MORRIS COUNTY — On Monday, August 26, a seminar focusing on house of worship safety and security, and active shooter response was held at the Chabad Center of Northwest New Jersey Early Learning Center.

The seminar was presented by Morris County Prosecutor’s Office First Assistant Prosecutor Tom Zelante, Morris County Director of Critical Infrastructure Patrick Owens, Training Coordinator from the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness Ed Moore, and Lieutenants Peter Reilly and Michael Dachisen of the Rockaway Township Police Department.  Rabbi Mordechai Baumgarten, numerous teachers, and office staff from the center were in attendance.

Following First Assistant Prosecutor Zelante’s opening remarks, Director Owens and Training Coordinator Moore provided information concerning important security practices to ensure the safety of their houses of worship, including specific warning signs to be aware of. They also covered the federal and State of New Jersey grants available to houses of worship to help fund new security measures, as well as the security assessments that are available through the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office. After the informational session of the program, a question and answer session was held for those in attendance.

Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp stated, “Education is the important first step in ensuring that all houses of worship and schools throughout Morris County are properly secured. The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office will continue providing these trainings and security assessments to ensure that all facilities are as safe as possible”, he said.

MORRIS COUNTY — Washington Monthly has placed County College of Morris (CCM) 12th in the nation in its 2019 ranking of community colleges that best serve adult learners. This is the third year in a row Washington Monthly has ranked CCM as one of “America’s Best Colleges for Adult Learners.”

The publication notes that adult learners “are students who make big sacrifices of their time and resources to pursue their goals. They deserve a different kind of college: the kind that designs programs and services to ensure that returning adults succeed.” Adult students are defined as those over the age of 25.

Metrics considered in the ranking included the ease of enrollment and transfer, program flexibility, services for adult students, the percentage of adult learners at the college, the graduation rate of part-time students, and the median earnings of adult students 10 years after entering the college.

Earlier this year, PayScale ranked CCM number one in New Jersey for the third consecutive year for associate degree holders who earn the highest salaries in the state. That report noted that CCM alumni by mid-career, with more than 10 years of work experience, earn an average of $70,700. PayScale provides the largest on-demand salary database in the world. In yet another ranking, CCM is rated a top community college in New Jersey by Best Colleges.

MORRIS COUNTY — Assemblyman Anthony M. Bucco, the Republican Conference Leader, called out the Democrats today for not addressing property taxes. The Assembly met to expand a vote-by-mail law and didn’t consider any other bills.

Bucco said that if the legislature spent time on the number one issue for voters, turnout wouldn’t be a problem. A Monmouth University poll found that property taxes were far and away the most important issue to voters. That was followed by a Rutgers-NJBIA poll, where eighty percent of respondents said they pay too much in property taxes for the services they receive, and that state government isn’t doing enough to address cost of living and affordability.

MORRIS COUNTY — Representative Mikie Sherrill met with local officials and organizations yesterday as part of a swing through the 11th Congressional District focused on the opioid epidemic. In 2018, more than 3,000 people died in New Jersey of an overdose, higher than the national average. Throughout the 11th District, healthcare providers, non-profits, local governments, and law enforcement are working together to combat the high rate of overdose in our communities.

“Today I saw the scope and scale of the community partnerships among local healthcare providers, non-profits, and members of law enforcement to fight this disease as the public health crisis it is,” said Representative Sherrill. “Addiction can take over someone’s life, and our solutions to this challenge need to be equally as comprehensive. As a member of the Freshmen Working Group on Addiction, I have worked to secure grant funding for our local providers, combat the importation of fentanyl, and promote scientific research on the epidemic.”

Representative Sherrill discussed the need for grant funding with staff from the Center for Prevention and Counseling in Newton, which serves residents across Sussex County, including the five towns in the 11th District. Along with staff, Representative Sherrill spoke to the Sussex County Prosecutor and the Sparta and Newton Police Chiefs.

The Center for Prevention and Counseling is a state opioid response grant recipient. One of the first bills Representative Sherrill authored in Congress was the State Opioid Response Grant Authorization Act, which would fund a five-year authorization to provide additional treatment beds, expand treatment and recovery options, bridge gaps identified in systems of care, support robust prevention campaigns, and other actions taken by the states to address the opioid epidemic. Sherrill and her fellow sponsors secured $1.5 billion to the State Opioid Response Grant program for the next fiscal year in the House-passed Appropriations bill, a $500 million increase from the previous year.

Representative Sherrill visited with the opioid response unit at St. Clare’s Hospital in Boonton, and she and her staff completed NARCAN training with the Morris County Sheriff’s Office and the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris. She also met with Donna Andelora, founder of Lost Angels Bereavement Group, ahead of the Wayne Alliance’s 2nd Annual Overdose Awareness Day Vigil on August 31. Donna lost her son Joey at the age of 22 to a heroin overdose, and started the Lost Angels Bereavement Group to help local families cope with loved ones struggling with opioid addiction or overdose.

