consecutive years would be granted tenure. Teachers would lose tenure if they failed to meet requirements for two consecutive years.

Fort Lee Superintendent of Schools Raymond Bandlow said he agrees with the basic premise of performance-based tenure decisions.

“I think it is appropriate that teachers be held, as everyone should be held, to high standards of performance," Bandlow said.

But he also noted that "performance" and "effectiveness" should be measured by more than merely test scores and results.

"Test scores are only a small part of teacher performance," Bandlow said. "And I would hope that whatever decision is devised would recognize that there’s much, much more to what a teacher does than test scores.”

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After weeks of planning, the Fort Lee Lady Bridgemen set out to accomplish something meaningful with their cancer research benefit game Saturday.

Long before the crowd arrived for the noontime game, the team was at the high school, redesigning the gym with pink balloons, banners and streamers by 9:30 a.m.

“We decorated the whole [place],” said junior guard Megan Gimson. “It was really close to our hearts because in our coach’s past and our past, we all have a connection.”

As the team was playing for the school, the program and themselves, the thought of honoring cancer survivors was weighing on the minds of athletes, such as senior guard Brianna Mattessich.

“It’s a really good cause, and it gave us a lot of motivation,” she said. “It’s not only a basketball game, but it’s playing for a cause. To play for someone you know that has gone through this horrible disease is real motivation.”

Before the game started, the Lady Bridgemen took a team photo with their pink displays of support and also made a check presentation to the American Cancer Society.

“The girls extremely supported the idea,” Fort Lee head coach Stacie Zafiris said. “The [team] did such a beautiful job, and I am so proud of what they did here.”

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The Fort Lee Film Commission and Fort Lee Historic Committee has received a $2,000 Bergen County special projects history grant the group plans to use to create, print and distribute an historical walking tour map of Fort Lee. The map will highlight the many locations around the borough associated with Fort Lee’s days as the birthplace of the American motion picture industry and the original home of Universal Studios (in 1912) and Fox Studios (in 1914).

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In order to regroup and re-organize, Borders  filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it was widely reported this week, and on Thursday won bankruptcy court approval to liquidate 200 stores, according to multiple sources. Part of this restructuring includes the closing of four Borders stores in New Jersey, including the one in Fort Lee.

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