Governor Visits Westwood, Local Elections, Power Outages Top This Week's News

Governor Christie Visits Berkeley Elementary School

Governor Chris Christie visited fifth grade students from Ms. Magliato's and Ms. Finkelstein's classes at Berkeley Elementary School Tuesday.

The governor fielded questions from students and spoke to reporters about the then-pending . Christie also had some blunt words for what he called  that were upset when he praised President Barack Obama for supporting the state after Hurricane Sandy hit.

Sporadic Power Outages Hit Area as Storm Arrives

New power outages sporadically hit areas of Hillsdale and Washington Township around Wednesday as snow from "Winter Storm Athena" began to fall.

PSE&G later estimated that all power would be restored by Sunday.

Hillsdale Democrats likely took most or all of the four seats up for election on the borough council Tuesday, but at least one of the races was too close to call based on unofficial results.

The preliminary totals, which include votes cast in borough polling locations but not mail-in or provisional ballots, have Meyerson with 2,178 votes, DeGise with 2,176 votes, Hanlon with 2,127 votes, DeRosa with 2,011 votes and Moldow with 611 votes for the two three-year terms.

For the two-year term, Kelley had 2,344 votes and Pizzella had 2,135.

For the one-year term, Looes has 2,359 and MacEwen had 2,095.

Westwood Republicans Take Council Seats

Peter Grefrath and Ray Arroyo were declaring victory in their run for the Westwood Council Tuesday night after unofficial results put them each ahead of their opponents by several hundred votes.

The preliminary totals, which include votes cast in borough polling locations but not mail-in or provisional ballots, have Grefrath with 2,506 votes, Arroyo with 2,353 votes, Fischer with 1,846 votes and Nass with 1,811 votes.

Current Westwood Regional Board of Education President Carol Mountain and Russell Miller won two contested Westwood seats on the school board, according to unofficial election results released Tuesday night.

Miller had 1,146 votes, Mountain had 1,028 votes and incumbent Susan Swietkowski had 881. Results from mail-in and provisional ballots were not immediately available Tuesday.

'Cat Burglar' Hits Two Washington Township Homes

Two Hampshire Road homes were struck by a "cat burglar" early Wednesday morning, according to Washington Township Police.

The homes had apparently been broken into while the residents were sleeping inside, police said.

Pro Ball Players Offer Lessons in Westwood

A new business in Westwood is offering baseball and softball instruction from athletes with professional experience on the field.

Mike Just, who has played for several professional teams and was signed to the Houston Astros for part of 2008, has assembled a group of instructors with first-hand knowledge of what it takes to make it to the pro level for his business, Just Hits.

Apple Recognizes Pascack Valley High School

Apple Inc. recently named both Pascack Valley High School and Pascack Hills High School as "Apple Distinguished Schools," according to district officials. This is the fifth consecutive year both schools have won the award.

New Signs Going Up at Washington Town Center

Businesses in the Washington Town Center have started installing their new signs after the township's council adopted an ordinance easing restrictions on signs in the strip mall.

Vincent's Trattoria and Verizon have both recently installed new signs, Verizon using the company's logo and Vincent's adding a red "trattoria" under their existing sign.

Jonathan Ronda, the manager at the Verizon store, told Patch he expects the new sign will help draw more customers who might have otherwise ignored the strip mall's uniform blue signs, which many have said are hard to read from the road.

Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Jim Leggate at Jim.Leggate@patch.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.