DUI Lawyers in Little Ferry, NJ

LITTLE FERRY — As an eighth grader, Alex Enrique took the gavel from Mayor Mauro Raguseo to lead a Borough Council meeting as “mayor for a day.” Under the program, a three-decade Little Ferry tradition, one student is elected by classmates each year to serve as mayor for a day and learn firsthand about public service.

Fifteen years later, on Tuesday, Enrique stood next to Raguseo, now in his fifth term as mayor, after taking the oath to become the borough’s newest council member.

“Everything came full circle,” said Enrique, 29. “I remember in the 'mayor for a day' meeting I told my mom: ‘One day I’ll be up there.’ I started to gain that confidence.”

Enrique was chosen by the council from a list of names given by the Democratic committee to replace longtime Councilman Tom Sarlo, who stepped down after his recent appointment and confirmation as a Superior Court judge in Bergen County.

Enrique, a lifelong Little Ferry resident, teaches physical education at Bergen County Technical Schools in Teterboro and is an adjunct at Montclair State University, where he got his degree.

After his day as mayor in 2009, Enrique remained in touch with Raguseo and became involved in volunteering. For the past two years, he has served as a member of the Planning and Zoning Board.

He has also served on a borough committee working to renovate the Sokol Hall building the borough purchased several years ago to use as a recreation center.

“I was really impressed with him. Here was a young man in eighth grade who clearly showed signs of passion for government and public service. He reminded me of me when I was his age,” Raguseo said. “We kept in touch all these years. His family is involved in town with coaching, and he was involved with different sports. As he progressed, I saw that desire in him for public service to continue.”

To remain on the council, Enrique will have to run for election in November and run again the following year, when Sarlo’s term is set to end.

“I stayed in town for a reason. I really want to help out the community any way I can, and I felt this was the best opportunity to do so," said Enrique, who recently married and moved into a home just two blocks from where he grew up. “It’s an honor to give back.”

Enrique decided to run for mayor for a day after he won an election for eighth grade class president, he said.

Students in the fifth through eighth grades sat on the school gymnasium bleachers while candidates gave their speeches, and then voted for their choice. The winner was declared “mayor” and the runners-up served as council members.

“We got to go to the council meeting. I remember I had to read a lot — the mayor has to read through all the resolutions," he remembered. “I was nervous I would stumble on the words. But I remember the mayor being next to me, and he was very nice and he would kind of guide me through everything.”

That was just Raguseo’s second year as mayor. He was elected to the council at age 20 in 2000, as the youngest council member ever elected in Little Ferry, and he became mayor eight years later.

“In a way, I feel like I’m getting old real quick — I’m 45 but I was mayor when I was 28,” Raguseo said. It’s a great feeling to see one of the students join me up here. That was always my goal, and the goal of the program — to get young people involved in public service.”

LITTLE FERRY — Washington School, the 109-year-old elementary school that closed five years ago due to its deteriorating condition, will be demolished this summer to make way for a new school building.

Officials plan to ask voters in a referendum sometime next year to fund the construction of a new middle school at the Liberty Street site.

“You have to remember this building is over 100 years old,” said Superintendent Frank Scarafile, who is leaving the district next month after 18 years. “We’ve looked at every angle to preserve the building. It’s part of Little Ferry's history. But we really need to look forward at what the community needs.”

Washington School closed in June 2018 after the district spent more than $130,000 on emergency repairs, when officials learned that it would take millions more to fix the aging building.

An architect and engineer were hired to inspect classrooms after part of a ceiling fell in a room the previous December. More compromised ceilings were found, each costing $12,000 to $15,000 to replace.

The school was severely damaged more than a decade ago during Superstorm Sandy, which left the school's gym, five classrooms and a computer lab under 4 feet of water. Nike funded the cost of a new waterproof gym floor, and hundreds of thousands of dollars was spent on repairs to reopen the damaged classrooms, much of it covered by insurance.

But the building’s issues didn’t end there: The roof leaked, its classrooms were flood-prone, the walls hid asbestos and the school did not meet accessibility standards.

At the time, a feasibility study put the cost to rehabilitate the building at more than $9 million. The price would likely be much higher today, officials said.

The brick building’s 13 classrooms are outdated and are unable to meet the district's needs as it grows, said Matthew Perrapato, the incoming superintendent. Plans for a new, larger building include science labs, modern classrooms and a cafeteria with a working kitchen.

“Rehabbing Washington would be expensive, and it also wouldn’t give us what we need when the work is complete,” he said. “We need more classrooms, science labs and common space areas.”

The district will award a bid early next month to a contractor to tear down the building and clear the site. The work will take about four months to complete, officials said.

Since 2018, the district’s first and second graders have been learning in 16 modular classrooms near Memorial School, just across the street from Washington. The classes also house some of the district’s special education programs.

Generations of borough children have passed through Washington School’s doors since it opened in 1914. Longtime residents have fond memories of their early years spent there: playing games on creaky wooden floors, kindergarten classrooms with fireplaces, and Friday night dances in the gymnasium.

Decades ago, students would line up according to gender outside separate girls' and boys' entrances, marked with embossed stone signs above the doors.

Officials say they want to honor that past while looking toward the future. Residents are invited to share photos and memories at lfboe.org/LittleFerryFuture. The school’s cornerstone will be preserved and used in the construction of the new building, said Victoria Bradley, the Board of Education president.

Earlier plans to ask voters to fund a new K-6 school at the site and eventually turn Memorial School into a junior-senior high school were progressing, “but then COVID hit and knocked everything off the rails,” Scarafile said.

Those plans changed again last year when Little Ferry was awarded a state grant for a free pre-K program. In September, 85 students will attend the program, about half of the borough’s pre-kindergarten-age population.

The district has five years to expand to meet the needs of 90% of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds, according to state requirements.

Current plans call for a new middle school at the Washington School site, and for Memorial School to serve students in pre-K through fifth grade.

“This will be an exciting journey for the entire community,” Bradley said. “It’s an investment in the future.”

A referendum will likely be put to voters next spring. The Hackensack firm RSC Architects is working on the new building’s design. Officials say it is too early to know how much the project will cost.

Earlier plans, also designed by the firm in 2019, for a three-story, 83,000-square-foot building had a price tag of roughly $30 million, with about a third of the cost covered by the state.

Little Ferry pays Ridgefield Park more than $17,000 annually for each of its 275 high school students to attend Ridgefield Park Junior-Senior High School. Officials still hope eventually to bring borough high schoolers back to the district but are taking it one step at a time.

“It’s a process. We need to take care of these buildings first and get the students out of the modulars,” Perrapato said. “These conversations are happening simultaneously, but right now we need to get the elementary and middle school students in their own buildings and then look at next steps.”