Home Care In Beverly, NJ

WEST MILFORD — A sign on the small First Aid Squad building off Route 23 in Newfoundland was enough to lure Beverly Lujbli.

“There was a number on the sign, and I made the phone call,” she said. “Who knew what it meant?”

It meant time away from her family, making lifelong friends and saving lives. It also meant having a calendar with just six days in a week, Lujbli said. Since the age of 28, the 78-year-old’s Tuesdays were set aside for her town’s First Aid Squad.

“Now I have a seventh day,” she said. “I only had six before.”

Captain of the squad for more than 35 years, Lujbli called it a career last month — 50 years to the day after she joined the squad on Dec. 3, 1970.

She had a carrot, according to Jack Cronen, her instructor in the currently unfathomable 16-hour first aid course that allowed her to join the squad. Cronen stuck around for 47 years after joining in 1964 and set the yardstick for Lujbli to challenge.

“I left, and she said, ‘Jack, I’m going to beat you,’ ” Cronen said.

Lujbli said she was among three women in her 1970 training course. Two left the squad within a few months.

“Why I stayed, I don’t know,” she said. “I guess, once I do something, I don’t give it up easily.”

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Cronen said Lujbli brought an innate desire to help drowning victims, those involved in motor vehicle accidents and injured hikers. Liam Glinane, a longtime member of the squad and an EMT in New York City, said she also carried a can-do attitude.

Within 18 months of joining the squad, Lujbli became its treasurer. She started in the same role for the new West Milford Animal Shelter in 1975 and parlayed that role three years later into a job in the township’s Animal Control Division.

Meanwhile, she probably had the most demanding position in the squad, Glinane said. As captain, the married mother of two had to have the pulse of all five dozen members for training and scheduling purposes, he said. Lujbli said she increasingly played the nice guy as volunteers became more strapped for time and training requirements became exponentially more thorough, Lujbli said.

“She did it all before cellphones too,” Glinane said. “She’s seen an incredible amount of change [and] an incredible amount of things happen.”

Lujbli led a task force to cover a papal visit to the region. She also led a task force dispatching units on 9/11 to the Jersey City waterfront and post-9/11 to Ground Zero. Locally, she helped recruit new members through various initiatives, including providing babysitting reimbursement around 1990 to allow mothers to join the squad.

“She is the person that got the ambulances on the road and the squad on task,” Cronen said.

He estimates the squad in 1970 to have responded to around 600 calls a year. Those numbers tripled during Lujbli’s tenure, which started in the days when ambulances had to call Chilton Hospital ahead of time for post-midnight emergencies.

A winner of the town’s lifetime volunteer award in April 2018, Lujbli said she plans to retain her residence in town and attend squad social gatherings once they are permitted post-pandemic. Her social circle is centered on the squad, she said.

“All my friends were my First Aid Squad friends,” Lujbli said. “That was my family.”

David Zimmer is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

WEST MILFORD — A sign on the small First Aid Squad building off Route 23 in Newfoundland was enough to lure Beverly Lujbli.

“There was a number on the sign, and I made the phone call,” she said. “Who knew what it meant?”

It meant time away from her family, making lifelong friends and saving lives. It also meant having a calendar with just six days in a week, Lujbli said. Since the age of 28, the 78-year-old’s Tuesdays were set aside for her town’s First Aid Squad.

“Now I have a seventh day,” she said. “I only had six before.”

Captain of the squad for more than 35 years, Lujbli called it a career last month — 50 years to the day after she joined the squad on Dec. 3, 1970.

She had a carrot, according to Jack Cronen, her instructor in the currently unfathomable 16-hour first aid course that allowed her to join the squad. Cronen stuck around for 47 years after joining in 1964 and set the yardstick for Lujbli to challenge.

“I left, and she said, ‘Jack, I’m going to beat you,’ ” Cronen said.

Lujbli said she was among three women in her 1970 training course. Two left the squad within a few months.

“Why I stayed, I don’t know,” she said. “I guess, once I do something, I don’t give it up easily.”

Local:Is West Milford 'cannabis country'? Yes, say officials trying to lure weed businesses

News:From NJ's first COVID case to the first vaccine: Health reporter reflects on the pandemic

More:North Haledon EMT headquarters sold after shortage of volunteers causes squad's disbandment

Cronen said Lujbli brought an innate desire to help drowning victims, those involved in motor vehicle accidents and injured hikers. Liam Glinane, a longtime member of the squad and an EMT in New York City, said she also carried a can-do attitude.

Within 18 months of joining the squad, Lujbli became its treasurer. She started in the same role for the new West Milford Animal Shelter in 1975 and parlayed that role three years later into a job in the township’s Animal Control Division.

Meanwhile, she probably had the most demanding position in the squad, Glinane said. As captain, the married mother of two had to have the pulse of all five dozen members for training and scheduling purposes, he said. Lujbli said she increasingly played the nice guy as volunteers became more strapped for time and training requirements became exponentially more thorough, Lujbli said.

“She did it all before cellphones too,” Glinane said. “She’s seen an incredible amount of change [and] an incredible amount of things happen.”

