TOWN WATCH by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – The state’s Adopt-A-Park program, reminded the Office of the State Comptroller recently, should not cost the host municipality money. Acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh’s investigators found, however, that the City of Newark gave an NHL New Jersey Devils affiliate a $5.4 million no-bid maintenance contract to keep up a municipal ice rink.
The city, said the Sept. 1-released OSC report, made a June 4, 2018 agreement with Devils Renaissance Development to repair and maintain the ice rink at the Kenneth Gibson-Sharpe James Recreation and Aquatic Center. The Devils had previously supplied equipment and recreational programs here at the East Side High School Red Raiders’ home ice.
This CoN-DRD contract was supposedly made under the NJ DEP Adopt-A-Park umbrella. Adopt-A-Park has outside parties voluntarily maintain a public park or recreational facility without compensation.
The city, said the OSC report, paid for the upkeep through a $5.225 million municipal bond with the remaining $775,000 going to the bond’s bankers. The no-bid contract, furthermore, kept out other bidders who could have offered a more competitive or cost-effective price.
“The public bidding process in New Jersey exists,” said Walsh, ” to prevent favoritism and appearance of favoritism when taxpayer money is being spent.”
“We disagree with the Comptroller’s findings,” said Newark Corporate Counsel Kenyatta Stewart. “We relied on advice of outside counsel and will continue to comply with the law.”
Shots Fired in Vailsburg
Newark Police Division officers are looking for the person who fired multiple gunshots around 63 Norwood Street 10:40 p.m. Sept. 9 and left. They are looking for links to a different shooting, where six to eight gunshots were fired two blocks north by 76-78 Halstead St., at the corner of Norwood Place, 4:14 a.m., Sept. 12.
IRVINGTON – Motorists and bus riders going through two Essex County road projects here in the Springfield Avenue Corridor Business Improvement District will not have such a long close look at their tax dollars at work as they have had here 7-9 a.m. Sept. 14.
County Department of Public Works contractors KS Engineers, of So. Brunswick, and Smith-Snoddy Asphalt, of Wallington, began milling and repaving Clinton Avenue between Grove Street and Washington Avenue/Ball Street 7 p.m. Monday. Their curb-to-curb work, to continue weeknights through Sept. 22, some curbing and sidewalk work.
NJTransit, to its credit, tweeted riders of the 13, GO25, 26, 27, 37, 70, 90, 107 and 371 routes of 15-to-30-minute delays around Irvington Terminal and having people get their buses on Springfield Avenue to 6 a.m. Sept. 14.
The said contractor’s tearing up Clinton’s asphalt, however, prompted diverting traffic onto Springfield Avenue at Grove Street and Washington Avenue – and right into a pre-existing construction zone and Springfield and Maple avenues.
Springfield and Maple had been undergoing an intersection improvement project on weekdays for the last six weeks. The county DPW project has County Concrete, of Kenvil, and ABI, of New York City, among other contractors, had been concentrating on Springfield and Maple’s south southside corners, forcing them to close Springfield’s eastbound curb lane before Maple.
The Springfield-Maple work start and Clinton’s milling running late caused eastbound Springfield traffic to endure traveling the four blocks between Irvington Terminal and Grove Street for 18 minutes. A westbound 13T bus was seen among westbound Springfield traffic. Southbound Grove Street traffic, wanting to cross Springfield, was backed up to Berkeley Terrace.
“Local Talk” returned on the 8 a.m. hour Wednesday and found Clinton contractors having finished their shift and Springfield/Maple starting up. Through traffic were moving with little delay.
EAST ORANGE – This city’s part of Interstate 280 West, for the second time in 15 days, witnessed a fatal accident here Sept. 14.
The ECPO Crash and Fire Investigations Unit and the New Jersey State Police have been investigating what caused at least three cars and a tractor-trailer truck to collide at milepost 12.6 at 3:33 p.m. Tuesday.
