Politics & Government
Update: Delayed Opening For Schools Tuesday
Power expected to be restored to schools by morning
Updated 4:30 p.m.: Joseph Lupo, superintendent of Paramus public schools, announced that the district would have a two-hour delayed opening on Tuesday.
and are still without power, but Lupo said they should be restored by the morning. The schools, on the western end of town, are on the same grid as three nursing homes and .
"If they can restore power to that whole grid, it brings back all three nursing homes and Paramus Catholic as well," Lupo said.
Find out what's happening in Paramusfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Paramus Catholic said on its website that the school would open Tuesday, with or without power.
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Find out what's happening in Paramusfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Updated 3:30 p.m.: Mayor Richard LaBarbiera issued a 6 p.m. curfew for all minors in Paramus, citing safety concerns.
"As much as we want kids to enjoy Halloween, we want to be safe," he said.
LaBarbiera said there were downed wires on streets throughout Paramus. The curfew doesn't apply to the Safe Halloween events being held at Fire Company 2 and 3 and the Rescue Squad.
The mayor said about half of the residents who lost power after the storm have had it restored. All the Borough-controlled traffic lights have been restored, but some of those operated by Bergen County, including many on Paramus Road, are still out.
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Updated 2:30 p.m.: Chief John Smith confirmed that the Fire Department would still hold its Safe Halloween event at Company 2 and Company 3. Members of the also said they would hold their Safe Halloween event.
Meanwhile, with tree limbs and wires still down across Paramus Monday afternoon, Paramus residents were planning their own safe trick-or-treating events.
"We're still celebrating Halloween," said Dana Folcarelli of Mayfair Road. "We're in the spirit."
Folcarelli, who is a guidance counslor at , and a group of about 18 neighbors and their children were planning to trick-or-treat at 1 p.m. With school canceled, Folcarelli said they were taking the opportunity to trick-or-treat early.
If they had school, the children might not have been able to trick-or-treat until dark.
"Normally you could trick-or-treat in the dark, but with the wires down and the trees, particularly Morningside Road, they couldn't have trick-or-treated," Folcarelli said.
Not every resident was reveling on the holiday. Without power since Saturday afternoon, Art Goldman said the weekend had been pretty dull.
"We're bored," said Goldman, who has raised two children in Paramus since moving here in 1961. "During the day, we tried to read. I've got a couple of books. And we fall asleep in the evening."
The Spencer Place resident didn't see much damage to his home from the storm, but a tree across the street blocked much of the road in front of his lawn. Goldman said he hadn't seen any trick-or-treaters, but he had a full bag of M&Ms ready.
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Updated 11:30 a.m.: Chief John Smith of the Paramus Fire Department said the Safe Halloween event at Company 3 was still on for 4 p.m., but was unsure about Company 2, which is still coping with power outages.
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Updated 11 a.m.: Borough Hall is closed Monday due to power outages.
Many businesses in town have yet to reopen, either because of power outages or because they have yet to recover after losing electricity. Barnes and Noble, Whole Foods and Starbucks are closed, to name a few, though customers were already shopping at Garden State Plaza, Paramus Park and Bergen Town Center in the morning.
Many, but not all, the traffic lights in Paramus were functioning again. Some were being powered by Paramus Police portable generators. At lights without power, like at the intersection of Paramus Road and Midland Avenue, police used traffic cones to restrict left turns.
Farview Avenue between Carlough Drive and Farview Terrace was still closed Monday morning due to a tree that fell on wires there.
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Halloween morning came without power for between 5,000 and 10,000 PSE&G customers in Paramus, the utility said in a statement Monday morning.
Paramus school children have the entire day off for trick-or-treating, but they may have to navigate downed power lines and tree limbs in their costmes.
Mayor Richard LaBarbiera said Sunday that the Borough sent PSE&G a report listing more than 200 streets with downed power lines in Paramus. The utility warned parents of trick-or-treaters to "exercise extreme caution, supervise the children, and allow them to be out only during daylight hours."
There were about 73,000 PSE&G customers without power in Bergen County Monday morning. The utility said crews were working around the clock to restore electricity.
and announced via their Facebook pages that they would open today at 10 a.m. Both malls have scheduled Halloween events for Monday afternoon.
Garden State Plaza plans to offer mall-wide trick-or-treating from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., with a Halloween parade at 4 p.m. At Paramus Park, trick-or-treating is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The Fire Department and Rescue Squad have Safe Halloween events planned. The Fire Department's Safe Halloween is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at fire companies and .
The Rescue Squad plans to host a Safe Halloween event at its building across from Police headquarters.
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