Who Should Consider Semaglutide Therapy in Park Ridge, NJ?

WOOD-RIDGE, NJ - Park Ridge defeated Wood-Ridge, 38-0, in a NJIC Patriot Division game Friday evening at Donna Ricker Memorial Field. With the loss, the Blue Devils fall to 1-2 on the year. Park Ridge improved to 2-0 on the year with the win.

Park Ridge quarterback Cole Hughes rushed 21 times for 136 yards (6.48 yards per carry), 1 lost fumble, and 3 touchdowns. Hughes did not record an attempted pass in this game.

The Owls got on the board to cap off a six-minute drive in the first quarter as Hughes ran it in from four yards out. A two-point conversion was stopped by the Wood-Ridge line, as Deron McLaughlin’s run from the fullback position was halted shy of the goal line. The score was 6-0 at 3:07 remaining in the opening quarter.

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McLaughlin made up for it on the ensuing drive, sacking Wood-Ridge quarterback Jimmy Masucci to force a turnover on downs.

The Owls capitalized, taking possession at the opponent’s 47-yard line, going up 12-0 to start the second quarter with Hughes’s second rushing touchdown on the day from three yards out. Kicker Charles O’Donovan did not convert the extra point.

The Park Ridge defense forced yet another turnover on downs on the following drive, on just four plays, stopping a fake punt attempt.

Taking over from the opponent’s 34, the Owls scored again on a 13-yard jet sweep to Michael Montgomery. Hughes’s quarterback draw on the two-point conversion attempt was stopped to keep the score at 18-0 with 5:28 in the half.

After punting, the Blue Devils got the ball back as freshman Melvin Zabaleta forced and recovered Hughes’s fumble.

The Blue Devils attempted to get on the board at the end of the half following the fumble, but Kledji Elezaj’s 31-yard field goal attempt came up short of the crossbar.

Park Ridge opened the half with a 26-yard touchdown run from running back Leul Cetoute. O’Donovan’s extra point was missed again, keeping the score at 24-0 with 9:22 in the third quarter.

McLaughlin made another defensive stand, blocking Elezaj’s punt to once again give Park Ridge great starting field position in enemy territory at the 44.

Hughes would score for a third time on the day, this time running into the end zone untouched from the one-yard line. O’Donovan’s third extra point attempt was successful as the Owls extended the lead to 31-0.

Following another turnover on downs by Wood-Ridge, Luke Macfie (who had 17 carries for 147 yards) burst off right tackle for a 48-yard touchdown run. With the extra point, the Owls would win with a final score of 38-0.

PARK RIDGE — Close games were a bugaboo for Boonton last season, partly due to erratic foul shooting.

The 2023 Bombers will be remembered as North 1, Group 1 girls basketball champions because they made their free throws in crunch time.

No. 5 seed Boonton topped No. 3 Park Ridge on Tuesday, 41-35, going 7-for-8 at the line in the final two minutes to earn its first sectional title since 1990.

“Last year, we lost five games by five points or less, or we would have had like 21 wins,” said Michael Carlin, coach of the now 23-5 Bombers. “We really worked on our foul shooting this year, and it’s made a difference down the stretch.”

Senior Ariana Jackson-Wach put Boonton ahead to stay by hitting both ends of a 1-and-1 with 2:05 to play, which broke a 32-all tie. Jaden Visioli and Jackie Cifelli followed suit with less than a minute remaining.

“It was definitely very nerve-wracking,” Cifelli said. “You just have to block everybody out and focus on what you need to do, and then follow through.”

What it means

Boonton advanced to Thursday’s NJSIAA Group 1 semifinal at Ramapo High School, where it will face North 2 champ University (Newark) at 7 p.m.

According to Daily Record archives, the Bombers’ 1990 team went all they way to the state final after winning North 2, Group 2 and finished 30-1. The current squad has posted back-to-back winning seasons, something the program has done only one other time in the 2000s.

“I can’t even begin to express how proud I am of these kids,” Carlin said. “We were 4-24 the year before I took over. … so, where we are now, it is incredible.”

Playing in its third North 1, Group 1 final since 2009, Park Ridge (17-14) remains in search of its first sectional crown.

Key sequence

The Owls held a 25-19 lead at the half after spreading around the ball effectively. Then, to start the third quarter, the Bombers hit three consecutive three-pointers – two by leading scorer Amanda Tuhoy – in a three-minute span to move ahead.

From that point on, Park Ridge managed just four field goals, all from top scorer Allie Shenloogian. No other Owl tallied a point in the second half.

“Our two best defenders, Ari [Jackson-Wach] and Sierra [Medina], they really stepped up,” Tuohy said. “Ari’s been battling an ankle injury since the first sectional game, but for her to come back and be able to stop the other team’s best player [Shenloogian], we really need her for that.”

Game balls

? Tuohy netted 12 of her 17 points in the second half and added 14 rebounds and 3 assists. “I told Amanda, she was playing a little timid in the first half,” Carlin said. “We told her at halftime, ‘Go to the basket, play aggressive’.”

