Physical Therpy For Injuries and Pain in West End, NJ

WEST LONG BRANCH - For the owners of West End Salon, Nicoletta Whitaker and Kristina Howard, the coronavirus was not the first time they faced a sudden shuttering of their business.

Less than five months after opening their business in 2015, the store next to theirs caught fire. No one was hurt, but Whitaker and Howard had to rebuild their store from scratch.

“We were displaced for period of 18 months, which was originally supposed to be three months, and everything in our location had to be gutted and completely replaced because of the fire and smoke damage,” Howard said.

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“We temporarily relocated to Jackson, which was a little rundown," she said. "In addition, we had to get the message out to our clientele about the fire and make them aware of our new, temporary location, until everything was fixed and that was not easy.”

“We ran into a few problems,” Whitaker said. “Before the fire, we were in a great location and gaining a really nice clientele since originally opening. After the fire, a lot of customers were looking for us and did not want to drive all the way to Jackson. Still, we did not give up and persevered through this whole thing, even though we were held back with everything that happened.”

On April 1, 2017, West End Salon reopened its doors and got back into the business world with a brand new storefront. At this point, they slowly began to rebuild their customer base and got people to start coming back.

“We still did well and made it work,” Whitaker said. “We never gave up hope that we would rebuild and start over again. Once we got back into the swing of things, we returned to normalcy and it was just full speed ahead.”

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For both Whitaker and Howard, they have always had a passion for cutting and styling hair from a young age, but didn’t really pursue any entrepreneurial dreams until they met at a salon where they both worked.

"After we met, we instantly connected and became inseparable," Whitaker said. "As we got closer and worked together more, we realized we both had the same dreams and aspirations of wanting to start something up for ourselves.”

“As far as my ambition to want to own a business or work for myself, it wasn’t that I did not want to do so, it was more that I was not sure if I could because I always thought there was so much more to it than I could anticipate,” Howard said.

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Both ladies would do hair and makeup for weddings and other events at their former salon. Whitaker was fully booked with clients as an employee and could not make any more money, even if she worked seven days a week.

So the two quit their jobs and found a location for a salon of their own. “It was honestly fate,” Howard said.

“We took over this location and lease and began our careers at that point,” Whitaker said. “We were two 25-year-old girls with very little savings just chasing our dreams and going with the moment.”

Whitaker and Howard believe they complement each other.

“It’s worked out very nicely how we balance out each other’s personalities,” Whitaker said. “In addition to us both doing haircutting and styling, Kristina handles all of the bookkeeping and financing. We are constantly coming up with new ideas for our clients and we bounce ideas off of each other well, so that we are always figuring out what is best for the business.”

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They are inspired to come up with new ways to stay ahead of the game.

“It is a very creative and rewarding business,” Whitaker said. “The industry is always changing and we enjoy keeping up with all of the new trends and styles, as far as the trade goes. There is always something new to learn. We never get bored.”

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Although both Whitaker and Howard both went to beauty school to learn the ropes and get certified, they say much of the success from their business comes from hands-on experience.

“A lot of it is trial and error,” Howard said. “We both learn from each other because we work so well together. There is no way to progress in this industry, unless you have someone to challenge you and give you the right kind of support. It is important to spitball new ideas and find new ways of 'reinventing the wheel,' so to speak, because of the changes that are constantly happening with styling hair. You just figure out how to start from an origin and the rest is just improvement and growth.”

Coronavirus has been a new challenge for them. The West End Salon has been closed since March, but will be reopening on June 22.

“I originally thought it was just going to be a two-week shutdown, but as things started to get worse, I realized that it was more serious than that,” Whitaker said. “We are back in business, but it is not going to be the same. It will be a little stale for a while, but we suspect that it will eventually be fun again."

“We had a staff meeting the other day,” Howard said. “We told everyone that the number one priority is safety. We made sure to remind everyone to constantly keep safe and always wash their hands. Some clients are still scared for their lives and they have every right to be cautious. We will practice safety, but still keep it fun.”

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Anyone who goes to West End Salon can expect an assorted set of services, including eyelashes, eyebrows, haircuts, basic colors, highlights and pretty much everything with hair.