Representative Sherrill is a member of the bipartisan Freshmen Working Group on Addiction and leading on the issue of opioid addiction in the House of Representatives. In addition to the SOR Grant Authorization Act, Representative Sherrill co-sponsored the EFFORT Act to direct the National Science Foundation to conduct research into the opioid epidemic, which passed in the House last month with bipartisan support. To combat the flow of fentanyl from overseas, she co-sponsored the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, and voted for its passage as part of the House defense authorization bill. Sherrill also voted in May to appropriate $159 million for the Department of Justice’s Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based Program (COAP), which provided grant money to launch Morris County’s Hope One mobile resource vehicle.

MORRIS COUNTY — After a recent television news investigation into school bullying found the danger may be more prevalent than state statistics show, Senator Joe Pennacchio urged the General Assembly to pass his Mallory’s Law legislation bolstering New Jersey’s anti-bullying statutes.

The News 12 New Jersey report indicates school districts may be significantly under-reporting bullying cases. One district reported nine incidents to the state in three years, while school board minutes showed 27 in the same period.

“We need to stop this nonsense and prevent the under-reporting of bullying that is going on, and my bill will help do that,” said Pennacchio, whose bipartisan bill (S3433) passed the Senate in June with unanimous support, although the Assembly version has not moved. “We’re going to force schools to keep better records.”

The bill requires written reports be filed on numbered forms developed by the Department of Education, and requires school districts to provide parents with an online form for reporting harassment, intimidation or bullying. After a report is filed, principals must submit the form to the school superintendent, the executive county superintendent, and the parents of students involved.

According to the News 12 report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention find each year one in five students are bullied at school. New Jersey’s numbers are just one in 200, and 174 school districts, with 88,000 students, reported no bullying at all.

“This investigation makes a strong case for enacting Mallory’s Law as soon as possible,” said Pennacchio. “It’s obvious we can’t trust self-reporting by the school districts. We must be more concerned about the welfare of our children than the reputations of our schools.

“For the sake of our children, I urge the Assembly to pass this bill, and the governor to sign it into law as soon as possible.”

The legislation – named for Mallory Grossman, a 12-year-old bullying victim from Rockaway who committed suicide in 2017 – strengthens the state’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, signed into law in 2010 and considered one of the toughest anti-bullying laws in the nation. Under the bill, each school district’s anti-bullying policy must include specific penalties for bullying, and ensures school officials take preventative actions before tragedy strikes.

“We must do more to protect kids now that texting and social media make bullying possible 24/7. By requiring school and county officials to address bullying situations before an incident escalates, Mallory’s Law can help prevent the loss of more young lives,” Pennacchio said, noting that suicide is the second leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 14.

MORRIS COUNTY — The National Endowment for the Humanities announced its award to the Morris County Park Commission of the prestigious Preservation Assistance Grant for their project, ‘Sustainable Management of Collections Environments with Limited Controls.’

This $10,000 award will support the assessment and monitoring of storage environments for collections maintained in three Morris County Park Commission sites. Maintaining optimal collections environments is a key to the long-term preservation of Morris County’s valuable artifacts, but for many historic structures with limited controls, there have not been many options to intervene.

Working in partnership with the Image Permanence Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology the Morris County Park Commission can now explore sustainable and low-cost solutions for maintaining appropriate temperature and humidity conditions for artifacts in buildings without HVAC, and in some cases, no electricity. The grant funds will support a three-day site visit to assess and survey 10 buildings with varying environmental controls. It will also support the purchase of e-Climate Notebook monitoring equipment, and the training of staff in using this data analysis software.

According to Melanie Bump, Curator of Collections and Exhibits of the Morris County Park Commission, “This award is important to the people of Morris County as valuable assets, which include a collection of artifacts relating to the 300 years of Morris County history, will be preserved.”

She added, “It will also inform new sustainable practices in environmental management of collections storage, impacting collections stewardship around the world.”

Dave Helmer, Executive Director of the Morris County Park Commission, added,  “We should celebrate that Morris County received this most competitive and sought-after grant as it demonstrates the critical importance of this project and the Park Commission’s stewardship responsibility of local, regional and even national historical and cultural artifacts.

The National Endowment for the Humanities received 102 eligible applications, and 45 Preservation Assistance Grants were awarded across the country. The Morris County Park Commission is one of only two institutions in this year New Jersey to receive this grant, and were funded at the full amount. The Endowment awards grants to top rated proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers. There are four levels of review before a grant is officially supported, including a final review by the NEH chairman.