? Visioli chipped in 8 points and 4 assists.

? Shenloogian logged 22 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals, while freshman Annika Kivisikk led Park Ridge with 11 rebounds.

They said it

“We’ve been building up to this for four years. … All of the seniors, I’ve been playing with them since third grade, so we were building chemistry over the years.” — Tuohy

“We’re not one person. You look at our stats, it’s five girls – and we’ve had games this year where Amaya [Campbell]’s stepped up and been our scorer, Jaden’s stepped up and been our scorer. Amanda is always there, but teams figure it out. And when they go after her, the other girls step up and do their job.” — Carlin

By TAPinto Hasbrouck Heights/Wood-Ridge/Teterboro Staff

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, NJ – Park Ridge defeated Hasbrouck Heights, 2-0, in a NJIC Independent Girl Volleyball game Thursday afternoon in the New Gym in Hasbrouck Heights It was the opening match of the regular season for both teams.

Park Ridge won the first game 25-12, and finished off the Lady Aviators with a 25-18 victory in the second game.

Priscella Escamilia had seven assists and four service points for the Aviators, including one ace. Vienna Skye Dates and Daniella LeConte each had five digs for Hasbrouck Heights, while Mackenzie Riordan and Samantha Russo each had three kills.

Park Ridge was led by Mia Izzo, who had 12 service points, including four aces, eight kills, six blocks and four digs.

Federal funds announced by a local congressman have helped Mahwah, Fair Lawn and now Park Ridge enhance removal of PFAS from drinking water.

Patch Staff

|Updated Sat, May 20, 2023 at 7:34 am ET

The investment, announced last Friday by Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), will help improve water infrastructure serving more than 5,000 residents in Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake; this is part of the lawmaker's broader plan, he said, to help Fifth District communities have clean water access.

"For years now, I've been sounding the alarm on the threat of contaminated drinking water to the health and safety of our families...," Gottheimer said. "...I believe that every child — every family — deserves to drink water that's free of lead and dangerous chemicals...".

Park Ridge will get three "problematic" wells replaced through this investment, which will, in effect, "make life more affordable," because water rates will be stabilized and a "burden" will be taken off of the borough's budget, Gottheimer said.

"This is a historic day for Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake, and the culmination of two years of hard work by (the congressman and local officials)," Mayor Keith Misciagna said at Friday's conference.

Find out what's happening in Paramuswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Misciagna said he reached out to Gottheimer when the state and federal government issued new regulations to get PFAS out of the drinking water, and that he had asked the Fifth District representative to help the town with this costly problem.

In implementing the new water system standards, Park Ridge took three wells offline in 2021 due to "increased levels" of PFAS, and was able to put two back online with $2.2 million in bonds funded by local taxpayers, officials said.

With this new federal investment, Park Ridge Water — the utility serving Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake — will install a filtration system to replace a temporary treatment center provided through the bond, and will get all three wells replaced, officials said.

Gottheimer said this investment also builds upon his "Clean Water Action Plan," which he has referenced in his recent announcements of federal dollars to Mahwah, Fair Lawn and others, to help those towns improve water treatment capabilities as well.

To wit, in January, the lawmaker announced a $800,000 federal investment to Mahwah for a new filtration system that would enable the town to turn a large well back on, and $3.4 million to Fair Lawn to help the borough bring its wells back online, Patch reported.

Gottheimer has now turned to Park Ridge Water, which operates 100-year-old wells that, he said, need updating to new water safety standards (specifically for PFAS — which are linked to numerous health risks).

"As a small, independent water company... to clean the water would have been very difficult for us to sustain (financially)," Mayor Misciagna said.

"You've been saying that you're clawing back federal dollars for New Jersey's Fifth District," he said to Gottheimer. "Here's proof."

Far more “forever chemicals” are present in New Jersey drinking water systems than are currently regulated by the state and some utilities would not meet new health standards the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed for them, according to new federal data.

In mid-August, the EPA released the first tranche of results from a new round of national testing for the toxic chemicals in water systems. In New Jersey, it found 28 utilities detected some of the 29 chemicals that EPA was testing for, some at levels that would not comply with rigorous new federal health limits if they are finalized.

Although the utilities mostly met the state’s health-based requirements for two of the PFAS chemicals — PFOA and PFOS — they would have exceeded much stricter levels proposed by the EPA for those chemicals, which are among the most common and well-studied of the PFAS class.

At Park Ridge Water Department, for example, EPA testing this spring found PFOA at 9.8 parts per trillion (ppt) in one system. Although that complies with New Jersey’s limit of 14 ppt, it would not meet the proposed federal requirement of 4 ppt if that is adopted, as expected, later this year or early in 2024.

At New Jersey American Water, the state’s biggest investor-owned water company, the EPA found PFOS at 6.3 ppt in the company’s Washington-Oxford system, well within the state standard of 13 ppt but outside the 4 ppt level that the EPA plans to require.

