Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • July 16, 2014 Wyckoff Library to sponsor high altitude gas balloon launch by John Koster The Wyckoff Public Library will sponsor a hands-on construction course for a high altitude balloon information package on July 17, and instructors from Bergen Maker- space will launch the balloon in Pennsylvania and attempt to recover the payload, including a camera that can take photographs from 100,000 feet up. On July 24, the instructors will return to the Wyckoff Library to show a film of the recovery and the information from the capsule they hope to retrieve. “I met the guys from the Bergen Makerspace when I attended the Newark Museum Maker Faire last April,” said Wyckoff Library Director Mary Witherell. “I was fas- cinated by the footage they were showing of other high- altitude balloon flights they have made. The views were so breathtaking and the launch and recovery process so intriguing that I wanted to share an event like this with my Wyckoff patrons. I hope the audience will be as awestruck as I was.” The instructors are Bergen Makerspace founders Mark Tronicke, Mike Liva, and Dennis Montone of Bergen County Technical Schools in Hackensack. On July 17, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m., the three instructors will teach a group of up to 25 Wyckoff youngsters and adults to build a pay- load for the balloon. The best-engineered local design will Participants in a recent balloon launch program. be declared the winner and will make the actual flight. The instructors will launch the balloon from rural Penn- sylvania on the next mild, sunny day after the competition at the Wyckoff Library. An on-board GPS should enable the instructors to follow and retrieve the balloon’s payload. The balloon, which will have a diameter of about six feet at the Earth’s surface, is expected to expand to a diameter of 19 feet and then to burst in the upper atmosphere. A padded package with an attached parachute should fall back to Earth and be recovered. The three instructors plan to return to the Wyckoff Public Library on Thursday, July 24 from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. and will show a film of the retrieval and discuss the information they can recover from the instrumentation designed by the Wyckoff adults and youngsters. The raw film footage will be edited down to about 40 minutes for display to the library audience. The cost of the balloon launch will be defrayed by part of a $1.5-million donation made to the Wyckoff Library in 2009 by sisters Helen and Evelyn Rizzo, life-long Wyckoff residents, teachers, and avid library users. The programs like the balloon launch are funded by the interest on the Rizzo Grant. “I think the sisters would love the programs we’re doing with their gift,” says Lori Peters, president of the Wyckoff (continued on page 21) Arrest log includes four narcotics cases Wyckoff police officers reported four recent arrests that started as motor vehicle or shoplifting offenses but ended in narcotics charges. On June 19 at 7:40 p.m., Sergeant Michael Ragucci, Detective Sergeant Michael Musto, and Patrolman James Bakelaar responded to a call from CVS Pharmacy in the Wyckoff Shopping Center on a report that a shopper had just left the store with razors and other shaving products that were not paid for. The police officers spotted the indi- vidual as he was getting into his car and arrested him. The 27-year-old Wyckoff man was charged not only with shop- lifting but with possession of heroin, possession of Xanax, and obstructing a governmental function when he report- edly resisted arrest. He was remanded to Bergen County Jail in lieu of $5,000. On June 21 at 11:12 p.m., Patrolman Mark Tagliareni stopped a vehicle traveling at 53 miles per hour on Wyckoff Avenue. The driver, a 38-year-old Midland Park man, was ultimately charged with possession of marijuana, posses- sion of narcotics paraphernalia, and possession of a gravity knife and a dagger. On June 27, at 6:15 p.m., Patrolman Kyle Ferreira stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation on Cedar Hill Avenue. The 30-year-old driver, a resident of Elizabeth, was arrested for driving with a suspended license, possession of 147 pills (continued on page 19)