Two of the drivers were rushed to a local hospital “with severe injuries.” Although the driver of the Hyundai is being treated for “moderate injuries,” Scion driver Nicole A. Greco, 51, of Chester, N.Y. had died. All westbound traffic was diverted onto Exit 13 -Newark’s Orange and 6th streets- during the rescue, cleanup and investigation past 5 p.m.
Authorities and first responders had rushed another motorist with severe-turned-fatal injuries to Newark’s University Hospital and conducted an on-scene probe – this time at milepost 12.4 – early Aug. 31.
NJSP Sgt. Alejandro Goez, speaking from the Totowa Barracks, said that Obduilo Galarza, 63, of Union, went off the highway just past Exit 12 A-B, 12:26 a.m. that Tuesday. Galarza’s car went into the right shoulder median separating the highway and the exit ramp, striking a sign, a tree and a guardrail.
Galarza, a former Irvington resident who was born Nov. 21, 1957, was declared dead at the hospital. Wife Sharon, daughter Victoria, sons Obduilo III, David, Michael and Alexander; brother Julio and sisters Emalda and Betzaida are among his survivors.
Galarza’s visitation and memorial service were held Sept. 10 at the Lytwyn and Lytwyn Union Funeral Home. Memorial donations may be made to www.kidneyfund.org.
ORANGE – The tug of war between Mayor Dwayne D. Warren’s administration and the City Council over the proposed redefinition of the City Clerk’s authority is moving to State Superior Court-Newark’s Civil Division.
The Council awarded a pair of professional service contracts, each not to exceed $20,000, to Stevens & Lee, LLC at their Sept. 7 meeting. One or more lawyers from the Elmwood Park firm, at $185 per hour per contract, are to represent them in two cases brought against them by Warren and The City of Orange Township July 6-7.
It is not clear whether the council hired the lawyers sooner or later in the discovery process. State Superior Judge Thomas H. Moore, upon receiving the filings July 6-7, set a 90-day discovery period from when the respondents (the City Council) receive the complaint or 120 days from when the complaint is posted by the court – whichever comes first.
City Attorney Gracia Montilus, on Warren’s behalf, filed Docket No. ESX-L-005312-21 July 6 and ESX-L-003047-21 July 7. The first filing is asking a civil judge to verify the plaintiff’s complaint of declaratory relief. The plaintiffs here are asking the judge to issue a binding decision between them and the respondents.
The second asks the judge to issue a prerogative writ – a written direction to the government agency.
Plaintiff Warren cites the city’s mayor-council structure under the state’s Faulkner Act, which confers legislative powers to the council and retains administrative power to the mayor-chief executive. The filing asserts that the mayor has the hiring/firing authority of subordinates within a city department.
The Mayor and the city’s Legal Department objected to the Council’s Jn. 19 proposed Ordinance 3-2021 pertaining to amending the city clerk part of the city’s administrative code. Although 03-2021 was withdrawn, a similar Ordinance 24-2021 appeared on May 4’s council agenda.
WEST ORANGE – Ira Ehrenkranz, 87, who died in his sleep here Sept. 3, was a longtime member of the West Orange Public Library Board of Trustees and the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Ehrenkranz also turned his interest in motion pictures into founding the NY Film Critics Series and a place on the NJ Film Commission.
Ira’s longstanding presence here may make it hard to believe that he was born in Newark Beth Israel Hospital Jan. 23, 1934. The Hillside native had also lived in Athens, Ohio before moving to Boston – where he met and married wife Meryl in 1957.
Ira and Meryl moved here to raise children Meg and Mark. Ira and Mark particularly enjoyed bringing quality first-run films and celebrities to local audiences to talk about their motion pictures.
Ira thanked modern medicine for helping him cope with a serious heart condition since 1980. That condition, however, had recently put him in the Inglemoor Rehabilitation Center.
