TOWN WATCH by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – About 70 firefighters evacuated 45 people and brought a fire in a downtown apartment building under control within 50 minutes here Nov. 1.
The first Newark Fire Division firefighters, responding to a fire call at 10 p.m. that Monday, discovered the blaze on the lower floors of 76-80 Court St. at 10:10 p.m.
They also discovered flames trying to reach the five-story building’s upper floors within the 120-year-old structure’s inner walls. Firefighters, while pulling a second alarm, evacuated residents while preventing the flames’ advance.
The fire at the Center City Apartments 9B was brought under control by 11 p.m. Two residents, however, had to be treated for smoke inhalation. The lower floors’ damage was enough to displace 32 adults and 13 children from their 25 apartment units.
Assy. George Richardson
(1931-2021)
Those State General Assembly members who are from a minority group and are to be sworn in Jan. 8 may pause to remember the late George Culver Richardson. Richardson, the sole African-American in the Assembly 1961-73, championed a civilian complaint review board, housing desegregation and the 1965 federal Civil Rights Act.
The Al-Firdous Funeral Home of Irvington announced that Richardson, 90, once a leader of the NAACP-Newark Branch, had died Sept. 24.
IRVINGTON – Township police officers have thanked their Newark colleagues – including the city’s top cop – in the recent arrest of three fleeing armed robbery suspects on an East Ward street.
IPD officers were pursuing a blue Ford Mustang convertible, that was connected to an earlier armed robbery, when the said vehicle entered Newark at about 9:55 p.m. Oct. 22. The pursuers promptly broadcasted an all-points bulletin on the said vehicle.
A patrolling NPD cruiser spotted the described Ford at Badger Avenue and West Peddie Street and ordered its driver to pull over. The pilot, instead, “continued speeding and driving recklessly” until the Mustang collided with two parked cars near the Newark-Irvington border. All three occupants bailed out and began running into Irvington.
Newark Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara, who had just joined the pursuit, apprehended a man at Irvington’s 88-92 Montgomery Avenue. The man – identified as Kamare A. Koanda, 18, of Newark – was charged with possessing stolen property and resisting arrest.
Police also captured a pair of “male juveniles.” The minors were also charged with resisting arrest and possessing stolen property.
EAST ORANGE – City Public Information Officer Connie Jackson had confirmed on Nov. 1 that East Orange Fire Chief Andre Williams is being investigated by city officials for harassment and related charges.
What form of investigation by city officials remains unclear as of press time. It is not immediately known if Williams, 47, who was first appointed chief in 2017, remains on or off duty.
Ten of “East Orange’s Bravest” – three deputy chiefs, four captains and three firefighters – accuse Williams of harassment in a recently publicized letter. They cited multiple incidents of promotional denial, intimidation, retribution and discrimination after filing complaints against him.
The Sept. 27 dated letter asserts that Williams would quash any internal investigation by learning about the complaint’s details ahead of time and distorting its investigation. One “preventative retaliation” was made after one complaint was filed Sept. 11.
The Sept. 27 letter was drafted by EOFD Firefighter Garrett Winn and Capt. William Kingston. Winn and Kinston signed the letter as presidents of their respective FMBA Firefighters Association Local No. 23 and Fire Officers Ass. Local 223.
Winn and Kingston have asked that Williams be placed on leave during the investigation. They have also called for a meeting with Mayor Theodore “Ted” Green, Chief of Staff Anthony Jackson, Business Administrator Solomon Steplight and City Council Public Safety Committee Chairwoman/First Ward Councilwoman Amy Lewis to discuss the allegations.
It is not known whether that said meeting has taken place. Williams, when contacted via PIO Jackson, declined comment. Jackson added that the legal and personnel nature of the matter prohibits further comment.
ORANGE – Patrons of the Orange Public Library may have noticed small but meaningful improvements since its latest library director, Stephanie Flood, came aboard Sept. 10.
Visitors and patrons can now call OPL on its new (973) 786-3988 phone line. Both the 1900 main building and 1978 southern extension have Wi-Fi. The photocopying machines’ paper stock is being replenished. Checks are being cut for its staff and for its vendors.
“We’re righting the ship one day at a time,” Flood told “Local Talk” in an exclusive Nov. 10 interview. “It took a decade for the library to get into its mess and it will not be out of it in six months.”
