TOWN WATCH
EAST ORANGE – The New Jersey Department of Education gave the East Orange School District some $9.3 million worth of financial good news here Feb. 28. It is not clear, however, how much of that state aid will go towards plugging the district’s $25 million current budget Gap.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Christopher C. Irving, Mayor Theodore “Ted” Green and other city education and municipal officials welcomed the NJDOE letter they had received that Friday as the largest state aid increase – 5.3 percent – that the district had received in 17 years. They cheered the incoming funds as “outstanding” and “supportive of meeting its strategic goals.”
City officials envision the increase as applicable to make infrastructural improvements on the 20 buildings serving some 9,000 Pre-Kindergarten-12th Grade students. The additional money would also help the district “settle several collective bargaining contracts” under negotiation.
The municipal officials thanked the State Legislative District No. 34’s State Senator Britnee Timberlake and Assembly members Carmen Morales and Michael Venezia for their help.
There is more to the now $184.6 million in state aid coming to EOSD, however, that meets the eye. First, the allocation is for the 2025-26 School Budget. The figure will be plugged into the budget’s final draft due in Trenton in May so that it can be dialed into the State Budget on or before June 30.
Second, EOSD is among some 344 of the state’s 574 public school districts – 68 percent -who will receive an aid increase under Gov. Phil Murphy’s $12.1 billion education portion of his proposed Fiscal Year 2026 State Budget. That outlay is $386 million more than the current 2024-25 outlay – and is subject to State Legislature approval.
The city school district resorted to laying off or transferring 93 of its employees Dec. 15 to help plug a $25 million gap in the current budget. Dr. Irving, who sounded the alarm just after Labor Day, was hired on July 1. EOSD remains the last “Local Talk” area public school district with a mayor-appointed board of education.
NEWARK – Those Central Ward voters who intend to participate in the April 15 Board of Education Member and School Budget Election will not find a space for a proposed council vacancy election.
They may thank Superior Court Judge Robert Gardner’s Feb. 19 ruling for denying the Newark Democratic Committee’s request to add that election on the April 15 ballot and from holding any special election that would fill the now-Congresswoman LaMonica McIver’s council seat. The Central Ward’s representative will not be decided by voters until the regularly scheduled Nov. 10 General Election.
Gardner, in his ruling, cited state election law in keeping partisan elections off the nonpartisan boards of education ballot except for general elections.
“We live with the statute the way the statute was written by the (state) legislature,” said Gardner. “They knew what they were saying when they did it. Obviously, we have to assume that they did.”
Gardner’s ruling sided with the plaintiff – the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. Deputy State Attorney Craig Kaiser asserted that there would be confusion among 16- and 17-year-old voters over which part of the proposed April 15 ballot they could and could not vote on.
Newark’s high school sophomores and juniors, for the first time in New Jersey, are being registered to vote in the April school board and budget election – but only that.
McIver resigned from her ward seat Jan. 9 after Congressional District-10 voters granted her a full two-year House of Representatives term in the Nov. 5, 2024 General Election. Voters first had her succeed the late Donald M. Payne, Jr.’s unexpired term in the Sept. 18 special election.
IRVINGTON – A demolition crew may be levelling what was left of 59 Washington Ave that remained from a Feb. 25 fire that had destroyed it.
The fire, which happened during the latter half of Wednesday morning’s rush hour, caused southbound traffic from the Garden State Parkway into the Springfield Avenue Five Points business district detoured. 61 Washington, to the rubble’s immediate north, suffered enough serious damage to have that family accept local American Red Cross temporary shelter.
The first Irvington firefighters responded to “multiple calls of a house fire between 8 and 8:30 a.m. They arrived to find the front of 59 Washington engulfed in flames. Occupants there and from adjacent houses had self-evacuated by then.
That avenue’s southernmost block was blocked while a second alarm was pulled. It took firefighters about an hour to bring the blaze under control but not before 59 Washinton had partially collapsed. No injuries were reported.
Neighbors told an on-scene reporter that 59 Washington was a vacant building but was occupied by squatters. Sometimes listed as 57 Washington, the 2.5 story wood frame house was built in 1897.
Residents of 61 Washington, a two story building constructed in 2000, were allowed back in to retrieve or salvage what belongings they could carry out.
ORANGE – Proponents and concerned residents made their cases regarding turning the former Orange Memorial Hospital and Ippolito Funeral Home tract into a $350 million, 1,005-apartment redevelopment here at the city’s community forum at First Shiloh Baptist Church Feb. 19.
Gateway Merchant Banking managing partner Terrance Murray told the audience at the former First Presbyterian Church of Orange that the redevelopment will bring more than 1,500 residents, 1,300 parking spaces, 40,000 square feet of storefront retail and 1.5 acres of public courtyard green space.
The former OMH Mary Austin Hall nurses dormitory on Henry Street will become the new Orange City Hall. The inner courtyard will be open to the public during daylight. There will be a year-round ice skating/roller rink. The Boiler Plant and Power House at South Essex Street and Central Avenue will become a restaurant.
