Editors seem to be giving better play to the dead

Paterson Mayor Jeffery Jones is shrouding in mystery a proposal for a 22-story hotel above the Great Falls, The Record reports today. A photo of the design -- a cocoon-shaped mesh of steel and glass -- appears on L-1,  but the story doesn't tell readers until the continuation on L-6 it is a salute to the city's once-great silk industry. 

The obituary of Wilson R. Kaplen, a philanthropic real estate executive from Tenafly, appears on the Local front today -- the latest in a series of local life stories that are getting better play.

Too many expanded local obituaries have been buried among the death notices, especially on days when the local news report is weak.

As coverage of the living continues to decline under head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, readers are at least learning about prominent local people after they die.

Where's the fire?

What are readers supposed to make of the closing of the firehouse in Leonia, a sleepy town that seems to exemplify home rule at its worst (A-1)?

Residents of Englewood, Teaneck and Hackensack can only rejoice they have professional fire departments guarding their lives.

Minor mayhem

As usual, Sykes and Sforza weren't able to drum up much local news today, so to fill Local, they had to use photos of a minor accident on Route 17 (L-2) and a porch fire in Garfield (L-3).

Hackensack news

Parents with children in Hackenack's public schools are cheering the news the state rejected a charter school for Grades 7 through 12 (L-3).

That means the city's dysfunctional Board of Education won't have to use tax money to support the charter.

The board, including member Francis W. Albolino, who was elected to his 8th term in April, already spends more per pupil than Ridgewood, with little academic excellence to show for it.

But another L-3 story reports the state education commissioner has affirmed dismissal of a former trustee's complaint over the reappointment of three school administrators, an issue that caused gridlock on the board last year.

Second look

Who was responsible for the exaggerated and ultimately inaccurate headline on Staff Writer Mike Kelly's A-1 column on Monday?

"Soldier's story draws his family to the front lines" is a headline designed to attract readers, but Kelly couldn't deliver the goods in his meandering, overlong account of a fender-bender in Afghanistan.

Readers who managed to stay awake long enough to turn to the jump page discovered all of Kelly's word pushing was designed to hide a relatively minor incident that didn't occur anywhere near "the front lines."

Kelly finally reported that a speeding white Toyota Corolla "brushed by" Pvt. Joseph Kiernan Florito of Wanaque, "running over his left foot."

More corrections

Three more corrections appear on A-2 today, but none of them address all of the errors in a June 9 Road Warrior column on gas stations that provide free compressed air.

In an e-mail to management, a concerned reader said:

"He [Staff Writer John Cichowski] provided wrong location information -- including wrong towns, wrong streets, wrong cross streets, wrong spelling of station name or wrong address -- for 6 gas stations in his final list. 

"He provided incomplete information for 12 stations where he only identified their main road location without providing an address or nearby cross street. 

"It would be more difficult to find these stations since many of these roads are several miles or longer. 

"While he provided a street address for 3 locations, he did not provide a corresponding cross street.

"Street addresses would be nice to have for ALL listed stations since it would assist people with map programs or those who want to call the station. 

"However, as John is well aware of based on many of his previous reports street address numbers of businesses are frequently not visible or not displayed. 

"It makes it more difficult for drivers to concentrate on safe driving if they are searching/squinting for neighboring street addresses without knowing a nearby cross street.

"One of his locations is a dedicated auto repair shop, even though John indicated his list would NOT include locations that do NOT sell gasoline.

"The bigger question is whether John will do the necessary work, which his job assignment should require, to verify and publish the needed information for ALL stations or will he simply continue to ONLY rely on whatever unsubstantiated info is provided by his readers and simply hope that the info is correct or complete enough for any use by others, who would not be as familiar with the surrounding area of a cited station, or ONLY do a bare minimum check on info for only some of the stations.

"If The Record is to be considered a reliable newspaper, it would have the Road Warrior provide a complete, corrected list with additional necessary information, including cross streets.  It would certainly NOT knowingly allow multiple mistakes to go uncorrected." 

See the full e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers at The Record.