Original Spartans

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Dr. John Baker and Dr. Fred Dalzell worked the sidelines of Holy Spirit High School football games for parts of five decades. The prominent South Jersey orthopedic surgeon John Baker likes to talk about the time he met the eminent South Jersey high school football coach Ed Byrnes to talk about becoming the team doctor for the Holy Spirit Spartans. In New Jersey, state law requires high school football teams to have medical staff on-hand in case of injury. At most schools, this is a paid position, but Holy Spirit in the late 1970s was running its program on a shoestring, and Coach Byrnes was looking for volunteers. Baker was a young doctor, recently transplanted to South Jersey from St.

More about: Homepage Featured, Voices, football, high school football, Holy Spirit

A Trump Museum, Earth Shakes, Tax Deals and Narcan – Friday’s Roundup

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A Trump Museum
A Stockton University professor and a tour operator are collecting Trump artifacts and hoping to open a museum in Atlantic City all about the soon-to-be President Trump. On the one hand, it’s something that would potentially draw visitors, provide employment and it’s not a casino… On the other hand, it’s a museum to someone who prompts mixed – but usually strong – emotions around here. What do you think? The Press of Atlantic City has the story.

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Atlantic City’s Debt, The Opioid Crisis and Award-Winning South Jersey Vodka – Thursday’s Eclectic Roundup

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There’s a long look at Atlantic City’s finances on Bloomberg today that basically concludes that the future is likely to be a double whammy of tax hikes and spending cuts, which I guess everyone already knew is the way to dig yourself out of a debt hole, but there’s something about the graphics on the page – they depict the drop in tax take – that is so stark it’s hard not to feel sympathy pains for the taxpayers in the city. The blink-and-you’d-miss-it takeaway from the Bloomberg piece is that the city workers’ union is considering legal action to thwart any move by the city’s overseer to change workers’ contract. If anyone wants to be cheered up, they can take a look at our take on how the city’s crisis is actually a problem for the whole county, although that gets less attention. In even more depressing local news (it’s one of those days, apparently), there was another shooting in Hamilton Township last night – Lynda Cohen at Breaking AC has the details here. In wider New Jersey news, there have been some developments around tackling the opioid crisis that are worth paying attention to. A group of hospitals a long way north of Atlantic County, but connected to networks down here, have agreed to provide Union County police with free Narcan, the drug used to counteract opioid overdoses.

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Casino Control, Suspended Students & Lawful Liquor – Wednesday’s Roundup

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The latest chapter in the sorry tale of the casino formerly known as the Revel involves its current owner, Glenn Straub, suing the Casino Control Commission for holding up his plans to “make Atlantic City great again” (and yes, his lawyer really said that.) Last time we checked, TEN (as it’s hard to remember it’s now called), had the go-ahead to open next year as a hotel, but the current issue is whether or not Straub will be able to let someone else operate a casino in the property. Maybe Straub is just in the wrong business. Little Water Distillery, which has been joking about racing Revel to open, is pretty much there. We see your glow-ball response #Revel, and raise you two security lights and building permit on the window…… pic.twitter.com/raPqtLN97e
— Little Water (@littlewaterdist) September 3, 2016

The distillery is Atlantic City’s first-ever lawful producer of spirits and now has the necessary federal, state and city permissions to open its doors – we took a look last week and got to meet the owners.

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Atlantic City’s First Legal Distillery Nears Opening

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Atlantic City will soon boast its first ever legal distillery, thanks to brothers Eric and Mark Ganter. The Little Water Distillery may not be the first to ever produce spirits in the city, but it will be the first to do so with federal and state licenses. The distillery, which began life as a family daydream after Eric and Mark’s dad received a still for his birthday in 2013, will launch an American whisky dubbed WHITECAP around December 15, just in time for those of us who failed to do all our holiday shopping this past weekend. The whisky is the result of a collaboration with a distillery in the Appalachian mountains that the Ganter brothers struck up a friendship with during their multi-year process to launch their Atlantic City site. The name is a play on the white caps of the mountains and the Atlantic ocean, Eric Ganter explained.

More about: Atlantic City, Business, Atlantic City, distillery, little water, small business, tumble inn

Atlantic City Demolition Bids Sought

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Atlantic County Improvement Authority is seeking sealed bids for demolition of two Atlantic City houses. One of the three-story homes is 2415 Arctic Ave between N. Georgia and N. Florida Aves. The other is 104 South Albion Place, just up the road from Chef Vola’s between Pacific Avenue and the Boardwalk. Bids will be opened at 2.30 pm on Tuesday Dec. 6.

More about: Government, Atlantic City, demolition

Socktober Surprise

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Students at Frog Pond Elementary School in Little Egg Harbor donated 821 pairs of socks to Covenant House, a homeless shelter for homeless youth, in Atlantic City earlier this month. The idea to collect the socks came fromKerry Gunn, who teaches fifth grade at the school and showed her students a facebook video by Kid President Robby Novak, who pointed out that socks (according to some metrics) are among the most-needed and least-donated clothing items. Gunn said she presented the idea to her fellow fifth-grade teachers who supported it. “We called this service project, ‘Socktober–Kids Helping Kids,’” she said, in a statement. In response to a series of questions (“Who donated the most socks? Why’d that person have so many socks?

More about: Atlantic City, Education, Voices

Northfield: Looking For Fire Equipment and Professional Services

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Northfield has bids open for professional services and, separately, for a fire hose and equipment. The town is seeking professionals to provide services including bond counsel, municipal solicitor, labor relations attorney and land surveyor for next year. More details on the sought-for services are here. Proposals must be submitted by 4 pm Dec. 6.

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Egg Harbor City: Seeking Professional Service Providers For 2017

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Egg Harbor City is seeking help with legal, planning and engineering services next year, according to a request for proposals on the city’s website. Among other jobs, the city is looking for an attorney, bond counsel, an auditor and a municipal prosecutor and municipal land use planner. Proposals must be submitted by 3 pm on Dec. 1. Details are available here.

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Atlantic City Seeks Bids For Flood Prevention Work

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Atlantic City is seeking bids for the second phase of a project to prevent storm-water-related flooding. The work is part of a multi-million-dollar infrastructure project to reduce flooding in the city. The project, which began last year, is mostly being funded by federal grant money. The current project will install pumps at the Atlantis Ave end of the Baltic Avenue canal – which tends to flood when high tide coincides with heavy rainfall. According to the request for proposals, sealed bids will be received on Tuesday Jan. 10 at 11 am.

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