“Aside from everything we offer to our clients, the most popular of them all are hair extensions and balayage,” Whitaker said. “Customers come in and see the balayage style and instantly want to know how they can get it done for themselves. There are clients who have just given birth and lose their hair in the process, so hair extensions do wonders to make their head look full of hair.”

Howard and Whitaker hope to expand their space someday.

“It's not even that we want more employees,” Howard said. “It’s just that our current employees our so busy that they typically need two or three chairs at a time to fill their clients. We are constantly booking ourselves, so that we are always packed to the gills.”

Owners: Nicoletta Whitaker and Kristina Howard

Location: 175 Monmouth Road, West Long Branch

Website: www.westendsalonnj.com

Phone: 732-229-0503

SOMERVILLE - DGM, which owns apartments on West Main Street and North Doughty Avenue, recently held the formal groundbreaking for a new apartment building on Veterans Memorial Drive.

Now DGM will be appearing before the borough's zoning board of adjustment later this month to convert medical and professional offices on West End Avenue to apartments.

DGM is proposing to convert the first floor at 80 West End Avenue into six apartments, which would make a total of 13 apartments in the two-story building.

The conversion involves four one-bedroom apartments and two two-bedroom apartments. The seven one-bedroom apartments on the second floor will remain in the 14,300-square-foot building.

The project will require a use variance from the zoning board of adjustment which will hear the application at 7 p.m. Sept. 18.

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Borough and local officials joined DGM representatives on Thursday for the official groundbreaking of the Station House, a four-story building with 117 apartments on Veterans Memorial Drive.

Also in attendance at the groundbreaking was State Sen. Kip Bateman (R-District 16) whose family used to own the property when it was the home of Somerset Press, the publisher of the Somerset Messenger-Gazaette and other weekly newspapers in Somerset, Middlesex and Union counties.

The property at 44 Veterans Memorial Drive had been vacant since Advance, one of the successor companies to Somerset Press after Forbes and Media News, shuttered the newspapers.

Under a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement with the borough, the Station House will generate $300,000 a year fin revenue for the borough or a total of $7.5 million over the length of the agreement. Without the PILOT, taxes on the property over the quarter century would amount to $2.3 million.

The Station House, expected to open in spring 2021, joins the apartment boom in the county seat as developers rush to build apartments within walking distance of the train station on NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line. Two other apartment buildings have opened nearby recently, the Cobalt also on Veterans Memorial Drive and SOMA on South Bridge Street.

Construction is also expected to start soon on another project, the Somerset Station transit village, which will include 370 apartments, 156 townhomes, two parking garages, 4,000 square feet of retail space and a 4,000-square-foot community civic center. The community, the largest mixed-use development in the county seat's history, is expected to be completed in 2023.

Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

The Audrey W. Clark School will also have a new purpose after redistricting.

By Christopher Sheldon

The Long Branch School District will have a different look in time for the 2014-15 school year.

Long Branch School District Superintendent Michael Salvatore explained that an increase in the amount of students in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, has caused the district to realign its elementary schools.

Kindergarten classrooms will be pulled from the district's current elementary schools and placed into the Joseph M. Ferraina Early Childhood Learning Center and Lenna W. Conrow School, which are currently preschools. The Morris Avenue School will also become an exclusive early education center after serving as a home for pre-kindergarten to third grade students.

The Gregory School and Amerigo A. Anastasia Schools will no longer have kindergarten classrooms and will now house students in grades 1-5.

The completion of the construction of the George L. Catrambone School will give the district its third elementary school, Salvatore said. The school is expected to be built in time for the 2014-15 school year.

After this upcoming school year, students from the Joseph M. Ferraina Early Childhood Learning Center will feed into the Anastasia School, Lenna W. Conrow students will feed into the Gregory School and Morris Avenue School students will feed into the Catrambone School.

Salvatore said the redistricting will result in two empty elementary schools; the West End School and the Audrey W. Clark School School.

The West End School will close after the 2013-14 school year, Salvatore said.

"It will definitely be taken offline," Salvatore said. "We are likely going to bid it out for sale in the next 30-60 days."

The Audrey W. Clark School will become the new home to the district's alternative education program. The district is currently renting space at the Holy Trinity School for program which is designed for students with "unique learning styles," according to Salvatore.

