Councilman Anibal Ramos Jr. was joined by Newark City Council colleagues Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins and Luis Quintana as well as union officials at St. Michael’s Medical Center on Wednesday to denounce a report recommending the hospital be turned into an ambulatory care center.

“We’re going to put our boxing gloves on and we are going to make sure we fight to keep St. Michael’s Medical Center in the community,” Ramos told more than 200 employees who had gathered in the hospitals lobby for a rally.

Newark Councilman Anibal Ramos Jr. speaks at a rally to save St. Michael's Medical Center in Newark.

Beginning November 2012, many residents of the North Ward began complaining to my office about an increase in noise from airplane traffic.

The Forest Hill Community Association (FHCA) organized an Air Traffic Committee, which has been working with an organization called PlaneNoise to study the impact of changing aircraft procedures and the resultant increase in aircraft noise.

Newark City Hall will be closed in observance of Lincoln’s Birthday on Thursday, February 12 and there will be no trash pick-up on that day.

Residents should not put out their trash on Thursday, as doing so may result in a fine. Residents whose garbage is collected by a private contractor will not be affected. On Friday, February 13, regular trash and recycling collections will resume, and residents whose trash and recycling are picked up that day must place their refuse and recycling at their curbs for pick-up by 6 a.m.