Midsummer Issue 2023

INFORMING, SERVING AND CELEBRATING THE LAKE REGION 

ake Hopatcong News 

MIDSUMMER 2023 VOL. 15 NO. 4 

Chasing Butterflies 

Area Residents Transform Their Yards into Butterfly Sanctuaries 

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From the Editor 

While Marty Kane gives us his usual great lesson in local history in this issue (see page 

34), writer Mike Daigle takes us down memory lane with a story about Bertrand Island, 

specifically, the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum’s dinner program in July, A Salute to Bertrand 

Island Park. (See story on page 8.) 

When I was a lot younger—maybe 10 or 11—I experienced the first of only two or three trips 

to Bertrand Island Park. My family and I were invited by our friends, the Schoellers, to join them 

at Mr. Schoeller’s company-sponsored day at the park. I have vague memories of how our day 

was spent, where we picnicked or what games we played, but I have a very vivid memory of my 

experience on the Wildcat, the park’s wooden roller coaster. 

And when I say memory, I should really be saying nightmare. 

I was not a fan. 

Three of us went on that ride that day: our friend, John, who was a year older than me, my 

younger-by-a-year sister, Lynn, and me. 

All started well. Why wouldn’t it? We were barely moving, just creeping along. 

But then, for me, two minutes of sheer terror. 

My father was waiting at the end of the ride, all smiles and excited for us having experienced 

our first big kid roller coaster. I couldn’t get off fast enough and when I did, all my emotions came 

to the surface. I just bawled, vowing never to ride another one as long as I lived. 

Meanwhile, there was my sister, gleefully jumping up and down asking: “Can we go again? Can 

we go again?” She and John must have ridden it a dozen more times before the day was done. 

Securing tickets for the Salute to Bertrand Island Park event was as competitive as snagging 

tickets for a Taylor Swift concert—well, almost. The tickets went fast and the turnout on that 

Thursday in July was terrific. 

I thoroughly enjoy participating in an event like this, where attendees have a measurable 

connection to the theme of the night. Most everyone could, with great detail and emotion, 

recite, recall and relive some part of the life of Bertrand Island Park. 

I grew up in Essex County and for a time our family had a second home in the Poconos. That’s 

where I spent much of my youth and where my memories were made. This part of the state was 

never a destination for our family. 

I’ve been living here (the Lake Hopatcong section of Jefferson) since 2001. A fair amount of time, 

to be sure, but my time here is nothing compared to some of you. I’m still a rookie, a novice, just 

waiting to get past the feeling of being a visitor. 

When I attend an event like the Salute to Bertrand Island Park, 

surrounded by so many people who helped shape the area and whose 

lineage goes back three, four or five generations, I am humbled. It’s like 

a not-so-secret organization with many members but one where the 

chance to join has vanished. 

Thank you for sharing your experiences and collective memories with 

the rest of us, including a newbie like me. 

It took me less than 250 words to recall my one memory of the park, 

but I feel that one experience gets me in the club. 

I get to say I went to Bertrand Island Park. 

—Karen 


GREETINGS FROM 

BERTRAND ISLAND 

INFORMING, SERVING AND CELEBRATING THE LAKE REGION 

Chasing Butterflies 

Area Residents Transform Their Yards into Butterfly Sanctuaries 

PROGRAM OFFERS 

MIDSUMMER 2023 VOL. 15 NO. 4 

ON THE COVER 

Rosemary Lipala releases monarch 

butterflies she raised in her yard in 

Jefferson. 

—Photo courtesy of Rosemary Lipala 

KAREN FUCITO 

Editor 

editor@lakehopatcongnews.com 

973-663-2800 

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS 

Michael Stephen Daigle 

Melissa Summers 

Ellen Wilkowe 

COLUMNISTS 

Marty Kane 

Heather Shirley 

Barbara Simmons 

EDITING AND LAYOUT 

Maria DaSilva-Gordon 

Randi Cirelli 

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Corrections 

In the Fourth of July issue, the phone number listed in the story about the Jefferson High School 

architectural program aiding with the rebuild of the American Legion was incorrect. The number 

to call to help with the rebuild is 973-224-3927. 

In the Memorial Day issue, the story about the Art Association in Roxbury was missing the 

byline of Maria Vogel-Short, who co-wrote the piece with Karen Fucito. 

4 

FLIPPING VACANT SPACES 

LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Midsummer 2023 

Lake Hopatcong News is published seven times a year 

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Hundreds Take Part in a Salute to 

Bertrand Island Park 

8 

Story by MICHAEL DAIGLE 

Photos by Karen Fucito 

The land doesn’t seem big enough. 

A driver today passes the wall of condos 

that line both sides of Bertrand Island on the 

way to the spit of land with its quaint lake homes 

and the Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club. 

Takes less than five minutes. 

But for the more than 300 fans of Bertrand 

Island Park who gathered July 13 in the parish 

center at St. Jude Roman Catholic Church in 

Hopatcong, that trip took a lifetime. The old 

park was the touchstone of the easy days of their 

youth, a first kiss, first boyfriend or girlfriend, 

their transition into a working life and a chance 

to recall that aroma, that sound, that thing that 

has always stuck with them. 

Forty years after the park closed. 

For David Maresca, it was the smell of fresh 

popcorn. 

“Every year. That’s what told me I was there,” 

he said. 

So, for a few hours at the Salute to Bertrand 

Island Park event, fans filled the church hall with 

the ding of the Criss Cross pinball game and the 

clatter of the Hi-Ball, while taking in the aroma 

of fresh popcorn, hot dogs and hamburgers. 

There was also cotton candy and ice cream and 

attendees reveling in the plain old-fashionedness 

of it all. 

It was beside the point that the event—which 

was sponsored by the Lake Hopatcong Historical 

Museum—recalled the 40th anniversary of the 

park’s closing in 1983. This July night was about 

celebrating the founders, the vendors, the 


families, the guests and the spirit of the park that 

drew thousands of visitors each year. 

It is nearly impossible to measure the 

importance of Bertrand Island Park because 

it is impossible to measure the importance of 

memories and dreams. 

Three separate Facebook pages dedicated to 

the old park have more than 20,000 members. 

Maresca, who administers the page “I went to 

Bertrand Island Amusement Park,” with 16,000 

members, said memories vary from person to 

person. 

It could be a favorite ride, food or their first 

job, he said. 

For Donna Lohmeyer, daughter and 

granddaughter of park concessionaires, it was 

trying to sleep as a 3-year-old in the family’s 

bungalow that was built under the roller coaster 

or walking the grounds collecting glass Kelly soda 

bottles. 

“All the vendors sold Kelly,” she said. “The 

bottles had a deposit, so we had to collect them. 

It was territorial, so we had to be careful not to 

cross over the line.” 

She recalled her 4-year-old self returning to 

the family stall with small armloads of bottles. 

“They didn’t give me a basket,” she said. 

Arno Paessler leaned into the Mutoscope 

machine with one hand extended over the 

opening to block the glare of the sunlight. 

The film showed the 1937 crash of the airship 

Hindenburg. 

“Oh, the humanity,” Paessler, called out, 

echoing the famous radio broadcast of the 

disaster. 

For Paessler, the park was one of the attractions 

of living on Lake Hopatcong. 

Clockwise from left: Evelyn (Craney) 

Constantine and Al Cuda enjoy a taste of cotton 

candy, just like when they were kids. Visitors 

stop to look at a banner showing the original 

park entrance. Nancy (Donofrio) Webster 

watches a video presentation. Rick Scherr 

wrote about his first kiss for the memory box. 

Vicki D’Agostino enjoys a moment during 

the video presentation. EJ Wood and Wendy 

Walter enjoy a turn at the Hi-Ball game as 

Tommy Donofrio looks on. Bruce Feakins is 

at the front of a long line with two ice cream 

sundaes. Ken Rybka and Mary Voelker take a 

turn at the Criss Cross pinball machine. 

As a young teen, he had a long-nosed boat. 

He said he and his friend would camp out in the 

boat near Raccoon Island. “It was long enough 

for us to slip right under the bow to sleep,” he 

said. 

In the morning, they would motor over to 

Bertrand Island, he said. 

Nearby, Margaret Hipwell accepted a nickel 

from Tom Donofrio, whose family shared 

ownership of the park until 1978. 

Hipwell slipped the coin into the Criss Cross 

pinball machine, popped out a silver ball and 

sent it rolling across the game, bouncing off 

bumpers that lit up, off rubber-banded borders 

and flipping the ball back out to score more 

points. 

“Ah,” she muttered, smiling when the ball 

slipped down a side chute. “I was better at Skee- 

Ball,” she said. 

Donofrio said he made sure the owner of the 

arcade didn’t sell the pinball machine to anyone 

else. 

“The arcade held a pinball tournament every 

summer,” he said. “The championship game was 

played on the Criss Cross.” 

Bob Drexler, wearing a baseball cap festooned 

with pins celebrating veterans, surveyed the 

room. His memory of Bertrand Island Park was

very specific. 

“I was 18. My girlfriend, now my wife, brought 

me here and we went on the Lost Cavern boat 

ride. The next day I shipped out to Vietnam.” 

The popularity of Bertrand Island began to 

rise around 1910. Starting as a swimming area, the 

park was spurred to growth by the extension 

of the Morris County Traction Company trolley 

line. 

It was one of 1,000 such U.S. trolley parks, 

wrote historian Marty Kane in the spring 2023 

newsletter of the Morris County Heritage 

Commission. 

Over in Nolan’s Point in Jefferson, the passenger 

rail service drew hundreds of people to the area, 

giving way to an assortment of amusements, 

said Kane. In 1928, Nolan’s Point Amusement Park 

opened and operated until 1933. 

In 1919, most of Bertrand Island was purchased 

by Louis Kraus and a partner. In 1921, the year 

recognized as the opening of Bertrand Island 

Park, the beach was acquired. Kraus’ vision 

propelled the park’s success and while his 

marketing skills helped fuel the popularity of the 

park, he chose to rent out space for others to 

operate the rides and games. 

Soon the park added a boardwalk, dance 

hall, outdoor dining pavilion, games and other 

attractions. In 1925, the Wildcat, a wooden roller 

coaster, was added, transforming the business 

into a true amusement park. 

Additions and improvements to the site 

were made continually. One of the favorite 

attractions was the Illions Monarch II Supreme 

carousel, a hand-carved marvel. Among the 

most memorable days were Nickel Nights, where 

cheap rides were meant to keep the park busy 

on weeknights. 

Both Donofrio and Maresca said the rides at 

times were death-defying. 

“The Wildcat was a wooden roller coaster,” 

Donofrio said. “It slammed and rattled, but that 

was part of the fun.” 

Maresca said The Whip, a spinning chair ride, 

was operated by a brake system that, when 

depressed, would suddenly change the direction 

of the ride, slamming the riders side to side. 

The concessionaires running the games and 

rides returned year after year. A group of those 

vendors, headed by the D’Agostino and Donofrio 

families from Dover, purchased the park in 1948, 

keeping Kraus on to help manage. 

The last member of these families, Ray 

D’Agostino, sold the park in 1978 to an owner/ 

developer who closed it in 1983. Starting in 2001, 

condominiums replaced the park. 

The life of Bertrand Island Park reflected the 

changes at Lake Hopatcong. Begun during the 

end of the lake’s iron mining days, the once 

industrial lake became a resort. Among its guests 

were the builders of the fancy cottages that 

dotted the bluffs and coves. 

