TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – If the 2024-25 Newark Public Schools days seem to be longer starting on Sept. 3, that perception would be correct.
The NPS Central Office, on Aug. 9, announced that the new school year will be six hours and 50 minutes long. The Kindergarten-Eighth Grade day will be 20 minutes longer and 25 minutes longer for high schoolers. The new hours will run 8:15 a.m.-3:05 p.m.
What instructors and staff will get for the extra 20 to 25 minutes in the short term will be 45 min lunch breaks. Keep in mind that teachers have to report no later than five minutes before the 8:15 bell.
What teachers and students will get in the long term are 30 more hours of instructional time over the school year.
“The new universal schedule allows an extra 30 hours of tutoring for elementary school students,” said NPS Communications Director Paul Brubaker, “and a lunch period equal to a class period.”
IRVINGTON – The Garden State Parkway’s depressed sections here, in Newark-Vailsburg and East Orange may have such an effect on motorists and neighbors thanks to an Aug. 18 rainstorm.
An intense thunderstorm front marched through Northern New Jersey 7-10 p.m. that Sunday. The storm, as predicted by the National Weather Service, packed up to 70 mph wind gusts and a rainfall of three to five inches in an hour. The additional rain brought the Passaic River and its tributaries at least a foot above their flood stage.
Flooding here started inundating parts of Union Avenue, causing authorities to close the GSP North Exit 143 off ramp. The flooding came from runoff coming off roofs into local streets.
Other “Local Talk” flooding reports came from other expected and unexpected places. One unusual place was runoff coming from Nishuane Brook, flooding the Thomas Boulevard and Dodd Street intersection on the Orange-East Orange border. (It is unknown whether NJTransit bus access to its Orange Bus Garage was affected.)
Floodwaters ran off Valley Road and into Montclair’s Studio Playhouse for the fourth time since 2018. The 3.5-foot flash flood has prompted the Upper Montclair stage to ask for replacement donations.
EAST ORANGE – An Elmwood section apartment building was among six property owners and/or management companies who were recently served “Probable Cause of Discrimination” notices by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
Attorney General Matthew Platkin, of Montclair, said that a probable cause of disability discrimination was served July 17 against the owners of Hamilton Gardens. All six cases who were served notices by the AG’s Office of Civil Rights, involved tenants or residents asking property managers to have an emotional support animal on premises.
A Hamilton Gardens resident had requested its management permission to have a cat as an emotional support animal. The resident had supplied a letter of support from her doctor.
“But the property failed to respond to the complainant’s emails,” said Platkin. “OCR’s investigation found that the property had failed to engage in the “interactive process” required (by the Law Against Discrimination) to a request for an emotional support animal as a reasonable accommodation for a disability.”
Hamilton Gardens, at 223 Prospect St., is a 75-unit two story building constructed in 1947. The Calello Agency has not commented on the probable cause notice as of press time.
ORANGE – This city’s student athletes, officer candidates and the community in general paid tribute to James A. Summers at St. Paul’s Baptist Church and Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair Aug. 13.
Summers, 92, who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict, was given military honors. He had died in the company of his family Aug. 5.
Summers contributed his dedication and wisdom to the Orange Recreation and Orange High School athletics plus the city’s Reserve Officers Training Corps. The 45-year city resident raised daughters Jill E. Summers-Phillips and South Ward Councilwoman Jamie B. Summers-Johnson with wife Elizabeth.
Summers, who was born June 1, 1932 in Glen Ridge’s Mountainside Hospital, came by way of Montclair. He was a member of the Montclair High School Class of 1952. His contributions included Job Corps, the Essex County Youth House and the Grant Avenue Community Center.
The Orange City Council’s April 2 proclamation noted that Summers was “a supporter of the Black YMCA.” Summers had certainly helped Montclair’s Washington Street YMCA; it is not clear whether he also assisted Orange’s Oakwood Avenue Y before it made way for Interstate 280 in 1970.
Brothers Ernst L. Summers and Mark Robertson, sister Hazel Lucas, three grandsons and a granddaughter are also among his survivors. Although Summers had a whole life insurance policy, his daughters have set up a GoFundMe.com page for his funeral expenses.
WEST ORANGE – The Town Council put their scissors to the Calendar Year 2024 Municipal Budget at their Aug. 6 meeting – and left saving taxpayers nearly $200,000.
Council President Rev. William “Bill” Rutherford said that Mayor Susan McCartney’s proposed budget from earlier this year carried a 2.47 percent increase from last year – which translates to a $2.83 percent increase on the residential and commercial property tax levy. The Aug. 6 session aimed at reducing the increase to the two percent increase cap.
Rutherford, acting on Councilwoman Tracy Williams’ consultation with DPW Director Louis Reynolds and recommendation, proposed eliminating $92,190.60 from that department’s budget. The savings would be coming from eliminating three of the nine open positions for truck drivers and from postponing Reynold’s hiring of a superintendent. All five council members passed the amendment.
