Kathryn Forsyth, who served as press secretary to Gov. Brendan Byrne and as state director for U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, died on May 2.  She was 73.

Forsyth had started in politics as an intern on Rep. Peter W. Rodino’s 1972 re-election campaign.  She was a press assistant for Byrne’s 1973 gubernatorial campaign and she became deputy press secretary when Byrne took office as governor in January 1974.

She became press secretary in July 1977, succeeding Richard Campbell, while Byrne was an underdog in his re-election campaign. At age 26, she became the first woman to hold the post — and youngest press secretary to a New Jersey governor – a record she held until earlier this year when  Gov. Phil Murphy named 25-year-old Natalie Hamilton.

Forsyth was among those who turned the lights off in the Byrne administration, departing in January 1982 after spending the entirety of Brendan Byrne’s tenure in the governor’s office.

In 1984, she joined the Assembly Democratic staff, and became communications director in 1986.   Forsyth was the spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Joseph Doria in 1990 and 1991.

In 1991, she left Trenton to become Lautenberg’s top New Jersey aide.

After leaving Lautenberg’s office in 1995, she became the vice president of a New Jersey lobbying firm.

Forsyth returned to state government in 2004 as the public information officer for the New Jersey Department of Education.  She remained there until Republican Chris Christie took office in 2010.

She is survived by her husband, Edward Liston, and her step-children and step-grandchildren.

A funeral mass will be held on May 8 at 10:30 at Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church in West Orange.  Visitation will be held on May 7 at Danger Funeral Home in West Orange.

For 84 years Libby’s Lunch in Paterson’s Great Falls sold hot dogs like M&M’s. People made it a destination place to get a Texas Weiner which is a deep-fried hot dog with chili.

Do not let the name fool you, the Texas Weiner was created in Paterson, NJ more than 30 years ago and Libby’s Lunch served up the best.

Business at Libby’s Lunch floundered a bit in 2017 and sales were not meeting the bills, namely the rent. By the summer of 2020 Libby’s Lunch had owed over $90,000 in back rent. Add the negative effects that the pandemic had on restaurants in general and Libby’s Lunch had no chance of surviving.

They closed their doors in the summer of 2020, a proud family that served their customers well and had the tough reality of the economy force them to end their impressive 84-year run.

According to a story at nj.com, the building and business sold at auction for a final bid of $850,000. Sal Washah, the owner of a Clifton barbecue restaurant that specializes in halal meats, purchased the restaurant.

His plans for the new restaurant will be a glass building that will be able to look over the Passaic River where the Great Falls meet. The café and lounge will serve sandwiches and salads and he states that it will be a place that will be affordable for everyone.

In keeping with formality, Paterson City Council must formally accept the bid when it meets on May 16, 2024.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

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LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. — New Jersey is seeking a new round of proposals to build wind energy farms off its coastline, forging ahead with its clean energy goals even as local opposition and challenging economics create blowback to the effort.

The state Board of Public Utilities last week opened a fourth round of solicitations for offshore wind farms, giving interested companies until July 10 to submit proposals.

“Advancing this solicitation really demonstrates that we are committed to seeing the economic development that offshore wind is bringing to New Jersey and will continue to bring, as well as the clean energy that is so important for the residents of the state,” said the board’s president, Christine Guhl-Sadovy.

There are currently three preliminarily approved offshore wind projects in New Jersey.

One is from Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRe. Called Leading Light Wind, it would be built 40 miles off Long Beach Island and would consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.

Another, called Attentive Energy Two, would be built 42 miles off Seaside Heights and would not be visible from the shoreline. It is a joint venture between Paris-based TotalEnergies and London-based Corio Generation, and it would power over 650,000 homes.

The third is Atlantic Shores, a joint partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF-RE Offshore Development LLC. It would generate enough energy to power 700,000 homes and would be 8.4 miles off the coast of Long Beach Island.

New Jersey has set a goal of getting 100% of its energy from clean sources by 2035, and it wants to become the East Coast leader in offshore wind.

“The strong wind resources off New Jersey’s shoreline are well-suited to the development of a robust offshore wind program,” said Kira Lawrence, a senior policy advisor with the board. “New Jersey remains committed to ensuring that natural resources including fish, marine mammals, birds and other wildlife are protected throughout the development, construction, operation and decommissioning of offshore wind projects.”

Most of the state’s environmental groups support offshore wind as a way to phase out the burning of fossil fuels that contribute to climate change and the severe weather that New Jersey and other places have experienced.

“To achieve the necessary carbon emission reductions to protect our communities from the climate crisis, we need a major transition in our energy sector now,” Anjuli Ramos-Busot, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, wrote in comments submitted to the board before its vote. “Offshore wind is the future, and one of our greatest clean energy solutions that will benefit the local communities here in our state without the further burning of fossil fuels.”

Other comments sent to the board oppose offshore wind projects as economically unsound and environmentally risky.

“If the NJPBU and other agencies along with the offshore wind developers are so sure that there will be no negative impact on fishing, tourism or real estate, then these claims should be guaranteed in the solicitation, along with appropriate penalties if harm to the tourism, fishing and real estate values occurs,” the group Defend Brigantine Beach and Downbeach wrote to the board.

Many offshore wind opponents blame site-preparation work for a spate of whale deaths along the U.S. East Coast over the past year and a half. But numerous federal and state agencies say there is no evidence of a link between the projects and the animal deaths, some of which were attributed to ship strikes or entanglement with fishing gear.

Last October, the Danish wind giant Orsted scrapped plans for two wind farms off New Jersey, saying they were no longer feasible economically.