After World War II, suburbanization crept 

across the region. By the time the park closed 

in 1983, the kids who ate handfuls of French fries 

and cotton candy and screamed at the top of 

the Wildcat had become lake residents. 

Their kids were heading to the shore, Florida 

or Mexico for amusement. 

The developers won in the end—the land, 

anyway. 

But buried under the stone and wood of the 

condos are the aroma of fresh popcorn, the 

screams of the divers off the oversized swim 

platform and the yells of game winners. 

Dancers in dreams still glide or jitterbug across 

the smooth dance floor, the Wildcat still rattles, 

the bumper cars still slam and bounce and the 

deep elegance of the handcarved carousel 

horses are still smooth to the touch, their power 

everlasting. 

For all the excitement, all the business, the 

park community was family, said Al Cuda, Louis 

Kraus’ grandson. When Cuda was 7, he, along with 

Evelyn (Craney) Constantine, were the faces of 

Bertrand Island Park in a series of advertisements. 

Both were celebrated at the July event. 

“It was a place parents could drop off their kids 

in the morning and know they would be safe,” 

he said. 

Both Lohmeyer and her cousin, Gay Ann Bucci, 

each the daughters and granddaughters of the 

Dover families who were vendors and eventually 

owners, said they had free rein of the park. 

“It was a community who watched out for us 

and the visitors,” Lohmeyer said. “It was when I 

was a little older that I realized that no matter 

where I went in the park, someone was keeping 

an eye on me.” 

For a few moments at the end of that July 

night, many in the crowd were dragged back to 

a moment—that thing—that they never forgot. 

During the playing of a video of the park’s 

life, guests were treated to another ride on the 

Wildcat, the view from a filmmaker’s camera as 

it crept up the first rise, then dipped down the 

slope with a quick rush, then up the steeper, 

taller grade, a pause and then a rapid plunge. 

Some in the audience raised their hands and 

took the fall; they cried out, arms waving, joining 

for a moment those coaster riders from years 

ago. 

When the video ended with the slow sliding 

stop of the coaster cars, the crowd smiled and 

cheered and laughed, young again. 


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Suit and Mai Tai Sets Sail with 

Familiar Tunes at Local Events 

12 

Story by MELISSA SUMMERS 


Pull up a lawn chair and a cold beverage and 

get ready for a good time. 

Familiar to many in Roxbury and Mount 

Arlington as an enthusiastic DJ and entertainer, 

Chris D’Amico, 52, has brought his love of great 

music and passion for putting on a show to a 

new project. The band Suit and Mai Tai is taking 

the cover music scene by storm with upbeat and 

popular rock tunes. 

“These are the most talented musicians 

I’ve played with in my 30-plus years of being 

a musician,” D’Amico said of the six-piece 

ensemble. “Our vocals are our standout. We 

deliver a fun musical experience with some of 

the classic songs that everybody knows and loves 

but not a lot of bands play because they don’t 

have the vocal dynamics or instrumentation.” 

Although D’Amico has been most visible in 

recent years emceeing local events, he has played 

professionally since he was 16 years old. Growing 

up in West Orange, he began on keyboards and 

vocals with a high school band called RXN, an 

abbreviated version of the word “reaction.” 

“I was in several other bands,” said D’Amico of 

the journey. “We tried to make it with record 

deals, did some tours, had some fun.” One of his 

favorites from the 1990s was a group called Dog 

Voices. 

D’Amico considered himself the “utility side 

man,” picking up vocals, keyboards, bass and 

whatever was needed at the time. He also spent 

years doing session work, writing jingles for 

McDonald’s, Hoover, Chevrolet and more. 

D’Amico began working as a wedding DJ in 1997, 

combining recorded music with 

live performance in an experience 

he called the DJ Alive Hybrid 

Show. During events he would 

intermingle his DJ work with a 

“one man band.” He created tracks 

of certain songs and removed 

parts, then sang those parts live. 

“It’s for people who want a band 

but don’t want to spend $10,000,” 

he said. “I want the adults to feel 

like they are at an elegant affair and 

the bride, groom and their friends 

to feel like they are hanging out at 

a bar all at the same time.” 

The goal was to break free from 

the norm. “Everything that made 

the movie ‘The Wedding Singer’ 

Left to right at Horseshoe Lake Park: Ron Ossi, vocalist and guitarist. 

Lauren Gibbs, vocalist and keyboardist. Gibbs, Matthew Testa on bass, 

John Peterson on saxophone, Chris O’Hara on drums, Ossi, Mike 

Maino on guitar and lead singer Chris D’Amico on keyboard. 


funny was an exaggeration of legit wedding 

bands out there in the ‘80s,” said D’Amico. 

D’Amico had been working with a company 

called Music and Dance, whose owner supported 

the hybrid act. When the owner retired in 

2003, he offered D’Amico financial backing and 

D’Amico Entertainment was born. 

Around the same time, he recorded five 

albums of educational music designed for child 

development with a publishing company called 

Kindermusik. “Each time, I had to show up and be 

a different character,” D’Amico said with a laugh. 

In 2005, D’Amico won a contest sponsored 

by radio station WPLJ to perform the music of 

Billy Joel as one of the “piano men” in several 

performances of Broadway’s “Movin Out.” 

Although he still makes a living at weddings and 

other events, he said he missed the “ego boost” 

that comes with performing live. 

During the pandemic, D’Amico recorded videos 

of duets with longtime friend Lauren Gibbs and 

realized they might be on to something vocally. 

“I had known her for over 30 years and never 

realized we had a blend,” he said. 

Gibbs, 53, of Bridgewater, has been playing 

piano since she was 3 and started singing in her 

teens. In the 1990s, she and D’Amico had the 

same producer. 

“We never sang together except for that one 

time at a random bar with his band at the time,” 

she said. 

One night in 2020, D’Amico decided to go 

live on Facebook, just him and a piano, calling 

the production “Yacht Rock Radio.” That’s when 

drummer Chris 

O’Hara reached out 

with a proposition. 

“Are you interested in putting together a yacht 

rock band?” the message from O’Hara read. The 

51-year-old Cedar Grove native was late to the 

cover game, after having played original music 

during the first part of his career. He had been 

part of several bands and toured the Northeast, 

once snagging a stint playing in a fictional club 

on “The Sopranos.” 

D’Amico immediately reached out to Gibbs. “I 

don’t even remember how it went from singing 

on videos to, ‘Hey, why don’t we play live?’” she 

said. 

The wheels really started turning when Ron 

Ossi, 49, of Highland Lakes, got on board. Ossi, 

who began writing and performing original 

songs when he was 14, was a chef by trade and 

never able to fully pursue a music career. He 

owned a restaurant for over a decade and now 

teaches culinary arts at Passaic County Technical 

Institute. 

“Once I got that job, it gave me the opportunity 

to get back out there and play,” said Ossi, who 

sings and plays guitar with Suit and Mai Tai. “And I 

do this as a supplement to my teaching income.” 

Rounding out the current lineup is Matt Testa, 

of Boonton, and Mike Maino, from Blairstown. 

Currently the band director at Lakeland 

Regional High School in Wanaque and a classically 

trained trumpet player, Testa started playing 

guitar in the ska band scene in 2006. He finds the 

cover scene offers him performing experience 

and extra income to support his family life. 

“What we bring to the table that not all bands 

do is fantastic vocal harmonies. We work hard 

on those and make sure to put them right out 

front,” Testa said. He thrives off the joy listeners 

get from a live performance. “I love the spectacle 

of it all.” 

A veteran guitarist, Maino toured the 

world with Shotgun 

Symphony, releasing 

multiple CDs in 

the 1990s and early 

2000s. “Eventually, we 

weren’t able to sustain 

ourselves financially, so 

I started getting into 

the cover scene to 

make ends meet while 

still playing music,” he 

said.

Maino and O’Hara played together in cover 

bands for about 20 years and were willing to give 

the new genre a try. “Chris said he had this great 

yacht rock band he wanted me to join. I didn’t 

even know what yacht rock was. I asked, ‘Are we 

playing on a boat?’” Maino joked. (Yacht rock is 

a style of soft rock from between the late 1970s 

and early 1980s.) 

“The band is fantastic, everybody is amazing,” 

said Maino. “It’s probably the best band and best 

vocalists I’ve ever played with in my life. Very 

happy to be here.” 

The name Suit and Mai Tai stems from the 

band’s decision to feature a combination of both 

corporate and yacht rock. According to D’Amico, 

it’s a play on the suits and ties of the business 

D’Amico looks out at the crowd 

during a concert at the bandshell at 

Horseshoe Lake Park in Roxbury. 

world and the beverage one might 

enjoy on the deck of a boat. 

Gibbs, who also does jingles and 

studio work, said all the members 

of Suit and Mai Tai are at the top 

of their game. “It’s like playing with 

session quality players live. I get a big 

rush from playing with these guys.” 

D’Amico finds that the music scene 

has changed in the 20 years since he 

was last in a band. “The bars and club 

scene aren’t what they used to be,” 

he said. “You went to a bar to meet 

people. Now you just swipe right.” 

Big rooms and stages for large bands with big 

productions have given way to duos and solos 

at many venues. The audience for the music 

D’Amico loves is more mature now and more 

family oriented. “Generation X is going out to 

the park to hear live music, so the music we play 

is more their flavor,” he said. 

“I don’t want to do the same setlist as 

everyone else. You won’t hear what I call the Girl 

Set: ‘American Girl,’ ‘Brown-Eyed Girl’ and ‘Jesse’s 

Girl,’” D’Amico added. “I want people to enjoy 

what we are doing. And I want to enjoy playing 

music for the love of playing music.” 

D’Amico has a lot of reasons to regenerate that 

joy in his life after his 10-year-old son, Christopher 

D’Amico Jr., died in a boating accident in 2015. 

“It stopped being about existing and more 

about living,” D’Amico said. “Since the last 

eight years have been full of turmoil, I needed 

something to put a smile back on my face and 

this is doing it.” 

He’s also recently begun a career in professional 

speaking. “Sometimes it takes a tragedy or 

trauma to set you straight, to open a pathway 

in your mind that you never thought would 

open. Never in a million years would I think I’d 

be public speaking. And I thank my son for that.” 

D’Amico visits schools, sharing the Kindness 

for Christopher initiative his family began 

after Christopher’s death. During his talks, he 

encourages students to follow their passions. 

He often gets feedback from school counselors 

about kids he’s influenced in a positive way. 

Suit and Mai Tai has at least six shows planned 

for the summer, including three at Bar A in 

Belmar and several municipal events. The band 

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the Dean Michael Clarizio Cancer Foundation. 

The organization supports patients fighting 

cancer. 

“I didn’t become the next Billy Joel like I wanted 

to, but the lights are on and the mortgage is paid 

because I sing songs for people,” D’Amico said. 

“Suit and Mai Tai is a way for me to pretend I’m 

still a rock star, as I take my multivitamin and go 

to bed by 9.” 

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BOBBY RYSDECK 

LOCAL 

VOICES 

At just 13 years old, Bobby Rysdeck describes himself as strong and unique. Strong, because he’s not afraid 

“to be me” and unique because he’s both an artist and a performer. With well over 1,000 subscribers to his 

YouTube channel, Rys Studios, Bobby gets to show off both sides. To date, he has created nearly 250 videos 

highlighting his gift for comedy with stand-up routines and spotlighting his artistic talent with comic strip 

shorts. “I am who I am, and I’m not afraid of what people think of me,” he said. 