And in one system operated by Ridgewood Water, a municipally owned utility, PFOA was found at 29.8 ppt, a level that exceeded both the state standard and the one proposed by the EPA.

Rich Calbi, director of operations at Ridgewood Water, declined to comment on the new data, but noted that the utility is trying to recoup the costs of complying with state PFAS regulations by suing PFAS manufacturers including 3M.

EPA’s ‘maximum contamination limit’

Commissioner Shawn LaTourette of the state Department of Environmental Protection warned in June that more than 70 public water systems do not meet New Jersey’s required health limits for the three state-regulated PFAS chemicals, and that number is likely to rise into the “hundreds” when the EPA finalizes its much stricter health limits on PFAS in drinking water.

In March, EPA published its plans to require a “maximum contaminant limit” on six PFAS chemicals including PFOA and PFOS. The action addressed a long-standing lack of PFAS regulation at the federal level, which led New Jersey and some other states to protect public health by setting their own standards. Those levels are now expected to be superseded by the EPA rules, whenever they become effective.

The new requirements would mean utilities would have to install a higher standard of filtration on their water supplies, resulting in higher costs that could be passed on to ratepayers.

PFAS, synthetic chemicals that are resistant to heat and stains, have been used in a wide range of products since the 1940s, including fire-fighting foam and non-stick cookware. They are linked with an array of serious health problems including some cancers, developmental issues in young children, reduced vaccine response and elevated cholesterol. They are known as forever chemicals because they don’t break down in the environment, and accumulate in the human body. Scientists say the chemicals are present in the bloodstream of virtually every American.

The new requirements would mean utilities would have to install a higher standard of filtration on their water supplies, resulting in higher costs that could be passed on to ratepayers.

New Jersey American Water said it is studying how it would comply with the new federal standards. “As we examine our facilities against the EPA’s proposed national standards for PFAS, we are analyzing where investments will need to be made, in both our ground water and surface water treatment plants,” the company said in a statement.

Finding new sources of contamination

The new test results show both a broader and deeper assessment of PFAS contamination in New Jersey than has been undertaken by the DEP so far, said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the environmental nonprofit Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and a longtime campaigner for tighter public-health standards for PFAS.

By testing water systems for 29 PFAS chemicals, plus lithium, rather than just the three that New Jersey regulates, and by sampling to a much lower level than it did in earlier rounds, the EPA is looking harder at the problem, and is discovering new sources of contamination, Carluccio said.

“We can clearly see that New Jersey’s PFAS contamination problem is as big and even bigger than everyone has thought,” she said.

In addition to the well-known and increasingly regulated PFAS chemicals, the new testing also found other kinds of PFAS which may turn out to be just as toxic, Carluccio said.

“Just because we don’t have much information about a compound doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous,” she said. “Just look at the ones we do regulate — not long ago PFOA and PFOS were not considered dangerous either and now EPA is saying even a trace level of PFOA and PFOS in drinking water is too dangerous to tolerate.”

The new tests are part of the fifth round of a federal process called the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR), which aims to test water systems of all sizes over the next three years. So far, it has only tested 7% of the total. In a sign of how much more rigorous current testing is than previous rounds, samples are sought at one-fifth of the detection level used previously.

But in its own PFAS testing, New Jersey has also used a low detection limit, and in 2016 found PFOA in more than 10% of public water systems, or some five times higher than the 1.9% rate seen nationally.

‘To protect people from these highly toxic compounds, water suppliers should voluntarily install treatment technologies or replace water supplies if there is any trace of PFAS in the tap water they deliver.’ — Tracy Carluccio, Delaware Riverkeeper Network

DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said it’s not helpful to compare state and federal testing because the EPA regime tests for many more chemicals.

“The purpose of UCMR5 is to provide EPA and other interested parties with data on the occurrence of these chemicals to improve EPA’s understanding of the frequency of their occurrence in the nation’s drinking water and at what levels,” Hajna said. “It is much too early to draw any conclusions or attempt to make any comparisons.”

In early August, the DEP’s PFAS regulations were strongly defended by the state’s Superior Court, which rejected a claim by the New Jersey Business and Industry Association and other business groups that the agency had been “arbitrary and capricious” in regulating the chemicals.

Meanwhile, Carluccio predicted the DEP would respond to the expected new federal standards by lowering its current maximum contaminant limits on the three regulated compounds, and perhaps by regulating more of them.

In advance of any change in state or federal regulations, water companies should voluntarily ensure their water is PFAS-free, she said.

“To protect people from these highly toxic compounds, water suppliers should voluntarily install treatment technologies or replace water supplies if there is any trace of PFAS in the tap water they deliver,” Carluccio said. “This will protect public health and also be a sound investment by water suppliers because the requirement for compete removal is going to come.”

DELAWARE RIVERKEEPER NETWORK DEP EPA NEW JERSEY AMERICAN WATER PARK RIDGE WATER DEPARTMENT PFAS CHEMICALS PFOA PFOS PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS RIDGEWOOD WATER SHAWN LATOURETTE TRACY CARLUCCIO WATER UTILITIES