Flood, fresh from being her hometown Lincoln Park Public Library director for 10 years, was dealing with which vendor to call for photocopy paper that Wednesday. Some bills were so behind Feb. 1, 2020-Sept. 1, 2021 that some vendors refused to deal with OPL until the arrears were first made up.
“Public libraries have a check-and-balance process; most invoices and checks need two signatures,” added Flood, who was a Novartis corporate librarian. “The dedicated staff did what they could do – but they can do only so much.”
Flood said that OPL’s reputation “was in the dumps” before she applied for the director’s job in July. Although the OPL staff and the Board of Trustees have helped her get up to speed on the library’s history, some of the files that would also help her work are still in FBI/US Department of Justice’s hands.
“I’ve never heard of the FBI raiding a library before,” said Flood. “The only other similar library I’ve found is Detroit.”
Flood envisions repairs and restoration of the library’s structure – “It’s a big building with small rooms” – some six months out. Some of that work may get a boost should Orange become a New Jersey Public Library Construction Bond Fund second-round awardee.
WEST ORANGE – Some of the 45 tenants who were permanently displaced Oct. 15 by the Sept. 1-2 rockslide behind the Ron Jolyn Apartments at 275 Northfield Ave. have more than “lawyered up.”
Thirty of the said tenants have pooled their resources to hire attorneys Thomas Cataldo, of Morris Plains, and Ronald Nagle, of Morristown. Cataldo and Nagle have since been notifying various parties seeking information. Ron Jolyn Realty, the township and Seaton Hall Prep are among those receiving inquiries and notices of intent to sue.
The after-the-fact Ron Jolyn Tenants Association is looking at whether SHP’s 2010-17 expansion of its Kelly Athletic Complex above the now-condemned garden apartment complex contributed to the rockslide.
Several tenants have said they had noticed increased runoff and erosion since the 44-acre football field expansion was completed in 2017. Their attorneys may be looking at drawings of the complex’s drainage system – a feature the West Orange Zoning Board of Adjustment had approved after 27 meetings.
The Our Green West Orange environmental group, who had opposed the 2010 approval, assert that the uprooting of 1,000 400-year-old trees and the Kelly gridiron’s artificial turf contributed to the erosion. The rockface west of the apartments, they assert, was ultimately undermined by Tropical Storm Ida Sept. 1-2.
Township Attorney Richard Trenk, who was among those receiving notices, said that there were no objections about the drainage system were made during the 2010 zoning board hearings. Trenk added that the West Orange construction official had called Ida “a 500-year event.”
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The South Orange Village railroad station jitney, which is to resume Nov. 15, is hoping to avoid some of the difficulties its neighboring Maplewood service has been having since its own Sept. 13 resumption.
The Village and South Orange Parking Authority will start taking rush-hour riders to South Orange Station on two routes instead of the pre-pandemic four.
One route will run on a combined Newstead/Wyoming pattern, the other for Montrose/Tuxedo Park/Ward/Montague. The latter route will have additional Tuxedo Park stops.
The pioneering Maplewood jitney, by contracts, has been running on three combined routs instead of five: Maplecrest/Hilton, Elmwood/Parker and Wyoming.
The Maplewood DPW, on Nov. 9, is asking for riders’ patience while it looks to hire more full-time drivers. “Delays and disruptions” may be experienced “in the coming days.”
Maplewood is accepting applications for those who hold valid NJMVC and CDL licenses and at lead a GED diploma. Qualified drivers are to also pass license and background check plus, drug and alcohol screening.
The township began running rush hour minibuses to Maplewood Station in 1993. It inspired Cong. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and NJTransit to help municipalities launch similar services since 1996. South Orange was among the early startups.
BLOOMFIELD – State Police detectives are still figuring out what a Bloomfield driver and a Garfield pedestrian were doing on the Garden State Parkway’s northbound right shoulder here early Nov. 1.
NJSP troopers from the Bloomfield Barracks, said Sgt. Alejandro Goez, found the driver and his Honda Accord and the felled Garfield man both on the shoulder by Exit 151 – Watchung Avenue at 4:30 a.m. that Monday.
The 25-year-old driver said he was moving on the shoulder when he struck the pedestrian. No charges were filed against the motorist.
The latter man was identified as Damian “Ziggy” Dymka, 25. The professional nurse’s visitation was held Nov. 7 at a Garfield funeral home.
Both parents and a grandmother are among Dymka’s survivors. A Gofundme.com page, established Nov. 3 is midway to its goal to pay for his funeral expenses.