DESCRIBE WHY YOU CHOSE THE THREE WORDS BELOW. 

I’m outgoing because I am always friendly with anyone I meet. I try to be nice to everyone and never leave anyone out. I’m funny 

because I consider myself somewhat of a comedian. I make funny faces and funny voices and do improv. I’m creative because I 

am artistic. I love to draw cartoons and my own creations. I love to act and make up characters. I create unique back stories and 

personalities for them. 

WHERE DID YOU GROW UP AND WHERE DO YOU LIVE NOW? WHAT MADE EACH 

PLACE SPECIAL? 

I’m growing up in Jefferson. It’s special because my dad grew up here and now I am. 

I love living here because I have so many great friends. I love hanging out and riding 

bikes everywhere. 

WHO MAKES UP YOUR FAMILY, INCLUDING PETS? 

My Dad is Rob. I think I get my humor from him as he’s always making me laugh. My 

Mom is Val. I think I get my artistic side from her as she is really talented. My younger 

brother is Ryker. He’s really athletic. Our two dogs are Benelli, who is an English 

pointer, and Gunner, who is a basset hound pit bull mix. 

WHO OR WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCE IN LIFE? 

Jim Carrey because he is funny, creative, serious, kind, imaginative and charming. 

My favorite movie he did was “The Grinch”—although there really isn’t a movie 

or TV show that he did that I don’t love. 

WHAT DO YOU ASPIRE TO DO IN YOUR LIFE? 

Be an actor and artist. I’d love to be in movies. I love comedies, dramas 

and cartoons/animation. It would be really cool to do some voice 

acting in an animation movie. For art, I would love to be a 

professional cartoonist. Along with drawing others’ creations, I 

would love to create and draw my own show. 

ANY HOBBIES? 

I have a lot of hobbies. I am always making content for my 

YouTube channel, Rys Studios. I draw. I make my own board 

and card games. I make comics. I put together Lego sets. I play 

video games. I like to ride bikes. I play basketball. I ride quads. I go 

fishing. I’m sure there’s more, but those are the top ones. 

IS THERE ANYTHING MOST PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO 

LEARN ABOUT YOU? 

I was in an autism classroom for the first two years of school. I could 

not hold a pencil, crayon or marker. Now I’m starting to take regular 

classes, and I couldn’t imagine not 

holding one. 

I AM creative I AM funny I AM outgoing 


Hopatcong Adds Revenue to Tax Book 

18 


Every town has them. A collection of 

undersized lots, vacant land, foreclosed 

homes—parcels on a municipal mosaic that 

can become a drag on a town’s finances if they 

can’t be brought back to life. 

Ronald Tappan was Hopatcong’s 

administrator five years ago when the mayor 

and borough council chose to act on the 

number of unproductive, vacant properties in 

the borough. 

“We started a real estate committee to 

examine the problem,” said Tappan, who, since 

2022, has been Sussex County’s administrator. 

And what a problem. 

“We had 700 vacant properties on paper,” said 

Borough Council member Brad Hoferkamp, a 

member of the real estate committee. That list 

included borough-owned paper streets (roads 

that were never developed), non-conforming 

lots generally less than 1,500 square feet and 

foreclosed homes. 

The vacant lots represented 12 percent of 

the borough’s 6,154 properties. 

What to do? 

In essence, the borough became a property 

flipper. 

Mayor Michael Francis said the borough 

found creative ways to return vacant property 

to the tax rolls. 

For example, homeowners flanking nonconforming 

lots, or paper streets, were 

encouraged to buy the smaller, non-buildable 

lots from the borough at a discount. In other 

cases, non-conforming lots were combined to 

create a conforming lot—15,000 square feet or 

larger—which was then sold. 

In one instance, Tappan said, the borough 

was able to combine two non-conforming lots, 

one with a lake view, into a hillside property. 

The lake view resulted in the property selling 

for considerably more than it might have 

otherwise. 

Or, Francis said, the borough executed what 

he called an “end-run foreclosure.” 

In those cases, borough officials offered 

to the buy the foreclosed home before the 

homeowner entered into a court-ordered 

sheriff’s sale, the usual process. 

Francis said the borough, once it had 

acquired a lot or a home, sold non-conforming 

properties at 25 percent of the appraised value. 

Conforming properties were sold at 50 percent 

of the appraisal, he said. 

Tappan said the process was “spending 

quarters to make dollars,” because the borough 

added millions of dollars to its total assessed 

property value. 

Lorraine Rossetti, the borough chief financial 

officer and deputy administrator, said, “In the 


past five years we have auctioned 49 properties 

that the borough owned. Those sales brought 

in $483,000 in revenue, but more important, it 

put $1.2 million in property value back onto the 

tax rolls.” 

The properties added $40,000 a year to the 

borough’s tax collection, she said, for a fiveyear 

total of $200,000. 

“That might not seem like a big difference, 

but before resell, those properties were not 

contributing to the budget,” Rossetti said. 

This is “recovered funding” that is added 

annually to the budget and “means we don’t 

have to ask taxpayers to contribute additional 

funds,” she said. 

“In the past five years we have 

auctioned 49 properties that the 

borough owned. Those sales brought 

in $483,000 in revenue, but more 

important, it put $1.2 million in 

property value back onto the tax rolls.” 

— Lorraine Rossetti, Hopatcong Borough chief 

financial officer and deputy administrator 

Tappan pointed out that adding vacant 

properties back to the tax rolls increases the 

percentage of tax-paying properties in the 

borough. A small increase in that percentage 

means added tax dollars collected, he said. 

“A good day is when the borough adds a 

vacant property to the tax rolls that is also on 

water and sewer lines,” he said. “Not only do 

we collect new taxes but a water fee and a 

sewer fee.” 

The impact of this process is seen in the 

annual tax rate, which has been flat for the past 

five years, Francis said. 

Records show that the borough’s municipal 

tax rate in 2018 and 2019 was 94.1 cents per 

$100. The municipal tax was $2,014 on a home 

assessed at the borough average of $214,256. 

In 2020, the municipal tax rate was 94 cents 

per $100, and in 2021, 94.1 cents per $100. 

The average assessment in 2022 jumped a bit 

to $216,091, and municipal taxes rose to $2,031 

while the tax rate was 94.2 cents per $100. 

In 2023, the tax rate is 94.2 cents per $100. 

The average assessment rose this year to 

$250,000, and as a result the municipal taxes 

rose to $2,199. 

None of these tax totals include school or 

county taxes. 

The home buying process and its impact on 

the borough’s taxes is one reason Hopatcong 

was named as the eighth most affordable 

municipality in New Jersey last year and the 

most affordable town in Sussex County, Francis 

said. 

When ranking municipalities, financial 

technology website SmartAsset analyzed 

several factors, including taxes, homeowners’ 

insurance and home costs relative to the local 

median income. 

Using data from the 2020 Census, the 

SmartAsset survey determined that Hopatcong 

had the following results: Closing costs, $3,214; 

property taxes, $6,840; home insurance, $916; 

annual mortgage payments, $13,129; median 

income, $97,679. 

The statewide results from that survey 

were: Closing costs, $3,650; property taxes, 

$7,865; homeowners insurance, $1,229; annual 

mortgage payments, $17,623; median income, 

$85,789. 

Hoferkamp said the home buying program 

is important to Hopatcong for reasons other 

than the tax dollars added to the budget. 

Removing a vacant property by selling it to a 

new homeowner adds to the appearance and 

value of the neighborhood, he said. 

The other reason is even more direct, he said: 

Much of the borough cannot be developed by 

law or because the land has been preserved. 

At 10.89 square miles (7,953 acres), the 

borough is bordered by Lake Hopatcong and 

highlands with steep slopes that discourage 

development. 

Beginning in 1995, the borough preserved 

over 450 acres of wooded highlands. 

Private owners, Sussex County and the state 

of New Jersey have also preserved hundreds of 

acres. 

Hopatcong, like Jefferson across the lake, was 

deemed by the rules defined in the Highlands 

Water Protection and Planning Act to have 

considerable acreage in the preservation area. 

Jefferson has over 12,000 acres of preserved 

land, much of it hillsides. 

Hopatcong has 2,615 acres in the preservation 

area, where development is sharply 

discouraged, and 5,333 acres in the planning 

HOPATCONG TAX RATE PER $100 

94.1 (cents) 94.1 (cents) 94 (cents) 94.1 (cents) 94.2 (cents) 94.2 (cents) 

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

area, where some development is allowed. 

Hoferkamp said the borough has worked 

with the Highlands Council to create projects 

to promote development in some areas, such 

as River Styx. 

Hampering land use changes that could 

increase land values in the rest of the borough 

are historic choices, he said. 

Hudson Maxim, the famous inventor and 

lake area investor, mapped out many 50-by- 

100-foot house lots, Hoferkamp said, which are 

considered small lots. 

Then there was a promotional program 

offered in the 1930s and described in the 

borough’s 2011 open space plan: “Originally 

given as prizes to subscribers of the nowdefunct 

Newark Evening News newspaper 

and to attendees of a Brooklyn movie theater, 

over 1,400 parcels under 0.1 acre in size were 

scattered about the Wolf’s Head section of the 

Borough.” 

The paper trail for ownership wasn’t 

particularly good and many of the lots were 

never claimed by the prize winners, said Francis. 

The land went back to the borough through 

a concerted effort by borough officials. The 

objective, said Francis, was to turn these 

tiny little lots into something useful. Most 

were eventually attached to the natural area 

preserve in that area of the borough. 

“We have to take care of the land we have,” 

Hoferkamp said. 

For Francis, this property buying plan is a 

way to clean up unproductive parcels in the 

borough and to take advantage of an economic 

impact that is part of life: foreclosures. 

The property data firm ATTOM reported 

in 2022 that between 16,000 and 17,000 New 

Jersey houses fell into foreclosure, or one of 

every 2,022 homes. 

Whereas Jefferson in 2022 declared its 

preserved land as “green assets” as the 

township added a planned trail system to its 

economic outlook, Hopatcong has invested 

in the property buying process, which has 

increased its tax base and tax collection by 

using what is in front of it. 

“This is sustainable,” Francis said. 

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New Program Offers Peace of Mind for Families 



The badge offers a simple plea: “If I appear 

lost, please call.” 

The badge lists a telephone number and an 

identification number. 

Simple. 

But the simplicity more than likely masks 

a complex circumstance that could involve 

a child, an aging adult, or illness, disability or 

both. 

Quietly, the badge suggests concern and 

calls for immediate action. 

The badge is the brainchild of Paul Jetter of 

Fredon, who founded a nonprofit organization 

called Safely Back Home to create a way to 

help seniors with dementia or children with 

autism, for example, get back home if they 

have wandered away accidently or on purpose. 

Either case, Jetter said, could cause a 

confusing situation for the wanderer and 

potential helper, circumstances made worse, 

for example, if the person wearing the badge 

on their clothes is nonverbal, disoriented or 

language-limited. 

“One goal of the badge is to de-escalate the 

situation,” he said. 

Hopatcong Borough was the first Sussex 

County municipality to join Jetter’s Safely Back 

Home program in March. Hopatcong schools 

joined in May. The program is being funded 

through the borough, said Jetter, and will be 

available to other municipalities in the near 

future. 

Jetter said the idea was formulated when his 

father, then 85, showed signs of dementia. 

