TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Although it took the Newark Fire Department nearly 90 minutes to quench a transformer fire here at the Stephen Crane Senior Housing Complex Nov. 23, its repair and recovery has lasted well into the Thanksgiving Day weekend.
“Local Talk” had noticed temporary fencing blocking off the northern and western sides of 920 Franklin Ave. as late as 8 a.m. Dec. 2. A Public Service Electric & Gas utility truck was in front of the building and an Optimum cable work van parked in the rear lot with access to the gated back at Noon Nov. 29. The van was parked next to a pair of open utility doors with blackening soot trailing above them and onto two rear second floor apartment unit facades.
The Monday morning and Friday afternoon views contrasted with three PSE&G trucks and a Newark Housing Authority car seen parked in front of the 10-story tower at 2:45 p.m. Nov. 24. There were several bystanders watching the repairs; it was not clear whether the watchers were among the 87 residents from 39 families who were evacuated and offered American Red Cross-arranged temporary housing.
An NHA spokesman said Nov. 27 that most of the affected residents were allowed back in once power was restored, except a few who had the sooted apartment exteriors.
Newark Public Safety Director Emanuel Miranda said that the first NFD units responded to the North Newark transformer fire at 5 p.m. that Saturday. Power had been lost on Franklin/North 6th St. addresses Heller Parkway South to Bloomfield Avenue and as far west as North 8th Street by the Belleville border. The area includes two neighboring Crane Senior Citizens’ towers.
Miranda said that the fire was brought under control by 6:24 p.m. Eight people took up the local Red Cross’ temporary sheltering offer. The fire’s cause remains under investigation.
IRVINGTON – The township’s zoning board of adjustment officials are preparing to consider a proposal to consolidate four industrial properties in the South Ward at their Dec. 12 live Zoom meeting.
It appears that either Richards Manufacturing or Bradford Holdings are looking to expand the electrical and gas fitting maker’s footprint at Lyons Avenue and Coit Street. Bradford has owned 517 Lyons Ave. since 2021 and Richards has been its tenant since 2023.
Richards and/or Bradford, as 212 Coit LLC, wants to add 196, 206 and 212 Coit St. onto 517 Lyons. It would expand the two-story building’s 3.62 acres to 5.11 acres. 212 Coit LLC has owned the other three lots and their single story buildings since April 26, 2024. All four lots are within Irvington’s industrial zone.
Going by the legal notice published Nov. 26 by 212 Coit’s attorney, Lawerance A. Calli, of Kinnelon, all four buildings would be replaced by a three-story warehouse of about 48,300 square feet. 212 Coit is seeking several bulk variances, including the creation of a 50-space parking lot for passenger cars and loading/unloading truck trailers with appropriate landscaping.
212 Coit’s proposal details may be spelled out when the zoning board posts its dec. 12 agenda. That agenda will follow their Dec. 2 meeting and agenda.
EAST ORANGE – Police officers here and in Newark are looking for up to seven suspects in two stolen vehicles who robbed and shot three young men in this city’s Pecks Ridge section on Thanksgiving Day.
City officers responded to a Davis Place woman’s call that her 21-year-old son had been shot in the legs. They found the victim at Church Place and North Maple Avenue, a block east of Davis, with a bullet wound going through one leg and into the other.
The victim said he was talking at Church and North Maple with a 20- and a 21- year-old man, his friends, when they noticed a black 2019 Cadillac XTS and a white Volkswagen Jetta driving by with an overall seven hooded occupants aboard.
The two vehicles’ occupants, on their second pass by the corner trio, got out – and one of them had a handgun. They robbed all three, including a cell phone and the gun carrier shot the victim before fleeing.
Newark police told their East Orange colleagues that a man was relieved of his 2019 Cadillac XTS by two ski mask-wearing and gun-toting carjackers along their Sylvan Avenue at 2 p.m. The VW Jetta was later identified as used in a felonious armed robbery in New York City.