Sister Rose Cohen and four grandchildren are also among his survivors. His family held a private burial service and shiva mourning period in the prevention of COVID.
Memorial donations may be made to the Jespy House, 102 Prospect St., South Orange 07079.
SOUTH ORANGE – The respective South Orange and Maplewood chambers of commerce will be coming out as the SOMA Chamber of Commerce at a Sept. 22 outdoor breakfast at Jefferson Village’s St. James’s Gate Publick House.
Members of the respective village and township chambers agreed to merge Sept. 10.
“We’re excited to function as one group to better meet the needs of Maplewood and South Orange business communities,” said President Ellen Donker. “Being able to appeal to a larger and more diverse array of business owners for membership will enable us to improve our network, learn from each other and partner on initiatives.”
The merging chambers, in a sense, is following the consolidation of the village and township’s fire departments. The South Orange-Maplewood School District, however, has always been a two-town entity.
South Orange Township renamed itself Maplewood in 1922. The township became independent of the village in 1869.
MAPLEWOOD – Mayor Frank McGehee led his Township Committee colleagues and witnesses in holding a moment of silence at their Sept. 9 meeting for Michael A. Jeffrey, 55.
The Jacob A. Holle Funeral Home here had meanwhile arranged to have Jeffrey’s Funeral Mass at Millburn-Short Hills’ St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church 4-8 p.m. Sept. 11, and internment at Westfield’s Fairview Cemetery.
Jeffrey, among the first identified victims of Tropical Storm Ida’s Sept 1. flooding, was remembered as a securities executive who moved with wife Beth here in 2005. They stayed here to raise their daughter and son and so that Michael can coach their son’s flag football team.
Born in Tenafly and having graduated from Tenafly High School in 1984, Jeffrey earned a BA in history from the University of Rochester (N.Y.) and a Masters from Glendale, Ariz.’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Jeffrey advanced from being an assistant vice president for National Westminster Bank, NA, to become U.S. Bank’s VP/Portfolio Manager in charge of oil and gas companies since 2011.
Parents David and Hope Jeffrey, brother Joel and sister Zoe are also among his survivors. Memorial donations may be made to the Maplewood Recreation Assistance Program: maplewoodrecdes.com.
BLOOMFIELD – When the late Paul O. Boger first came here to earn a bachelor’s degree at Bloomfield College 1958-62, little did he know that he would be the nearby Bloomfield Presbyterian Church on the Green’s Senior Pastor from 1971 to his 2002 retirement. He became the now-224-year-old congregation’s longest-serving pastor.
Rev. Dr. Boger, 80, who died in his Montclair home Sept. 2, would continue to serve the Presbytery of Newark, another block north in several “post-retirement” capacities. Those tasks included being the United Presbyterian Church of Cedar Grove’s “temporary” part-time pastor 2002-19.
Paul Boger, born in 1940 and raised in Yonkers, N.Y., received his master and doctorate of divinity in 1965 and 1985 from Chicago’s McCormick Theological Seminary.
Ordained by the Presbyterian Church USA in 1965, Boger’s ministry put him in churches in Grenville, Ohio 1965-67 and Otisville, NY 1967-71 before returning here. He also served as chaplain at the historic Woodstock music festival in 1969 – which became the basis for his 2009 book, “Being There: A Pastor at Woodstock, Then, Now and Tomorrow.”
The 1995 Bloomfield College Hall of Fame inductee was finishing: “Everything is Connected: God is Dead, Long Live God at the Time of His Death,” Sept. 1.
Wife Carolee, son Paul, Jr., stepson Christopher A. Pescatore, daughters Christine Walthers and Laura L. Boger, four grandchildren, brother Mark, sister Nancy S. G. Jones and first wife Barbara Ewick are among his survivors. Sister Elaine Boger and daughter Leanne Boger Granata predeceased him.
Boger’s family will hold a 1 p.m. reception at the Church on the Green’s chapel 1 p.m. Sept. 18 prior to his 1:30 p.m. memorial service.