Cultural institutions, such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges and universities, public television, and to individual scholars are all eligible for grant funding through the NEH.

MORRIS COUNTY — Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon has selected Kelley Zienowicz as the person to lead the Sheriff’s Office into the future.

Kelley Zienowicz, a graduate of the elite FBI National Academy, will be promoted to the rank of Chief Morris County Sheriff’s Officer, the highest-level Officer position in the Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Law Enforcement.

Chief Zienowicz’s promotion will formally take place on Tuesday, September 3, during a swearing-in ceremony, making her the highest-ranking woman in the Morris County Sheriff’s Office and the sole female chief in Morris County.

“I am so proud to announce the promotion of Kelley Zienowicz to Chief Sheriff’s Officer of the Morris County Sheriff’s Office,” Sheriff James M. Gannon said.

“Chief Zienowicz has a temperament that motivates and energizes others. She is highly-educated, a graduate of the elite FBI National Academy, and a true leader with an impeccable work ethic.”

“With Chief Zienowicz at the helm of day-to-day operations overseeing all divisions in the Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Law Enforcement, we will accomplish great things which the people of Morris County deserve,” Sheriff Gannon said.

“Not only am I proud to have the backing of the Sheriff, I know this is an important time for the agency as a whole. I hope to bring positive motivation to the agency, from the top to the bottom,” Chief Zienowicz said.

As Chief, she will be responsible for management and day-to-day oversight over the Bureau of Law Enforcement’s four divisions: Support Services, Protective Services, Legal Services, and Special Services, which includes the Crime Lab and Crime Scene Investigation Unit.

Chief Zienowicz – who has received multiple awards, including the New Jersey Women in Law Enforcement Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award – will be promoted to Chief from her previous rank of Detective Lieutenant.

Chief Zienowicz grew up in Chester and attended Villa Walsh Academy. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Boston College in 1999, and a master of arts degree in forensic psychology from John Jay College in New York City in 2003.
She began her career with the Morris County Sheriff’s Office in 1999 as a civilian clerk-typist assigned to the Internal Affairs Section. Within a year, she was hired as a Sheriff’s Investigator and in 2001, she attended and completed training at the Morris County Police Academy.

Chief Zienowicz was first assigned to the Protective Services Division, which provides security and judicial protection at the courthouse complex.

In August 2001, she was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Section – now called Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) – and spent 11 years in the Unit, assisting in multiple criminal investigations throughout Morris County.

She was called as a witness for the prosecution in several high-profile criminal cases in Superior Court between 2003 and 2014. She was qualified as an expert fingerprint witness in the sexual assault trial and retrial of Andrew Pena, and testified about evidence in the murder trials of Jose Feliciano, convicted of murdering the Rev. Edward Hinds in Chatham in 2009; Anthony Novellino, convicted of killing his former wife, Judith, in Denville; and Carlos Rojas, found guilty of bludgeoning Esteban Hernandez Vazquez and leaving his body in the trunk of a car abandoned in Lincoln Park.

Chief Zienowicz was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in April 2012 and assigned to the Legal Services Division as the Executions and Foreclosure Section Supervisor. That promotion was followed on March 1, 2016, by another advancement to the rank of Detective Lieutenant.

She was assigned the post of Division Commander in the Administrative Division, overseeing Internal Affairs and the Special Operations Section. She then was transferred to the Protective Services Division in September 2016, where she oversaw the courthouse complex and operations and security at the Dover Probation Office.

One of her most profound pleasures was her nomination to attend the 273rd Session of the prestigious FBI National Academy, a 10-week course of study in Quantico, Virginia, in the summer of 2018. Sheriff Gannon, who backed the nomination, is an FBI National Academy Graduate, as well.
The FBI National Academy is a professional course of study for U.S. and international law enforcement managers who are nominated by their agency heads because of their demonstrated leadership abilities. The program provides coursework on intelligence theory, terrorism, terrorist mindsets, management science, law, behavioral science, communication and forensic science to improve the administration of justice in police departments and agencies.

Upon returning from the FBI National Academy, Chief Zienowicz in September 2018 was transferred to the Special Services Division, overseeing CSI, Evidence Section, and the Bomb Unit.

Assisting in the implementation of new technologies at the Sheriff’s Office, Chief Zienowicz was a member of the Evidence Unit start-up team for the BEAST evidence tracking system, guided implementation of the CivilServe civil process database system in the Executions and Foreclosure Unit, and coordinated use of the new Computer Aided Dispatch System within the Protective Services Division.

Chief Zienowicz has logged a voluminous number of hours on training, including intensive courses on crash reconstruction, supervision of police personnel, shooting analysis and reconstruction, and interpretation of bloodstain patterns.

