TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Public Safety Director Fritz G. Fragé has reported the arrest of nine out-of-towners for eluding during an illegal car racing event held in Newark on Sept. 15, 2024.
“Each of these suspects lives outside of Newark and purposefully came here to conduct a so-called ‘street takeover,’ Director Fragé said. “Thanks to these arrests, these individuals quickly learned that the City of Newark is not their playground. I commend members of the 3rd Precinct for their quick thinking in safely arresting the nine suspects. And although some individuals were observed hitting and kicking a marked Police vehicle, no injuries were reported and our Police Officers handled the incident professionally to return safety to our streets,” he added.
At approximately 2:31 a.m., Police responded to the intersection of Doremus Avenue and Port Street on a call of several vehicles driving erratically in the middle of the street. Responding officers observed approximately 100 vehicles illegally blocking Doremus Avenue. A large crowd surrounded a Newark Police vehicle, punching and kicking the car, and attempting to flip it over.
Additional Police responded and the following individuals were arrested with each facing a charge of eluding:
- Daniel O. Cacula, 23, of Danbury, CT
- Gabriel N. Alscora, 21, of Brooklyn, NY
- Kevin H. Sayco, 25, of Woodland, NY
- Jason Flores Perez, 20, of West New York, NJ
- Damien R. Persuad, 20, of North Baldwin, NY
- Terrance Briggs, 22, of Pembroke Pines, FL
- Alejandro Alonso, 20, of West New York, NJ
- Gabriel D. Paitch, 18, of Kearny, NJ
- Mitchell E. Long, 21, of Ephrata, PA
These charges are merely accusations. Each suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
IRVINGTON – Flooding, for the second time in almost exactly four years, has closed the United States Postal Service Irvington Branch here at 1086 Springfield Ave., for nearly a month.
Postal customers, since Aug.23, have had to go to adjacent towns’ branches. The gate to the station’s bridge spanning Beasley Civic Square and its rear loading dock over the Elizabeth River culvert remains padlocked.
A notice posted by Newark Postmaster Silvia Glover directs box holders here to pick up their mail at the Newark central post office at 2 Federal Sq. Glover added that some of the box holders’ mail may have been damaged or destroyed by that Wednesday night’s flooding.
An intense thunderstorm coursed through Essex County between 7 and 9 p.m., pushed through by up to 70 mph wind gusts. It is not clear how water from the Elizabeth River got into the station to the culvert’s east.
It is also not clear whether flood water got into the station the same way it did during Hurricane Ida or differently. Ida, despite degrading to a tropical storm overnight Sept. 1-2, 2021, killed a father and a daughter here and flooded other basements along the river’s southeard course.
The Irvington Branch was closed then until after Oct. 1, 2021, in part to replace a truck loading dock lift gate and mail sorting machinery. The Irvington Branch – like Newark’s Vailsburg Branch and Maplewood’s Hilton Branch – was built around 1960.
Irvington is among Newark Post Office’s 12 branches. Glover, the district’s first African-American woman postmaster, was sworn in June 2, 2022.
EAST ORANGE – A memorial for Kevin Elliott Taylor was held here at the New Hope Baptist Church Sept. 13.
The mayoral candidate, developer and community-minded resident was interred later that Friday at nearby Rosedale Cemetery. His last rites were arranged by Cotton Funeral Home. Taylor, according to Cotton’s brief obituary, was born here May 14, 1959. A tribute poster said he went to Rutledge Avenue School.
Another poster said that Taylor and Clint Mitchell, as Clifford J. Scott High School Scotties football players, “were the best one-two combo in the state.” Taylor, No. 33, and Miitchell, No. 32, were on a Scotties varsity squad who were 9-0 in the 1977 regular season and finished second in the NJSIAA Group II Sectional championship. Mitchell is an agent for Wichert Realtors and lives in Union.
House Fire Displaces 11
Eleven members of four families who were evacuated from a three-alarm fire at 289-291 Glenwood Ave Sept. 7 were given temporary housing by the American Red Cross chapter while authorities try to find the fire’s source.
The first East Orange Fire Department units had responded to a 4:30 p.m. fire call from 291 Glenwood that Saturday and began an evacuation check. The incident commander pulled two more alarms for all EOFD hands and mutual aid.
Acting Fire Chief Bruce Davis told a reporter that they had some water issues, which led to the fire not being under control until 7 p.m. Fire damage had meanwhile spread to 289 Glenwood. No injuries were reported.