ORANGE – A fire that heavily damaged the vacant former Rossi Paint and Decorating headquarters here at 403-05 Main St. Dec. 1 may well have hastened the 1876 building’s anticipated demise.
The Orange Building Department will receive a demolition order from its owner – the City of Orange – once a standard procedure investigation is conducted by inspectors from the city, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the State Fire Marshal.
OFD “Deputy Chief Riviera” said that the first city firefighters arrived at the 148-year-old three story brick building at 9:30 p.m. Sunday and found heavy fire and smoke coming from its top floor. Riviera pulled a Signal 11 for mutual aid while firefighters began ventilating the building.
Mutual aid came from Irvington, East Orange, West Orange, South Essex and Belleville units to the scene. Additional on-scene support came from Orange’s police, OEM, Fire Prevention and Department of Public Works; University Hospital EMS, the Belleville Cascade Unit, PSE&G, “NJTransit Rehab” and the Bell and Siren Club.
Buses on NJTransit’s 21, 24, 41, 44, 71 and 73 routes were detoured from Main Street from High Street/Scotland Road east to South Essex Street. DPW employees spread salt on the Main Street sidewalk to deter water freezing in the 20-degree cold.
The combined firefighting force had extinguished the blaze on the second floor by 10:07 p.m. and put out fires on the third floor and attic. Part of the perimeter demolition fencing that was put up around the ex-Rossi HQ and 395 Main St. (the 1971-built YWCA of the Oranges) in April were taken down to gain access.
Fire damage was kept to 401-05 Main and did not spread to 395 Main and 407 Main/12 High St. All three buildings have been vacant since the city’s respective April 28, 2016 and March 29, 2019 purchases. The three properties are to be the site of a six-story Orange REC Center (on the first two floors) and apartment building (on the upper floors) that has been in the works since 2015.
A vinyl banner heralding the coming Orange REC Center that went up with the fencing was blown down in October and removed. Rossi Paint moved into the former Sovereign/National Westminster Bank building in 2019 as part of the Orange REC Center land swap agreement.
WEST ORANGE – Relatives of two children and the family matriarch who died from a July 13 Valley Section house fire filed two civil lawsuits Nov. 12, Oct. 24 and Oct. 17 under the New Jersey Product Liability Act – including the estate of the deceased grandmother.
The first cousin of the deceased Grace Drury’s late husband – Mary Kate Drury – filed suit in State Superior Court-Newark Nov. 12 against the Wertheimer & Sons cleanup company and its subcontractors who worked on the Liberty Street house after a January fire there. The suit alleges that the cleaners had failed to install fire detectors and other safety equipment and neglected other safety measures that would make the cleaned up house fit for occupancy.
Drury, 75, and grandsons Adain Thomas Drury, eight, and Anthony Joseph Drury, three died within three days from the July 13 blaze from extensive injuries and smoke inhalation. Responding West Orange police officers and firefighters said they found heavy smoke coming from its kitchen. Township inspectors later noticed that the smoke detectors.
M.K. Drury had earlier filed a $10 million tort claim on Oct. 17 against township officials for allegedly not conducting timely inspections.
Jennifer Dougherty, mother and executor of sons Adian and AJ’s estate, meanwhile filed suit Oct. 24 against Montville-based Wertheimer – and Grace Drury’s estate – among other respondents. What makes the Pennsylvanian resident’s suit against M.K. Drury’s is that she asserts that the late Grace had failed to safely maintain the house.
Township officials and Wertheimer have so far declined comment.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The attorney for three of the victims of a former sexually abusing Columbia High School teacher has filed an appeal of an Appellate Court-Newark’s Oct. 8 ruling involving the South Orange-Maplewood School District.
John W. Baldante, Esq, who is a partner of a Haddonfield firm, said that he has filed his appeal to SCONJ on Nov. 20. The three-judge panel had ruled that the two-town public school district was not totally responsible for the CHS language arts and special education teacher’s behavior.
The three appellate judges had ruled that neither SOMSD or the Upper Freehold Regional School District were “vicariously liable” – that the employer was responsible for employees’ conduct while the teacher was sexually assaulting victims. The appellate panel, who had heard arguments Oct. 12, 2022, had combined the two cases.