“It was a family response with my brother 

becoming primary caregiver. It was a full-time 

responsibility,” Jetter said. 

But his father wandered, as do six of 10 

dementia patients, he said. The fear was that 

his father would not recognize where he was 

or be able to explain how to get back home. 

In 2010, after his father died, Jetter 

connected with Project Lifesaver, a national 

organization with links to law enforcement 

offices nationwide and other groups that aim 

to protect people who wander from safe 

environments, such as a home or health facility. 

Project Lifesaver offers GPS monitors and 

bracelets as a means of providing identification 

and location. Jetter said he wanted to add 

an ID method that could not be removed 

by the wearer, was easy to apply and was 

made of a material that would not irritate an 

autistic person for whom changes in texture 

can trigger negative responses. Jetter said he 

experimented with fabrics and adhesives for 

years. 

During the process to develop his idea, 

Jetter said he reached out to New Jersey State 

Association of Chiefs of Police and developed 

interest from 70 police chiefs. Six towns in 

Bergen County joined the program in 2016, he 

said. Not yet a nonprofit and with no outside 

funding, Jetter said he incurred the cost of the 

badges himself, something he knew would be 

unsustainable. Within two years, these first 

programs were dormant, he said. 

But Jetter didn’t give up. In 2020, he secured 

nonprofit status for Safely Back Home, which 

led to a $3,000 grant from the Starbucks 

Foundation, courtesy of the employees from 

the Sparta Starbucks. The money helped 

kickstart the program again, which offers 

training for dispatchers and police officers who 

either receive an emergency call from a person 

who sees a badge or respond to a location 

where a person who has wandered was found. 

Hopatcong Borough Councilwoman 

Christine Smith found out about the program 

through a friend, said Jetter. She, Councilman 

Brad Hoferkamp and Mayor Michael Francis 

championed the program. 

Smith said the program hits home because 

her father had Alzheimer’s and wandered. The 

condition was made worse when he moved 

to New Jersey from New Hampshire and the 

landscape changed. 

She also has an adopted daughter who is 

nonverbal, which makes this program a critical 

addition to keeping her safe. 

“This is a tool for communication in a critical 

situation if needed,” Smith said. 

She was eager to have Jetter speak with the 

borough’s seniors, which he did at one of the 

group’s weekly meetings. The 

U.S. Census said that in 2022, 

13.9 percent of Hopatcong’s 

14,531 residents were 65 or older, or 1,941 

persons. 

Enrollment forms are also available at the 

Hopatcong Wellness Center on Hopatchung 

Road and on the Safely Back Home website. 

Jetter said by June, a dozen Hopatcong families 

has signed up for the program. 

Tammy Miller, the director of student 

special services for Hopatcong schools, said six 

families enrolled in May. 

The families each brought in about 20 pieces 

of clothing so that the soft, cloth badges 

could be added. Families will need to bring in 

different clothing as the children age and grow, 

she said. 

Working out of his garage, Jetter uses a heat 

press to secure the badges to clothing and hats 

but said anyone can use a hot iron to get the 

same results. 

Miller said other programs use dog tags 

or other styles of identification, which can 

become lost, or among certain children, 

become bothersome. 

“The badge is a secure form of identification,” 

she said. “This is appropriate if they flee or get 

lost.” 

With a reduced ability to speak or socialize, 

Miller said, the student could become 

disoriented or agitated if lost, unable to tell 

a potential rescuer their name or other basic 

information. Sometimes such students act out 

or scream, she said. 

She agreed with Jetter that the badges can 

act as a tool to de-escalate what might be a 

tense or confusing situation. They can offer 

education to the general public. 

In mid-June, Jetter delivered back to the 

Hopatcong families their garments individually 

imprinted with the Safely Back Home badges. 

Joanna Tiritilli enrolled her 9-year-old 

daughter Lena in the Safely Back Home 

program as another level of protection. The 

badge augments information on Lena’s medical 

alert bracelet, she said. 

Lena is nonverbal and has epilepsy. She also 

loves swimming, her mother said. 

“We have to be super careful,” Tiritilli said. 

“It’s a challenge. 

She does not have 

a bit of fear.” 

Taking her 

out in public 

can be stressful, 

20 


Left to right: Paul 

Jetter presents his 

Safely Back Home 

program to seniors 

in Hopatcong. 

Xavier Subero with 

his mom, Ashley 

Labar.

Paul Jetter, center, poses with SMILE residents Andrew Hertel, Arthur 

Blanchard, Carl Strehl and Steven Milford. 

especially since Tiritilli has an 18-month-old. 

On a shopping trip, Tiritilli said, she has to 

be very observant that Lena does not wander. 

“I don’t want to overreact,” she said, “but 

taking her out can be terrifying.” 

Tiritilli said she gets comfort when she sees 

another parent with a child similar to Lena. 

“We give each other the look,” she said. 

“There is a connectiveness that says we’d do 

anything to protect them.” 

Ashley Labar couldn’t agree more. 

“I do everything I can to help him,” she said. 

Her 6-year-old son, Xavier Subero, is 

nonverbal and while not a flight risk from their 

home, public places can pose a problem. He 

is especially sensitive to 

certain sounds, which tend 

to make him want to flee. 

“If he gets away from 

me, he’s gone,” said Labar. 

The badges, she said, are 

reassuring and Xavier 

wears them without a fuss. 

Labar said other devices— 

especially electronics— 

were bothersome. 

At the end of June, Jetter 

returned about 50 items 

to the residents of SMILE 

of Hopatcong, a home 

for adults with Down 

syndrome, founded by 

Allan and Patricia Milford to 

support their own son, Steven. 

House director Susan Weiland said the ironon 

badges were placed on a variety of clothing 

so the residents could add layers if needed and 

still display the ID badge. 

Her residents are verbal, Weiland said, 

but situations can arise when they could 

be separated and, in uncertain places and 

circumstances, lose their composure. 

The clothing badge would offer another 

person the information needed to defuse a 

situation, she said. 

“We’re excited to be part of this program,” 

she said. 

The residents, who wear their badges 

proudly, couldn’t agree more. 

“It touches my heart,” said Andrew Hertel. 

Jetter said the badge is a “tool.” 

It offers information that could be used to 

lower the temperature of an uncertain situation 

and offers help to a person lost in their own 

mind, physically hampered, overwhelmed by 

the moment or even acting dangerously. 

Further, the badge can help a person willing 

to offer assistance or a first responder rushing 

to aid a person in apparent distress. 

The goal is to help wanderers find their way 

to a safe place, he said, or, as the name of the 

nonprofit says, to be Safely Back Home. 

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Residents Help Preserve Monarch B 

Story by MELISSA SUMMERS 


Sometimes the tiniest garden can impact 

not only the local ecosystem but also the 

global one. 

Local gardeners are doing their part to preserve 

the monarch butterfly population both by 

growing plants that attract and feed the winged 

insects and, in some cases, by housing 

and caring for them. 

Sara and Pete Buonomo, both 37, 

purchased their Landing home in 2019. 

Although the house was move-in 

ready, their yard was not. The previous 

owners had left them with plenty to 

contend with. 

“We were finding all kinds of stuff,” 

said Sara Buonomo of the couple’s 

efforts to make the space more 

inhabitable as they settled into their 

home in 2020. “We wanted to get it 

to the point where we could get some 

native plants in here.” 

The Buonomos found that rainwater 

flowed from their roof to their patio, 

through their yard and into their 

neighbor’s yard, causing 

a perpetual flooding 

issue. 

The erosion problem 

got even worse as they 

removed dead or dying 

trees and bushes, said 

Pete Buonomo. 

Caitlin Doran, a 

high school friend 

who is director of 

development at the 

Lake Hopatcong 

Foundation, mentioned 

a program developed by the foundation in 

collaboration with Rutgers University that provided 

reimbursement for the cost of installing a rain garden. 

As a result, the Buonomos participated in some 

informational webinars to learn more. “It was pretty 

cool,” Pete Buonomo said. “It solved our problem 

with our drainage.” 

Representatives of the program met with the 

Buonomos to find out what they wanted in their 

garden. 

“Lots of color,” Sara Buonomo told the committee. 

“We wanted all native plants. They helped us pick 

everything out. Milkweed happens to be great at 

soaking up water.” 

The milkweed came with an added bonus. “That 

first year we got so many monarch butterflies,” she 

said. “They are attracted to the milkweed.” 

Joe Pye weed, red twig dogwoods and irises 

were also included in the garden. According to Sara 

Buonomo, the area is irrigated by the flow of water 

from the roof through underground tubing into the 

highest section of the plot and down the sloping 

terrain. 

The couple enjoyed their black and orange visitors 

so much that they decided to take things a step 

further. “Last summer we got an enclosure,” Sara 

Buonomo said. “We collected 15 caterpillars and put 

a couple of stalks of milkweed in a vase so they had 

food. We even set up a time-lapse camera.” 

“They are very easy to spot,” Pete Buonomo 

added. “They have a unique coloring. The enclosure 

keeps them safe while they cocoon on the milkweed 

stalks, and then we just let them go and they fly 

away.” 

Watching and releasing wasn’t enough for 

Rosemary Lipala, a biologist by trade, a monarch 

butterfly enthusiast and a Jefferson resident. 

Lipala, 67, currently a lab specialist at Montclair 

State University, said she started in marine biology, 

then shifted her interest to environmental issues, 

water analysis and microbiology. 

Top to bottom, left to right: Jen 

Barone proudly displays her 

Monarch Waystation sign in her 

front yard garden. A monarch 

butterfly enjoying the nectar of 

the milkweed flower. A monarch 

forming its chrysalis. A full 

grown monarch caterpillar. Pete 

and Sara Buonomo in their 

garden surrounded by towering 

native plants. Two monarch 

caterpillars, measuring less than 

a quarter of an inch, share a 

milkweed leaf. A tiny monarch 

egg attached to the back of a 

milkweed leaf. Rosemary Lipala 

uses a microscope to search for 

monarch eggs on a milkweed 

leaf. 

(Some photos courtesy of Sara Buonomo 

and Rosemary Lipala.) 

22 


utterfly Population with Carefully Tended Gardens 

“It all started with my cousin, Gloria Deane, who 

raised monarch butterflies in New Jersey for over 

40 years,” Lipala recalled. “She would come over 

for gatherings and check my milkweed leaves for 

caterpillar eggs as she left.” 

With two children in Jefferson Township schools, 

Lipala would often send milkweed to school to feed 

the caterpillars in their classrooms. “One day my 

daughter said kids were staring at the garden in the 

front [of our house]. There were monarch caterpillars 

crawling up the milkweed.” 

Lipala got in touch with her cousin, Deane, who had 

moved to California. Deane suggested Lipala collect 

the caterpillars to protect them from predation. “So, 

we took them off [the leaves], we started feeding 

them milkweed, and then released them, which was 

neat,” said Lipala. 

Eventually, Lipala was sending milkweed to her 

cousin, who was overwhelmed with caterpillars on 

her small San Diego deck and asked if she could send 

Lipala back some caterpillar eggs. 

As a biologist, Lipala was initially concerned about 

mixing the monarchs from the West with the East 

Coast population. She did some research and found 

that both the Eastern and the Southern California 

butterflies spend the winter and mate in Mexico. 

Since there was no difference in the genetics of 

the Eastern and Western populations, she agreed to 

take some. 

“Gloria would send me containers with leaves,” 

Lipala said. “I ended up borrowing a microscope 

from work because it’s very difficult to see the tiny 

eggs and the newly emerged caterpillars … and that’s 

how it started.” 