"There is a reduced ratio between students and teachers in the program and there are full-time counselors for the students," he said.

Salvatore said all the changes are subject to approval by the state Department of Education and the county superintendent.

"It's exciting, yet strategic planning for the district," Salvatore said.

NORTH PLAINFIELD, NJ – On Nov. 9 at 5:30 p.m., friends, families, and members of the North Plainfield Community gathered at North Plainfield’s West End Elementary School to celebrate the legacy of the late Beth Hansen Sobel – a legacy that is etched in the minds and hearts of this community – with the dedication of the school library in her memory.

We celebrated the contributions Beth made to West End School and the impact she had in so many lives. If these walls could talk they would tell countless stories of Beth as a child and the time she spent at West End School when her mother, Skip Hansen, was a school secretary. As the years went on, her children, Casey and Shawn, followed that same path. They too spent many hours with Beth planning, organizing and developing activities for West End School. A school that has come to exemplify a culture of academic achievement and character development. As she was frequently heard saying, ‘At West End School, we believe in educating the whole child.’

Mrs. Sobel’s love for books was synonymous with her passion for children and their academic and social growth. Some of Mrs. Sobel’s favorite titles were Leo the Late Bloomer, Thank you Mr. Falker, Ferdinand the Bull, Charlotte’s Web, Rainbow Fish, and Sadako. She looked at books as possessing an undeniably power to educate, entertain, comfort, challenge and inspire children.

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By dedicating the West End School Library in memory of Beth Hansen Sobel, we know that these stories and many others will continue to fire the imagination of students and serve as a reminder of her contributions.

I know that Beth is looking down, honored and humbled by the dedication.

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FRENCHTOWN, N.J., December 6, 2021 (Newswire.com) - NJ independent pro-wrestling promoter Tommy Fierro (Independent Superstars of Professional Wrestling, 80s Wrestling Con., The Wrestling Collector Store) and West End/Off-Broadway producer and performer Jeremiah James (It Happened in Key West The Musical) have joined forces to bring a first of its kind musical to the masses.

"THE LAST MATCH"

With: Book and lyrics by Jason Huza (It Happened in Key West The Musical), book, lyrics and music by Sylvana Joyce and C.R. Smith (Sylvana Joyce & The Moment), Book and Original Concept by Jeremiah James.

"The Last Match" tells the story of wrestling legend and current world champion Ben Vengeance coming to the end of a Hall of Fame career. Vengeance has recently become plagued with mounting serious life-threatening injuries, so with the urging of his doctors and his pro-wrestling wife Gomorrah, is preparing for his last match on the biggest night of the year in "THE WORLD WAR 3." The plan is to "drop the belt to" and "get over" the newest rising star of the company Alexander Swagger, a third-generation Wrestler with a blatant disrespect of the sacred brother/sisterhood known as "The Business." But, as so often happens in the pro-wrestling world, things don't always go as planned.

Billed as a completely immersive pro-wrestling rock musical.

The show begins the moment the audience enters the arena. They will be transported back in time to pro-wrestling's golden years of the late 80s and early 90s where neon tassels and face paint rule supreme. Here they will become fully submerged in a fictional world complete with a fictional pro-wrestling promotion.

"The 90-minute show plays out like the classic wrestling pay-per-view but with a twist," explains James. "The twist being the audience seeing (through the magic of theatre) the 'real' behind the scenes drama and politics that pro-wrestling has, at times, been known for."

When asked what interested him in the project, Fierro explained, "It's never been done! A fully immersive musical written by wrestling fans for wrestling fans! And if you have never been a fan of wrestling, our hope is that even an everyday theatre goer will leave the show with a new found respect and love for the world of pro-wrestling."

"The Last Match" will launch as a Concert Presentation in the Spring of 2022 with the hope of launching a national tour across the United States and Canada in the Spring of 2023.

Both Fierro and James will be kicking off their partnership by attending "ISPW Christmas Chaos" taking place this Friday, December 10 in Butler, NJ, at St. Anthony's Church Gym at 7:30.

You can purchase tickets now at: https://80swrestlingcon.com/ispw

Source: Jeremiah James