MONTCLAIR / GLEN RIDGE – A petition to install four stop signs at Montclair’s Wildwood Avenue and Park Street intersection, the scene of an Oct. 15 school bus accident, has passed the two-thirds mark towards a 1,000-signature goal as of Nov. 9.
Organizers of the change.org petition will then present the 1,000-signature petition to Mayor Sean Spillar and the Township Council at an upcoming meeting.
The petitioners cited the 9:06 a.m. Oct. 15 crash, where the school bus driver, the bus aide and two other adults were taken to local hospitals for treatment of injuries. The 15 Hillside Elementary School students, while uninjured, were observed by responding on-scene EMS technicians from Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield and Cedar Grove.
MPD Sgt. Terence Turner said a preliminary investigation found that the 2008 Toyota RAV4, operated by an 85-year-old Belleville driver entered the intersection from Wildwood Avenue – which was already occupied by the Park Street crossing school bus. The impact sent the bus over the western curb before striking a utility pole and fire hydrant.
Montclair’s Traffic Bureau investigation determined that the SUV had run past a Wildwood Avenue stop sign without braking. There are stop signs facing Wildwood, but none posted for Park Street.
The said driver, who was taken to Mountainside Hospital for head, neck and back pain, was issued a summons each for failing to stop and careless driving. The 24-year-old passenger was also taken to Mountainside for head and shoulder pain.
The 54-year-old bus driver from Haledon was taken to Paterson’s St. Joseph’s Medical Center for head, neck and back pain. The 60-year-old aide from Belleville was sent to RWJBarnabas Health Clara Mass with a swollen knee.
BELLEVILLE – The township’s planning board may help decide the future of the old Kmart store at 371-411 Main St., once they have two documents in their hands, as early as their Dec. 9 meeting.
The planning board did not have a motion on whether to redesignate Block 9701, Lot 1, as “A Condemnation in Need of Redevelopment” on its Nov. 10 agenda. It may be because the panel has not yet received a property report from CME Associates.
Those panelists do have a resolution from the Township Council asking them to consider a preliminary investigation of making the 42-year-old building and parking lot eligible for CINOR.
The council passed the resolution, 5-2, Oct. 26. They also appointed CME to make the study. The 5.944-acre property is owned by Venture, Draisin-Levco, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., for Kmart. Kmart-Sears Holdings closed the store on or by April 15.
BOE Member Guilty of DWI
Verona Municipal Judge John A. Paparazzo, on Oct. 20, found Erika V. Jacho guilty of Driving While Intoxicated, refusing to submit to an Alcotest and failing to exhibit documents during an Oct. 20-21, 2020 Belleville Police investigation.
Paparazzo, who accepted the case as a neutral venue, has ordered Jacho to pay $1,740 in fines, surcharges and court costs. The Belleville Board of Education Trustee has had her driving privileges revoked until she installs an ignition breathalyzer interlock – which stays on for 15 months.
NUTLEY – Neither the Archdiocese of Newark nor St. Mary’s Church parishioners had to look far to find its latest pastor Oct. 30.
Fr. Thomas D. Nicastro was formally installed as St. Mary’s pastor in a post-Noon Mass ceremony that Sunday afternoon. He becomes the 14th pastor since the parish was founded here in the Avondale section in 1877.
Fr. Nicastro’s installation may be considered a promotion for he had been St. Mary’s Parish Administrator and, until 2017, its Parochial Vicar. It was here at St. Mary’s where his late father, Private Gaetano “Tom” Nicastro, received a posthumous Silver Star for heroism on Pork Chop Hill during the Korean Conflict.
Fr. Nicastro is also familiar with Newark’s St, Lucy’s Church, having written several books, articles and blog posts on the parish, its St. Gerard Shrine and Old First Ward neighborhood.
Mother Filomena “Phyllis” M. Nicastro was a longtime member of Catholic War Veterans Msgr, Owens Post No. 1187 before her death in 2020.
COVID KOs Playoff Runs
The Nutley Maroon Raiders football and girls soccer teams’ respective NJSIAA playoff runs were nipped in the bud by COVID 24 hours before taking their fields Nov. 5. Their respective regular-season win-loss records remain 6-3 and 4-0.
Nutley Athletic Director Joe Piro said he had to report several COVID positive cases among team players and coaches Nov. 4. Piro withdrew both teams from the playoffs since the NJSIAA was unable to postpone or reschedule on such short notice.
