Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/2019/01/)
Good morning Route 40 Roundupers! Hope you’re enjoying the balmy weather. I wore my 900-octane down midlayer what I purchased at the Columbia outlet at The Walk at a steep, steep discount to drop the kids off this a.m. and it kept me toasty. I realize the cold is no joke, particularly with so many people sleeping rough–or semi-rough–but hey we try to keep morale up around here. In realer news, homicides were down 12% last year statewide!
Good morning Route 40! Sorry no roundup yesterday. I know you missed us. I got up and watched Chris Christie on Morning Joe or whatever it’s called and wrote 3,000 words with smoke coming out of my ears about our sick, sick political culture. Then I walked down to the beach and screamed at the waves like King Canute or something.
Fire Dept I + II
Ventnor city council introduced a bond ordinance for $3.3 million to replace the fire house on Wellington Ave., which no longer meets FEMA standards and has “outlived its usefulness,” according to this story from Nanette LoBiondo. Chief Cahill said he’s leading tours of the facility to show any doubters the place is indeed a wreck. He seemed serious. Elsewhere in Fires, Lynda Cohen reports that ACFD dealt with two suspected arsons on Saturday afternoon, within a half hour of one another. Both were vacant homes.
Katie Sobko and Kristie Cattafi of the North Jersey Record have a delightful story on the money towns spend in Atlantic City at the New Jersey League of Municipalities conference every year–$30 for an omelet, for instance. A meal for one councilman cost $1,063. Meanwhile, vendors, who are also trying to get your towns to give them your money and presumably have a decent success rate, host cocktail parties and cigar nights and happy hours, etc.
Phil Murphy added opioid addiction to the list of conditions for which a person can be prescribed medical marijuana. The Murphy admin also removed the prior-authorization requirement for opioid treatments involving medication. The governor said they would be opening treatment centers in Camden and Newark.
Businesses and other organizations in Atlantic County are offering to help workers who have been furloughed because of the government shutdown. Here is a list of current offers for workers and places where members of the public can donate food.
Longtime local acting coach Ursula Ryan, who ran Weist-Barron-Ryan studios, died last week and you should read Vincent Jackson’s story.
“Through Weist-Barron-Ryan, actors were cast in TV shows such as ‘Blue’s Clues,’ ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘The Nanny,’ commercials or industrial films for Caesars Atlantic City, Ryder Truck Rental and One Stop Car Audio.”
Federal workers had a rally to end the government shutdown, which is a month old and shows no signs of coming to an end. SNJ Today’s story is here.
Chris Franklin, at NJ.com, has a story here.
You should read them.
The budget and appropriations committee in the state senate forwarded a bill that would require groups that spend at least $3,000 to influence elections/policy in New Jersey to disclose their donors. There’s also a $10,000 threshold that triggers disclosures.
The primary sponsors are Troy Singleton and Linda Greenstein in the senate.
Happy Thursday Campers. Hope you’re having a great morning. Mayor Gilliam was at the City of Atlantic City City Council meeting last night, his first appearance in a while, but he kind of kept a low profile. Gilliam’s father, Frank McCoy Gilliam, Sr., died earlier this month, and the council offered condolences. Thanks to Michelle Brunetti Post of the Press of AC for her thorough story which supplied those details on the mayor’s father, as well as many others.