Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Awards topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Passaic County awards NJAC scholarships; honors 12U baseball champions
Summary
Passaic County commissioners presented NJAC Foundation scholarships to two PCTI graduates and recognized the Passaic Valley Junior Hornets as county 12U baseball champions, plus community honors and fair reminders.
Passaic County commissioners presented two New Jersey Association of Counties Foundation scholarships to graduating students from Passaic County Technical Institute and honored the Passaic Valley Junior Hornets 12U baseball team for winning the county tournament.
The awards were announced during the county commissioners meeting; Commissioner Bartlett presented the NJAC Foundation scholarships sponsored by Investors Foundation and Citizens Bank, naming Bethel Lacour of Paterson and Wafikwa Hadi of Paterson as recipients. The commissioners also presented trophies and certificates to each member of the Passaic Valley Junior Hornets for winning the first annual Passaic County 12U tournament held at Highlands Preserve in West Milford.
Bethel Lacour, identified by commissioners as a freshman at Kean University studying finance, was described as having maintained a 3.0 GPA while participating in sports and co-op work at PCTI. Wafikwa Hadi, noted as a PCTI graduate, will begin studies in electrical engineering at Rutgers and was described as the first in her family to attend college in the United States. Both recipients received a scholarship award certificate and a board recommendation; a payment check was referenced at the meeting.
Commissioner Cruz and Darryl Sparta, director of parks and recreation, spoke about the county's new youth tournament initiative. Sparta said the county plans to continue the tournament next year, add softball and other sports to create a series, and make facility improvements at Highlands Preserve including reconfiguring fields, adding a batting cage and possibly an electronic scoreboard for the championship field. Carrie (county staff) described participating teams and thanked coaches and families for supporting youth sports, and listed head coach John Mesa and assistant coaches Phil Dean, Ramon Cruz and Steve Bertogli (spelling in the record varies) among the Hornets' staff.
The meeting also included a brief recognition of West Milford native Jen Powell for umpiring in Major League Baseball and an announcement that the Passaic County Fair will open Thursday at Garret Mountain with fireworks Friday and Saturday. A county law clerk, Chella Farfia, offered thanks to the commissioners as she departs for her final year of law school.
The presentations and recognitions were ceremonial; no formal votes or binding actions were recorded for the scholarship or tournament honors at the meeting.
The county used multiple spellings for some coach and recipient names in the transcript; this article uses the spellings provided by the meeting record where available and flags coach surname variants as noted above.
