The Hammonton Gazette 040820 Hammonton Gazette

Ideas to keep you occupied & active p. 35 All about COVID-19 Looking for a new car? p. 19-22 p. 23-30 Volume 24 • Issue 15 Nick Thomas is feeling nostalgic p. 41 Wednesday, April 8, 2020 www.hammontongazette.com LOCAL SLATES ANNOUNCED announced Independent slate formed Republican team Republicans: Hernandez, by Gabe Donio G azeTTe S TaFF W RITeR Independents: Rodio, Furgione, Olivo by Gabe Donio G azeTTe S TaFF W RITeR Enjoying The Gazette in Florida HaMMONTON—On april 2, Mayor Stephen DiDonato, a member of Hammon- ton First, emailed The Gazette a press release See INDEPENDENT, Page 14 Cappuccio, Trepiccione ton Regular Republican ticket this Novem- Council held its meeting March 30 HaMMONTON—a slate of three Re- publicans will be running on the Hammon- by Joseph F. Berenato G azeTTe S TaFF W RITeR H a M M O N TO N — C o u n c i l held its monthly meeting at 4 p.m. on March 30 through the use of zoom videoconferencing soft- ware. The meeting of March 23 See REPUBLICANS, Page 16 was canceled and the new date of March 30 was set. During committee reports, Councilman Steven Furgione, chair of the Water and Sewer Committee, said that he spoke with Mayor Stephen DiDonato and town clerk/business adminis- Spurred by need, sewers make masks G azeTTe S TaFF W RITeR Staying Green staying at home Courtesy Photo Joseph LaSasso, of Hammonton, is spent the winter and early spring in Satellite Beach, Fla. He was visited by his son-in-law Gary Lockwood and grandson Dylan Lockwood from Hammonton. The family wrote in saying, “ The Gazette is an awesome read on the beach!” by Joseph F. Berenato G azeTTe S TaFF W RITeR HaMMONTON—Since the announcement of Governor Phil Murphy’s executive Order No. 107 (2020) in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), area residents have been learning HaMMONTON—The crisis caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has created a short- age of medical supplies through- out the country. In response, many area resi- how to adapt to life at home. The stay-at-home order, how- ever, may provide residents with an opportunity to adopt more eco- friendly habits that they then can continue to follow after isolation has ended. Mica McCullough, chair of the Hammonton Green Committee, Customers seeking healthy solutions by Joseph F. Berenato G azeTTe S TaFF W RITeR HaMMONTON—During the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Hammonton residents have been taking extra steps in an attempt to bolster their health and protect themselves. See GREEN, Page 12 Bill Doberstein, manager of The Health Tree, noted that many items have been disappearing from the shelves, including im- mune system boosters and modu- lators like elderberry, zinc, vitamin C and colloidal silver, all of which are now on backorder. “They’ve exhausted the supply, SUBSCRIBE TO The See HEALTH, Page 10 Gazette • SUBSCRIBE NOW! • CALL 609-704-1939 dents have taken to their sewing machines to create masks in an ef- fort to alleviate that shortage. Donna Brown, retired librarian from Hammonton Middle School, is one of them. “My cousin Doreen esposito texted me and said we’ve got to make masks. I started looking up things. I’m in several sewing groups, and she said to our sewing group that maybe we can all make them,” Brown said. Brown then got in touch with relatives who work at atlantiCare Health Park in Hammonton, who said the facility was in need of masks. “Last week I did 42, and my cousin did about the same. This week we started again, but they told me to change them a little bit and make sure we put a piece of wire across the nose to make sure they can be more fitted. Three times now we’ve modified differ- ent patterns that we had to make them better,” Brown said. area resident Betsey Karl has also heeded the call, but notes that See MASKS, Page 3 Courtesy Photo Dorrine Esposito and Donna Brown (left) are working in conjunction with Allysa Rivera with Penn Medi- cine in Woodbury Heights, Dr. Melissa Graule from St. Luke’s Uni- versity Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Dr. Amerigo Fal- ciani at Hammonton’s AMI-Atlanti- Care to provide as many homemade cloth protective masks as possible. It takes 20 minutes per mask and they have made more than 200 and are still sewing. by Joseph F. Berenato See COUNCIL, Page 8

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