The Personal Injury Attorney in Fair Lawn, NJ, You Can Trust

Sign In|

Already have a subscription but never signed in before?Get started

Get unlimited access with a subscription

Choose your plan. Cancel anytime.

Digital

Monthly

$1 for the first month

Daily digital access on any desktop, tablet, or mobile device

Annual

$89 for the first year

Over 6 MONTHS FREE with an annual subscription

Digital + Print

Sunday - Friday

$1 for the first month

Print delivery + daily digital access & USA TODAY Crossword

Sunday + Thursday

$1 for the first month

Includes access to the eNewspaper every day of the week

Did you know: Every plan comes with a digital subscription to share.

What's included

Digital plans

Digital + Print

Daily digital access

Android and IOS apps

Subscriber-exclusive content

Digital subscription to share

The eNewspaper — a digital replica of the print newspaper.

Print newspaper delivery

USA TODAY Digital Crossword

Group subscriptions

We have customizable plans for corporations, schools, libraries, government agencies and hotels.

Corporate programsEducation programs

No commitment required. Cancel anytime.

Offer available to new customers only. Read the full subscription terms.

Need help?

Call 1-888-282-3422 and give offer code W-N2 to subscribe.

FAIR LAWN, NJ - The school district has received a $15,650 state grant to improve student literacy, according to a Department of Education press release.

“The BRIDGE and FOCUS Grants will strengthen New Jersey’s status as one of the best public education systems in the nation,” said Gov. Phil Murphy.

“These grants are an integral component of our early literacy initiative designed to give New Jersey schools the tools that will help implement the changes necessary to improve literacy skills among our youngest students,” said Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer. “Literacy is a foundational skill that is needed for learning in all other subjects. Through this initiative we are providing schools the support they need, so every child begins their education fully prepared to become lifelong readers and successful learners.”

The New Jersey Department of Education announced the awarding of two grants throughout the state totaling nearly $3.75 million to support local school districts and charter schools as they implement initiatives to improve literacy in the early grades.

“A child who can read confidently can rewrite their future, and this funding will help ensure our students and teachers have the resources they need to turn the page, strengthen foundational literacy skills, and open the door to new opportunities,” said Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz. “This literacy initiative will help us build a more equitable and responsive education system – one where students are supported early and given the tools to succeed before it is too late. By intervening with urgency and intention, we can close achievement gaps and create a future where our children aren’t reading just to get by, but reading to get ahead.”

The funding was available to school districts and charter schools with 40 percent of their students receiving free or reduced lunch and 80 percent or more of grade-three students who did not meet expectations on the 2023-2024 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments in English Language Arts. The BRIDGE program calls on awardees to report on promising practices, innovative strategies, and lessons learned – which will be published on the Department’s website for sharing with other districts and charter schools as they consider strategies to improve student literacy outcomes.

The grant programs will run until May 31, 2026. Funding for the programs is from the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY2025) State budget. A total of $5.25 million had been allocated for the grant programs; another round of grants for the remaining FY2025 funds will be announced at a later date.

The rallying cries of "No taxation without representation!" may be centuries behind us, but Revolutionary War reenactors and Fair Lawn residents will bring the historical debate back to life in early August.

This weekend, the Dutch House Tavern, the Fair Lawn Avenue property that predates the American Revolution, will host Tavern Talks, an event hosted by RevolutionNJ. The group's period performers will rekindle the arguments that divided New Jersey and the rest of the Colonies in the run-up to the Declaration of Independence, which celebrates its 250th anniversary next year.

The event will be held on Aug. 3 from noon to 2 p.m. outside the restaurant. Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite for $5.

Tavern Talks typically takes place in local craft breweries across the state, bringing participants "face-to-face with the past,” says the RevolutionNJ official website. Guests sit down with Revolutionary War reenactors, discussing topics and questions that would have been common during the 1700s. Events have been hosted in at least nine breweries across the state.

“In the Revolutionary Era, New Jerseyans came together at local taverns to discuss current events,” Marc Lorenc, chief public historian at the New Jersey Historical Commission, said in a statement. “Tavern Talks seeks to re-create this environment by encouraging participants to speak with historical reenactors and form their own ideas about the past. Over the next year, we plan to host ten Tavern Talks events across the state.”

RevolutionNJ is a partnership between the New Jersey Department of State's Historical Commission and the nonprofit Crossroads of the American Revolution Association.

