Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/author/sprouseb/page/17/)
Back in June, Dimitrios Patlias and Tonya Smith of Egg Harbor City were driving through West Virginia when they were pulled over by a state trooper who–after accusing them of smuggling cigarettes among other heinous crimes–let them off with a warning for failing to drive in their lane–but not before he seized more than $10,000 through the exciting process known as civil forfeiture.
Cathy Burke—as in the owner of the Irish Pub Cathy Burke—was named chairperson of the board of directors of the Save Ellis Island Foundation. They put out a press release August 20.
Phil Murphy is scheduled to make an appearance at the former “Xanadu” property, now the “American Dream” mall up off the NJ Turnpike, with generous state support. “That’ll be the fifth NJ governor (McGreevey, Codey, Corzine, Christie Murphy) waiting for this thing to open.”
So many stories in the neighborhood! I thought this was supposed to be a slow news week. The Press of AC’s Nicole Leonard has two great feats of journalism: One on the recent spike in methamphetamine in South Jersey, often overlooked because of opioids. The other is a profile of the drug court and Judge Sandson. Meanwhile, the Root Beer Barrel in Brigantine is closing for good after Labor Day and the incomparable Kevin Riordan has a profile on the shop John Garbries opened in 1974.
So much football in the neighborhood! Glory Days has features on the upcoming Holy Spirit and Pleasantville seasons, and the Press of AC has a picture of Leo Hamlett, in front of a leaf-strewn yard, for its feature on the Atlantic City Vikings. It looks like something out of Friday Night Lights (the picture). How that TV show didn’t get better ratings I’ll never understand.
Chief Riggin of the Pleasantville Police Department is asking for support to install ShotSpotter gunfire sensors around the city, which cost money. There’s a question on the ballot in November, and they’re having an Information Session at the middle school September 10.
Two Atlantic City beaches are under an advisory for bacteria levels. On Air Show day too… Seth Grossman said the KKK was never “active” in New Jersey, or something, and told a guy at an NAACP event his “history was fake” and he’d been “brainwashed with every Hollywood movie, every media thing, the crap they’re teaching in schools,” etc. for thinking otherwise. “Remember, the KKK was dead after the Civil War.”
A few weeks ago, Seth told me the KKK was a backlash to rising Black wealth in the 1920s, so he can’t even keep his fake history straight.
The Ventnor Twin movie theater will reopen next spring (yep, as a movie theater), Nanette LoBiondo of Downbeach.com reports. The new owners also run the Harbor Square Theater in Stone Harbor, so they (hopefully) know what they’re getting in to.
The Press of AC has a cool story on the Baltic Avenue Canal, an old-fashioned flood-control system, that’s been sitting fallow for 50 years but was reopened.
The Press of AC’s Claire Lowe has a great story on the lack of candidates for school-board elections. Lowe reports there are 82 races in the Press’s coverage area, and in 17 of them, there aren’t enough candidates to fill the open seats.