Page 12 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • October 12, 2011 Glen Rock After reading about a local scientists’ work in the Meadowlands, Glen Rock resident Bernie Beck decided to arrange a trip for members of the Glen Rock Activities Club’s Science Group. Beck contacted Dr. Francisco Artigas, director of the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute, and made plans for the club’s Science Group to take a pontoon boat tour. The purpose of the trip was to extract cores, or cylinders of muck, from a hole dozens of feet deep and thousands of years old to determine the nature and frequency of climate changes that left their muddy mark on surfaces before they were submerged. Beck recalled the fascinating repository of cores he had seen during a visit to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and it occurred to him that experiencing the actual extraction of such buried specimens would enhance the group’s understanding of how earth scientists go about their business. The day of the tour, 12 members of the Science Group assembled at the New Jersey Meadowlands Environmental Center’s dock facility on the Hackensack River. From Local residents work with MERI scientists Club members and scientists taking core samples. there, they cruised via pontoon boat to the study site near Secaucus while Dr. Artigas and his colleagues described with great enthusiasm the scientists’ objectives, methods, and findings to date. They arrived at the site and disembarked into the reedy, muddy place where the science odyssey would begin. Over the next hour, the group watched and helped the scientists to ram a special core-digging instrument into the marsh to a depth marked on its long handle that projected above the surface, pull out the instrument with its cargo (the core), and deliver the core onto a sheet of thin plastic. The plastic sheet containing the core was then rolled up and encased in a rigid cartridge to be kept pristine for later transport to the lab at Lamont-Doherty. This was repeated multiple times at ever-greater depths until the scientists could dig no further due to the density of the layer that they had reached some 30 feet (and 2,500 years) down. The scientists frequently stopped to show the group how differences in a core’s contents, color, and texture provide clues about geological and climate change. View photos at: https://picasaweb.google.com/11682586 5258488854409/ActivitiesClubToTheMeadowlands. Village hall (continued from page 6) approval as it would simply forward the water to Glen Rock. Mayor Killion also showed the residents who toured the damaged first floor that the stanchions supporting the upper floors were much too close together to permit construction of a first-floor parking garage without massive reconstruction. That option, he said, would not be cost-effective. Removing the lobby desk, he added, would not be a good idea because the space behind the desk is used for office work and removing the atrium effect over the desk would not be cost-effective. “We’re going to look at all this and probably report on it at the council meeting,” Killion said. “This isn’t going to go away.” Bergen County Surrogate Michael Dressler will present a program about probate, wills, general and durable power of attorney documents, and advanced medical directives at the monthly meeting of the Glen Rock Senior Citizen Advisory Committee. The meeting has been scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the council chambers of the Glen Rock Municipal Building at Harding Plaza. All senior residents are invited to attend. The program will be followed by a question and answer period. “In New Jersey, the office of the surrogate is one of Dressler to speak about wills, probate three constitutional county-wide elected positions, along with the county clerk and the sheriff, which date back to Colonial times,” said Bella Fellig, a former member of the Glen Rock Council. “The Bergen County Surrogate acts as a judge and also administers a court which is almost certain to touch the lives of every person in the county at some point in their lives.” The Senior Citizen Advisory Committee provides bus transportation for residents age 65 and older and for disabled adults. To arrange transportation may call borough hall at (201) 670-3956 and ask to speak to Paul Fleming.