Seating is limited for this major event, so guests re urged to sign-up and make their reservations early.
Tickets for the November 10 fiesta are $100, and include a Mexican flavored Brunch compete with an open bar featuring sangria, margaritas, wine, beer and soft drinks. There will also be gift baskets for a silent auction.
Cedar View is an Historic African American Cemetery dating back to 1850. Interred in the burial ground are former slaves, US Colored Troops from the Civil War and many people from the Monmouth County area. The cemetery is under the care of The Friends of Cedar View, a small board of supporters recognized as a NJ Charity and 501c3.
The cemetery is located on Hurley’s Lane in Lincroft, next to St Leo’s Church and across from the Lincroft First Aid. The money goes towards the restoration of the monuments, cutting the grass, clearing the land of dead trees and other brush. The Friends also purchase benches and will be purchasing plants to enhance the cemetery.
The Chilango’s Brunch is one of several events, and small fundraisers sponsored by the Friends. Many of their events take place at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in Red Bank. Reservations can be made online HERE
It was another gathering of some 108 graduates of Leonardo High School recently when the annual class reunion of the former high school in Middletown held its 93rd reunion, which was held, as in all recent years, at the Shore Casino.
Graduates came from as far as Massachusetts, Georgia and Colorado for the annual event, many with spouses or siblings accompanying them. They came from all walks of life, including three graduates who attend regularly, and all are retired from the Middletown Police Department. Former Chief Robert Letts, Former Detectives George Freibott and Irwin Beaver sat with their respective classes renewing friendships and stories they have shared over decades.
Freibott’s sister Ruth McDonald, another Leonardo High graduate attended with her brother. She was a long-time employee at the Courier, the local weekly newspaper .
Highly organized Richard Winters of Sunnyside Road, Lincroft, headed the committee who arranged and coordinated efforts for the annual event. Winters, who has lived in his Lincroft home for 74 years, said he looks forward to the reunion annually because “it’s just fun, it’s great to see old friends.”
Winters is a retired civil engineer who worked in highway construction for 46 years and has worked on “just about every local, county and state road in New Jersey,” including both the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike, as well as both the approach to the Verrazano Bridge and routes 287 and 195.
Winters said he learned all his expertise and continued to be promoted within the company on the job from the time he started as a bulldozer operatior until he retired as executive vice-president of Hess Brothers the firm where he worked all those years. He had also attended Monmouth Junior College before deciding on his career in road construction.
Dick Winters Class of 1946
At 93 years of age, Winters has been chairman of the Leonardo reunion for the past 18 years and this year introduced Bill Brown, “to let the younger guys get more involved.” Working with Brown for next year’s reunion is Mike O’Brien. The reunion will be held at the Shore Casino on September 26, 2025.
Leonardo High School closed in 1958 when the building went on fire. Middletown High School on Tindall Road, now Middletown High School North, was under construction at the time and open in 1959.
“Only seven more years to go,” Winters chuckled, saying he is looking forward to the 100th class reunion of Leonardo High School.
Special Meetings Highlands Mayor Carolyn Broullon and the Borough Council are calling a special meeting for Monday night, September 30 at 6 p.m. to ensure residents have yet another opportunity to learn more about the non-binding question on the ballot concerning Henry Hudson Regional school district including Sea Bright in the district.
The ballot question will give the governing body an indication on whether voters in Highlands support tax relief by adding Sea Bright to the regional school district.
In addition to the Mayor and Council, several Highlands professionals will also be at the meeting encouraging questions from the public before the November 5 election. All voters from any of the three towns affected by the regionalization are invited to attend the meeting
Although the question is non-binding, which means it does not have a legal impact on whether regionalization would go forward, Mayor Broullon has indicated many times in the past she wants to be sure voters are fully informed on any question put on the ballot and has provided town hall hearings to ensure the governing body has made all efforts to keep the public informed.
Regionalization including Sea Bright needs the majority approval of all three towns’ voters before it could be enacted. Both Sea Bright and Highlands have the non-binding question on the November ballot seeking the opinion of voters. However, Atlantic Highlands Mayor and Council chose not to put the question on the ballot, with Mayor Lori Hohenleitner saying it was “frivolous.”
Oceanport and Shore Regional Boards of Education, from which Sea Bright would withdraw in order to join Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, appealed the Commissioner of Education’s approval of a possible regionalization to the Appellate Division of the Court.
That appeal is being heard Tuesday in Trenton.You can watch the proceedings HERE
Should the Judge uphold the state Commissioner’s decision, the three municipalities would then have a binding question on a ballots either in November, 2025 or in a special election, as to whether Sea Bright could join. All three towns must approve it before regionalization with Sea Bright could take place.