Another $97,346.56 was cut from the litigation labor allocation. Although Rutherford wanted to drop the original $540,000 line item down to 2023’s $150,000 level, Councilwoman Michelle Casalino pointed out that “$240,000 has already been spent.” That cut was carried 3-2: Casalino, Willimas and Sue Scarpa voted “Yes;” Rutherford and Councilwoman Asmeret Ghebremichael voted “No.”
Council members also looked at finding ways to cut consultants’ fees without violating their professional service contracts. The meeting was the first attended by Interim CFO Vincent Buono.
SOUTH ORANGE – A JESPY House-hired traffic engineer, in the latest hearing of the center’s expansion plan Aug. 18, presented his findings before the South Orange Planning Board.
Matthew Seckler of Stonefield Engineering Design, testified what he and his colleagues found in a 24-hour parking ingress-egress study conducted April 24 on the four existing driveway aprons along 102-119 Prospect St. JESPY is looking to replace the four Victorian/Edwardian era houses zoned for office and professional use with a four-story building to hold 21-dwelling unit for its 66 residents plus administrative space.
Stonefield, said Steckler, found that four cars went in and out of the driveways 8-9 a.m. four cars came in and out 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and nine came and went 5-6 p.m. The study was conducted along Prospect between Irvington Avenue and Kilburn Place and Milligan Place between Prospect and Academy streets. They found ample curbside parking through that 24-hour period.
A JESPY spokesman said that about one percent of its special developmental residents would own a car. The new site would halve the four parking driveway to two, serving 100 parking spaces.
Those parking spaces would be used by staff members, vendors and/or visitors. JESPY has eight staff members on the Midnight – 8 a.m. and 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. shifts with 16 present 4 p.m. – Midnight.
Village planners began airing JESPY’s application on Dec. 4. JESPY has been a village institution for 46 years.
MAPLEWOOD – A township resident who was released from the Essex County Correctional Center after his Aug. 12 aggravated assault arrest will likely not be revisiting a Hilton section address here.
Maplewood police officers had responded to an assault report coming from a Florida Street residence here that Monday. They met the homeowner and a man identified as Steven M. Jennings, 34.
The owner said that Jennings had done the assailing. Jennings, who apparently was not happy having law enforcers present, reportedly assaulted one of the officers.
Officers’ on-scene investigation found grounds to charge Hemmings with aggravated assault and aggravated assault of a police officer. Hemmings was also charged with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Hemmings was remanded to the county jail in Newark until he had presumably posted bail; his presence was not listed on the ECCF website as of Aug. 19. The condition of the assaulted civilian and officer have not been recorded.
BLOOMFIELD / GLEN RIDGE – The Charles Seller Foundation’s Talent Time Players held their student production run of “Godspell” at the Bloomfield High School Auditorium here – for the first time without its namesake – Aug 1-2 and 9-11.
A group of volunteer stage play producers and actors hold an annual August musical fundraiser for a Bloomfield minor or BHS student who would not otherwise get help for his or her illness or disability since 1950 – when Seller was its first beneficiary and guide. Seller, 91 who has not resided in Bloomfield since 1951, has kept his ties and occasional presence with Talent Time until his Jan. 5 death at State College, Pa.
It all began when M. Charles Seller, who was born Sept. 22, 1932, was running from his Essex Avenue home to catch an Erie Greenwood Lake Division train to his summertime mailroom job at North Newark’s Mutual Benefit Life Insurance July 17, 1950. The BHS Class of 1950 president, Bengals cross country team manager, glee club member and “Student Prints” editor had graduated the month before and was planning to pursue journalism at Montclair State Teachers College. All he had to do was to take the 7:48 a.m. eastbound train at Glen Ridge’s now-Benson Street Station.
Seller, however, slipped on the station’s platform and fell under one of the train’s wheels. Two bystanders found him lying between the two tracks with his right leg severed below the knee; they applied first aid and Seller was admitted to Mountainside Hospital.
Word of Seller’s mishap spread by phone network and soda fountain counter to where some 60 BHS students gathered at the now-Bloomfield Public Library Children’s Annex to decide what to do. They hit upon staging a fundraising musical with the greater community’s help.
The 60 students grew to 300 during their round-the-clock pre-production which debuted in mid-August Their staging of an original around the world musical review were primed in part by Christ Episcopal Church providing tryout and rehearsal space and a donation from Mutual Benefit Life. They raised $4,600 (now $59,967.01 in today’s dollars) towards an artificial leg and rehabilitation for Seller. When Seller had $500 (now $6,575.73) left over, he donated that back to Talent Time – which led to the same name foundation’s creation.