Baldante is representing three men who were 14 to 17 years old when their teacher, Nicole Dufault, engaged in sexual activity with them 2013-14. Those instances had happened in her classroom during school hours and in her car on and off school property. Dufault was arrested at her Nutley address after a video recording of one of her trysts with a victim surfaced.
Dufault is serving a three-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual contact. That suspension included forfeiting her teacher certificate and future public employment plus a lifetime of parole supervision.
The appellate panel, however, does not totally absolve SOMSD of its responsibility. It and Upper Freehold are still legally responsible for supervising its employees.
BLOOMFIELD – A GoFundMe.com page as of Nov. 29 was 85 percent towards raising funds for a New Jersey Department of Corrections officer who was hurt in a Nov. 6 motorcycle-deer accident here on the Garden State Parkway.
New Jersey State Police PIO Sgt. Charles Marchan said from the agency’s West Trenton headquarters that Senior CPO Joel Hernandez was riding his way home north on the GSP when he struck a deer by Milepost 150.7 that Wednesday.
That mile marker would place the collision between Parkway’s northbound on-ramp from westbound Belleville Avenue and across from the Essex toll barriers on the Parkway’s southbound lanes. The crash time was not reported, nor any related delays. The deer was supposedly killed.
Hernandez, 54, has since had several surgeries to reset broken bones and stop internal bleeding. His recovery period is estimated at three months.
Hernandez has been with the NJDOC since 2016 and, as of Nov. 5, was assigned to Woodbridge’s Adult Treatment and Diagnostic Center. He is also a member of the department’s honor guard.
GoFundMe.com page organizers said that Hernandez is his family’s sole breadwinner. That family includes caring for his bedridden mother.
Hernandez, 54, has since had several surgeries at a local hospital for broken bones and internal injuries.
MONTCLAIR – The Township Council and Interim Attorney Baul Burr held an executive session Nov. 26 over the status of Chief Financial Officer Padmaja Rao’s employment status – without accepting her request to have the session held in public view.
Rao, along with three other township employees, here handed Rice notices by Burr. The notice informed the foursome that their employment’s future were to be discussed in the council’s closed door segment and that she had the can request having the hearing held in public.
Rice notices are named after the 1978 Regina Rice vs. Union County Regional High School District case. Rice, 78, retired from the district before 1997 and died in her native Lancaster, Pa. March 17, 2018. The district was dissolved June 30, 1997, returning its four high schools to their respective Berkeley Heights, Clark, Kenilworth and Springfield home districts.
Burr told Rao and her supporters at the Montclair Council Chamber that she will not get her requested open meeting. A majority of council members also wanted Rao’s hearing in the open – but only for her matter.
The interim attorney said that the complaint or complaints against her are intertwined with the three others and would violate the state’s Open Public Meetings Act. All four would have to request a Rice notice hearing to be open; the other three’s request status was not known.
Council then entered executive session with Interim Manager Michael Lapolla but not Burr. An attorney hired from outside represented the township behind closed doors. It is Lapolla and not the mayor or council who has the power to retain or fire Rao. What the complaints against all four employees are have not been disclosed as of press time.
The township and Rao had agreed in May to a $1.25 million settlement of her harassment and intimidation suit against certain Montclair officials. The tenured 10-year employee had notified administrators and elders of their not qualifying for a public health insurance benefits plan in 2021, starting a chain of events which led to the firing of then-manager Timothy Stafford last year. None of the current council were on the dais when Rao blew the whistle.
GLEN RIDGE – The Borough has launched its annual Roslyn Bolcato Toys for Tots Drive – now in memory of its founder – here Nov. 26.
“Roslyn and Anthony Bolcato began a tradition by donating to a local Toys for Tots drive; they never imagined that their generosity and drive would span a lifetime and then some,” declared the borough on its Facebook page. “With your help we can make this the biggest collection year yet in memory of former Glen Ridge employee Roslyn.”
