Adverse impacts on Square traffic

Thursday, January 08, 2009
By CHARLES HACK and TOM SHORTELL
JOURNAL STAFF WRITERS

The second anonymous bomb threat was phoned in to the Motor Vehicle Commission office, at 438 Summit Ave., around 10:38 a.m. yesterday, officials said.

The building was evacuated and canine police units swept the building to check for explosives. No bomb was found and the building reopened at 12:42 p.m., police said.

The same measures were taken on Tuesday when a bomb threat prompted an evacuation from 11:30 a.m. and 1:20 p.m., State Police said.

Last Oct. 1, the State Office Building, where the MVC is located, was evacuated twice after police received five bomb threats. No explosives were ever found.

A spokesman from the Attorney General's Office refused to confirm or deny whether the bomb scares are under investigation.

Compounding the confusion in Journal Square yesterday, at about 10 a.m. a traffic light at Sip Avenue and Bergen Avenue stopped working for about an hour, officials said.

Before this, the Jersey City Fire Department responded to a report of a minor gas leak at Sip Avenue and Enos Place at 8:55 a.m. and cleared the area at around 9:07 a.m., fire officials said.