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Previously a local pizza shop, Lyons Veterinary Hospital is set to open later this year in Summit.

Patch Staff

|Updated Mon, Sep 19, 2022 at 11:49 am ET

SUMMIT, NJ — Evin and Rick Lyons first met while interning at the Veterinary Emergency and Referral Group in Brooklyn one year after graduating from college. Now, seven years later, the couple is launching their own animal hospital right in Summit.

Lyons Veterinary Hospital is set to open across from Huntley Taverne on Morris Ave. where Joe's Pizza used to be, according to owner Evin Lyons.

Evin said the hospital, which will exclusively see dogs and cats, will likely open sometime between late November and early December of this year.

Evin and Rick moved to Springfield in 2018 right before they got married, and Evin said they fell in love with the surrounding area.

"Both of us have worked as relief vets all around New Jersey, including locally, and we felt that there was a need for additional veterinary care," Evin told Patch. "We are excited to be so close to home!"

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Both Evin and Rick graduated from veterinary school in 2014 — Evin from Cornell University and Rick from the University of Pennsylvania.

After dating for a few years, the duo moved to New Jersey in 2017. Since then, they have both worked at practices in New York and New Jersey.

They also have two furry friends of their own — a 13-year-old dachshund named Pringles and a 12-year-old one-eyed and no-toothed cat named Lira.

Evin said Lyons Veterinary Hospital will offer well and sick visits for dogs and cats, as well as conduct labwork and X-rays with "state-of-the-art technology."

Surgical services such as a spays, neuters and mass removals will also be offered. In addition, Evin said she and her husband have a lot of experience in dentistry and will offer dental cleanings with full dental X-rays, as well as oral surgery for cats and dogs.

A veterinary behaviorist will also be available to see pets experiencing behavioral issues.

"We are looking to create a unique animal hospital where our clients and patients always feel welcome," Evin said. "We plan on having a space that is aesthetically beautiful and comfortable."

She said Lyons will also offer an app that will allow clients to access their pet's records, request medication refills and reach out to the medical team.

The hospital will practice "Fear-Free medicine" — a low-stress handling, making sure all patients are as stress-free as possible when they come to the hospital, Evin said.

Fun community events like kitten yoga and "yappy hours" will also occur monthly at the hospital. Evin said she hopes to partner with local businesses in the venture.

Lastly, Evin said the hospital will work with local rescues to host adoption events.

You can learn more about the business on their website, as well as follow them on Instagram @thelyonsvet and Facebook.

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Brandon Lyons calls it the “easiest hardest decision” he’s ever had to make.

Just two days after leading the Woodstown High School girls basketball program to its crowning achievement, Lyons revealed to his team that the season that had just ended would be his last.

Lyons is stepping down after six seasons and an 85-63 record, including a 72-24 mark over the past four seasons – the most successful run in the history of the program.

On Feb. 28, the Wolverines reached a sectional final for the first time ever and rolled to a 57-30 win over Wildwood in the South Jersey Group 1 championship game. It was the school’s first sectional championship for basketball – boys or girls. Two nights later, following a season-ending loss to Shore in the state semifinals, on the bus ride home from Deptford High School, Lyons informed his players of his decision.

“It’s hard to walk away because you see the potential of this team and as a coach, you feel like you still have time left to give,” said Lyons, a health and physical education teacher at Woodstown Middle School. “I’m not stepping down because I want to stop coaching basketball, but to me, my priorities in life are my relationship with God and my family. That’s the most important thing on this earth – to make sure I’m taking care of business at home first.”

Lyons and his wife Hannah, a math teacher at Bridgeton High School, have a young family. Their son Owen is three-years old, and their daughter Gracelyn, just 18 months.

He’s found it difficult to balance the time needed to run a successful basketball program with family obligations.

“Even in the last couple weeks, being able to come home after school and spend time with them, it makes you realize how much you did miss out on,” he said. “You don’t realize it during the season, but when you get to spend this time with them, time that was taken up by basketball, you realize how important that is.”