Roslyn Marie Bolcato, 83 – a 23-year municipal employee and, with husband Anthony, a 58-year borough resident – died Oct. 20. Born Roslyn Marie Fieramoscia in Newark Dec. 4, 1936, her family moved to 163 North 16th St in East Orange. The Essex County Girls Vocational High School Class of 1954 graduate used her beautician skills at several Bloomfield hairdressers before starting her borough career in October 1989 at age 59; she eventually retired as administrative assistant to then-Police Chief Sheila Byron- Lagattuta.
Fieramoscia met and married World War Two U.S. Navy veteran and Bellevillite Anthony Bolsca in February 1961 and moved into the borough’s South End to raise Rosanne Bolcato-Reddie. It was during their first Christmas there that they started donating to the USMC-run Toys for Tots.
Granddaughter Alyssa Lyn Cammarato Reddin is also among her survivors. Husband Anthony, 77 – who ran Tony’s Deli at 33 Carteret St in Bloomfield’s Watsessing section with her 1977-89, died Nov. 10, 2002. Brothers Gabriel Anthony and Ettore Victor Fieramosco and sister Lucille Ann Cammarato also predeceased her.
Roslyn, after an Oct. 25 Funeral Mass at East Orange’s Holy Name of Jesus Church, was buried alongside Anthony at Bloomfield’s Glendale Cemetery. Memorial toys should go to her same-name Toys for Tots drive.
New and unwrapped toys may dropped off at the Glen Ridge Municipal Building, 825 Bloomfield Ave., or the Glen Ridge Public Library, 240 Ridgewood Ave., on or by Dec. 18.
BELLEVILLE – The Township Council, after mulling a proposed land swap for 202 and 213-15 Belleville Ave., adopted the developer’s proposal at their Nov. 26 meeting.
202 Belleville LLC owns the long-closed Wet Gentlemen’s Club at 213-15 Belleville and its across the street vacant parking lot at 202 Belleville. The prospective redeveloper wants to replace the single story former go-go bar and restaurant a four-story apartment building – and offer the parking lot to the township as a public municipal lot.
The council – after listening to Second Ward Councilman Vincent Cozzareli’s motion to adopt Resolution 32-24 and Fourth Ward Councilwoman Diana Guardabasco’s seconding – unanimously adopted the measure that Wednesday night.
It is not clear on whether 202 Belleville LLC is an offshoot or successor to Meekasa, of Maplewood. Meekasa bought the properties in 2023 – the same year the Belleville Planning Board had considered designating the lots as An Area In Need of Redevelopment.
Wet, which was last open Feb. 22, 2022, and predecessor Red Shingle Go-Go bar, had several visits by Belleville police. Two Elizabeth men were arrested in 2015 for a murder of a Newar man in the parking lot, with one of them pleading guilty in 2016 and is serving a 20-year state prison sentence.
NUTLEY – The Township Committee intends to hold a demonstration of Nutley’s new garbage collection system here at their Town Hall chambers 7 p.m. Dec. 12 although the system’s new carts began appearing here on Dec. 2.
Those 95 gal. carts, each with a 300 lbs. of “standard household waste” capacity, will be delivered to residents now through Jan. 2 – when the new system starts. Each cart can hold three times the volume of the outgoing garbage cans. The carts, which are township-owned, have wheels and a sealed lid.
Owners of two-, three- and four-family houses will also receive vegetation carts for designated yard waste, including: tree limbs and branches, grass clippings, residential leaves, shrubs, straw, bushes, plants and sod.
Nutley Mayor John V. Kelley IV said that the new carts that his committee colleagues had approved Oct. 24 will be more efficient and cost-effective. Savings of the outgoing system will save the township “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Cart users will roll them out to the curb to the designated automatic pickup calendar. Extra carts are available on lease. Dec. 12 and the previous Nov. 21 demonstration are and will be recorded for viewing on Nutley’s website and Facebook pages and YouTube channel.
The municipal website has links for the system, on recycling and the cart manufacturer.