This is one of two questions on the Highlands ballot in November. The second question, also non-binding, concerns the flood wall plans by the Army Corps of Engineers.
A second meeting with information on that plan is scheduled to be held October 7 at 6 p.m. and will be held at Henry Hudson Regional School to accommodate what is expected to be a large crowd.
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Surrounded by friends and neighbors Mayor Lori Hohenleitner and Nicolina Falco, owner of the Cozy Corner Bakery cut the ribbon to officially open the West Avenue shop that is currently open weekends. Photo by Bill Osborne
The Cozy Corner Bakery officially opened at its location at 3 West Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, Saturday afternoon when Mayor Lori Hohenleitner and Councilwoman Alison Forbes officiated at the ribbon cutting ceremony surrounded by friends, neighbors and dozens of well wishers.
Heidi Hackett, Administrator of the Atlantic Highlands Chamber of Commerce, Chamber vice-president Sara Murphy and other chamber members were present to welcome one of their newest members to the Chamber and wish her success in her venture.
Owner and baker at the new business, Nicolina Falco of Tinton Falls, said she wanted to open her first bakery shop in this borough because of its charm and the friendliness of its residents.
“I bake because I love it,” the happy baker said with enthusiasm, “and I love to bake for the people I love.” All baking is done on the West Avenue premises.
That the Cozy Corner is indeed cozy is evident in the comfortable chairs and two tables inviting conversational visits, the cabinet in a front corner of the shop filled with recipe books, family photos and colorful flowers and the cases of pastries, cakes, cupcakes, and cookies, many colorful with sprinkles and other decoration.
But most telling about the coziness and family setting of the Cozy Corner is the handwritten note framed and on view on the display cabinet . The note to Cellina is from her Nana giving her advice and signing it with love.
Friends Mary Ellen Rumala of Shrewsbury and Madison Cirilla of Freehold congratulate Nicolina Falco on opening her first bakery, Cozy Corner Bakery
“That’s one of my two Nanas,” the baker pointed out, “Nana Liz and I have plenty of love from Nana Nancy as well, “ she said.
Nicolina, who is a graduate of Rutgers University and also continues to work at her corporate job in technology, said while she holds her bachelor’s degree in political science, she learned how to cook and bake from both her Nanas. While she will continue working her professional job, which she can do it at home since Covid changed schedules, she is choosing to open her own business because of love for the Nanas who taught her and encouraged her to enjoy what she does in life,. She also opened the shop because she wants to share her baking ability with other people. “I don’t have any culinary or baking secrets,” she laughed, “it’s just that I bake with love.”
“I bake with love,” she said, “because it is a passion of mine and I want to share with others, and where better than here in Atlantic Highlands.”
The shop is currently open Fridays through Sundays, and beginning Oct. 10 will be open Thursdays as well. Thursday and Friday hours are from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday hours are from 8 a.m.. to 1p.m.
Dr. Melissa Ziobro, noted historian and specialist professor of public history with Monmouth University will present “The Army’s House of Magic” Wednesday, October 23, at 7:00 at the West Park Recreation Center (Next to Park Avenue Tennis Center and Ocean Community Pool Complex) in Oakhurst, exploring the history of Fort Monmouth, from its creation in 1917 through its present.
Ziobro’s presentation will also include the innovations and stories of some of the tens of thousands of soldiers who came through the base throughout its decades as a military installation. The history of Fort Monmouth begins in May 1917 when, as part of its wartime mobilization, the Army authorized the central New Jersey site as one of four training camps for signal troops.
It was named to honor American Revolution soldiers who fought and died at the battle of Monmouth in Freehold.
The camp is on the site of an old racetrack and luxury hotel, from the Gilded Age in the Jersey Shore era. . Though much of the site was overgrown and infested with poison ivy, it afforded the Army significant advantages: proximity to the port of Hoboken and a train station, good stone roads, and access to water.
Corporal Carl L. Whitehurst was among the first men to arrive at Camp Little Silver. He later recalled that the site appeared to be a “jungle of weeds, poison ivy, briars, and underbrush.”
The Army Signal Corps carved a camp out of that wilderness, and trained thousands of men for war there. The Signal Corps also built laboratories that worked on pioneering technologies, including air to ground radio, from their very inception.
Though the base was supposed to be temporary, it wound up outliving the war and was known for decades as the “Home of the Signal Corp. Until its closure in 2011, some of the most significant communications and electronics advances in military history were still created there.
The US Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), which left Fort Monmouth in 2011, for Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, can trace its roots to the establishment of the Signal Corps training camp and research and development laboratory at Fort Monmouth in 1917.
