How: Registration required. Registration ends December 8, 2023. Kids eat free through age 12. Ages 13 and over is $5. Proof of Linden residency is required. For more information, please call 908-474-8600 or 908-474-8639.
Mayor Derek Armstead and the Cultural & Heritage Committee invite you to attend the 2023 City of Linden Annual Holiday Tree Lighting. Enjoy live entertainment, horse and carriage rides, holiday music, refreshments and meet Santa!
Click here to view and/or download the informational flyer for this event.
What: Annual Holiday Tree Lighting. Enjoy live entertainment, horse and carriage rides, holiday music, refreshments and meet Santa! After the tree lighting, Linden families are invited to the Raymond Wood Bauer Promenade to take pictures with Santa and enjoy refreshments. Children ages ten and under receive a goodie bag and a chance to win a bike!
When: Friday, December 1, 2023
Horse and carriage rides start at 5pm.
Tree lighting event starts at 6pm.
Where: In front of Linden City Hall, which is located at 301 North Wood Avenue.
After the tree lighting, Linden families are invited to the Raymond Wood Bauer Promenade (400 North Wood Avenue) to take pictures with Santa and enjoy refreshments.
The City of Linden is hosting a community-wide garage sale in the 1st, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th Wards on October 21, 2023 and October 22, 2023. The rain dates are October 28, 2023 and October 29, 2023.
The City of Linden is waiving fees for permits for this community-wide garage sale including the completion of an application form pursuant to City Code 4-3.1 entitled “Garage Sales”.
The 1st, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th Ward garage sale shall not impact a resident’s right to conduct up to two garage sales in a year.
Chapter 4-3.6 shall still apply, limiting one singled faced sign containing not more than four square feet in total area to be placed upon the premises where the sale is being conducted, and further prohibiting any other signs and either public or private property.
This Resolution shall take effect pursuant to law.
Mr. Nicholas J. Pantina, PE, CME, CPWM, the City of Linden’s Engineer and Director of Community Services is the 2023 recipient of the New Jersey Planning Officials Achievement in Planning Award. The NJPO honored award recipients at the annual NJPO Achievement in Planning Awards Breakfast on September 29, 2023 .
“I’m both humbled and honored to be recognized with this award. My team members in the Engineering Department help contribute to our department’s excellence, and I see this recognition as a reflection of my team members’ efforts as well as my own”, said Mr. Pantina.
Mr. Pantina has thirty-five years of experience comprising various disciplines of Civil Engineering including municipal, project and construction management, pavement design and management systems, public and private infrastructure improvements, transportation, Planning & Zoning Boards, stormwater management, and soils. He successfully coordinates projects, plans, and develops strategies while managing strict budgets.
“Not only is Mr. Pantina a great resource and partner, but also he’s reliable and extremely knowledgeable. The City of Linden appreciates and values Mr. Pantina as the City Engineer and Director of Community Services,” said Mayor Derek Armstead. “As the City’s Engineer, he is responsible for coordinating technical and engineering projects. leadership skills, communication, along with innovation and creativity. I’m so proud that he’s a part of our team.”
As the Director of Community Services, Mr. Pantina oversees four divisions, comprising approximately 175 people from various departments, including Public Works & Vehicle Maintenance, Transportation & Properties, Engineering, and Information Technology. He also oversees the City’s Planning Board, Zoning Board of Adjustment and Shade Tree Advisory, as well as any redevelopment project construction. Mr. Pantina‘s past roles include Assistant Resident Engineer, Traffic Engineer, Member/Board of Trustees/Past President of the New Jersey Society of Asphalt Technologists, and Soil Inspector. He has also managed Professional Services Task Order Contracts for NJT’s Construction Management Group.
“Linden is a beautiful, forward-thinking, productive and proactive City”, said Mayor Armstead. “We continuously strive to create a working environment that provides opportunities to the local population and business community. When my department heads are recognized in this manner, it gives me great pride as well as affirm that we’ve made excellent decisions.”
Many users connect to the internet and access multiple accounts and services for business, including email platforms, applications, and vendor websites. The increased use of online accounts and services, combined with users engaging in risky password management practices, puts both themselves and their employers at risk of account compromise and data breaches. Therefore, it is important to practice good password hygiene to protect accounts and data.
Strong, unique passwords for each account help prevent password reuse attacks in which threat actors obtain the password for one account and use it to compromise an additional account using the same credentials. Threat actors succeed when users reuse credentials across multiple accounts, use easy-to-guess or simple passwords, and do not enable multi-factor authentication (MFA). Strong, unique passwords help secure information, networks, servers, devices, accounts, databases, files, and more against cyberattacks.
Password managers are an effective method to assist users in creating strong, unique passwords and storing them securely. These accounts should be secured with unique and complex master passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA) using an authentication app or hardware token. Password managers contain sensitive data and, therefore, require implementing the strongest possible security measures. Users are encouraged to research password manager providers thoroughly prior to use.
According to reports received by the FTC Consumer Sentinel Network, scammers are leveraging social media platforms to generate substantial profits. New data released by the FTC reveals that scams originating on social media have resulted in $2.7 billion in reported losses since 2021, surpassing all other contact methods.
Social media gives scammers an unprecedented advantage at little to no expense, reaching billions of users worldwide. They can easily create a fake persona, hack into profiles, pretend to be the user to deceive contacts, and spread misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. Scammers learn to tailor their approach to what users share on social media. Furthermore, scammers may place ads using tools available to advertisers, systematically targeting users based on personal details like age, interests, or past purchases.