“West Orange has a zoo, South Orange the Baird (Center), Maplewood Memorial Park next to the train station and (Jefferson) village; we started to think about what towns don’t have,” said Murray, of South Orange. “Fifteen hundred people living there – think about the commerce and opportunity that comes along with that. The open space will be designed so people can relax and hang out.”
Gateway, as SYMREC Orange JV LLC, has received Orange Planning Board’s approval on a 7-0 Nov. 22 vote. The plan calls for all the other five buildings to be demolished. on what is property mostly on the national and state historical records.
While Murray and Gateway see it as a new public square for Orange, others called for more community-driven input on the pending project. Some residents had hoped for more meetings other than two: one at Feb. 19 and the other at St. Matthew AME Church past press time March 6.
Some perceive that, with Nov. 22 planning board approval and two forums, that the project is “a done deal.”
The project needs final approval from the State Historic Preservation Council in Trenton, who supervise state historic sites. There should also be consent from the Orange Historical Preservation Commission.
WEST ORANGE – It took more than three months but ECPO attorneys said they have brought charges against two men – a township man and one from an adjacent town – for allegedly assaulting a demonstrator in front of a synagogue here Nov. 13.
Moshe Glick, of West Orange and David “Solomon” Silberberg, of Millburn, were scheduled to appear at State Superior Court-Newark Feb. 26. They were to each plead guilty or not guilty to aggravated assault, bias intimidation, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession thereof for an unlawful purpose.
Silberberg and Glick are accused of being a group, according to the investigation report, of “pro-Israeli counter-protestors (who) stormed toward the pro-Palestinian protestors and began ripping away at their materials” before Cong. Ohr Torah Nov. 13.
The protesting victim, an Indian Muslim from Cliffside Park, said someone had ripped a bullhorn from his hands when a man in a ski mask, later identified as Silberberg, pepper sprayed him in his right eye. The victim then tried to wrest the pepper spray from Silberberg’s hand, starting a struggle. Glick was identified as the man who struck the victim on the head with a black metal flashlight.
The investigation was first conducted by West Orange police before turning the probe over to ECPO. The victim had frequently met with the detectives. All three men involved have respective legal representation.
Those Palestinian demonstrators in attendance were protesting a presentation made by a real estate firm specializing in Israeli-area property. The protestors were claiming that some of the land are of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank – which is considered illegal by international law.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The memory of the late Two Towns Community Coalition on Race cofounder Carol Barry-Austin, 71, continues in both municipalities some six weeks after her sudden Jan. 26 death.
Village Mayor Sheena Collum and CCOR separately announced Barry-Austin’s passing on Jan. 28. Born Sept. 9, 1953, Barry-Austn and her attorney husband Clarence had been Tuxedo Park section residents for 46 years. She was a member of the Tuxedo Park Neighborhood Association and several South Orange-Maplewood School District PTA/HSAs – including the latter’s Presidents’ Council and as President.
Carol Barry-Austin was one of several concerned parents and residents who started the CCOR in 1977. She organized that group’s forums, parent advocacy workshops, study groups and critical discussions on the district’s achievement gap.
“For many of us, this is personal,” said Collum at the Village Council meeting prior to holding a moment of silence. “We’ve known Carol for a long time and her husband served wonderfully as a judge for South Orange. She worked at a time where there was a lot of racial bias in real estate and she served in numerous roles of CCOR.”
Carol Barry-Austin was on several CCOR committees, including the Schools Committee and Nominating Committee, for many years. She was the group’s president 2006-08. This was in addition to being a New York Telephone Company (now Verizon) designer of corporate communication networks for 15 years and on the Columbia High School Scholarship Selection Fund.
Carol Barry-Austin received various awards for CCOR and herself, including South Orange as Villager of the Month, the Maplewood Rotary Club Citizenship Award, New Jersey associations of partners in education and school administrators, the American Psychological Association.
Her funeral service at Orange’s St. Matthew AME Church and repast at the Loft in South Orange were held Feb. 15. Her husband, who continues practicing from South Orange, and their children are among her survivors.
BLOOMFIELD – A township man and four other people from four counties have been facing narcotics and weapons possession charges since a Jan. 28 search warrant sweep done by multiple law enforcement agencies.
Jorge Jimenez, 35, said a joint Wayne Police-New Jersey State Police release Feb. 28, faces three counts of possession of controlled dangerous substances with intent to distribute within 1,000 ft. of a school, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of “a large capacity magazine,” a second-degree count of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, third degree possession of marijuana, cocaine and MDMA and third-degree possession of cocaine and MDMA with intent to distribute.
Jimenez’s address near Bloomfield High School was searched by WPD Special Operations Unit and the State Police TEAMS Unit Jan. 28. Similar raids were conducted that day in Elmwood Park, Saddle Brook, Paterson and, in Sussex County, Montague. They were assisted by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and police from Clifton, Haledon and Pompton Lakes.