Netflix, the site’s next owner, has a powerful legacy to live up to. From celebrity homing pigeons to the radars that detected the incoming Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor to early space communications and night vision technologies, Fort Monmouth was the birthplace of innovation and technological revolution and the home of a uniquely diverse group of military and civilian heroes and scientists.
Ziobro’s “Army’s House of Magic,” explores that and the soldiers and civilians who served there.
The presentation is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Dr Melissa Ziobro Dr Melissa Ziobro Dr Melissa Ziobro Dr Melissa Ziobro
Sue Thomas, the former school nurse, former board of education member and one of generations of her family who raised their families in Highlands is seeking the one three-year term on the new Henry Hudson Board of Education in the November election.
Thomas is vying for the seat against incumbent Irene Campbell for the only full term on the board, along with candidates for the two two- year terms and candidates for the two one- year terms.
All terms begin in January after the nine persons elected from Highlands and Atlantic Highlands are selected in the November election. This will be the first elected board for the new Prek-12 regional school district.
Thomas said she is seeking election “to clear a way for people to learn what the Board of Education is about” to support the dedicated educators on staff and encourage continued parent involvement.
As the former nurse at the Highlands Elementary School and as a five-year board member after her retirement from the school district as its nurse, Thomas said she has been “vested in the students in Highlands and is familiar with the schools and the district.”
Thomas has been a resident of the borough for more than 50 years, settling here after her marriage to Frank (Ozzie), who is now deceased. She and Ozzie raised their daughters here, both of whom, like their dad, went through the Highlands and Henry Hudson school systems, and now watch as her two grandsons also attend the same schools their mom and grandfather attended. The candidate herself served 25 years as the school nurse and another five as a board member.
“So many things have improved in our schools,” the candidate said, reviewing all the years in which she has been closely connected with them. “But we need to continue to move forward.”
To do that, she continued, she believes in welcoming Sea Bright into the district to increase the school’s enrollment and provide some tax relief for local taxpayers by sharing the total cost of education three ways rather than the current two borough system.
Thomas also said she has concerns regarding the members of the community having access to accurate information about the schools. That is why she plans to find a clear way for people to learn what the board does, and the laws that dictate the administration of public education.
“No parent or community member should feel intimidated or at a loss when it comes to advocating for their child,” Thomas continued, “each of us should feel knowledgeable and empowered when addressing the Board of Education or any school official.”
Thomas said she would work to increase and facilitate community involvement by establishing workshops and meetings to network and communicate with the public.
“The education of the children and the well being of their families is a very important matter,” Thomas said, reiterating her belief that parents should be knowledgeable of all aspects of their children’s education. Reliance on social media and unsubstantiated verbal exchanges often stand in the way of knowing what is going on in the schools, the retired nurse said; her aim would be to correct that situation.
Thomas said she would strive to be a leader in having all community members recognize and be aware of what they can and should expect realistically from school leaders, believing that increased awareness will lead to more positive communication, which would then lead to increased academic progress and an even greater pride in the Henry Hudson Regional school district.
Thomas graduated from the Methodist Hospital School of Nursing here she earned her nursing degree, then heard her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Trenton State College. She holds both state and national certifications of school nursing and is a former registered nurse at Monmouth Medical Center. In the 1980s, she was also the school nurse at MAST, the Marine Academy of Science and Technology at on Sandy Hook.
In Highlands, she has also been active with the Garden Club and as a girl scout leader in addition to her board of education membership.
Candidates for the two-year terms from Highlands, Rebecca Wells and Diane Knox, are unopposed in their attempts at re-election to the local school board.
Four candidates have filed for the two one-year terms to be decided in November. Vying for the one-year terms are Donald M. Krueger, Allison Burel, Regina Melnyk and Kevin Ege.
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The borough of Atlantic Highlands has issued a stop work order for the property at 48 Ave C where an underground tunnel was uncovered earlier this week.
At Wednesday’s meeting of the Borough Council, administrator Robert Ferragina announced that elected officials and borough professionals including the borough engineer and attorney have met and a temporary stop order issued while the borough conducts a GPR, a ground penetrating radar procedure to learn more about any possible structures in the right of way area.
Borough engineer Doug Rohmeyer explained the GPR sends signals below the surface, getting responses that provide engineers with more information and said the work is being done an abundance of caution.
Contrary to what was believed, Rohmeyer said, the hole created by the construction equipment as part of the initial work prior to new construction on the site has not been backfilled. The contractor did build up a dirt wall around the opening and covering it with plywood, both for safety and weather situations.
It is estimated the GPR could be conducted sometime next week and the governing body would wait until it is completed before deciding any further action.
The property owner of the former Fireman’s Fieldhouse on Ave C, received a variance from the Planning Board several months ago, granting the owner permission to construct three houses on the vacant lot, where the ordinance currently would only have allowed for the construction of two houses.