But Lipala didn’t stop there. She wondered why 

some caterpillars would die and why some would 

turn black. “I’m a biologist. I have to dig.” 

According to Lipala, the Ophryocystis 

elektroscirrha spore is one of the most common 

parasites affecting the monarch population. The 

mother can pass the spore on to her offspring, said 

Lipala. 

“They can get the spore if the mother is infected,” 

she said. “She will deposit the spores on the eggs as 

she lays them or on the leaf. So, you have this little 

egg on a leaf of milkweed. The tiny little caterpillar 

hatches, eats the eggshell for nutrition or the leaf 

next to the egg and then they ingest the spore.” 

The challenge lies in determining whether 

a caterpillar has the spore or not, said Lipala. 

“Sometimes there are differences in coloration, 

different lines, they are blacker than others or they 

get slower. If the caterpillar is not eating or acting 

strangely, I isolate them.” 

When an infected caterpillar forms a chrysalis, 

the parasite will grow inside and eventually generate 

spores. “Once the butterfly emerges from the 

chrysalis the spores will be on the abdomen and can 

be transported onto leaves and contaminate the 

environment,” Lipala said. 

If it’s heavily infected, spores will appear on the 

chrysalis as black dots. Generally, the spores 

can’t be seen without a microscope, according 

to Lipala. Healthy looking butterflies can also still 

carry the spore. 

“I would test them with clear pieces of 

packaging tape,” she said. “You press it onto the 

abdomen of the butterfly, look at that under 

magnification, and you can see whether there are 

spores or not.” 

Heavily infected butterflies often have 

deformed wings, and over time, the parasite can 

weaken the population, Lipala said. She decided 

only to release insects that test negative. “There is 

no way I’m going to contaminate [the population] 

by releasing butterflies that are not healthy.” 

Lipala will euthanize heavily infected or 

deformed butterflies, but those that are 

otherwise healthy are quarantined to a special 

tent in her garage where they will live out the rest 

of their month-long life span. 

“You have to be careful not to crosscontaminate,” 

Lipala said. 

She recognizes that most harborers of monarch 

butterflies don’t take these steps. “I go over and 

above.” 

The spore problem is only one challenge facing 

the insects. “They can also get a virus,” Lipala 

added. “If they are overcrowded, they can get a 

bacterial infection.” 

Lipala believes that because she is caring for 

the caterpillars that might not otherwise survive 

in her garden because of disease and natural 

predators, she’s obligated to release only the 

healthy ones. 

“That’s my philosophy,” she explained. “I can 

test them for the spores, so I do.” 

In the past four years, Lipala has captured, 

tested and raised hundreds of monarchs. One 

year she had so many, she decided she had to 

release them away from her property because 

she was afraid they’d come back to her milkweed 

and she’d be overwhelmed. 

“So, I was driving around town where people 

have flowers and milkweed. Like a crazy butterfly 

lady,” Lipala laughed. “I met a lot of nice people.” 

Lipala said she’s doing her part as a biologist. 

“The more I learned about them, I thought that 

this was important. If I can help mitigate it a little 

bit, that’s what I’m going to do,” she said as she 

collected a home delivery of milkweed. 

Those who want to play a role in preserving 

the monarch butterfly population but don’t have 

the space to plant a garden or build enclosures 

could consider reserving a plot in a nearby public 

garden, according to Jen Barone, vice president of 

the Hopatcong Community Garden. 

Shortly after purchasing her home in 2003, 

Barone, 49, faced gardening challenges common 

to the lake area. “I learned the first season that 

the deer eat everything,” she said. “There’s rocky 

land, trees ... I wasn’t having any success growing 

vegetables on my front lawn.” 

In 2011, Barone learned of a proposal for the 

Hopatcong Community Garden, and she eagerly 

joined in the planning. Borough engineers helped 

with fencing and hydrants, and by April 2012, 

volunteers were building plots and spreading 

mulch at the site on Bell Avenue. 

For the first few years, members focused 

on vegetables and flowers. Frequent meetings 

featured guest speakers who would talk about 

pollinators and bees, Barone said. “We learned 

about butterflies and milkweed. We got milkweed 

seeds and handed them out to the members. By 

around 2015, people started concentrating more 

on pollinator plants.” 

It was at one of those meetings where Barone 

first heard of MonarchWatch.org, which offers 

guidelines on setting up and registering monarch 

butterfly waystations. 

“You have to have a space of at least 100 

square feet, shelter, lots of sun and plants that 

are relatively close together,” she said. “Most of 

this I already had, so I registered my garden and 

now have a cute little sign in front of it and a 

certificate.” 

Monarch Watch also periodically hands out 

milkweed to registered organizations, according 

to Barone. 

The Hopatcong Community Garden has 46 

plots, plus a pollinator garden built last year, 

Barone said. There is an initial cost of $50 for a 

plot; it’s $25 a year after that. 

“The Hopatcong Environmental Commission, 

the Lake Hopatcong Foundation and other 

organizations are trying to get more people aware 

of the benefits of native plants versus non-native 

plants,” said Barone. They also offer programs to 

educate Boy and Girl Scouts on native plants and 

butterflies. 

The Lake Hopatcong Foundation maintains 

its own vibrant butterfly garden at their 

headquarters in Landing that includes Joe Pye 

weed and milkweed, among many other native 

plants. 

“The population of monarchs has been 

declining, partly due to habitat loss, pesticide 

use, which reduces the availability of milkweed 

and other natural causes,” Lipala said. “Even the 

casual gardener or butterfly lover can do their 

part by planting milkweed and flowers. Perennials 

that flower in the summer and the early fall are 

helpful to butterflies seeking nectar before they 

migrate.” 

Although it’s possible to see Ophryocystis 

elektroscirrha spores with a high-powered 

camera lens or test for them with a piece of tape, 

Lipala said simply protecting and nurturing the 

butterflies is help enough. 

“There’s a lot of butterflies, there’s a lot of 

people,” she added. “Just do the best that you 

can and give them a better chance.” 


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Georgia PD Looking For a 

Few Good Men and Women 

Story and photo by Karen Fucito 

Back in 1998, Jakai Braithwaite was newly 

graduated from West Virginia University 

by way of Hopatcong High School and looking 

to work in law enforcement. Armed with 

a Bachelor of Arts in political science and 

government and after a study abroad stint in 

Spain, Braithwaite was eager to get his career 

started. 

“I always wanted to be on the job, always 

wanted to serve,” recalled the 48-year-old. 

After college, his first job back in New Jersey 

was working as a juvenile detention officer at 

the Morris County Detention Center. Not a bad 

job, he said, but he wanted more. 

However, the process for applying for police 

department jobs at that time, he added, 

was arduous, expensive and competitive. He 

remembered taking the exam for a position at 

Roxbury Township, knowing he was more than 

qualified but also knowing there were a couple 

hundred other qualified applicants vying for 

one or two positions. 

After nearly a year of waiting to hear about 

that job—and others—and no closer to getting 

hired in his home state, Braithwaite decided a 

change was needed. 

“You get tired of waiting,” he said. 

So, he headed to Georgia, a place that had 

some meaning for him. 

“I attended the ‘96 Olympics as a spectator. I 

thought, wow, I fancy this area,” he said, thinking 

back then that one day he would wind up in the 

Atlanta area. 

While New Jersey was where he wanted to 

work, “I’m a Jersey boy, through and through,” 

Braithwaite said, he never ruled out other 

options. 

His plan was to get to Atlanta, get a master’s 

degree and head to the federal level of law 

enforcement: “Go work for the feds.” 

But that’s the thing about making plans; One 

never knows when they’ll change. 

Instead of working on the federal level, 

Braithwaite landed a job with the Alpharetta 

Department of Public Safety. 

“From visiting the area and seeing the quality 

of life—Alpharetta is a vibrant, developed 

city—that is what I wanted to do,” he said of 

the move to the Atlanta suburb in 1999. 

Braithwaite is the younger of two children 

born to Reginald and Roberta Braithwaite. 

Giving back seems to run in the family. 

His deceased grandfather, Robert Preston, 

served in the Army, he said. His father is a 

Vietnam veteran and a retired United States 

postal inspector. His mother, also retired, was 

26 


the director of social services at 

Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. 

His older brother, Jabbar Braithwaite, 

is a detective sergeant in the Criminal 

Investigations Division in Alpharetta. 

With both sons and their families in 

Georgia, his parents made the move 

from New Jersey five years ago, he 

said. 

“We come from a family of service. 

It’s probably built in our DNA a little 

bit.” 

Braithwaite’s trajectory through the 

Alpharetta police department has been steady. 

Currently, he holds the rank of police captain 

and public information officer in the 115-member 

department. 

In 2022, with more than a dozen police officer 

positions unfilled, Braithwaite was tasked with 

recruitment, something he admittedly had no 

prior knowledge of or experience with. 

“Completely outside of my wheelhouse,” said 

the seasoned investigator. 

What he did know, however, was that 

recruitment for law enforcement across the 

country was a problem and that to find qualified 

candidates he would have to think outside the 

box—and outside Alpharetta. 

Which is how Braithwaite made it back to 

New Jersey. 

“The pool of candidates consisted of two 

groups: one group that is interested in being on 

the job and another group that is interested and 

qualified,” he said of candidates in the Atlanta 

area. The pool, he said, is so small that local 

agencies offer incentives to entice the best 

candidates to come to their agency, pitting 

agency against agency. 

“We start eating our own,” he said. 

His suggestion to expand the candidate search 

led to his home state. Specifically, Hasbrouck 

Heights in Bergen County, where his ties from 

Top to bottom: Jakai Braithwaite with fellow 

officers and administrators from Alpharetta, 

Georgia. Shenique Rosario runs through the 

physical test at last year’s recruitment session. 

(Photo courtesy of Jakai Braithwaite) 

growing up in Hopatcong were still strong. 

Through Heights councilman Michael Sickels, 

a college roommate of one of Braithwaite’s 

childhood friends, Braithwaite’s recruiting 

program was given the red-carpet treatment in 

the small borough, including the use of the high 

school gym. Media coverage also helped get the 

word out. 

At last year’s event, 26 candidates applied and 

tested. Eight candidates were hired, including 

Shenique Rosario. At the time, Rosario was a 

5-year veteran of the New York City Police 

Department. 

“It was a quick transition for me,” said the 

Queens native, who was hired two months after 

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applying in New Jersey. 

That’s the point, stressed Braithwaite, 

explaining that the process of applying to be a 

cop “was arduous and expensive,” and the wait 

was long. It didn’t have to be. 

“Without lowering standards, without cutting 

corners on properly vetting candidates, I knew 

the recruiting process could be done quickly 

and more efficiently. At last year’s recruitment, 

my chief said he was prepared to hire qualified 

candidates in two months. That was ambitious.” 

While the 2022 recruitment process was 

successful, there were still open positions within 

the department, which brought Braithwaite and 

his crew back to Hasbrouck Heights again this 

July. 

Seventeen candidates applied and took the 

police test, and two took the 9-1-1 dispatcher 

exam, which was new this year. 

“People who want to serve, they just don’t 

want to wait,” Braithwaite said, adding one 

reason he came to New Jersey was that he knew 

he wasn’t the only one getting impatient. 

“I’m representing the south here. I’m going to 

come here to the north, and I want to steal these 

good, quality candidates. I know my people.” 

Will Braithwaite and his crew return next 

summer? 

