New Step in Career (NJN Publishing)

I am back to update whoever is paying attention to this blog about my latest path in the journalism industry. I'm currently a reporter for NJ.com, more specifically Cranford Chronicle newspaper. I started back in late October as a reporter for The Independent Press, but then my editors wanted me a little closer to home, well my home thank God.

This post is dedicated to my early beginnings with NJN Publishing. I only have my online articles to choose, my print ones are nicely stowed away.

The first few stories is based on a snowstorm that suddenly swept through northern New Jersey and broke trees and telephone poles. It was big and honestly, thank God it happened during my first few weeks because that was pretty much by bread and butter.

Summit Mayor Glatt frustrated with JCP&L

SUMMIT — The power was out, trick-or-treating was postponed and public schools were closed Monday and Tuesday due to last Saturday’s nor’easter snowstorm.

Shelter was provided by the Colonial Crossroads Chapter of the American Red Cross at the Summit Middle School, they offered warm drinks, a place to stay, and wireless connections. The local YMCA opened its doors for residents without heat to use their showers.

Jersey Central Power & Light, a company that services 1.1 million residents in 13 of New Jersey’s counties, reported that it may take several days to restore power to some residents. More than 356,000 customers lost power from the nor’easter. By Sunday evening about 85,000 customers had power.

Mayor Jordan Glatt was frustrated with JCP&L’s lack of presence in Summit and that the city is experiencing the same issues that it had with Hurricane Irene back in August.
“We have a lot of power lines still down and numerous roads that are closed. … Communication is our biggest challenge with residents and JCP&L,” said Glatt, who expressed disappointment over the town’s police officers having to stop the few JCP&L trucks in the area just to find out what is going on.

“We anticipate that 95 percent of our customers will be restored by Thursday,” said JCP&L President Donald M. Lynch. He also stated that the company had about 3,000 “personnel working around-the-clock to restore service.”

The company released a statement and then an alert through Nixle on Monday that residents who are JCP&L customers can receive free water and ice at Kings and ShopRite.
JCP&L utilized twitter (@JCP_L) to update customers on Monday; their website was experiencing technicalities and was not able to provide current information until later on in the day.

More than 8,000 outages have been reported, including the Mayor’s home, and only about 500 households have restored power.

“Summit looks like a disaster area. I don’t think there is a property outside of our downtown that hasn’t had some damage.”

“We have a lot of work to do. It’s not that we don’t know where to begin, we are just being challenged. The temperature makes everything urgent.”

The Department of Public Works has been working to clean up debris, snow and fallen limbs and trees in public areas, but its workers cannot move trees and limbs with live wires until the electric utility company (JCP&L) comes out to assess the situation.

NJ Transit closed its Morris/Essex lines and the Gladstone Branch on Monday due to wires and trees down on its tracks. Trains were running today, but with delays.

Garbage collection took place on its regular schedule, unless the garbage collectors were unable to access the resident’s property. Collectors will make arrangements to revisit properties they could not reach.

The Constantine Pumping Station is up and running and residents can now shower and use their sinks and toilets.

The Transfer Station is without power and will not accept trash or bulky items, but residents can use the compost and recycling side for debris on private property. Residents who have a private contractor are asked to come to the Community Services Department in City Hall to request a pass for their contractor.

Summit is not alone

Barbara RyboltPower was out Sunday, but Copolla, an Italian restaurant in New Providence opened its doors, hooked up a generator and started making pizzas and more to eat in or take out. It may have been dark, but the patrons (and there were a lot of them) were just happy to get a hot meal -- they just didn't want their photos taken.

In New Providence, a message on the website on Tuesday from the borough’s Office of Emergency Management indicated that more than 90 percent of the borough remains without power and there is no established time line for power to be restored in New Providence.

Residents are reminded to only call 9-1-1- for medical and life threatening situations.
Trick-or-treating has been moved to Friday, Nov. 4, and schools closed today,Tuesday.

