TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Lawyers for Cong. LaMonica McIver and DHS are to present oral arguments and dueling dismissal motions before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jamel K. Semper’s Newark courtroom Oct. 21. McIver’s attorneys are demanding DHS to remove social media posts and press releases they said are prejudicing potential jurors and infringing on her right to an impartial trial.
McIver (10th CD-Newark) and five of her New Jersey Congressional delegation colleagues are meanwhile anticipating that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem will replay to their Sept. 30 charges that visitors to Delaney Hall here be “treated with dignity and respect” on or before Oct. 16. Her co-signatories include Rob. J. Menendez (Eighth CD-Newark).
McIver and her lawyers, on Oct. 6, are asserting before Semper that DHS has more than ignored their requests to take down false statements about her May 9 arrest and her resulting indictment on assaulting and impeding a federal law enforcement officer — for the third time.
They are particularly incensed over the DHS’s Sept. 26 “DHS is Fighting Back Against Antifa Violence” press release in the wake of President Donald J. Trump’s executive order labelling Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. That release’s fourth major bullet point, “DHS Files Charges Against Congress Member who Physically Attacked ICE Officers. The first subpoint said that “Several members of Congress broke into the Delaney Hall Detention Facility and assaulted ICE officers.”
McIver is named in the second subpoint “as caught on camera physically assaulting officers who were lawfully preventing her efforts to trespass on federal property. The third and last subpoint stated that she was indicted by a federal grand jury for assaulting said officer.
DHS may have left their Sept. 26 release on their site in part because, due to the partial federal government shutdown, has no one to so remove.
McIver, Menendez and colleagues Josh Gottheimer, Robert Norcross, Frank Pallone, Nellie Pou, in their Sept. 30 letter to Noem, cited weather conditions facing visitors awaiting Delaney Hall entry on Sept. 6. Visitors were standing beside a metal perimeter fence during a torrential rain and lightning storm. They said that the metal fence and lightning storm “an obvious and severe risk of being electrocuted.”
IRVINGTON – The motorcyclist who was injured after being injected from his bike at the start of Sept. 22’s afternoon rush hour may have been released from a local hospital by now. Irvington Police detectives may still be investigating the accident although no updates have been given since Sept. 23.
IPD officers and local EMS were summoned to Springfield Avenue and Grove Street on an accident report. They found the rider and the separated motorcycle there at 3:15 p.m. – while school buses were taking their students home for the day.
Traffic – including buses on NJTransit’s 25, Go25, 37, 70 and 90 routes – were detoured while the rider was rushed to a local emergency ward and a field investigation was conducted. Essex County’s Division of Roads and Bridges was also notified since the avenue is also County Road 603.
Apartment Blaze Probed
Irvington fire inspectors are looking for the cause of a predawn Oct. 12 fire that damaged an apartment building on the northeast corner of Myrtle and W. Avon avenues.
Firefighters responded to “multiple calls” of a fire at 172 Myrtle Ave. at 3:20 a.m. Sunday. The first units of the two-alarm fire found a fast moving blaze entering the four-unit building’s second floor walls and cockloft. IFD units brought the fire under control in 30 minutes.
There has been no report on whether anyone was displaced from the remodeled 1936 structure or were injured.
EAST ORANGE – City police detectives and fire inspectors are probing the circumstances surrounding an Oct. 11 collision that injured five people – a civilian and four firefighters.
East Orange Police and a local ambulance crew said they had responded to a collision at Freeway Drive East and South Walnut Street at about 10 p.m. Saturday.
They arrived to find East Orange Fire Department Rescue 1 and a car involved. The latter’s driver suffered a serious head injury and was rushed to a local hospital for treatment.
The four members of EOFD Rescue 1 were taken to the hospital for observation and released. The said firefighters were said to have suffered “no severe injuries.”
Authorities have not said whether Rescue 1 was responding to a call at the time. Rescue 1 is housed in EOFD Headquarters, 468 Dr. MLK Jr., Blvd./Main St.
ORANGE – Property owners who have been working to get their properties out of tax delinquency, thanks to the City Council Oct. 7, have less time to pay up or face a Nov. 11 tax certificate sale.
The council that Tuesday night approved Resolution 415-2025, which permits the Tax Assessor to hold an accelerated tax sale on the traditional federal Veterans Day holiday. Property owners who are up to a year behind on their city and school property taxes and/or water and sewer charges are considered delinquent.
The tax sale, whether accelerated or regularly scheduled, involved the city raising money by selling tax lien certificates to third parties. Property owners then have two years to settle with the new tax certificate owners before facing foreclosure.
Resolution 415’s passage occurred the same session where the Council held a public hearing and final approval of Ordinance 55-2025 – which grants about $2.7 million in salary increases for 26 administrative, legislative and other job titles.