“I can’t say with certitude that we would end 

up back here in Jersey. I hope so. The biggest 

takeaway is that other organizations recognize 

that this can be done. We know it can be done.” 

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Seniors of the 

Year Chosen in 

Hopatcong 

28 

Story by ELLEN WILKOWE 


Joe and Joy Gorgolione, who are known 

around Hopatcong Borough as Mr. and 

Mrs. Tree because of their tree-service company, 

were well prepared for their entertainment gig 

at the annual Hopatcong Seniors Picnic held in 

June at the senior center. 

Providing musical talent—no strings 

attached—at hometown events has become 

routine for the business owners of “Joe Tree,” 

who planted roots of their own in Hopatcong 

45 years ago. 

On this day the plan was for Joe, 73, and Joy, 

66, to be joined onstage by their son, Joe Jr. for 

easy listening musical entertainment. 

So, when Mayor Michael Francis and 

Councilman Brad Hoferkamp announced them 

as Senior Couple of the Year, they were a bit, 

well, stumped. 

“I was completely in the dark,” said Joe 

Gorgolione, who is lead singer and plays guitar. 

“I thought we were just playing here.” 

Entertaining the community is just one of the 

many reasons the couple was nominated by 

their neighbor, Ida Brown, 2015’s female Senior 

of the Year, who also happens to chair the 

Senior Advisory Committee. 

“There is never a Memorial Day ceremony, 

Veterans Day ceremony, Hopatcong Days 

event, Christmas tree lighting or the annual 

911 ceremony in which you won’t see them 

performing their music and entertaining the 

attendees,” Brown wrote in her nomination 

letter that was read by Hoferkamp. 

Having been on the receiving end of the 

couple’s assistance during major hurricanes, 

Brown knows firsthand the open-heart and 

open-door nature of the Gorgoliones. 

From an observational perspective, she 

marveled at her good friend Joy for her ability 

to juggle the couple’s business, house and 

grandchildren—plus her community outreach, 

such as providing anyone in town with 

transportation to doctor appointments and 

shopping. 

“Family, church and volunteerism are the 

most important parts of their life and mission. 

Whenever they are asked to help, they are first 

in line,” Brown wrote. 

The Gorgoliones have three adult children and 

four grandchildren, several of whom rushed the 

stage to help fashion around their grandparents’ 

necks the green Senior of the Year sashes. 


Left to right: Joy and Joe Gorgolione. Annette 

Grieco. 

The Gorgoliones credit their faith for making 

them better people. 

“I wanted to be a better person,” said Joe 

Gorgolione, who serves as a deacon at his church. 

(Joy serves as a board of trustees member.) “I 

went from being selfish to selfless.” 

Emceed by Francis and Hoferkamp, the annual 

picnic and ceremony drew about 150 seniors to 

the pavilion at the Senior Center. 

Established in the early 2000s, the Senior 

Advisory Committee was formed by the mayor 

to provide a voice for the 60-plus community, 

said Brown. 

The committee typically votes for male 

and female seniors of the year but has made 

occasional exceptions—such as the case with 

the Gorgoliones—to declare a couple of the 

year. 

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In maintaining tradition, the mayor declared 

Annette Grieco as female Senior of the Year. 

(The male Senior of the Year was substituted 

this year for the Couple of the Year.) 

Like the Gorgoliones, the longtime Hopatcong 

resident was equally motivated by her faith to 

make an impact in her community, as noted in 

her humble acceptance speech. 

“For those who know me, I’m never one for 

a lack of words … but I gave all credit and glory 

to God,” she said while being draped with the 

green Senior of the Year sash. 

Grieco, 67, was nominated by her family 

who provided a resume-like letter noting her 

contributions. 

Since setting foot in Hopatcong in 1983 with 

her husband, Dino, Grieco assimilated herself 

to the area through the Hopatcong Welcome 

Wagon. She became the organization’s social 

chair and spearheaded fundraising events 

such as a cookbook, which provided financial 

assistance to a local mom with a life-threatening 

illness. 

As her family grew to include four children, 

so did her involvement in the community. An 

original Modick Mom (a group of concerned 

residents who set out to improve Modick Park), 

Grieco used her networking and fundraising 

savvy to help foster improvements to the park. 

When her children were in the school district, 

Grieco established herself as a class parent, field 

trip chaperone and all-around on-call assistant. 

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In 1995, she would return to the school 

district, this time as an employee, first as an aide 

to a student with special needs and then as an 

office assistant. 

A self-proclaimed devout woman of faith, 

Grieco equally immersed herself in every aspect 

of church life, including but not limited to 

teaching Sunday school, heading up vacation 

Bible school and ushering. She was also a 

regular on the City Relief bus, where she helped 

distribute food to the homeless and needy in 

New York and Paterson. 

Grieco was also instrumental in establishing 

and leading Hopatcong’s National Day of Prayer, 

which takes place annually on the first of May. 

As a member of Hopatcong Seniors Inc., the 

Golden Lunch Bunch and Hopatcong Women’s 

Club, Grieco continues to serve the community. 

She teaches exercise twice a week at the Senior 

Center and collects and distributes food and 

nonperishables to local organizations serving 

those in need. 

“I don’t deserve this,” she said. “For them to call 

my name among all these beautiful people....” 

Senior of the Year nominations are open to 

all eligible Hopatcong residents aged 60 and 

over who have gone above and beyond in terms 

of community service. Their actions benefit 

families, residents or organizations in or outside 

the area. 

Nominations are accepted through April of 

each year. 

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Hundreds Get Front Row 

Seats for Annual Fireworks 

Story and photos by KAREN FUCITO 

Visitors to the Arthur J. Ondish Memorial Beach in Mount Arlington arrived 

early on Friday, June 30, to stake out a spot for the annual July Fourth 

fireworks display over Lake Hopatcong. The beach, which is located off Mount 

Arlington Boulevard, overlooks the main part of the lake and is one of the premier 

public land locations to view the fireworks, said Ashley Todd, the town’s recreation director. 

The barges where the pyrotechnics are launched sit a few hundred yards off the beach, 

offering a front row seat to the show. An estimated 250 people viewed the fireworks from the 

beach area this year, said Todd, adding that beach access for viewing has been offered to the 

public for more than two decades. 

Musical entertainment was provided by DJ Vianna D’Amico. The Dolly Jingles ice cream truck 

provided sweet treats. 

Now in its 92nd year, the annual fireworks event is hosted and mostly funded by the Lake 

Hopatcong Yacht Club. Additional funding comes from area businesses, organizations and 

individual donations. 

“It was a great turnout,” said Todd. “It will happen again 

next year.” 

Clockwise from top: Roseanne 

Schaefer and Annmaria LoPiccolo. Jack 

Castagna, Rob Deliberto, Ella Castagna 

and Barbara Deliberto. Katie, Wes and 

Matt Anderson with Christa Anderson. 

Ptlm. Matt Kaiteris, Lt. Matt Fortunato, 

Sgt. Joe Farina, Sgt. Ryan Sherburne, 

Sgt. D.J. McCoach. Celerino Orpilla and 

Cassie Orpilla. Dave Iaquinta and Laura 

Donnarumma. Janet McNamara, Jared 

McNamara and Lolita Borsilov. Vianna 

D’Amico. Henry Porres and Evon Kam, 

Russell Bergman and Lina Hetman, 

Gloria Gutierrez and Robert Reyes. 

30 


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34 

HISTORY 

During the first decades of the 20th 

century, when movies were in their 

infant stage and Hollywood was mostly orange 

groves, Fort Lee, New Jersey, was the center of 

American film production. 

New Jersey’s connection to the film industry 

started even earlier, when Thomas Edison and 

his West Orange company demonstrated the 

concept of motion pictures in 1891 with the 

Kinetoscope, a device that allowed one person 

at a time to view a strip of film passed rapidly 

between a lens and an electric light bulb. 

Edison anticipated the public would buy 

individual machines to view a film and never 

envisioned mass audiences for moving 

pictures. That innovation took place in Paris in 

1895, when the Lumière brothers unveiled their 

film projector, enabling groups to watch at the 

same time. 

While these early films were under a minute 

long, audiences were captivated by their ability 

to capture movement. It was not long before 

entrepreneurs saw the potential of this new 

technology. 

Edison’s Black Maria in West Orange, 

considered the world’s first film studio, 

was completed in 1893 and dozens of small 

companies soon sprang up on the East Coast 

to fill the growing demand for moving pictures. 

As the 20th century dawned, these early 

filmmakers invented an industry by constantly 

advancing film technique and technology. 

New York City had the largest concentration 

of early studios, and filmmakers quickly 


Lake Hopatcong on the Silver Screen 

by MARTY KANE 

Photos courtesy 

of the 

LAKE HOPATCONG 

HISTORICAL 

MUSEUM 

discovered that New Jersey offered a wide 

variety of scenery just a short ferry ride away. 

The area around Fort Lee soon became 

a particularly popular film location due to 

its diverse landscape. The sheer cliffs of the 

Palisades stood in for canyons of the Wild 

West, while the Hudson River below could look 

like a seaside harbor, coastal stretch or even an 

ocean. The open plateaus and tall trees atop 

the Palisades could resemble the woods of 

England, and the town of Fort Lee itself—with 

its wood-frame houses, narrow streets and 

stone and granite businesses—could serve as 

Anytown, USA. 

Fort Lee welcomed the film industry with 

open arms. At its height, over a dozen studios 

operated within the town or in nearby Hudson 

Heights, Cliffside Park and Jersey City. 

Champion Studios opened in 1910 and was 

joined within the next few years by many of 

the studios that would soon dominate the new 

industry, including Universal, Goldwyn and Fox. 

The biggest entertainers of the day filmed 

in Fort Lee: Will Rogers, Rudolph Valentino, 

Lillian Gish, Douglas Fairbanks, Theda Bara, 

Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Pearl White 

and Mary Pickford, along with the Barrymore 

family, who actually made their home in Fort 

Lee. 

One of the most influential figures in film 

history, D.W. Griffith, honed his craft by 

shooting nearly 100 pictures there. 

In addition to utilizing Fort Lee’s natural 

resources and studio backlots, filmmakers 

looked to other nearby locales to capture just 

the right background and scenery. This is what 

brought film to Lake Hopatcong. A large lake 

with resort hotels that was easily accessible by 

train made for a useful location. 

At least six filmmakers shot scenes at the lake 

in the 1910s, including Louis B. Mayer, Alice Guy 

Blaché and Léonce Perret. 

The most expensive and star-studded film 

shot at the lake was “Virtuous Wives,” Mayer’s 

first film. Filmed in 1918, it featured Anita 

Stewart, one of America’s first movie stars, in 

Left to right: Anita Stewart and William Boyd in 1918 

stand on Hudson Maxim’s dock in a scene from “Virtuous 

Wives.” (Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club can be seen in the 

background.) Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels in “Purple 

Rose of Cairo,” filmed at Bertrand Island Park in 1983. 

a plot that called for a country estate and an 

out-of-control motorboat. 

Director George L. Tucker found the type 

of lakefront scenery he was seeking at Lake 

Hopatcong, along with volunteers willing to 

loan their motorboats. The film made use 

of the Phoebe Snow (a lake tour boat) and 

locales such as Air Castle Isles, Hudson Maxim’s 

boathouse and the Bertrand Island beach. 

Another notable director who filmed at the 

lake was Alice Guy Blaché, a French film pioneer 

who wrote, directed and produced films as well 

as running her own studio at Fort Lee. 