She has received the Sheriff’s Achievement Award, Exceptional Duty Award, Unit Citation Medal, Professional Service Medal, Educational Achievement Medal-Masters Degree, Morris County Detective’s Association Distinguished Achievement Unit Award, and the NJ Women in Law Enforcement Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award, which is awarded to women who achieve a law enforcement rank of lieutenant or higher.

Chief Zienowicz is a three-time Police Unity Tour rider and participates annually in the Special Olympics Torch Run.

MORRIS COUNTY — Whether it’s getting a job, obtaining a better job or getting better at the job you’re in, County College of Morris (CCM) is here to help individuals achieve their career goals. The Center for Workforce Development at CCM will be hosting an Open House on Saturday, September 7, from 9:00 a.m. to noon. The Open House takes place in the Student Community Center’s Davidson Rooms, 214 Center Grove Road, in Randolph. The Open House provides an opportunity to meet instructors and staff, learn about education and training opportunities, sign up for courses and receive answers to questions pertaining to the courses and industry needs.

During the Open House, informational career workshops will be offered for free. At 10:00 a.m., it’s Strategies To Land Your New Job, Emerging Trends in Technology; and at 11:00 a.m., Data Analytics – Skill Set of the Future and Strategies to Land Your New Job.

CCM has been serving the greater Morris County region for over 50 years, including offering workforce development programs and customized training for businesses. Thousands of individuals each year are trained through these programs by leading industry experts.

CCM offers a variety of non-credit training, courses and certificates in the areas of Information Technology and Computer Training, Business Programs, Health Occupations Professional Development, English Language Learning, Career Education for Businesses and Professionals, and Online Learning.

To learn more about courses being offered through the Center for Workforce Development click here.

MORRIS COUNTY — Morris County Board of Freeholders will hold the 18th Annual Remembrance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against our nation on Sunday, September 8, at 6:00 p.m.

The ceremony will be take place at the Morris County September 11th Memorial on West Hanover Avenue in Parsippany, near the Morris View Healthcare Center and Morris County Public Safety Academy. It will be held rain or shine.

Alison Crowther and Honor Crowther Fagan, the mother and sister of Welles Crowther (“Man in the Red Bandana”), who gave his life to save others at the World Trade Center on 9/11, will speak at the event.

The county’s 9/11 event will include a march with a color guard up West Hanover Avenue to the 9/11 Memorial by police, fire, rescue and emergency personnel from across Morris County. They will be led by flag bearer Expedito C. Santillan, father of the late Maria Theresa Santillan of Morris Plains, who perished on 9/11.

The observance will include a special invocation, a lighting of candles, reading of the names of each of the Morris County victims, a 21-gun salute, keynote remarks, and music by the Morris Choral Society, Bethel AME Church of Morristown Ensemble, and Police Pipes and Drums of Morris County.

“It is an honor to have the Crowther family at the Morris County 9/11 Remembrance this year,” said Freeholder Director Doug Cabana. “We gather at the county memorial each year on the anniversary of 9/11 to recall every single one of the nearly 3,000 innocent people who were lost to our nation that day, like Welles Crowther, and that includes 64 of our Morris County residents, plus so many police, fire, EMT and other rescue workers.”

“We want their families and friends to know their loved ones are not forgotten, that we will never forget their sacrifices,” Freeholder Cabana added.

Welles Remy Crowther was a 24-year-old rookie investment banker working on the 104th floor of the South Tower at WTC when the attacks occurred on 9/11. Using training he received as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown, he rescued other workers trapped in the burning tower.

He was last seen working with members of the FDNY just before the South Tower collapsed.

Crowther became known as the “Man in the Red Bandana’’ for the red handkerchief he wore as a protective mask while taking on the role of rescuer. His story has been told in the documentary film, Man in the Red Bandana. Click here.

The Rockland County, N.Y. resident is annually honored by his alma mater, Boston College; he posthumously was named an honorary New York City firefighter; and his efforts were cited by President Barack Obama in the 2014 dedication of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Click here.

Morris County’s September 11th Memorial pays tribute to all of those who died in the terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C., on September 11, 2001, with a special emphasis on the 64 victims from Morris County whose names are etched in plaques affixed to the Memorial.

The names of all of the nearly 3,000 people who died that day are engraved in ruby-colored paving stones that have been set in the ground as a walkway surrounding the Memorial.

Since seating at the Memorial is limited, the public is encouraged to bring lawn chairs to the outdoor observance. Parking will be available at the Morris County Department of Human Services building at 340 West Hanover Avenue, in Morris Township – directly across from the Academy. Shuttle buses will be available to transport those in need the short distance to the Memorial.

For more information click here.