Sayreville & Piscataway NJ Real Estate Blog

Lawrence Township is enforcing its Land Use Sign Ordinance. The pertinent things to remember are these 8 things:

1. No sign other than traffic or similar official governmental sign can be placed in public right-of-way of streets or sidewalks.
2. All signs must be place at least 10 feet from the curb on the property.
3. Only one double-faced realty sign is permitted per street frontage.
4. Residential signs may not exceed 4sq ft; 16sq ft for commercial zone signs; and 40sq ft for industrial zone
5. All realty signs must be removed within 7days of closing or settlement or the execution of a lease.
6. Off-tract directional signs for open houses may not exceed 3 sq ft.
7. Written permission of property owners must be obtained before placing these signs.
8. They can be erected 12 hour prior to the open house but must be removed the same day.

Direct all inquires about the ordinance to Lawrence Zoning Officer Chris Budzinski at 609-844-7976 or Cbudzinski@lawrencetwp.com

Got an email this morning entitled “John Hopkins Cancer Update” now having been around the internet long enough to know that even well meaning people can get caught up in a hoax, I decided to do a bit of research to see if the claim in the email was true or not.

If a prestigious university, like Johns Hopkins, made the claim that microwaving food in plastic containers was a way to get cancer then that would be news — something carried by major news outlets. Getting confirmation of the fact, if it was a fact, would be easy.

First off, the email referred to Johns Hopkins’ newsletter, so starting at Johns Hopkins and its current newsletter revealed a nothing on the topic. The next step was a Google search for article with “cancer” and “John Hopkins” in the search terms. The search lead to two credible sources. The Baltimore Sun article Myth-Information Lives which suggested what I had in my email was a hoax. The article is dated August 31, 2007.

The next source was Sidney Kimmel Center at Johns Hopkins. In News and Events section there is an Kimmel e-wire entry ”Baltimore Sun features the mythbusters in Kimmel Cancer Center PR office” that links to an entry entitled Myth-busting at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Center. Within the release is a link to a statement from the Kimmel Center. The statement says indeed the email is a hoax. The statement is dated March 2007.

That statement leads to an interview with researcher, Rolf Halden, PhD, PE, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the Center for Water and Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in which he also states the claims in the email are false. He does recommend following the directions on the label of plastic products as some plastics do not recommend exposure to heat.

It took longer to write this blog entry than it did to find out the email was a hoax and find out definitively what Johns Hopkins had to say on the Cancer Update email.

For the web savvy, there is http://www.snopes.com. In the search function put the term “cancer” and the Cancer Update from John Hopkins comes up as number two on the list as of September 26, 2007. So don’t be fooled people by stuff that comes in your email and for goodness sake, don’t pass it on without doing a bit of checking first. Let’s see if we can keep some of these hoaxes from living long enough to become email legends.

Hamilton mayoral candidates debated township issues before business community representatives. It was the first substantive exchange since the campaign season began.

Incumbent Democratic Mayor Glen D. Gilmore and his Republican challenger John Bencivengo did something rather suprising with this debate. They engaged in none of the petty squabbling that has been a constant feature of the campaigns to date. Instead they focused on the issues and each candidate articulated his vision for the where the township is heading.

Could the tide of change in the politcal arena begin right here in New Jersey first? Could we come to expect candidates to focus on the issues and their vision and not each other? Is it possible that it might even carry over to the national arena?

Looking forward to your comments.

Seems like these “sickos” are everywhere! Washington Township (Mercer) has had two incidents in less than a week. A man tried to lure a young boy into his car. The new trap is to say to the young person, “Can you help me find my child he [or she] is lost.” Parents, we need to remind  our children that these sickos are out there and the best strategy to stay safe is to follow the example of these two boys: RUN AWAY Screaming. Furthermore they need to tell a safe adult about the incident immediately. As new developments form in our area and more families move into theses beautiful Mercer County communities, it also opens up the door for these sickos to prey on our children. I just ask that everyone be on the lookout for our children’s safety. School is in, let’s not let a sicko turn the walk to the bus stop into a nightmare. Teach young people to be aware and stay safe. Anyone with information about the identity of the man who is at-large in Washington Township should call Washington Township Police at 609-259-3900.

With 8000 of the 143,898 New Jersey borrowers who opted for sub-prime mortgages going into foreclosure in the first half of this year and another 11,000 borrowers up to three months behind on their mortgage payments, there is still a light at the end of the tunnel if a homeowner acts quickly enough. Don’t let fear or your pride get in the way of reaching out the lender and working out a plan to get you back on tract. You will find that lenders want to help you in this time of need. Some of the help available through your lender will surprise you for example: Special Forbearance (tweaks your repayment plan to better fit your financial situation), Mortgage Modification (refinances the debt or extend the payment term to lower you monthly payments), or Partial Claim (an FHA insurance fund for qualified homeowners). There is a HUD pamphlet (http://www.hudclips.org/sub_nonhud/cgi/pdfforms/pa426h.pdf) that explains how homeowners can avoid losing their homes. HUD also maintains a website with helpful tips. (http://www.hud.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm) Jerry Keelen, director of Single Family Programs with the state’s Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, said his agency is preparing to offer $30 million to help bail out about 200 sub-prime borrowers. So you may have gotten into a loan program that got in a house today and will put out on the street tomorrow but with a bit of effort you may be able to save your home.

Will New Jersey lawmakers ever get it right! Seems like these taxes are just eating all us homeowners alive! Who is in the room when it comes to writing the budget? What is the plan to help us homeowners keep our homes, cause runaway taxes is sure trying to take our homes out from under us? How are we going to pay for county and municipal services without hurting the homeowner? Maybe these are the questions lawmakers need to address before the budget is set. The government promotes homeownership and then taxes us to death just when we get a piece of the “American Dream”. That tax relief remains elusive in Mercer Towns is an under statement. If every homeowner files a tax appeal, the pressure will be on lawmakers to find a real solution to municipality and school funding that does not require yearly increases in taxes. Take a look at the chart below. See where your municipality falls in the tax nightmare. They don’t call us the “Garden State” for nothing, legislators would have us believe money just grows here.