The range maximums have now gone up by $12,272 – or 5.465 percent – on average. The range runs from 5.2 percent for directors of community service, finance, law and recreation plus the Municipal Clerk to 7.7 percent for the Tax Assessor and the Tax Collector.
The Council gave themselves a 33 percent increase on their $30,000 annual salary to $40,000. The Mayor’s $55,000 salary has been raised to $75,000 or a 35 percent boost.
WEST ORANGE – When the township’s planning board takes up West Essex Highlands, Inc.’s proposal to build 496 apartment units on 120 acres of old growth forest in West Orange’s northwestern corner Oct. 22, they will include a growing file of opposing statements and rebuttal studies from neighbors near and far.
The Essex County Board of Commissioners passed an Oct. 8 resolution onto West Orange’s planning board, Township Council and Mayor Susan McCartney opposing WEHI’s latest plan. They said that building on the Second Watchung Mountain Ridge would deteriorate the water quality of Canoe Brook and increase downhill water erosion and flooding.
The county commission’s Wednesday night resolution followed Maplewood Township’s similar resolution they had passed on Oct. 7. The County and Maplewood’s resolutions were preceded by a Sept. 26 letter of opposition from 40 public, environmental, conservation and civic officials and groups.
That Sept. 26 letter signees include the municipal councils and/or environmental commissions from West Orange, South Orange, Montclair, Essex Fells, Verona, Roseland, West Caldwell, East Hanover, Raritan and Rahway rivershed coalitions, the Ramapough-Munsee Lenape Nation, WeCareNJ and the League of Women Voters.
WEHI’s latest proposal – the fourth in the last 20 years – calls for 100 units to go towards West Orange’s Affordable Housing and Fair Share obligation. Thirty of the 120 acres would be cleared for building three “low- to mid- rise” apartment buildings.
The township and the developer made a 2020 settlement to require higher density housing if part of it would satisfy the state Department of Community Affairs’ now 2025-35 housing fair share. There was a resolution placed on the Oct. 1 council agenda that would waive environmental regulations on WHEI — but has not reappeared on subsequent agendas.
The development, if approved, would be built by Canoe Brook’s headwaters. Canoe Brook, as cited by county commissioners, provides drinking water for 84,000 people in West Orange, South Orange, Maplewood, Livingston and Millburn.
SOUTH ORANGE – New Jersey American Water, on Oct. 8, said it will start improving the village’s water supply infrastructure now that it has fully absorbed the South Orange Water Department for $19.7 million.
NJAW, after getting New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ blessing Sept. 18, integrating the village’s infrastructure and billing while adding about 5,000 customers. Around 62 percent of participating village voters approved the village selling its municipal department to the regional utility in a Nov. 5, 2024 public question referendum.
The new customers are now awaiting the start of $50 million in improvements that NJAW has pledged to do over the next 10 years. Those upgrades include the replacement of any lead and galvanized service lines and fittings it finds along the way; the state, in 2021, required all public and private water suppliers to replace all lead service lines on or by 2031.
Other work includes:
- Replacing the Crest Drive Standpipe.
- Rehabilitate the Newstead Watersphere.
- Upgrading or replacing water mains and fire hydrants.
- What findings are made after a village-wide survey.
NJAW, in its 2024 proposal to the Village Council, has offered to freeze South Orange customers’ rates through 2027. Water rate increases through 2030 will then rise three percent annually.
MAPLEWOOD – The recent work by the township, New Jersey American Water and their contractors along the Hilton section’s Springfield Avenue since early got a finishing ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER” touch here Oct. 9.
Two trucks and four employees from Straight Edge Striping, of Middlesex, appeared across from the Maplewood Police/Maplewood-South Orange Municipal Court Building at about 10 a.m. that Thursday. An MPD officer promptly coned off the westbound turning lane onto Burnet Avenue and Tuscan Road and westbound Springfield at Boyden Street.
The contractors finished painting “Black Lives Matter” in yellow facing 1618 Springfield Ave. by Noon. Traffic, including NJTransit No. 25 and 70 buses, resumed their normal flow. An employee said that they would similarly letter Springfield’s eastbound lane should they be asked.
The “BLM” re-lettering replaced the original version painted here in the wake of George Floyd’s May 25, 2020 murder at the hands of a Minneapolis, Minn. police officer. The replacement may be in defiance of a USDOT July 1 “SAFE ROADS” memo ordering state departments of transportation to remove any on-street signage or art work that may distract drivers.
Florida’s DOT, under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ direction, removed the rainbow crosswalk in front of The Pulse nightclub site, which doubled as a memorial for its 2016 massacre victims, Aug. 21-22. DeSantis’ order also erased the “Back the Blue” mural in Tampa and a checkered flag intersection motif before NASCAR headquarters in Daytona Beach.