Seller, on one hand, continued living outside of New Jersey. The Dickinson College and Penn State University graduate returned to Dickinson in 1975 to become the college board’s secretary and its president’s executive assistant for 30 years. He married Jane Myers Seller in Carlisle, where they raised son Timothy Myers Seller and daughter Jennifer Seller-Miska.
Seller kept tabs, gave input and occasionally visited Talen Time’s productions despite a diminishing physical presence. His parents, Martha and M.C. Seller, and sister, Jane Seller Mitchell, had died. Sister Judith Seller Russell moved away.
Grandson Diego Deller-Miska is also among the 25-year Cantate Carlisle singer’s survivors His funeral was held at Carlisle’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he was in the chorus for 32 years, followed by internet at Laporte’s Mountain Ash Cemetery Jan. 20.
Memorial donations may go to St. John’s Episcopal Church or the Charles Seller Foundation, PO Box 2318, Bloomfield 07003.
MONTCLAIR – The fact that a formal obituary for resident Michael Aron had not been published as of Aug. 20 has not stopped tributes for the “Dean of the State House Press Corps” from appearing. Aaron, 78, who was New Jersey Public Television Network’s chief political correspondent for four decades, died from a lingering illness here Aug. 13.
Aron was a daily presence in the now-NJ PBS Newark and Trenton studios and in the State House until taking a semi-retirement in 2020. The “Reporters Roundtable” host covered the legislative scene from Gov. Brendan Byrne to Phil Murphy.
Aron, as a part-timer, would appear in election result coverage and other NJ PBS specials and wrote for “Harpers” and “New Jersey Monthly.” He was one of the monthly’s editors since the late 1970s; he may be best remembered for authoring, “My Search for Einstein’s Brain” in 2013.
Aron also wrote a book on the 1993 gubernatorial race between James Florio and Christie Todd Whitman.
“Tammy and I are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend,” said Murphy (D-Rumson). “We’ll miss Michael dearly and are sending our heartfelt prayers and condolences to his family and former colleagues in the press corps.”
“It’s the end of an era,” added former Gov. Chris Christie (R-Mendham). “Michael was smart, scrupulously prepared and always on the hunt for the truth. He covered my team for 15 years as US Attorney and Governor without fear or favor and his eyes never blinked.”
“Few journalists ever garner the widespread level of respect that Michael Aron had achieved,” reflected WNET Group President Neal Shapiro. “He earned it with an unbiased, methodical and unwavering investigative style examining the issues, policies and stakeholders affecting state residents. He was one of a kind and will be missed; however, his standards and practices live on in the NJ Spotlight News newsroom and continue to inspire our staff today.”
BELLEVILLE – The Township Council, after an over two-hour overall “special emergency meeting” here Aug. 19, sent off Anthony Iacono and welcomed Brian Banda as Town Manager.
The council, after starting the noon Monday meeting by holding a public comment segment, entered into an executive session. They emerged an hour later to start the public proceeding in the council chamber.
They first passed a separation agreement between Iaocono and then appointing Banda on a pair of 4-3 votes. Second Ward Councilman Frank Velez, Third Ward Councilman Vincent Cozzarelli. Fourth Ward Councilwoman Diane Guardabasco and At-Large Councilman Thomas Graziano voted “Yes.” Mayor Michael Melham and First Ward Councilwoman Tracy Williams-Muldrow voted “Now” and Councilwoman/Deputy Mayor Naomy Depena abstained.
Iacono leaves after two years’ service and with an agreement that is pending Melham and the council’s signatures to become official and public. One detail that Graziano and Velez pointed out is that the former Guttenberg manager will be paid from a “compensation fund” created by CFO Frank DiMaria.
Banda will be serving simultaneously as manager and as a planning department aide. The Belleville resident is also a Class IV member of the Belleville Planning Board. Both Melham and Depena said that Banda was a valuable employee and a loyal A Better Belleville party member.
Police Chief Mark Minichini was never in contention to succeed Iacono; he had recently resigned from being Deputy Town manager.
NUTLEY – Those who use the township’s water and sewer infrastructure may have seen the latter’s place on their quarterly tax bills moved – and their rates changed – since July 1.
The Nutley Board of Commissioners have decided to bring the sewer service under the Nutley Water Utility’s roof and tax bill line item. The entity is now renamed the Nutley Water and Sewer Utility.
That change moves the sewer charge from the municipal property tax line to the water bill tax line. The change may also affect what one pays for water and sewer use.
Nutley’s elders have decided to stop billing sewer use as part of the property tax bill. Water and sewer charges, as of July 1, are now based on a customer’s consumption instead of being a percentage of the property’s assessed value.
The recalculation, said the commissioners, will bring Nutley more in line with other Essex County municipalities in billing based on consumption. The Nutley utility will then pay the recalculated portions to the respective Passaic Valley Water Commission and Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission.