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Lyons, the 2019-20 South Jersey Times Coach of the Year, was an assistant coach for several years before taking on his first head coaching job. He coached for a couple years in Virginia, then spent seven years at Delsea, working with boys coach Bob Parks and girls coach Rob Briles.

After one season as a volunteer assistant with the Woodstown boys team, he took over the girls program for the 2017-18 season.

The first two seasons weren’t easy as the Wolverines went just 13-39, but a breakthrough came in 2019-20 when Woodstown went 21-7 and set a program record for wins in a season. They’d go on to win 20 or more games in three of the next four seasons. The lone exception was 2021 when they went 10-3 in a season that was shortened due to the pandemic.

In 2021-22, they won 21 games to match the record for wins in a season and also captured the Tri-County Conference Diamond Division title – the program’s first conference championship since 1974. They advanced to the South Jersey Group 1 semifinals for the first time, losing to eventual champion Wildwood in overtime.

This season, they went 20-7 overall and successfully defended their Diamond crown, going 10-0 in division play, and advanced to the sectional final, where they avenged their loss to Wildwood from the previous season.

The Wolverines will return their three leading scorers from this year’s squad – sophomores Megan Donelson and Talia Battavio, and junior Shannon Pierman, so they’ll remain on solid ground - but with a new coach on the sideline.

Lyons isn’t ruling out a return to coaching someday.

“I would absolutely be open to coaching again because I feel like I have a lot left in the tank,” he said. “I feel that what I’ve learned over the last 16 or 17 years between being a volunteer, an assistant and a head coach, it’s given me more of a drive. One thing I started being able to do this year was to innovate and come up with some things on my own and I feel like I was just starting to hone my coaching abilities. I’ll be excited to see what I can do with that in the future.

“I think the way I managed and related to players got better as the years went on. Am I proud of our accomplishments? Absolutely. But I’m also proud of the fact that I think I did my best to make them better people and I got better at seeing the girls as people first, not just as athletes and students. That affected how I was able to relate to them over the past couple years. I think it takes that time to invest in them before you have that capital to say the hard things and still have them want to come back and play for you.”

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BEDMINSTER, NJ - On April 1, military veterans with disabilities and Special Olympics New Jersey Athletes joined dignitaries from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Somerset County, as The New Jersey Golf Foundation (NJGF), the charitable arm of the New Jersey Section, PGA of America (NJPGA), officially opened the Inspiration Golf Range & Activity Center on the Lyons Campus of the VA New Jersey Health Care System, in Bernards Township.

The multipurpose facility - which is now open to the public - will serve as the home site for the NJGF’s line-up of dynamic golf programming, highlighted by PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) a rehabilitative golf program for military Veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI, among other challenges. To complement military programming, the Inspiration Golf Range will host youth programs and serve as a training site for Special Olympics New Jersey Golf Athletes along with their Unified Partners - who will have access to the facility to prepare for State, Regional, National & International golf competitions.

PGA HOPE introduces golf to Veterans with disabilities to enhance their physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being. It is the only adaptive golf program that has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Veterans Affairs and enables recreational therapists to refer Veterans to the PGA HOPE program as a form of therapy. The rehabilitative golf program, offered FREE of Charge for Veterans, positively impacts more than 4,500 Veterans nationwide each year.

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“As golf surges in popularity, the Inspiration Golf Range & Activity Center offers a venue to extend our programming for youth, military Veterans and individuals with special needs,” said Mike Attara, President, New Jersey Golf Foundation. “This is an opportunity to further support America’s Heroes, while also providing a premier practice facility for the surrounding community, as it is open to the public.”

To complement the opening, NJPGA Professional Andy Brock has been named the Director of Instruction at the facility, where lessons and a diverse line-up of player development programs will be available for the public. A decorated PGA member for nearly 25 years, Brock has been a longtime advocate of the NJGF, having served as President in 2010-11 and a member of the Board of Directors for several years. His commitment to volunteerism also includes serving as an Officer of the NJPGA Section, including a stint as President from 2012-14.