Although Springfield Avenue doubles as State Rt. 124 through Maplewood, the township normally handles its maintenance and related streetscape. NJAW had been replacing lead service lines this summer, prompting detours. The avenue becomes Essex County Road 603 east of Maplewood.
BLOOMFIELD – The traditional Oct. 13 Federal Columbus Day Holiday observance by Bloomfield UNICO continued that Monday morning, and so did “Decolonize Your Town’s” Monday afternoon counterpoint. Both occasions, held six hours apart, continued the exploration on why and how the Genoese’s Oct. 12, 1492 arrival on San Salvador Island is honored.
The Sunday-Monday Northeastern rain storm caused Bloomfield UNICO to forgo its wreath laying at the 1971 Cristoforo Colombo Statue on The Green for the second time in the last 28 years. The local Italian-American service organization, nevertheless, held its annual Fourth Grade Essay Winners Award and pancake breakfast at the Bloomfield Recreation Center.
Former UNICO National President Phil Alongi presented three winners certificates and 10 honorable mentions to this year’s essay winners before an audience of 54 participating families, civic and elected officials. Their essays focused on Columbus’ significance and legacy on society.
Alongi and the audience celebrated First Place Winner Mia Riley Hucks, of the Demarest School; Second Place Winner Jasmine Cao, also Demarest; and Third Place Winner Sophia Victoria Ramsammy, of the Carteret School.
Alongi, who was filling in for the club president, said that he did not know of the dueling Change.org petitions over keeping or removing The Green’s Columbus statue that had been mentioned in social media Oct. 8. The petition to keep the statue in place, as of Oct. 14, drew 1,713 signatures; the removal petitions amassed 1,324.
“Decolonize Your Town” organizer Stefanie Santiago, on her group’s Oct. 13 Facebook posting, said that both petitions were launched in 2020. Santiago, perhaps best known for running a primary campaign for First ward Council, erected two tents to the statue’s north and held a 24-minute address on Columbus as a forerunner of the European colonizer of what became the Americas.
The event drew 28 people over the next hour, the bulk of whom were seemingly evenly divided between supporters and critics. One critic shouted out his refutations at almost every sentence Santiago spoke, prompting two Bloomfield Police officers to strategically stand by. Knights of Columbus member Gabriel Micchelli, speaking for himself, said that the statue should stand for Columbus’ greatness and not his faults while reaching out to Santiago. Ted Glick followed Micchelli’s rebuttal with an appeal to disagree while not being disagreeable.
MONTCLAIR – Registered participating township voters will be deciding two questions that would fill $20.2 million worth of Montclair Public Schools budget holes here Dec. 9.
MPS Superintendent Ruth Turner received Dec. 9 from Essex Clerk Chris Durkin’s Elections Division office to place the following two public questions on its ballot:
Question One: Raise an additional $12.6 million in school property taxes to fill the 2024-25 budget gap. Voters’ no passing this measure would prompt MPS to appeal for a loan for that amount from the New Jersey Department of Education – which would normally be repaid over 30 years and have a state monitor call on future budgets and other financial decisions.
Question Two: Raise an additional $7.6 million from taxpayers for the current 2025-26 budget to keep present levels of staff, extracurricular activities, busing and security.
Council Picks Harrison for Loughman’s Seat
The Township Council chose longtime Montclair Zoning Board of Adjustment Chairman William “Bill” Harrison Oct. 7 to fill Carmel Loughman’s at-large seat until at least November 2026. Harrison, after the council’s unanimous approval that Tuesday night, said that he will step down from the board – where he had been its chairman in 38 of his last 41 years.
Harrison will be filling at least one year of the resigned Loughman’s unexpired term; the council will hold a special November 2026 election to complete her remaining term. It is not known whether Harrison will have the option to run in that election.
BELLEVILLE – Belleville Public Schools students have found themselves taking buses provided by R & May Transportation to and from School 4, Essex County Newark’s Donald M. Payne School of Technology and the county’s West Caldwell Vo-Tech high school since Tuesday.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances,” said BPS Superintendent Dr. Erik Alfonso in an Oct. 9 open letter, “our externally contracted transportation provider is no longer able to continue servicing a portion of our student routes. We’ve proactively secured R & May Transportation to assume those responsibilities, assuming that there’s no disruption in service.”
Alfonso added that there is a possibility of “minor delays over the first few days” while R & May’s drivers learn the routes. R & May, via its website, is a Lodi-based school bus company who has been serving “throughout New Jersey” since 2015.
Handicap Parking Space Audit
Residents holding residential parking space permits are asked to reapply to Township Manager Brain Banda’s office from Sept. 23. Banda told the Township Council that Tuesday night that Police Chief Mark Minichini had conducted an audit of the existing curbside parking spaces and found 34 of them that, in the chief’s estimation, are no longer being used. Those 34 spaces have been dismantled.
The reapplication process includes new rules and fees in the hope of reducing “abuse.”