The tunnel that was exposed as part of the construction work is at one side of the property close to Ave C and extends eastward under the property of the residence at the intersection of Ave C and W. Highlands Ave.
There was considerable speculation among numerous residents who gathered at the site Monday evening that the tunnel is a remnant of the Prohibition era between 1920 and 1934 when the borough was known to have had considerable activity among rum runners and bootleggers, with underground tunnels and rooms used for transporting illegal liquor .
There have also been underground still rooms where illegal alcohol was made uncovered or discovered in the bayshore area dating to Prohibition..
During the public portion of the meeting Jack Grodeska, who indicated he has done considerable professional archeological work internationally, addressed the governing body.
He explained he was representing the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society and had spoken with a leading archeologist at Monmouth University, and both are donating their time to do an archeological assessment of the property.
He indicated the Historical Society would appreciate being able to have artifacts from the site for display at the Strauss House Museum as an indication of some of the unique history of the borough. Grodeska noted the find is a major piece of history for the borough. Council took no action other than to thank him for his report.
Tucker Snedeker, who lives near the site where the tunnel was uncovered, also described it as a historic find and commended both the Mayor and Council and the Police Department for taking action in a “tricky situation” and praised the good job they did at an unexpected event.
Hiring Brush and Leaf pick-up schedules as well as municipal Yard hours were announced by Councilman James Murphy at Wednesday’s borough council meeting, along with news there are currently positions open in the Public Works Department for new employees.
Murphy noted the brush pick up begins October 7 and will be conducted zone by zone with one pass through the entire borough. Material should be out and in compliance with pick-up requirements he said.
There will be two leaf pickups, the first beginning Nov. 4, again zone by zone, and the second beginning December 9 with one pass through town. Residents are urged to remind any building contractors or workers of the schedules for the convenience of all and enhanced appearance of the borough.
The fall seasons for the borough yard are posted on the borough calendar as well as online and at the yard. Mondays through Fridays, the borough yard is open for recycling disposal from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. There will be weekend hours for leaf and brush drop-offs only, on November and December Saturdays and Sundays from 8 am, until noon.
The Public Works Department also reminds residents and businesses that no signs are permitted on borough, county or state property and will be removed if posted without written permission from the proper authority.
Persons interested in applying for a position with the Public Works Department should apply as soon as possible either Borough Hall during business hours or by downloading an application at ahnj.com
With more praise and thanks to First Aid Chief Lance Hubeny and the Atlantic Highlands First Aid Squad, Councilman James Murphy reported the squad will have a 2024 Ford E450 ambulance within two weeks.
At the same time, the squad and it chief deserve more praise and credit for the squad’s Cadet Program, noting that one cadet in the program has already completed all his training and is now officially an EMT with the squad, and two other cadets are in training to become EMR, or Emergency Medical Responders. Murphy noted the title of EMR with the requirements necessary to be completed to receive it is similar to an advanced first responder.
“Having three of four cadets earn an EMT or EMR designation is amazing,” the councilman said, noting also that the squad has answered 43 calls during the month of September.
News continues to get even better, he continued, with three more cadets in the process of joining the firsts aid squad.
The new ambulance was made possible through fundraising by the First Aid Squad through donations; the fact it will be available by next month rather than the two to two and a half years generally accepted for arrival of a newly ordered ambulance, is because of efforts by Chief Hubeny, Murphy said. He termed both the fund raising by the squad and the quick arrival of the new equipment “Astounding.”
Murphy reported the squad already also has a buyer for their “gently used rig” they purchased for use until they could secure a new ambulance. He pointed out the squad was able to sell it for more than they paid for its purchase.
The squad has answers 381 emergency calls from January to September, for a total of 1,047 calls since Hubeny took over as chief in July 2022, and promised a harder working, more enthusiastic, capable and enthusiastic squad that would work together seamlessly.
It’s the Volunteer of the Month for September that prompted Mayor Lori Hohenleitner to suggest that everyone should follow the example of the unnamed person.
In announcing there is a designated Volunteer of the month as has been the schedule for Atlantic Highlands Council meetings, Hohenleitner said the person selected for this month did not want to be publicly identified.
In agreeing to honor the resident without any identification, the mayor suggested that everyone instead “thank somebody”: for doing something nice.
The mayor noted there are many unsung heroes in town and many people who do things for others without recognition, but rather selflessly.
The honoree she said, is a person who is always busy doing something for the borough, always looking out for the Mayor and Council, and always representing what the community is all about.
She suggested that to honor the unsung hero everyone should thank someone for doing something nice whether it is wearing a plant or volunteering in some manner because “that’s what our town is all about.”