The September 20, 1913 issue of Moving 

Picture World reported that “Madame 

Blaché, president of the Solax Company, 

and a company of 50 people, together with 

property men and numerous assistants and an 

equipment of three wagon loads of properties 

and sceneries, have left for Lake Hopatcong 

where numerous scenes in the forthcoming 

Solax feature, entitled Rogues of Paris will 

be staged. The transfer of the company and 

equipment to this famous lake resort means an 

expense of more than $2,000.” 

The Fort Lee Film Commission lists this film 

as one of the most notable made by Blaché at 

Solax. 

At the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum, 

we have long thought it would be fascinating 

to see these professional movies shot at the 

lake during its peak resort years. Until last year, 

however, it was believed that all such films 

were lost, with only still photos surviving. 

This is not surprising, as it is estimated that 

only 10 percent of films made between 1910 

and 1920 still exist. The nitrate film used in 

early motion pictures was not only extremely 

unstable and flammable but decomposed and 

turned to powder if not stored in optimum 

conditions. 

In addition, silent films were not considered 

valuable once “talkies” came along. With 

television, DVDs and on-demand viewing 

decades in the future, there was no market for 

silent films after their initial release. Prints were 

often destroyed to retrieve 

the silver contained within 

nitrate stock, which sometimes 

financed a filmmaker’s next 

project. 

We were aware of an August 

31, 1918 Lake Hopatcong Breeze 

report that “an independent 

motion picture company under 

the direction of M. Perret… will 

arrive at the Alamac [Hotel]… 

and will remain for several days.” 

The article states that scenes 

would be shot at the hotel and 

around the lake for a French

Clockwise, from top: Chestnut Point is visible in 

the background of a scene filmed on the steps 

of Lake Hopatcong’s Alamac Hotel for the 1919 

French silent film “Les Etoiles de la Gloire.” 

Universal Studios, Fort Lee (1916). Film star 

Anita Stewart speeds across Lake Hopatcong 

in the silent movie “Virtuous Wives.” This photo 

was featured on the cover of the July 19, 1919 

issue of the Lake Hopatcong Breeze. 

film called “Stars of Glory,” but no such title 

appeared on any list of surviving films. Further 

investigation revealed the movie was actually 

intended for French audiences and was 

“outsourced” to the United States to save on 

production costs. 

It turned out the film was released in France 

as “Les Etoiles de la Gloire.” Armed with this 

new information, we were excited to find the 

film listed in the French Film Archives and learn 

that a mostly complete and restored copy was 

available. We were mesmerized by the first 

scenes, in which a group of people unmistakably 

outside Lake Hopatcong’s Alamac Hotel look 

toward Chestnut Point. In addition to a number 

of scenes filmed on the hotel grounds, several 

interior and exterior shots were filmed at Mira 

Lacum, the stone castle-like residence which 

still stands a few doors down from where the 

Alamac was located in Mount Arlington. 

Further research revealed that in 1919 the film 

was released in the United States as “Unknown 

Love.” 

While the shooting locations of many early 

films are well-documented, this one only 

noted “New England landscapes.” Without the 

information from the Breeze, there would have 

been no way to connect it to Lake Hopatcong. 

Scenes from the film were shown at a museum 

program last year to much excitement. 

Call Jim to buy or list today! 

The museum has now obtained a more 

complete version—five of the original six 

reels. It will be screened at the Palace Theatre 

in Netcong (home of The Growing Stage) on 

Tuesday, August 15 at 7:00pm—perhaps its first 

screening in a theater in over 100 years! 

(Those interested in attending should contact 

the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum at 973- 

398-2616 or visit lakehopatconghistory.com.) 

Lake Hopatcong’s role in films was very much 

connected with Fort Lee’s film heyday, which 

proved to be short-lived. New Jersey soon 

lost out to California, where year-round movie 

making was more feasible. 

A coal shortage that left studios unheated 

during a brutally cold New Jersey winter, 

coupled with the influenza pandemic of 1918, 

caused many of Fort Lee’s movie studios to 

move operations to California on what was first 

considered a temporary basis. 

By the 1920s, the move was nearly complete, 

Fort Lee’s studios and lots were largely 

abandoned and Lake Hopatcong’s brush with 

showbiz was largely over. The lake was used 

more recently as a film location for two notable 

movies, “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” released 

in 1985 and an Academy Award nominee 

for best screenplay, and the acclaimed 2003 

independent film “The Station Agent.” 

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COOKING 

WITH SCRATCH © 

Tasting Home 

by BARBARA SIMMONS 

Photo by KAREN FUCITO 

We just flew back from Amsterdam and, 

boy, are our arms tired. 

I know, corny. 

It’s good to be home, though, and great to 

come home to the Lake Hopatcong News issue 

that my daughter, Erika, and daughter-in-law, 

Brittney, wrote while we were away. 

Hope you enjoyed it. I’ll have to ask them to 

help out again! 

In June, my husband, Aaron, and I went 

on a river cruise from Budapest, Hungary, to 

Amsterdam in the Netherlands. We had an 

opportunity to visit with my family when we 

were in the Rheingau (the Rhine District) near 

where my mother was born. 

It had been almost eight years since we 

had been in Germany and the relatives hadn’t 

been to see us in New Jersey since just before 

COVID, so we were overdue for a visit. We 

were so anxious to meet the new babies, see 

as many cousins as possible, eat the local foods 

and drink the wonderful wines. It had been too 

long. 

Our two days in Hessen did not disappoint. 

We spent a day and a night with my cousin, 

Sigrid Pfeffer, in Frankfurt and another day and 

night with cousin Andreas Vahl, and his wife, 

Jutta, in Wiesbaden. 

Now, when I say cousins, I am referring to 

Left: König-Adolf- 

Platz in Idstein. 

The author with 

her cousin, Sigrid 

Pfeffer. 

(Photos courtesy of 

Barbara Simmons.) 

descendants of 

the 26 cousins my 

grandmother had. 

I’m not that wellversed 

in genealogy 

to give specific 

gradations of 

relationships, but 

my mother kept close ties to all of her mother’s 

relative’s families and I do my best to do so, too. 

It’s just easier for me to call them all cousins. 

We spent a beautiful summer day with Sigrid 

in her hometown of Idstein, which is an absolute 

hidden gem. The half-timber houses painted 

in gay colors were so charming and lovingly 

restored. A rose garden was the highlight at a 

castle that is now used as the local high school. 

So gorgeous! We were smitten. 

We returned to Frankfurt to spend the night 

at Sigrid’s apartment, but not before stopping 

in a real local joint, zur Stahlburg, for some 

authentic fare. 

Aaron ordered a grilled wurst, Sigrid had 

Königsberger Klopse (featured in Vol. 14 No. 

3) and I had pork schnitzel with the famous 

Frankfurter Grüne Sosse or green sauce. 

After tasting it, I knew it was going to be the 

recipe I would bring home for my next column, 

as requested by my editor, Karen Fucito. I 

also enjoyed a couple of glasses of the local 

Ebbelwoi (apple wine), like the one my father 

used to make in our basement at our house on 

Lake Hopatcong. 

The sauce, which is so tasty, features seven 

different herbs, yogurt and sour cream. Sigrid 

told me that you can buy these fresh herbs 

pre-packaged in supermarkets or—for those 

among us with a green thumb—grow them in 

your own garden. 

She made a point of bringing us to the 

Frankfurt Kleinmarkthalle (little market hall) the 

next morning to buy packets of seeds for me to 

grow the herbs at home. 

We tearfully left Sigrid the next morning and 

boarded a train to Wiesbaden, my mother’s 

hometown, where Jutta picked us up at the 

station. At her house, which has been our 

home base for the last several visits, was Jutta’s 

daughter, Ann Christin, who had come down 

from Hamburg with her 4-month-old, Carlotta. 

We were delighted to meet the newest 

“cousin.” We had dinner at another great local 

place, Zum Hirsch, where we enjoyed delicious 

super crispy roast chicken, an assortment of 

wursts and steak tartare. And more apple wine. 

Cousin Ronald Neugebauer met us there on 

his bike. Afterwards we went up Neroberg, a hill 

overlooking Wiesbaden, and enjoyed a couple 

of bottles of delicious Kloster Eberbach riesling 

at the Chateau Nero as the sun set over the city. 

Breakfast the next morning with Andreas, 

Jutta, Ann Christin and Carlotta featured their 

usual epic assortment of things to have with 

spectacular fresh rolls from the corner bakery. 

The table was loaded with dishes of cheeses, 

cold cuts of every type, hard-boiled eggs, 

yogurt, quark, steak tartare, tuna salad, three or 

four different jellies, jams and fruit salad. 

Breakfast at the Vahls’ is worth the trip alone. 

Sadly, we had to leave that morning, and we 

packed our bags to go and meet our ship. It was 

too short, as it always seems to be. 

We left with promises to see each other 

again soon. 

36 


Grüne Sosse (or in the Hessisch dialect, Grie Soss) “Green Sauce” 

Since I didn’t have enough time to grow the herbs I needed to make an authentic version of this sauce, I went to my go-to source for unique 

plants: the Well-Sweep Herb Farm in Port Murray, New Jersey. 

If you’re looking for a hard-to-find herb, perennial flowers or a destination for a Sunday drive, I highly recommend this beautiful family farm in 

the mountains of Warren County. It boasts beautiful perennial, medicinal and decorative gardens, picnic areas, noisy but beautiful chickens and a 

barn with lamb and sheep. Their shop also has a huge assortment of dried flowers, essential oils and wreaths and there are craft workshops offered 

nearly every weekend. 

I called ahead to see if the herbs I needed were available. They were, so Aaron and I immediately set out to go and pick them up at the farm. 

You know how I love to go on cooking expeditions! The herbs were a bit on the expensive side but several of them are perennial and I can look 

forward to harvesting them again next year. 

I had flat-leaf parsley in my garden already and was able to find watercress at a local supermarket. Below, I offer some substitutions. The sauce 

can be tweaked to your liking by adding more of any of the herbs listed. I would, however, avoid herbs like cilantro, rosemary and basil, as they will 

significantly throw off the flavor profile of the sauce. 

Ingredients 

¼ cup (25 grams each) of the classic 7 herbs: 

• parsley 

• chives – substitute 1 or 2 scallions 

• borage – substitute a 2-inch piece of peeled, seeded cucumber 

• chervil – not much flavor; feel free to omit 

• sorrel – substitute the grated zest of half a lemon or ¼ cup 

sliced fresh rhubarb 

• salad burnet – substitute with arugula 

• watercress 

2/3 cup sour cream 

2 tablespoons mayonnaise 

1 tablespoon oil 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 

2 teaspoons German or Dijon mustard 

1½ teaspoons salt, or to taste 

Pepper to taste 

2/3 cup Greek yogurt (5% milkfat) 

Procedure 

In a blender or food processor, add the herbs, sour cream, mayonnaise, oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt and 

pepper. Blend until the sauce turns a vivid green. Scrape the sauce into a bowl and gently whisk in the Greek 

yogurt. Garnish with a few sprigs of the herbs that you used. 

Grüne Sosse is often served with boiled potatoes and hard-cooked eggs. In Frankfurt, I had it with breaded, 

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WORDS OF 

A FEATHER 

Story and photos by HEATHER SHIRLEY 

If you let it, nature will always beguile you. 

I love both the surprises and the rhythms 

inherent in nature. 