Lujbli led a task force to cover a papal visit to the region. She also led a task force dispatching units on 9/11 to the Jersey City waterfront and post-9/11 to Ground Zero. Locally, she helped recruit new members through various initiatives, including providing babysitting reimbursement around 1990 to allow mothers to join the squad.

“She is the person that got the ambulances on the road and the squad on task,” Cronen said.

He estimates the squad in 1970 to have responded to around 600 calls a year. Those numbers tripled during Lujbli’s tenure, which started in the days when ambulances had to call Chilton Hospital ahead of time for post-midnight emergencies.

A winner of the town’s lifetime volunteer award in April 2018, Lujbli said she plans to retain her residence in town and attend squad social gatherings once they are permitted post-pandemic. Her social circle is centered on the squad, she said.

“All my friends were my First Aid Squad friends,” Lujbli said. “That was my family.”

David Zimmer is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Neighbor News

Dr. Marc Schaeffer, Ramapo-Indian Hills BOE Candidate (Column #1)

Neighbor

Just recently, members of the Ramapo-Indian Hills community learned that Superintendent Beverly MacKay announced her retirement effective August 1, 2020.

As a longstanding member of the community, and as a parent with a child once taught by Mrs. MacKay, my wife, my son and I want to express our fond best wishes to Mrs. MacKay for a long, healthy and fulfilling retirement with her husband and extended family.

One of the most vital and central roles of the board is the search for and selection of a Superintendent. This occasion requires that the board set a vision for the district that will guide the search. Only by laying out a bold vision describing aspirations for what RIH can become will the board attract exceptional candidates with the leadership skills to flesh out that vision, and bring together the community to pursue and support it.

Whether the board continues its current plans to develop a strategic plan, or defers those plans to allow a new Superintendent to lead that process, this is a pivotal moment for Wyckoff voters who will choose two members of that board on November 5.

At this time, strong expertise and experience in education is even more urgent. As a former University Chief of Staff with a doctoral degree in education and a 40 year career in public higher education, I counseled a University board and staffed searches for a president and multiple vice-presidents. I advised the University President and senior campus leaders on, and participated in, several strategic planning processes, each utilizing a different strategic planning model.

Find out what's happening in Wyckoffwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If elected, I will advocate that a central tenet of that vision should be “Putting Students First.” Only by making the academic, professional and personal development and well-being of each and every student the central guiding principle of the board’s decision making can the board best fulfill its duty to the RIH community.

The hiring of a new superintendent, the setting of a new district vision and the development of a new strategic plan are not a time to rest on the status quo. My colleague Dr. Fran Nelson (Column #4) and I want to bring new insights and expertise to the board informed by our long experience in education.

I hope you will consider my qualifications as you vote on November 5.

The Westfield girls volleyball team didn’t necessarily have a go-to superstar to take over games and intimidate the opponent, but they had heart and chemistry. From the top down, the Blue Devils were victorious by clicking as a unit and pushing each other to play better with each passing day.

Entering the season as an unranked squad, Westfield lit up the win column, going 24-1 in their rigid schedule on pace to three championships to finish at No. 4 in the final ranking of the NJ.com Top 20.

Winning the Union County Tournament, North Jersey 2 Group 4 section and the Group 4 championship, this team blossomed into an undeniably well-oiled machine. As a result of their success, Beverly Torok is the NJ.com Girls Volleyball Coach of the Year for 2022.

“We were sleepers this season. That fueled our fire for sure,” Torok said. “The kids had so much determination coming into this season. We had a big turnover in graduation, so we had a new set of goals.”

Ahead of the season, Torok - who has coached at Westfield since 1993 - asked her team about their goals. When they reached the discussion regarding the state tournament, Torok mentioned that they all “wanted to go as far as they can.”

“What does that mean? You don’t want to win it?” Torok asked her team. “I don’t know if they really believed it then. But as time went on, we had some big wins and our confidence went way up.”

Torok marked October 8 as a major turning point from this season. A day packed with ranked teams, the Blue Devils were set to take on Williamstown, North Hunterdon and Hunterdon Central - all perennial powerhouses.

They won two of those three matches, which ignited a new fire in the Westfield team just ahead of the county tournament. They didn’t lose a match for the remainder of the season, defeating Union Catholic - a local team with a history of success - in two sets for the county trophy.

But at that point, Torok realized her team wasn’t done reeling in the hardware. She noted that her team started practicing harder and that there was a new energy in the Westfield air.

“My girls gelled. They competed hard together and they just love working on things together,” Torok said.

Westfield climbed the ladder in the state ranking and found themselves in the sectional final against Watchung Hills. They won comfortably, snagging the program’s first sectional championship.

It was then time for a turbulent road ahead in the Group 4 tournament.

In a tournament of this magnitude, Torok liked that her team did not have a true No. 1 option because it eases the pressure on each individual. She created an environment that allowed her players to understand they were in it together, and that they would win or lose as a team.

Following a three-set win over Livingston in the semifinals, Westfield took on Old Bridge for the group title. In that match, Westfield maintained their versatile offensive game plan and had five players log five or more kills apiece.

“For us, it really depended on the pass and who had the hot hand. This balanced attack really worked,” Torok said.