ORANGE – Neighbors of a South Ward park may be asking questions of city elders at the Sept. 17 City Council meeting of two people who were shot there and a suspect’s later arrest on Sept. 12. Some of those questions may be the ones left unanswered at Mayor Dwayne Warren’s 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16 virtual community meeting.
City police officers, who were responding to a gunshot call at Valley and Morris streets by Metcalf Park at 8:35 p.m. Sept. 12, said they found two people there with gunshot wounds; one shot in the leg on the baseball field; the other with a gunshot wound to a hand. Although both victims were treated by officers and rushed by contracted ambulance to University Hospital, the ECPO said that DeAndre Smith, 28, who was shot in the leg, had died at 7:26 p.m. Sept. 15.
The same officers noticed a masked man running into a vehicle on Argyle Street and sped away. A computerized license plate check found that the car had been reported as stolen from Hudson County. An attempt to stop the vehicle turned into a high speed pursuit through Orange, South Orange and east Orange streets, some going the wrong way, until the suspect’s vehicle crashed into a car parked by 127 Lincoln Ave.
Police, after a foot chase into the Crane & Essex parking garage, arrested Brandon D. Beasley, 24. A weapon was found in the pursued vehicle.
Beasley is being held in the Essex County Correctional Center on a count each of the following: unlawful taking of a means of conveyance, being a convicted felon prohibited from weapons possession, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, possession thereof without a permit, possession of a prohibited weapon-large capacity ammunition, resisting arrest by failing to stop vehicle, resisting arrest by threatening force against a law enforcement officer, obstructing the administration of law and hindering by giving false information.
Mayor Warren held a virtual “Neighborhood Community Meeting” for Orange Valley/Metcalf Park residents at 7:30 p.m. Monday in response to the incident.
WEST ORANGE – The Manor’s new owners received 247 summonses from the township last week for what West Orange’s forester said were as many trees felled on the property without a permit.
Township Forester Walter Kipp, acting on an Aug. 21 posting on OurGreenWestOrange.com, arrived at 110 Prospect Ave. Aug. 27 and counted 247 tree stumps – from the avenue entrance down to the main building and the lot’s perimeter.
Kipp issued The Legacy Manor ownership and Elmwood Tree Service each 247 summons. The shoebox-sized sheaf of summonses has the Frank Pombo family and its contractor each paying up to $494,000 – or $2,000 per tree pending the case’s outcome in West Orange Municipal Court. Elmwood is facing two more summonses for not being registered to work in West Orange.
The question becomes whether The Legacy Manor, who bought the premises July 23 for a later reopening, knew that they needed a permit before cutting down any tree. The Township Council, citing a “rapidly declining tree canopy,” passed the resolution on Feb. 7.
Our Green West Orange board member Joyce Rudin, who blew the whistle Aug. 21, later posted a certified tree removal application the West Orange Engineering Department had received from Legacy Manor’s engineer, J. Michael Petry, Aug. 22. Rudin is meanwhile among six candidates running for a township council seat Nov. 5.
The Manor ended its 66-year catering hall and wedding venue run July 5, 2023. The court date has not been posted as of press time.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The South Orange-Maplewood School District has been feeling the loss of its transportation coordinator, Jerry Ford, since his Sept. 6 death at Easton, Pa.’s St. Luke’s Hospital – Anderson Campus.
Ford, 71, of Glen Gardner, had come out of retirement in 2022 to keep the SOMSD school bus operation running smoothly. His work included the restoration of courtesy bus service, which the board of education cut from its budget in 2023-24.
Ford, who had retired from the Delaware Valley Regional School System, had founded, operated and sold Amwell Valley and Tri J Coach bus companies. He developed and implemented Hunterdon County’s LINK bus system.
Jeremiah “Jerry” G. Ford, Jr., who was born Nov. 22, 1952 in Summit, has a scholastic connection to the “Local Talk” area. He was among Orange’s Our Lady of the Valley High School Class of 1970.
His attending OLOV most likely happened while he, his parents and three siblings were living in Madison or Roseland. The Fords had also lived in Rutland, Vt. before Jerry settled in High Bridge until 1995. He graduated from then-Montclair State College in 1974 with a communication degree.
Sister Margaret Ellen Price, brothers Joseph James “Jim” and John, sons Scott Cahill, Marc Cahill and Christopher Cahill and five grandchildren are among his survivors. Beloved wife Barbara Cahill-Ford died in 2010.
