1. njherald.com | Sussex County MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015 75¢
Pope John seeks
TOC crown
tonight — B1
Local couple
take photo trip
to Cuba — A10
Vol. 2015 No. 70
More weather,
Page A11
Annie’s Mailbox . . . . . . C5
Bridge column . . . . . . . C2
Business . . . . . . . . . . . . B6
Classified . . . . . . . . . . C1-2
Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4
Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . C4
Drs. Oz and Roizen . . . A8
Health Extra . . . . . . . . . A8
Horoscopes . . . . . . . . . C1
Local/Your Town . . . . . . A7
Lottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . A11
Mini Page . . . . . . . . . . . . C3
Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5
Nation, World . . . . . . . . A4
Obituaries. . . . . . . . . . . . A9
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5
Puzzles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4
Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . .B1-5
State/Region . . . . . . . . . A3
Today in History. . . . . . . C1
TV Listings . . . . . . . . . . . C5
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . A11
INSIDE
By DIANA GOOVAERTS
dgoovaerts@njherald.com
BYRAM — With road con-
struction from Acorn Street
to the ShopRite plaza finally
complete, township officials
in Byram are looking to
spring to bring a close to the
long, drawn-out Route 206
project.
“There are a few things
that we probably will follow
up on once we see that the
weather has cleared and the
snow has melted,” Township
Manager Joe Sabatini said
last week. “But we have not
signed a jurisdictional agree-
ment accepting responsibility
for anything and we will not
do that until we are sure that
things were done properly
and are completed.”
Though nearly all major
elements of the project have
been completed at this point,
Sabatini said the township
still has some concerns
about the shrubbery and
other plantings that were put
in toward the end of last year.
“We’ve noticed some
issues (with plantings) that
may need to be followed up
on once spring really
arrives,” Sabatini said. “The
bottom line is that we’re
more concerned that a lot of
the plantings done late last
year are not going to survive
but subsequently we learned
that there’s a guarantee on
that.”
Sabatini said an additional
planting project at the Acorn
Street “Welcome to Byram”
signs has yet to be complet-
ed, but should be taken care
of by Department of
Transportation maintenance
workers. Two other previous-
ly incomplete projects to
install a railing on the
Lubber’s Run bridge and fix
the sloped lettering on the
Welcome to Byram sign near
ShopRite have been complet-
ed, he said.
“There might be some
other small punch list items,
but relatively speaking it’s
just mainly those treatments
for Welcome to Byram (at
Acorn Street)” he said.
A Department of
Transportation spokesman
could not be reached for
comment.
The construction project,
intended to widen the one
and a half miles of Route 206
to relieve congestion during
heavy traffic times, has been
in progress since December
2009, but the original sub-
stantial completion date of
Dec. 5, 2011 and final comple-
tion date of Feb. 3, 2012 have
been pushed back several
times. Due to the near end-
less string of delays that has
plagued the work and the
related negative impact on
area businesses during con-
struction, the project has
become a sore subject
among township officials and
residents.
Aside from the township’s
concern about the project’s
plantings, Sabatini said locals
have also expressed con-
cerns about cracking of the
textured pavement that bear
investigation. Sabatini said
ongoing concerns about the
cofferdams in the Lubber’s
Run will mostly likely not be
addressed by the council, but
are being followed up on by
the Musconetcong Watershed
Association.
The cofferdams were
placed in Lubber’s Run dur-
ing construction of the bridge
over the river to create a dry
environment during the
work, and were later cut
down to the river bed.
However, the association
feels that the remnants of the
dams jutting out of the river-
Byram still not ready to sign off on Route 206
By ERIC OBERNAUER
eobernauer@njherald.com
FREDON — Republican Mayor Carl Lazzaro kicked off
his primary campaign for Sussex County freeholder Sunday
at a brunch attended by 80 people at the Fredon Civic
Center, where he received a rousing introduction by
Freeholder George Graham and Rep. Scott Garrett, R-5th
Dist.
With the dust still settling from the recent $6.5 million bail-
out of a solar initiative for which Sussex County taxpayers
remain on the hook for $24 million, Graham
and Garrett immediately set about defining
Lazzaro as a candidate who would bring a
renewed focus to keeping county govern-
ment small, lean and accountable to the
voters.