Prior to his new role, Brock served as the Head PGA Professional at Metuchen Golf & Country Club for 20 years (2001-2020) and was most recently the Director of Instruction at the Golf Range at Branchburg, in Branchburg, New Jersey. An accomplished player, Brock was Captain of the University of Richmond Golf team before becoming a PGA Member. He was named the NJPGA Section’s Golf Professional of the Year in 2014, which is the Section’s highest annual honor.

Founding Partners of The Inspiration Golf Range & Activity Center include RWJBarnabas Health; Horizon BCBSNJ; Jersey Mike’s Subs and Premium Companies. The facility, which features 22 hitting stations, will be open to the public 7 days a week, through Nov, 15, weather permitting. Operating hours are from 9 .am. (10 a.m. on Wednesday for maintenance) through dark - with range balls being sold up until 30 minutes before dark.

For more information on the Inspiration Golf Range and Activity Center visit www.inspirationgolfrange.org.

For more information about the New Jersey Golf Federation, visit www.njgolffoundation.org.

When Dan Lyons celebrates a landmark birthday like turning 80 or 90, he has a tradition of traveling to his beloved hometown of Seattle, Washington.

This year, as he reached the pinnacle of all landmark birthdays, he decided to remain at home in New Jersey — where the celebration achieved new heights.

Aug. 13, 2020 marked the 100th birthday of Dan Lyons, a former prominent Jesuit priest who currently resides in Bloomsbury. Although the coronavirus pandemic deterred Dan and his wife, Mary, from venturing out of the state of New Jersey, the milestone was honored on Saturday with a gathering held at the Stanton Ridge Golf & Country Club in Whitehouse Station.

During the gathering, Dan was gifted with a letter from both President Donald Trump and a proclamation from the Office of Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-23) to honor his century on earth.

Dan, a father of two and grandfather of five, arrived at the event with his son and grandsons in a 1931 Lincoln convertible driven by Steven Babinsky, owner of Automatic Restoration, Inc. in Lebanon.

Mary, Dan’s wife of 45 years, said that she got the idea for her husband to drive into the celebration in an antique vehicle after passing by Babinsky’s business and seeing his “fabulous cars.”

“He didn’t hesitate to help for a moment,” Mary said.

“He’s a neighbor and it’s a worthwhile thing to do, so I said I’d do it,” Babinsky said.

Yet the renown of Dan Lyons extends far beyond his own neighborhood. For the first several decades of his life, Dan served as Jesuit priest who sought to “bring the left-leaning Catholic Church to the right side” through his writings as well as through radio and television appearances, according to Mary.

As a debate coach at Gonzaga Preparatory School in the 1940s, he trained students including the late Tom Foley, who served as the 49th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995.

He became an ordained Jesuit in 1951, and spread his beliefs through actions including founding Jesuit High School, which at the time of its establishment in the mid-1950s was only the second Catholic high school in Portland, Oregon.

He scouted the land himself after hiring a pilot to fly him low over the undeveloped fields lining Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, spotting a dairy farm sprawling along its south side that would become the school grounds.

“He was out to pick out the property, and he actually convinced the owner of the property that it would be put to better use if it was a Jesuit High School,” Mary said.

Dan also purchased the religious journal “Homiletic and Pastoral Review” in 1970 when it was nearing bankruptcy, and founded Catholic Views Broadcasts, Inc. in 1974, a media company that produced 15-minute interview programs with Catholic commentators addressing social issues for over 100 radio stations.

His relationship with the church changed after he met Mary in August 1973 while on a tour of Ireland. He traveled there with roughly 40 other New Yorkers who followed and admired his writings, specifically those that he published as the editor of “The Catholic Twin Circle,” a newspaper sold jointly with the “National Catholic Circle” newspaper to the Legion of Christ in 1995.