Liz Maresca, Fair Lawn's administrator of cultural and heritage affairs, said the borough has worked to bring in Tavern Talks since last summer. Though the program is usually held in breweries, she and her team were able to convince RevolutionNJ that a Colonial-era setting would be fitting.

“They’re used to doing it in these huge breweries, and we had to say ‘we can make this work,’” Maresca said. “I think it’s going to be great, and I hope they bring it to other taverns. This is New Jersey; we have these beautiful old buildings, so hopefully this is something that can happen in other taverns throughout the state.”

Dutch House history

The Dutch House Tavern was built around 1756, about 20 years before the Revolution's first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord. The house wasn’t always a tavern. "Most likely," says the restaurant's website, Dutch House "was originally used as a simple one-story farmhouse, built from the beautiful red sandstone that distinguishes many of the landmark historic properties in Bergen County."

The tavern's first known owner was Richard J. Berdan, who acquired the property in 1808, the website says. The property has also served as a residence and a tearoom.

Frank Drahouzal bought the Dutch House in 1961. His family has operated it ever since, said co-owner Marlies Drahouzal, Frank's daughter.

“When we were approached about this, we were very excited, because obviously it’s very appropriate for the building, our business and its history,” she said. “We’re very involved with the town, so the fact this is something we can host is very exciting to us.”

'Perfect space' for Revolutionary War debate

Although the Dutch House is smaller than the average Tavern Talks venue, Maresca said her group was able to work with RevolutionNJ to make use of the property's side parking lot. RevolutionNJ plans to send seven or eight reenactors for the event.

During the event, a group of eight to 10 people will meet with the actors, with guests moving from table to table to speak with each performer. The theme will be “which side will you choose?” — with reenactors representing American and British loyalists debating the Revolution.

“We think this will be an amazing kickoff to the major events of 2026,” Maresca said, referring to the 250^th anniversary of the Revolution next year. “We are so fortunate that we have this tavern in town that is willing to give us the space, and what a perfect space for something like this.”

Visitors to downtown Fair Lawn will be greeted with live music this summer as the borough tries to give a boost to local merchants and musicians alike.

Each Wednesday through late August, performances will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. outside a rotating set of businesses on River Road, Fair Lawn Avenue and Fair Lawn Promenade.

The program is a collaboration between Fair Lawn Main Street Inc., which manages the borough’s business improvement district, and the Fair Lawn Arts Council. The council is recruiting musicians while Main Street Inc. provides the $500 budget.

Story continues after gallery.

The initiative was inspired by Make Music Day, an annual event held in Fair Lawn the last two years in which residents come out to play music in sites around the town. Ryan Greff, executive director of Fair Lawn Main Street Inc., said businesses told him they had some of their “best days since their grand openings” on Make Music Day last April.

“It creates an atmospheric vibe of a really exciting downtown to be at,” said Greff.

Make Music Day not only brought people to the downtown to shop; it also gave local performers a venue to share their talents, said Liz Maresca, the borough’s administrator of cultural and heritage affairs and Arts Council chairperson.

“It gives music to the community without people having to go and pay a ticket or have a band at a restaurant,” said Maresca. “It puts it on the street and gives people passing by the ability to enjoy it.”

The performances kicked off with guitarist Pam Urgiles of Newark. She played at the end of June at Taco Buzz, a Mexican fusion restaurant on River Road. Many of the musicians are from Fair Lawn or the surrounding North Jersey area.

“People were lined up two doors down at Carvel getting ice cream on a hot night and they so appreciated having something to entertain them,” Maresca said. “It was so nice to see them tipping the musician, too.”

The program runs through August. Its end will coincide with Main Street Inc.’s annual downtown scavenger hunt. That's yet another effort designed to bring customers to the area during a slow time of year, said Greff.

“The summer has been a very tough time for businesses because people go away,” he said. “Small business scavenger hunt was our way of remedying that, but now this is a great complement to the existing stuff that’s already being done."

A schedule of musicians and locations is available on the borough’s social media pages, with the Arts Council updating information most frequently. This week, Matthew Kwait, a Fair Lawn teenager who also performed on Make Music Day, was scheduled to perform at Carvel.

The Arts Council has a few venue spots and two musician slots still open. Anyone interested can contact Maresca at art@fairlawn.org.

“I’ve been saying for years that the arts are what really pushed business districts and made them successful, and I’m so appreciative that Main Street has come on board with that,” said Maresca. “It’s bringing life back to these areas.”