MONTCLAIR – Those who remember James P. Tierney well were not surprised that he would add a music venue to the now-88-year-old family tavern here at 136-38 Valley Rd.
The son of Edward Joseph Tierney (1935-2016) and grandson of founder William Oliver Tierney (1911-88) started the Tierney’s Music Festival in 2014 to celebrate its 80th anniversary. The tavern co-owner hosted a variety of musicians almost nightly, including a regular open mic night. It has also been the venue for several community fundraisers.
Contemporaries recall “Jim” or “Jimmy” as playing the guitar and appreciating a wide range of musical forms between serving drinks and perfecting burgers. Tierney’s talents went with him when he died in his sleep in his Upper Montclair home July 30. Tierney, 52, born a Montclair native in 1969, had died of congestive heart failure.
The Montclair High School Class of 1988 graduate, said older brother Bill, was also a fan of the NFL New York Giants, MBL New York Yankees, the NBA Nets – and children Dylan, Sandy and Ryan. Brothers Ed, John and Michael and sisters Cathy Tierney and Mary Ellen Onofrio are also among his survivors.
Tierney’s wake and Funeral Mass, followed by a private burial, were held at the Church of the Immaculate Conception Church Aug. 7. Memorial donations may be made to jazzhousekids.org.
BELLEVILLE – Observers wonder if Belleville Public Schools have ended their string of building purchases office space rentals now that the 2021-22school year has started.
The Belleville Board of Education Trustees approved buying 117 Dow St for $400,000 and renting space from 567 Franklin Ave. for $450,000 at their Sept. 16 meeting. The combined $850,000 will be drawn from the 2021-22 school budget’s “food service surplus.”
117 Dow and 567 Franklin are respectively off the corners of Belleville Avenue and Fremont Place. They both have paved parking lots – but the properties are more contrasting than comparative.117 Dow is a single-story “commercial home” built in 1927 and near Belleville High and Middle schools and No. 8 Elementary School.
567 Franklin, built in 1990, is a two-story office building approaching the Nutley border but has no nearby schools.
BPS now has purchased and/or paid rent for seven properties for an overall $1.6 million in recent years. They include buying 487, (on April 14) and 499 (July 19) Greylock Parkway, near BHS, for a combined $803,000.
BPS has moved into 355 Union Ave.’s office, across from Elementary School No. 3, July 1 and had started to pay $3,000 a month as per its five-year lease with the owner. That owner happens to be Mayor Michael Melham.
NUTLEY – Some of the township’s firefighters and first responders worked around Nutley’s Sept. 11 observances by either attending retired NFD Capt. Domenick DiSimone, Jr.’s Friday visitation at the S.W. & Son Funeral Home or his Saturday Funeral Mass at Bloomfield’s St. Thomas the Apostle Church.
DiSimone, 63, died at his home here Sept. 6. He had served both Nutley’s volunteer and paid departments for 39 years – rivalling his 48 years as a Nutleyite.
DiSimone, who was born in Newark in 1958, moved here in 1973 and first joined as a volunteer firefighter in December 1979. He joined the NFD in February 1991, retiring as Captain in 2018. His work included preparing first alarm, apparatus and the Hazardous Materials Response Team.
DiSimone took Essex County College classes in fire subcode, housing and construction inspection/ His learning and experience led him to become Morris Plains Fire Sub Code Official since 2010. The New Jersey State Fire Inspector was also a member of Nutley FMBA Local No. 44 and the FMBA 500 Club.
Wife June, sons Bryan and Daniel DiSimone and Gary and Greg Misner, two grandsons, three granddaughters and sisters Gloria DiSimone and Maryann Galenas are among his survivors. Brothers Larry and Matthew DiSimone predeceased him.
Memorial donations may be made to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, PO Drawer 498. Emmitsburg, MD 21707 or www.firehero.org.