Mary was studying singing and music theory at the College of Music in Dublin. After meeting her and hearing her sing at a show, Dan invited Mary to sing in America throughout a six-week tour of the United States that he orchestrated with the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in 1974.

“He’s a great letter-writer and he wrote lots of letters to me saying, ‘America should hear your voice,‘” Mary said. “And it was in those six weeks that I realized ... I’d never met anyone like him. And that was when the love started,” Mary said.

“I heard her sing ... and that’s what brought her to America,” Dan said.

After they fell in love, Dan decided to become laicized or secularized in order to wed Mary. After six months of waiting, he gained permission from Saint Pope Paul VI, former head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, and the two married on Oct. 28, 1975.

“I think it was the right thing to do at that time,” Dan said. “But I’ve kept just as close to the Jesuits ... I always keep in touch with them.”

Indeed, while Dan left the priesthood he remained a leading voice in his religious community. In 1975 he and Mary moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, after he was offered a job to edit “The Christian Crusade” weekly newspaper. In 1980, he relocated to Collegeville, Minnesota, to advocate for the pro-life movement alongside the late the Rev. Paul Marx of St. John’s University through writings in their self-created newspaper and self-authored books.

Dan and Mary decided to move to Bloomsbury Borough after the late John Haffert, the co-founder of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, offered Dan a job to edit the society’s publications from the shrine’s location in Asbury.

After retiring from the Blue Army Shrine, Dan continued to spread his religious philosophy by sending rosaries to missionaries and prisoners from all over the world.

“In everything Danny did for the greater glory of God, he flourished,” Mary said. “He’s a person who always sees a chance to do good.”

Roberto Coruña, reverend for the Church of the Annunciation in Bloomsbury, said that to this day Dan and Mary remain “one of the very active families in the parish.”

“Before COVID-19, they came to church everyday — both of them,” Coruña said. “Dan is really still able to write, because he’s a good writer ... he would give out flyers and leaflets that he writes (at the church).

“I will be into my 18th year at the parish, and since I’ve come here they’ve come. So it’s been at least 18 years,” he added.

While reflecting on the vigorous life Dan’s led, both he and his wife of over four decades acknowledged that not many people have been fortunate enough to live as long as he has — and more deserve to be.

“He’s been an amazing guy for 100 years,” Mary said. “I’ve never met anyone who is 100. He’s the first one.”

“It’s a wonderful thing to turn 100. I’m just one of those people in very good health,” Dan said. “But it should be more common.”

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JERSEY CITY, NJ - Jersey Board of Education President Gerald Lyons and Trustee Alexander Hamilton bid farewell to the body recently. Both trustees chose not to seek reelection in November.

Hamilton said it has been an honor serving over the last three years,

“I’ve seen some faces change and some faces remain, my face is one that is changing,” Hamilton said, adding that it was his honor to serve. While he may no longer be a member, Hamilton offered that he’d be “keeping a watchful eye from a distance.”

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“What are important are the kids,” he said. “It’s important to support everybody who is up here. None of us get paid. We’re here because we care.” Hamilton noted that he didn’t come onto the board as a favorite politically but had worked together with other board members.

“I learned how to work it out, and the ability to talk through any problems we had,” he said. “We got stuff done but didn't agree as much as it seems. I put a lot into this because I care, and I will miss everybody here.”

Lyons leaves the board after having served for nine years. “When I look out, I see the same ten people who always come out,” he said. “When I started in 2011, they filled me in.”

He said he respected being part of the process, noting that he may have set a record for the most times running and losing and the most times being appointed as a replacement for a trustee who had left, wishing the incoming members luck.

“This is an important position where hard work is appreciated,” he said, listing the many trustees from diverse backgrounds he had worked with over the years.

The District regained local control from the state, saw significant growth and somehow managed to navigate through a pandemic during Lyons’ time on the board, Jersey City Superintendent Norma Fernandez noted.