“Carl is a cheapskate when it comes to
government,” Graham quipped, drawing a
round of applause from those in the room.
Garrett, reiterating that theme, stopped
short of explicitly endorsing Lazzaro’s can-
didacy but paid homage to Lazzaro’s volun-
teerism as an emergency medical techni-
cian and his accomplishments as a small businessman,
preacher and small-town mayor.
“Carl was our preacher who married Mary Ellen and I,
and in August we celebrate 30 years, so thank you, Carl,”
Garrett said. “And Carl is going to be a success as our next
freeholder where he’ll bring his conservative philosophy of
smaller government, of government that lives within its
means. All of those attributes will be beneficial to him and to
us when he becomes our next freeholder.”
Lazzaro, in his opening remarks, made reference to the
recently approved solar project rescue plan under which the
county will borrow from itself the money it received from the
2012 sale of the Homestead nursing home, which will be
used to build out solar projects yet to be completed.
The agreement, which was approved last month by a 3-2
vote, was bitterly opposed by Graham and Sussex County
Freeholder Gail Phoebus — both of whom were in atten-
dance at Sunday’s brunch.
“The solar project was a disaster. I don’t believe govern-
ment should ever be involved in that — that’s not our job,”
Lazzaro said.
Still, he said his campaign as freeholder would transcend
the solar issue alone and vowed to contrast his overall phi-
losophy of government from that of his opponents.
In a letter distributed to those in attendance Sunday,
Lazzaro stated that recent events in the county pointed to “a
glaring need for transparency and accountability.”
He added: “It is time to move away from the attitude of
business as usual while sticking the taxpayer for another
backroom settlement to hide the mistakes from the public. I
am running for freeholder this year because, like you, I have
had enough of the inside deals and the lame excuses.”
Lazzaro, in his remarks, also spoke of the toll this year’s
winter has taken on Sussex County roads and indicated he
would aim to make county government responsive and
focused on its priorities: “Our job as freeholders is to make
sure we have a good solid infrastructure so that people can
get around.”
Fredon mayor
announces run
for freeholder
LAZZARO
By DIANA GOOVAERTS
dgoovaerts@njherald.com
GREEN — A class of
eighth grade language arts
students chats excitedly as
they fill the room and almost
immediately begin tapping
away on their Chrome Books
or wandering about the room
with an iPad in hand. Their
speech continues melodically
at a dull roar as numerous
sets of hands gesture to illus-
trate ideas or scribble furi-
ously on white moon-shaped
desks.
To some, this scene might
seem like chaos, but for
Green Hills School
Innovation Lab facilitators
Louis and Tara Rossi it’s a
picture perfect tableau of
learning in action.
Opened in October 2014
with the help of generous
grants from Thorlabs, the
United States Department of
Naval Research, the school’s
Parent Teacher Association
and donations from the com-
munity, the Innovation Lab
acts as a platform that allows
educators throughout the
school to integrate concepts
from science, technology,
engineering and math, also
known as STEM, into their
lessons through the use of
practical, hands-on projects.
“I think the neatest thing
about the Innovation Lab is
that it’s a K-8 innovation lab,”
said Louis Rossi, who acts as
the lab’s ThinkSTEM coach.
“What the benefit of that is is
that we can actually have a
project and not close it off to
grade levels. So we have sec-
ond- and third-graders com-
ing up with questions and
then we have the older kids
researching those questions
and answering those ques-
tions. We’re integrating math,
we’re integrating social stud-
ies, there’s lots of different
subjects going into this. It’s
very organic.”
Rossi said the model used
in the Innovation Lab is
called “Integrative STEM
education,” which looks for
the natural intersection
between STEM topics and
the content teachers are
teaching at the moment.
While some groups come in
each week, others come in
only when relevant projects
arise, he said.
Green Hill’s Innovation Lab includes all students
Learning in action
See BYRAM, Page A2
See LEARNING, Page A2
Photos by Diana Goovaerts/New Jersey Herald
Green Hills School teacher Tara Rossi, right, works with eighth-grade students Julia Jeffer, left, and Skylar Robinson in the
school’s Innovation Lab.
Green Hills School teacher Louis Rossi works with a group of
eighth-grade students in the school’s Innovation Lab.
See LAZZARO, Page A2
Lazzaro joins GOP primary field