All debris on property should be put on the curb and it will be collected.

Every school district in the Independent Press circulation area closed schools on Monday and Tuesday because of the extensive damage from the storm, which dropped about eight inches of heavy snow on the towns.

The snow fell on trees still full of leaves, then the winds came. The result, trees down throughout the area, which brought down wires and cut power to everyone.

As of 4:41 p.m. on Monday, the JCP&L Outage Map showed the following numbers of residences without power: Berkeley Heights, 4682; New Providence 3,393; Summit, 7,107; the Chathams 6,232; and Warren Township 6,849.

Ron Morano, spokesperson for JCP&L said Monday evening that Union County still has 18,000 customers without power.

"We had the most significant damage" in Morris County from the storm and as of 2 p.m. on Monday, there were still 89,000 customers without power.

At one point 370,000 JCP&L customers were out of service in the state, of which, 135,000 customers had been restored as of Monday night.

"We have been holding conference calls with the president of JCP&L and mayors and municipal officals every day," Morano said, adding "We've been working on restoring customers since Saturday."

The method JCP&L uses for dealing with the power outages is to work on areas with the largest outages first to bring the largest area of customers back to power, he explained.

Madison was one of those areas. On JCP&L outage map, Madison is shown as having only two outages but, since Madison has its own electric utility; it’s the utility that is out. The entire town was dark until late Monday afternoon.

90 percent of New Providence still without power

Reeves-Reed Arboretum damaged

Enough about the nor'easter. Here are a couple from Cranford Chronicle:

Kenilworth man needs a kidney

KENILWORTH — Michael Capizzano stood in the parking lot of Harding Elementary School and focused his eyes on his daughter Michelle during her softball practice and proudly stated that she had made the middle school softball team.

A member of the Kenilworth Youth Softball Committee, it was a team he helped form after the school district canceled middle school sports in a cost-cutting move.

The 46-year-old accounting manager at Turner Construction Company hopes to be able to keep watching his daughter play softball without facing the prospect of spending hours each week in a hospital. Capizzano has polycystic kidney disease (P.K.D) and is looking for a kidney donor before he has to be placed on dialysis.

Capizzano was diagnosed in his early 30s and initially took his disease lightly.
“I never really thought anything of it,” said Capizzano. “I just thought it was something I had and I had to live with it.”

By Asia MartinMichael Capizzano in his kitchen with his wife Renee in the background.

Polycystic kidney disease is a disease where cysts form in both kidneys. As the cysts grow larger there is less functional tissue left in the kidneys. Capizzanoo didn’t realize how bad his kidneys were until two years ago when his doctor handed told him he needed a kidney transplant.

“I was numb,” said Capizzano. “All those years you don’t think anything is wrong and then you go from one extreme to the next.”

Capizzano has been on the donor list for two years and is working with the Transplant Center at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick to find one. But time is running out — his doctor recently told him he now has only a few months to find a donor before going on dialysis.

Capizzano hopes to avoid dialysis because his chances of a transplant decrease once he is on dialysis.

None of the members of Capizzano’s family qualify to be donors.

“I try not to think of it. I tried helping and then I realized I couldn’t,” said his daughter, Christine, who is the oldest and eight-months pregnant.

Although the family initially did not talk with Michelle about the urgency for her father to find a donor, they changed their minds once they began to publicly seek a donor.
“I was sad and I was worried,” said Michelle.

The family said they have all changed their eating habits because of Michael’s need to lose weight for a possible kidney transplant.

“Our grandma cooks for us and she makes all food that is healthier,” Michelle explained.
Renee, Michael’s wife, said nothing really has changed for the family. Michael continues to work and coaches the Kenilworth softball team and he said he refuses to treat himself like he is sick.

“If I act sick, then I’ll feel sick,” said Michael.

Renee added, “The main focus is finding a donor. He is so far out on the waiting list that we have to look for someone who is willing to donate.”

Kenilworth's Meredith Kaulfers celebrates Oscar recognition