The raids yielded an overall six handguns and rifles, five 30-round ammunition magazines, a ballistic vest, 5,910 folds of heroin, 41.5 tablets of Ecstasy, 23 tablets of Xanax, five pounds of marijuana, five ounces of cocaine, a half-ounce of crack cocaine, a gram of methamphetamine, and $23,923 in currency.
WPD Detective Capt. Dan Daly, in the release, said that the raids were results from a “months-long shared investigation” of an illegal regional drug distribution network.
Others arrested on similar charges were: Jaime Arango, 42, of Bergenfield; Jason Guadagno, 46, of Montague and Michael Ortega, 42, of Elmwood Park.. Andre Hamilton, 42, of Saddle Brook, was arrested for failing to notify law enforcement of an address change and failing to verify that address with law enforcement.
MONTCLAIR – The Municipal Council, at its Feb. 25 meeting, has selected Stephen D. Marks, of Kearny, as its fifth Town Manager in the last three years. Marks, who will take the office keys from Michael Lapolla April 1, was the finalist after an applicant field of 34 and one of nine semifinalists.
Marks, who will receive a $235,000 annual salary, comes directly from being Kearny’s business administrator the last nine years. The Rutgers master of public administration degree holder has also been an administrator for Hoboken and Hudson County’s planning director.
Mayor Dr. Renee Baskerville and the council will spend part of March thanking Lapolla, of Brielle, for his interim work. The former 1997-2002 Union County manager was hired Aug. 1, 2023 but was called to serve Aug. 7 on the late Thomas Hartnett’s Aug. 6 death at his Normandy Beach home. Lapolla first served as a part-timer but the council later promoted him to full-time status.
Hartnett, who was town manager here 2003-10, was hired July 19, 2023 to return Brian Scantlebury to his deputy status. Montclair’s elders called Scantlebury up after they had first suspended Timothy Stafford with pay Oct. 26, 2022 and eventually fired him April 20, 2023.
Hartnett, whose suspension came after an internal investigation, was accused of creating a hostile work environment plus harassment and retaliation of whistleblower. At least one current and a former township employee sued Stafford and the township after, in part, finding that several council members were receiving a state health acre insurance benefits plan for which they were not qualified for. (The Township Council has since had a complete electoral turnover.)
UPDATE: Those ordering or getting takeout food from Montclair’s eateries, since Saturday, will have to ask for condiments, utensils and napkins. The newly passed “Skip the Stuff” ban took effect March 1 to cut down on said free and disposable items and to help food vendors save on the waste and expense.
BELLEVILLE – The last 104 credit-card-only curbside parking meters along Washington Avenue between Mill Street and Joralemon Avenue may well have been removed before the next edition of “Local Talk” comes out. Most of the meters have been covered by red hoods on Feb. 27.
Once those meters are gone, bring your smartphone and make sure that it has a ParkMobile app. It will be the only way to park along Washington and on the three municipal lots off the avenue. It is part of a “cashless” plan township elders announced in its Feb. 20 announcement.
Parking lots at “129” Washington between B.K. Laundromat and Topaz Thai and “160” Washington just north of Town Hall have long lost their meters. The lot that opened Jan. 1 at 219 Washington -north of the Belleville Public Library where the veterinarian’s office stood – never had meters.
Motorists, from there on out, are asked to find the nearest pole-mounted ParkMobile sign and follow its instructions. One is to download ParkMobile from the Apple App Store or Google Pay, scan the sign’s QC code and Text “Park” to 77223.” One will be asked to input the sign’s serial code.
Those needing help are to call (833) or keyboard Support: ParkMobile.io.
Other ParkMobile contracted towns – including Newark, Irvington, East Orange and Orange – have variations of meters, kiosks and signs. Belleville, however, is the first in “Local Talk” territory to solely rely on the green signs.
NUTLEY – Township officials are contemplating their next legal option since a Feb. 4 court ruling over a proposed truck terminal or warehouse on the ON3/Roche Pharmaceutical tract ruling has gone in favor of the property’s developer.
State Superior Court-Newar Judge Russell Passamano, in Nutley Zoning Board of Adjustment and Planning Board v. Prism Capital Partners, ruled that the former party had “arbitrarily and capriciously” labelled the latter’s 2020 proposed 147,900-sq. ft. warehouse as a truck terminal.
Prism, who was designated by Nutley and Clifton a redeveloper of the 114-acre Roche property, sought to build the warehouse on 11 acres by Nutley’s Kingsland Street. The facility, which may be scheduled for Nutley Planning Board’s March meeting, features 40 loading docks and parking for 136 cars.
NPB, in late 2020, applied the township’s truck terminal ordinance in denying the warehouse application. The ordinance defines a truck terminal as a property where more than three 1.5-ton vehicles whose gross vehicle weight of between 6,001 and 10,000 pounds each are parked overnight.
Nutley’s zoning officer, in February 2021, sided with the planning board’s interpretation to deny Prism a zoning variance permit. Prism Principal Gene Diaz, saying that “a single family home with three Ford F-250s (pickup trucks) would be considered a truck terminal,” filed suit against Nutley that August.
