08/21/2025 Berkeley Heights BOE Meeting Recap- Laura’s Notes
If I may take a brief moment, I would like to reflect before jumping into the 6-hour kick off to the 2025-26 school year BOE meeting… All in all, the meeting ran smoothly. I witnessed an Administrative team (Feltre, Marr, and even newly appointed BA Nicholson) working as a tag-team answering questions, and truly listening to concerns. The Administrators were...
Laura’s Notes on the 08/19/2025 Berkeley Heights Town Council Meeting
Following a doozy of a day with the Township and flood repairs (that’s a follow-up article, stay tuned!), the advertised Zoom livestream for the in-person Council Meeting was set to begin at 6:30. Unfortunately, any resident who followed instructions on the Township website to watch the livestream was met with a blank screen—and learned through the grapevine that Zoom would...
NJ21st Investigates Berkeley Heights Storm Damage Assessment
Emergency Bond Spending in Berkeley Heights- Storm Recovery or Misplaced Priorities? by Laura Kapuscinski I visited the majority of specific addresses listed in the Township Storm Damage Assessment. . My research was based on the very specific house numbers and scope of work listed on the Township’s Assessment Report. While several houses did not seem to have sustained noticeable damage,...
A Turf Field Deal Without “Turf Field” And a Lease That’s Now Called Something Else
After months of NJ21st trying to get a clear answer on the legality of the CMS lease agreement, Berkeley Heights Town officials have now taken the position that what they actually approved was a Shared Services Agreement. Township attorney Scott Salmon told NJ21st (in an 08/11 email) that, while the arrangement started out “stylized as a lease,” it’s “for all...
Berkeley Heights Town Council Meeting Disrupted by Offensive Zoom Bombing
The special meeting called by the mayor and Town Council to adopt an ordinance for storm repairs was hijacked three different times by a spammer, causing the meeting to be shut down and restarted. Images were pornographic, racist and derogatory in nature. At different times, what appeared to be swastikas appeared in the pornographic images. Town Administrator Viana came onto...
Who Gets a Day or Award in Berkeley Heights? Apparently, “It’s Organic.”
–Laura Kapuscinski Every so often, the Township of Berkeley Heights names a “Day” after someone — usually a resident, sometimes a local figure — as a gesture of community appreciation. It’s a nice idea. But recently, a question came up: How exactly does someone get one? So we asked. I sent an email to Mayor Angie Devanney and Council members...
From Screaming to Silence … What Happened to the Berkeley Heights Turf Plan?
As Mountainside BOE member Bill Dillon remarked at the June BOE meeting, “we are still no closer to a turf field.” Those words have proved to not only be true, but mum’s been the word from the Recreation Commission and the Township. As I previously reported, the Recreation Commission had an unadvertised special meeting to hear from a single turf...
State Mandates Full-Day Kindergarten by 2029 … What Local Districts Are Doing Now
From Pre-K rollouts to school reconfiguration, Chatham and New Providence face the growing pains of a changing New Jersey – with Berkeley Heights as a cautionary tale. NJ schools are undergoing some makeovers, but not the infrastructure upgrades so many public schools desperately need. While some districts are rolling out phased approaches to manage the inevitable influx of students, many...
No-Bid Contracts, DEP Fines, and the Sewage Bid: What the Council Didn’t Explain
Laura’s Notes on the 07/15/2025 Berkeley Heights Town Council Meeting Following the storm that rocked our world, the Berkeley Heights Town Council met virtually on Tuesday, July 15. The meeting featured the usual theatrical monologues, with Councilwoman Poage and Town Administrator Liza Viana noting they were on vacation and a cruise, respectively. Viana remarked that she always seems to be...
New Providence Pushes Back on Developer Toll Brothers
Back in the headlines is Toll Brothers Construction, a company that has become infamous for their steamrolling through quaint suburban towns making millions on housing development. While plans to continue at the state level for more housing developments, with little to no room for negotiations, small towns like Berkeley Heights and New Providence continue to feel the impact to our...
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