Image Source: FTC
In the first half of 2023, social media was the contact method for over 38 percent of fraud cases reported by people aged 20-29. For people aged 18-19, that figure was 47 percent. The numbers decrease with age, consistent with generational differences in social media use. Data indicates that, while online shopping scams have the highest number of cases, the most significant monetary losses are due to scams that promote fraudulent investment opportunities via social media. More than half of the money lost to social media fraud resulted from investment scams. Additionally, there has been an increase in romance and investment scams, commonly referred to as “pig butchering.” These scammers often advertise their fake investment successes and try to entice users to invest in fake websites and apps.
Social media users should set stringent security settings for social media accounts and critically evaluate sources of information consumed, seeking reliable and verified information. Verify information before sharing posts, clicking links, or promoting the post’s content, including familiar and shared contacts. Bait-and-switch posts often originate from pages that are not associated with a specific individual, have comments turned off, and are relatively vague in the descriptions used in the post.
Mayor Derek Armstead and the Tax Collector are hosting a public event for NJ PTR (Senior Freeze) and the Anchor Program on October 12th, 2023 from 10am until 2pm in the Court Room, located on the 2nd floor of City Hall at 301 North Avenue.
When is the event? The event will be held on October 12th, 2023 from 10am until 2pm.
Where is the event? The event will be held in the City Hall Court Room, located on the 2nd floor of City Hall at 301 North Avenue.
Can I come to this event, and what do I need to bring with me? This is a public event. All may attend! Please make sure to bring your government issued photo ID to this event.
What is the NJ PTR Senior Freeze?
The Senior Freeze Program reimburses eligible senior citizens and disabled persons for property tax or mobile home park site fee increases on their principal residence (main home). To qualify, you must meet all the eligibility requirements for each year from the base year through the application year. Please note that eligibility requirements, including income limits, and benefits available for all property tax relief programs are subject to change by the State Budget.
When is the 2022 filing deadline? The deadline for 2022 applications is October 31, 2023.
What is the 2022 payment schedule? We are currently issuing 2022 payments to qualified applicants.
What is the Anchor Program?
The Anchor Program is the Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters program. In this program, the Division of Taxation staff will do the following:
Assist in determining your eligibility for the ANCHOR program;
Provide information such as New Jersey gross income or, ID and PIN
(homeowners only), which can be used when completing an ANCHOR application;
Help file your homeowner or tenant ANCHOR application; and
Answer your questions about the program.
Check the status of your previously filed application or verify whether you have already filed.
As you may know, many business and residential utility customers are targeted daily by impersonation scams. Scammers impersonate the utility company through in-person, phone, and online tactics, claim the utility bill is past due, and threaten to disconnect services unless a payment is made immediately. Customers are pressured to make payments via prepaid debit cards (such as Green Dot, MoneyPak, or Vanilla), wire transfers, cash apps (such as Venmo or Zelle), gift cards, or cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin). Additionally, scammers may claim that the regular payment portal for the utility company is currently offline, but the target can submit payment through another portal via a link or QR code. This fraudulent payment portal creates a false sense of legitimacy by using spoofed domains, impersonation, and stolen branding. Phishing and smishing tactics attempt to convince the target to immediately take action, such as responding or calling a fraudulent phone number, disclosing sensitive information, or making payment.
In Person
Scammers may visit the target’s home or place of business in person, claim to be a utility company collector, present fraudulent identification, and ask for personal information, including account number or Social Security number. However, legitimate employees wear a uniform, visibly display a company ID badge, drive a company car with the utility company’s logo, and visit during a pre-scheduled appointment with the customer.
Calls
Additionally, if customers receive an urgent call from their utility company’s trusted customer service number claiming termination of services for non-payment and that someone will arrive in 15 minutes to disconnect service, slow down the conversation before making any quick decisions and verify the information through official sources, as the phone number may be spoofed (faked)!
Web Searches
Hackers are targeting customers who use search engines to contact their utility companies. The search engine results may contain fraudulent websites with fake phone numbers that, if called, will put unsuspecting customers at risk for threat actors to collect personal and financial information. Furthermore, service disconnections are not immediate; there is a multi-step process, including payment arrangement options and multiple notifications to the customer, typically by mail and noted on their regular monthly bill.
QR Codes
Traditional attack techniques of malicious links or attachments are often detected by email security, forcing threat actors to pivot to QR codes as the primary attack method in various schemes. QR codes, sent through unsolicited communications or posted in publicly accessible locations, may appear to be associated with a reputable brand or organization and could direct targets to phishing websites, fraudulent payment portals, and unsuspecting malware downloads. In one campaign, the threat actors persuade their victims to withdraw money from their financial accounts and transfer it to them using a QR code and cryptocurrency ATM to avoid service disconnection. Once the funds are deposited into the ATM to purchase cryptocurrency, the QR code with the embedded address is scanned, and the money is transferred to the scammers.
Please make sure to be vigilant of these and similar impersonation scams. Refrain from answering unsolicited or unexpected communications, especially those containing QR codes. Additionally, do not provide personal or financial information or transfer money, especially in cryptocurrency, to unverified entities. If you need help with this or another type of scam, please call my office at (908) 474 8493 so that I can help.