One thing I count on every year is that a pair of 

barred owls that live near me produce a couple 

of owlets. I delight in an annual search to spot 

the fluffy, football-shaped babes as they venture 

out of their nest to begin exploring the world. 

I am in awe and wowed every time I am lucky 

enough to see an owl. Wow, owls! Wowls. 

Since long ago, people have been captivated 

by owls. Perhaps because they are active at night 

and therefore rarely seen, we are both fascinated 

by them and may even fear them. 

Ancient Greeks associated owls with Athena, 

goddess of wisdom and warfare. Owls symbolized 

her cunning strategy. In Celtic mythology, owls 

represented a range of themes spanning beauty, 

fertility, betrayal and deception. 

Egyptian hieroglyphs depict owls as symbols of 

royalty. Native Americans viewed them as ghosts, 

messengers from beyond the grave, harbingers 

of death and malevolence. 

J.K. Rowling, of course, employed them as brave 

messengers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft 

and Wizardry. 

Owls are highly specialized birds, and it’s 

possible that all their unique features are what 

Wowls 

led to their mystical 

status. They have twice 

as many vertebrae in their 

necks as humans, thus 

can turn their heads in a 

Barred owl 

270-degree radius. 

Like humans, their eyes are situated on the 

front of their faces, next to each other. (In 

contrast, many other bird species have an eye 

on each side of their heads.) Owls see much as 

we do, with binocular vision, which means they 

synchronize the sight and information from 

each eye simultaneously, seeing one clear image. 

This helps with overall perception of the world 

around them, as well as judging distance. 

Facial feathers generally form a disc shape on 

their faces, and this helps funnel sound to their 

ears. The ears are hidden under feathers on each 

side of their heads. They are large and offset from 

each other. This asymmetry improves hearing 

and enables owls to triangulate where prey is. 

Owls have terribly strong talons, which they 

use to attack, stun and suffocate their prey. Their 

wings are large and have specialized feathers 

along the edges so their flight is silent and 

stealthy. 

With all these special attributes, it’s no wonder 

humans have endowed owls with mystical 

powers. 

In New Jersey, there are six species of owls 

that are fairly common: great horned, barred, 

barn, eastern screech, short-eared and longeared. 

Sometimes there is a phenomenon called 

an irruption, which means that owls may travel 

beyond their usual range to follow prey or 

weather, so additional species such as snowy 

owls can occasionally be seen in the Garden 

State. 

Owls are not easy to see. They’re nocturnal; 

they fly silently. They do, however, call to one 

another, so it’s possible to hear them. 

When I used to live in Morristown, I would lie 

awake at night, my insomnia rewarded by being 

able to listen in on a pair of great horned owls 

hooting back and forth to each other. “Who’s 

awake? Me, too,” they seemed to say, in low, 

mournful tones. 

Barred owls are more upbeat, saying, “Who 

cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” Screech 

owls don’t really screech—but barn owls do! 

Instead, screech owls call out in a sweet, soft 

whinny. 

If you are lucky, you may come across pellets, 

another sign that owls are nearby. Owls swallow 

their prey whole, but they can’t digest bits 

like fur, bones or insect scales. All of this gets 

compressed into a mass called a pellet, which the 

owl regurgitates and spits out. 

Scan the QR code with 

your phone’s camera 

to hear the sounds of 

a barred owl. 

If you come across something that looks like 

a tight wad of brownish gray fur, it may be a 

pellet. By the time you find one, it will likely be 

dry. You can pry it open and poke through it to 

discover what the owl ate. You may see the skull 

of a rodent or a bird, the backbone of a lizard, 

who knows what? Gross to some, fascinating to 

others, pellets are a sign that an owl is probably 

roosting nearby. 

Still eager for more owls? Why not encourage 

them to move into your yard? 

Owls want to roost in trees that provide dense 

cover — they prefer evergreens. They need space 

to nest and raise young. Some species build nests 

or take over the nests of other birds. Others nest 

in cavities that occur naturally in trees or were 

drilled out by woodpeckers. 

They also readily move into nest boxes people 

erect for them. Check with your nearest New 

Jersey Audubon center—the one at Scherman 

Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary in Bernardsville is 

wonderful—to buy nest boxes and get advice 

for where to place them in your yard. 

You may find yourself stewards of your own 

wowls and wowlets, and you’ll surely be doing 

good deeds by helping nature thrive. 

38 

Barbara Anne Dillon, O.D., P.A. 

License # OA 05188 OM 0373 

180 Howard Boulevard, Suite 18 

Mount Arlington, NJ 07856 

(973) 770-1380 

Fax (973) 770-1384 

• Comprehensive Eye Exams 

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• Treatment for Eye Disease 

We’re open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday 


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973-663-2142 • 973-713-8020 

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directory 

CONSTRUCTION/ 

EXCAVATION 

Al Hutchins Excavating 

973-663-2142 

973-713-8020 

Lakeside Construction 

151 Sparta-Stanhope Rd., Hopatcong 

973-398-4517 

Northwest Explosives 

PO Box 806, Hopatcong 

973-398-6900 

info@northwestexplosives.com 

ENTERTAINMENT/ 

RECREATION 

Lake Hopatcong Adventure 

973-663-1944 

lhadventureco.com 

Lake Hopatcong Cruises 

Miss Lotta (Dinner Boat) 

37 Nolan’s Pt. Park Rd., LH 

973-663-5000 

lhcruises.com 

Lake Hopatcong Mini Golf Club 

37 Nolan's Pt. Park Rd., LH 

973-663-0451 

lhgolfclub.com 

Roxbury Arts Alliance 

72 Eyland Ave., Succasunna 

973-945-0284 

roxburyartsalliance.org 

HOME SERVICES 

Central Comfort 

100 Nolan’s Point Rd., LH 

973-361-2146 

Evening Star 

LED Deck/Dock Lights 

eveningstarlighting.com 

Homestead Lawn Sprinkler 

5580 Berkshire Valley Rd., OR 

973-208-0967 

homesteadlawnsprinkler.com 

Happs Kitchen & Bath 

Sparta 

973-729-4787 

happskitchen.com 

Jefferson Recycling 

710 Route 15 N Jefferson 

973-361-1589 

jefferson-recycling.com 

Martin Design Group 

973-584-5111 

martinnurserynj.com 

The Polite Plumber 

973-398-0875 

thepoliteplumber.com 

Royalty Cleaning Services 

973-309-2858 

royaltycleaningserv.com 

Sacks Paint & Wallpaper 

52 N Sussex St., Dover 

973-366-0119 

sackspaint.net 

Sunset Decks & Outdoor Lvg 

973-846-3088 

sunsetdecksnj.com 

Wilson Services 

973-383-2112 

WilsonServices.com 

LAKE SERVICES 

AAA Dock & Marine 

27 Prospect Point Rd., LH 

973-663-4998 

docksmarina@hotmail.com 

Batten The Hatches 

70 Rt. 181, LH 

973-663-1910 

facebook.com/bthboatcovers 

Lake Management Sciences 

Branchville 

973-948-0107 

lakemgtsciences.com 

MARINAS 

Katz’s Marinas 

22 Stonehenge Rd., LH 

973-663-0224 

katzmarinaatthecove.com 

342 Lakeside Ave., Hopatcong 

973-663-3214 

antiqueboatsales.com 

Lake’s End Marina 

91 Mt. Arlington Blvd., Landing 

973-398-5707 

lakesendmarina.net 

Morris County Marine 

745 US 46W, Kenvil 

201-400-6031 

South Shore Marine 

862-254-2514 

southshoremarine180@gmail.com 

NONPROFITS 

Lake Hopatcong Commission 

260 Lakeside Blvd.,Landing 

973-601-7801 

commissioner@lakehopatcongcommission.org 

Lake Hopatcong Elks Lodge 

201 Howard Blvd., MA 

973-398-9835 

lakehopatcongelks.com 

Lake Hopatcong Foundation 

125 Landing Rd., Landing 

973-663-2500 

lakehopatcongfoundation.org 

Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum 

260 Lakeside Blvd., Landing 

973-398-2616 

lakehopatconghistory.com 

PROFESSIONAL 

SERVICES 

Barbara Anne Dillon,,O.D.,P.A. 

180 Howard Blvd., Ste. 18 MA 

973-770-1380 

Fox Architectural Design 

546 St. Rt. 10 W, Ledgewood 

973-970-9355 

foxarch.com 

Heart + Paw Veterinarian 

10 Tierney Rd., LH 

973-601-5866 

heartandpaw.com 

REAL ESTATE 

Kathleen Courter 

RE/MAX 

131 Landing Rd., Roxbury 

973-420-0022 Direct 

KathySellsNJHomes.com 

Robin Dora 

Sotheby’s International 

670 Main St., Towaco 

973-570-6633 

thedoragroup.com 

Christopher J. Edwards 

RE/MAX 

211 Rt. 10E, Succasunna 

973-598-1008 

MrLakeHopatcong.com 

Karen Foley 

Sotheby’s International 

670 Main St., Towaco 

973-906-5021 

prominentproperties.com 

Jim Leffler 

RE/MAX 

131 Landing Rd., Roxbury 

201-919-5414 

Darla Quaranta 

Century 21 

23 Main St., Sparta 

973-229-0452 

livelovelakelife.com 

RESTAURANTS & BARS 

Alice’s Restaurant 


973-663-9600 


Big Fish Lounge At Alice’s 


973-663-9600 


The Beacon 

453 River Styx Rd., Hopatcong 

thebeaconlh.com 

The Bagel Place 


973-810-3636 

thebagelplace.net 

The Windlass Restaurant 

45 Nolan’s Point Park Rd., LH 

973-663-3190 

thewindlass.com 

SENIOR CARE 

Preferred Care at Home 

George & Jill Malanga/Owners 

973-512-5131 

PreferHome.com/nwjersey 

SPECIALTY STORES 

Alstede Fresh @ Lindeken 

54 NJ Rt 15 N, Wharton 

908-879-7189 

AlstedeFarms.com 

At The Lake Jewelry 

atthelakejewelry.com 

Four Sisters Winery 

783 Rt 519W, Belvidere 

908-475-3671 

foursisterswinery.com 

Hawk Ridge Farm 

283 Espanong Rd, LH 

hawkridgefarmnj.com 

Hearth & Home 

1215 Rt. 46, Ledgewood 

973-252-0190 

hearthandhome.net 

Helrick’s Custom Framing 

158 W Clinton St., Dover 

973-361-1559 

helricks.com 

Italy Tours with Maria 

ItalyTourswithMaria@yahoo.com 

J Thomas Jewelers 

243 Sparta Ave., Sparta 

Main Lake Market 

234 S. NJ Ave., LH 

973-663-0544 

mainlakemarket.com 

Orange Carpet & Wood Gallery 

470 Rt. 10W, Ledgewood 

973-584-5300 

orange-carpet.com 

The Fade Barber Shop 


201-874-2657 

STORAGE 

Woodport Self Storage 

17 Rt. 181 & 20 Tierney Rd. 


973-663-4000 

FOR A COMPLETE CALENDAR OF EVENTS AND FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT 

WWW.LAKEHOPATCONGNEWS.COM 

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taste the farm fresh difference 

We carry a large variety of farm fresh produce, baked goods, 

dairy products, local honey, specialty items, and much more! 

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37 NOLAN’S POINT PARK RD. LAKE HOPATCONG, NJ

Midsummer Issue 2023

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