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NORTHEASTERN NEWS
- Tesla for a COVID-19 Vaccine: NY Doctor Offers Ultimate Incentive
- New Jersey to Lift Restrictions on Outdoor Gatherings, Indoor Businesses
- The Durable Companies, GEICO, NABC Donate Refurbished Vehicle to Veteran
- Tesla Gigafactory New York Receives Extension for Employment Targets
- DePalo and Sons Auto Body, GEICO, NABC Recycled Rides Program Donate Refurbished Vehicle
Northeastern News
Local news stories affecting the auto body industry in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine
New Jersey's Shade Tree Garage Wants Auto Related 'Junk'
Gather your old car parts, used motor oil, batteries, mercury switches and even old child car seats and bring it to Shade Tree Garage. The Morristown auto repair shop is one of the few in the area certified by the New Jersey Green Auto Repair Council and collects these materials for recycling.
Keenan Auto Body Opens its Avondale, PA location
Keenan Auto Body will hold the grand opening of its Avondale, Pa., body shop from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 3. Keenan has 10 repair facilities located throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Mike Orso Launches $3 Million Suit Against Three Insurers, Citing Capping and Shorting
Leif’s Auto Collision Centers, Oregon
A long-established New York auto body shop owner who has successfully won over $1 million from insurance companies announced recently lawsuits seeking nearly $3 million from the trio of State Farm, Allstate and Adirondack Insurance.
Watertown, NY, Shop Owner Shelves Plans For Second Location Due to Planning Board’s Site Concerns
The owner of a Watertown, NY, auto body repair shop said plans for an additional location in the town of Pamelia remain indefinite, following the County Planning Board’s site plan review March 27.
Junior J. Stefanini, owner of Body Pros, 17940 U.S. Route 11, submitted plans for a project that includes a 100-foot-by-200-foot auto body repair building, a 60-foot-by-160-foot retail plaza with four storefronts and a 50-foot-by-100-foot storage building on a 15-acre site on U.S. Route 11, next door to Space Age Pools and Spas. According to Andrew R. Nevin, senior planner for the Jefferson County Planning Department, the proposed business would generate about 20 employees. The Planning Board sent the project back to the town of Pamelia as “a local concern” with some comments made about the site’s layout.
“We’re noting that the local board should consider the need possibly to relocate parking to the side or rear of the buildings or require additional landscaping to buffer the front yard and this other side yard per their zoning law requirements,” Mr. Nevin said.
The Planning Board said the plans should also include more details about anticipated drainage from parking lots to assess the possible impact on a stream that runs along the back of the property.
While Mr. Stefanini said the submitted site plan may not necessarily the exact one he would want to construct, he is hoping to eventually offer more business to the Fort Drum community.
“Sometime in the future I look forward to building in the town of Pamelia, but as of right now, I have no plans of breaking ground any time soon,” Mr. Stefanini said. “It really just comes down to what it’s going to cost to build something.”
He added, “I hope to build a body shop out there in the near future and, hopefully, bring more jobs to the area.”
Sixth Baltimore Police officer in Auto Body Kickback Scheme Gets Two Years
A sixth Baltimore Police officer was sentenced April 13 for his role in a massive kickback scheme involving an auto body shop, receiving two years in prison and being ordered to pay $24,000 in restitution.
Officer Rafael Concepcion Feliciano Jr., 31, admitted last year that he referred accident vehicles to the Majestic Auto Body shop in Rosedale after being introduced to the store's owners by a fellow officer, Rodney Cintron, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors estimate that Feliciano alone caused a loss of between $120,000 and $200,000. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Feliciano to two years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay restitution of $24,084, of which $10,000 will go to the Baltimore Police Department, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.
Fifteen officers pleaded guilty in the scheme, and another was convicted by a federal jury, while dozens more were implicated in the probe. The six officers who have been sentenced have received between eight and 30 months in prison, putting Feliciano's sentence on the higher end.
NY Senator Fuschillo Announces Passage of Auto Insurance Fraud Legislation
March 28th, 2012---Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. (R-Merrick) described the Senate legislation to combat auto insurance fraud which costs New Yorkers more than $1 billion a year. The legislation would create stronger penalties for individuals who commit insurance fraud and stage auto accidents.
“Auto insurance fraud costs New Yorkers over $1 billion every year, driving our already expensive auto insurance premiums even higher. Stronger penalties are needed to combat auto insurance fraud and protect law-abiding drivers from criminals who steal from our pockets and jeopardize our safety,” said Senator Fuschillo, who supported the legislation in the Senate.
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N.Y. State Senate Passes Auto Insurance Fraud Measures
March 22---The New York State Senate passed three bills to combat auto insurance fraud, which costs New Yorkers more than $1 billion a year, as well as legislation that would impose stronger criminal penalties for staging auto accidents. Recent cases of auto insurance fraud have uncovered massive crime rings, including doctors, lawyers and scam artists who staged accidents and used New York's no-fault insurance program as their own giant state-sponsored, ATM machine.
Scrap Processing Operation to Move from Philly to Camden, NJ
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Camden Iron & Metal, based in Camden, N.J., is relocating its scrap processing operations from Philadelphia to Camden.
Hingham, MA, body shop owner talks about 50 years of change
We asked John Thomas, owner of Thomas Auto Body Shop in Hingham, MA, about his company as it passes its 50-year anniversary this year. The following is an edited version of our conversation.
The NORTHEAST™ 2012 Trade Show: All About the Seminars
I attended my second consecutive AASP/NJ Northeast Trade Show, officially show number 36, on March 9 and 10 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ. As I spend more time at these kinds of events I begin to appreciated how much there is to learn in this complicated business of collision repair. It is a very educational and useful event that collision repairers should make the effort to attend next year if possible.