Ford’s Funeral Mass was held at Califon’s St. John Neumann Catholic Church, followed by interment at Cokesbury’s Mountain View Cemetery, Sept. 14.
BLOOMFIELD – The township’s police and public school district are continuing the investigation of “suspicious juveniles” on Bloomfield High School property Sept. 11, Two suspects were under Bloomfield Police Department arrest and were referred to Essex County Family Court by Sept. 12.
The sighting of the two said juveniles “in the vicinity” of the high school at 9 a.m. that Wednesday prompted a two-hour BHS lockdown. Some parents arrived early to pick up their students after the lockdown was lifted at 11 a.m.
The just over two hours overlapped the timeline some people were observing of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon and the crash of a fourth hijacked airliner in Shanksville, Pa. Several students told a reporter that they had huddled together in the classroom until Bloomfield police officers conducted a sweep of BHS.
BPS Superintendent Salvatore Goncalves, later that afternoon, said that the lockdown was done as a precaution and that its coordination with the police department was conducted as planned. Police officers concluded that the intruders had left. Normal instruction resumed by Noon.
Bloomfield Public Library Director Holly Bell lent space to township Health Director Paula Pelkes and a social worker for a students-only counseling opportunity that afternoon.
The two minors have been charged with juvenile delinquency – trespass. There wer no reported injuries.
“We take all security threats seriously,” said Bloomfield Police Chief George Ricci that Thursday. “We’ll ensure that the juveniles who unlawfully entered the school and disrupted the school day will face consequences.”
MONTCLAIR – Neighbors who came to the Sept. 4 township zoning board of adjustment meeting over a South End townhouse proposal may have been thinking, “It’s Deja-vu all over again!”
They may have been prompted by late fellow resident, baseball hall of famer and philosopher Yogi Berra’s quote because Montclair Sky BNC, LLC’s plan to replace 400 Orange Rd. with seven townhouses is a lot like the one the board had denied two decades ago.
Montclair Sky would be replacing the now-vacant Wallwood Gardens with four townhouse buildings fronting Orange Road, Pleasant Way to its south and Ward Place to its north. Wallwood had added a second story and a greenhouse to the former service station. (The site is not to be confused with the ex-Shell/Pyramid station that is now an empty lot across Orange Road.)
The lot has Rosedale Cemetery across Pleasant and a small retail/commercial building across Orange but is otherwise surrounded by single family homes. Neighbor Janet Hurbert testified that she bought her house 20 years ago in part because 400 Orange Rd. is an R1 zone for single family houses.
Lee D. Klien, traffic engineer for the applicant, testified that the townhouses’ vehicular entrance and exit would be on the Pleasant Way side. He calculated that the development would add three a.m. drive departures and four p.m. drive arrivals per workday.
Klien said he performed no additional traffic calculations because the townhouses would add less than 100 cars to Orange Road’s traffic volume per week. Hurbert countered that Klien’s report should have included NJTransit’s 34M bus stop and nearby elementary school traffic.
The zoning board will resume Montclair Sky’s hearing at its October meeting.
BELLEVILLE – A Funeral Mass was held for township official and lifelong Bellevilite Thomas D. Grolimond here at St. Peter’s Church Sept. 16.
Grolimond, 63, had died Sept. 11 at Newark’s University Hospital. He had retired from his long standing job as Township Inspector in January. He may be better remembered by those in and around Belleville for his public and civic service.
Grolimond was elected to the Belleville Board of Education Trustees, third out of a field of 10, in 2016, after an unsuccessful run in 2015. His single term through 2020 included being selected as Board President by his peers in 2019, helping to shepherd Belleville Public Schools through reforms to prevent a future $4.5 million budget deficit as it had suffered in 2015. A bond consultant, in 2019, reported an improved bond rating as a result of the structural corrections.
During 2016-20, Grolimond doubled as Chairman of the Belleville Historic Commission. He represented the commission during several honorary street renaming ceremonies after Belleville veterans or historic figures. He was also a member of the Belleville Planning Board and, in 2014, on the council’s transportation committee.
Outside of Town Hall and Board of Education offices., Grolimond was a member of the local Knights of Columbus Chapter 835 and, for five years, the Kiwanis Club.
Born March 19, 1961 in Clara Maass Hospital, Grolimond graduated with the Belleville High School Class of 1979. He and wife Maria were godfather and godmother to godson Dominic Grolimond. Sister Susan Edelmann and several nephews and nieces are also among his survivors.