Five separate players also logged a block in the win, while four registered double-digit digs.

For the season, three Blue Devils clocked 100 or more kills and two others had 70 or more.

Torok is also widely regarded as a pioneer and advocate of girls volleyball in New Jersey. Respected by coaches and officials all across the state, Torok received an outpouring of support for the award. From holding youth clinics to serving on varying committees to help grow the sport to being a champion, Torok has only cemented her legacy even further in the volleyball world.

“I just want girls to know that volleyball is an option for them at a young age. It’s such a great community and I only want to help make it better,” Torok said.

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News

“Waterview” has had several lives since it rose on the Delaware riverbank in 1848. Buy it and you will also inherit a treasure trove of furniture spanning some 190 years.

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Would you like to own your own living history museum?

A golden opportunity to own one just opened up in Beverly, New Jersey, right on the banks of the Delaware River.

The owner of “Waterview,” a riverfront mansion dating to 1848, is putting the house on the auction block, and if the price is right, it can be yours.

Dr. John Brewer, a Philadelphia physician, built this Beverly waterfront mansion for sale as a summer house. At that time, this stretch of the river above Rancocas Creek was a popular summer resort spot, and paddleboats delivered residents and visitors to their summer destinations.

The four-acre lot containing this house sat next to a place called Dunk’s Ferry, where George Washington first tried to cross the Delaware on that fateful Christmas Eve.

Over the years after Brewer built it, Waterview has had several different lives. In addition to serving as a private residence, it also once housed a boating club, and for a while, it served as the home of a sportsmen’s club, the Rancocas Club.

“Members came from the Main Line in Pennsylvania to enjoy hunting pheasant, geese and wild turkey; fishing for golden carp and shad,” writes the house’s current owner, broker Maria DiVentura-Cronin of Keller Williams Moorestown, in an email. “Meals were cooked to perfection. After dinner it was time for a toast, dessert, coffee, cigars, card games, darts, a game of pool or a walk along the picturesque riverbank.”

But by the time it passed into the hands of Temple doctoral student Gail Cook and her obstetrician husband, Dr. Albert Cook, it had become what she called “a rundown dump” in a 1978 Philadelphia Inquirer article on their restoration effort.

The Cooks turned the house, which had been subdivided into apartments, back into a single residence that looked much like it must have around the time attorney Walter Freeman improved the house in 1861. What you see in the photos and video here largely represent the legacy the Cooks left when they sold this house and lot to broker Maria DiVentura-Cronin of Keller Williams Moorestown.

That lot, by the way, is now just 1.44 acres, but it was one of the features that drew the Cooks to the house in the first place. It contains outbuildings that include a carriage house, a gazebo and a treehouse.

The house also has two decks, one on each of the second and third floors. And the front porch opens onto a patio with a great view of the river. A second, partially covered patio in front of the addition offers a similar view.

The Cooks rehabilitated the house, added a new wing onto its first floor, and refitted it with an eclectic mix of furniture spanning nearly 190 years from various sources.

Items range from a circa-1835 secretary in the dining room to a table, eight chairs, two buffets and a highboy they purchased for $312 from an urban renewal center in Atlantic City sometime after they bought the house and its lot in 1968.

You’ll also find this antique baby grand piano, also from the 19th century, in the living room. DiVentura-Cronin’s firm, Casa LaBella, added more period furniture during its 18-month renovation of the house.

Kitchen dining room*

And all of the furniture you see in these photos and the video below come with the house. The artwork on the walls, the sculptures and some of the books, however, do not. The video does this house more justice than these words and photos ever will.

Yet even though this house is mostly a historic throwback, it does have some modern features and conveniences.

Kitchen*

Den*

Bar in den*

These include a commercial-grade kitchen and a den with a bar in the addition, and bathrooms recently renovated by Casa LaBella.

And now DiVentura-Cronin is putting it up for auction. Why?

“The auction goal is the highest price and the widest exposure in the shortest amount of time,” Peter Costanzo, owner of Peter Costanzo Auctioneers, writes in an email. “This is considered a ‘trophy’ property in a prime location that deserves the exposure of a well-planned 30- to 60-day auction promotion which, in turn, should produce spirited and competitive bidding.

“Competition not only results in full and current market value but also allows the opportunity for the highest price while limiting downside risk.”

A few more than 30 days remain until Costanzo conducts the auction on December 12th at 1 p.m., in person on the premises and online. If you want to live amidst history in an elegant home that brings to mind a Southern plantation house in a town on the banks of the Delaware, then you should consider bidding for this Beverly waterfront mansion for sale.

THE FINE PRINT

BEDS: 11

BATHS: 4 full, 2 half

SQUARE FEET: 6,200 (approx.)

OPENING BID: $950,000

OTHER STUFF: Several open houses will take place between now and the auction date; see the auctioneer’s website for details. Consult the bidder information packet available on the website for information on what is required for you to participate in the auction. A four percent buyer’s premium will be added to the winning bid. This amount includes a two percent commission for the buyer’s agent if the buyer uses one.

2 Walnut St., Beverly, NJ 08010 [Peter Costanzo Auctioneers]