by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Authorities are still searing as of press time for the driver and shooters who left a city man dead in a hail of bullets here at a West Ward intersection Oct. 10.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II and Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said, on Oct. 13, that Naeen A. Keaney, 24, had died from bullet wounds while at Eastern Parkway and Mount Vernon Place that Friday.
Newark Police officers scrambled to that intersection after several residents’ 911 calls. They said that several armed masked men had repeatedly fired shots at a group of people, including Keaney, before fleeing in a grey SUV.
NPD officers, who were soon joined by the ECPO Homicide and Major Crimes Task Force. roped off the intersection for their on-scene investigation. All traffic, including buses on NJTransit’s No. 1 and 37 routes, were detoured.
A detachment of officers found the abandoned SUV at Eastern Parkway and Putnam Street. On-site investigators recovered several shell casings, among other evidence.
Keaney’s funeral was held here at the Cotton Funeral Home, 1025 Bergen St., Oct. 21. A description of the suspects has not been released as of press time.
IRVINGTON – The Township Council has scheduled a public hearing and a possible final vote here Oct. 26 on a resolution that would enhance literally local wireless communication around Irvington.
The legislation, first passed on its Oct. 28 introduction, is entitled “Telecommunications in the public right of way.” The measure, pending approval, will amend Irvington’s zoning code to allow telecommunication companies to attach “small cell wireless facilities” on the likes of existing utility poles.
Those small scale devices are cellular receivers and transmitters who use three-to-four-foot tall antennas with a 100-foot radius range. One can think of them as children to the up to 100-foot-tall “macro” antennas and transceiver sites that began to be installed in the early 1980s.
The telecommunication companies want to install these small transceivers for two reasons. First, the companies want to improve reception in high density areas like public squares, parks, office buildings and stadiums. Second, the companies want to provide 5G quality service.
The companies, who will be regulated like utilities, want to affix the small devices on existing poles for they will be along the public right-of-way and close to electrical power and fiber optical cables.
Irvington Township would have their public channels enhanced – and receive annual rent like they any hosting site would for the big transceiver towers. Although telecommunication companies pay their big tower hosts around $20,000 a year as far back as the 1990s, it is not immediately known what the township will get in small device rent.
EAST ORANGE – The East Orange Campus High School community has been left in mourning since the midday killing of one of its students within half a mile of the school Oct. 6.
Acting Prosecutor Stephens and City Public Safety Director Domingos Saldida had identified the dead student as Antoine Sanga-Niangara, 16, by 4:30 p.m. that Tuesday.
Sanga-Niangara, who was a month into his junior year, was an EOCHS football Jaguar last year. The 5’ 9”, 175 lb. star played as a safety and a wide receiver for the 2019 squad.
The Jaguars varsity team all wore Sanga-Niangara’s number, 22, on their jerseys while visiting Montclair High School Oct. 10. Head Coach Rae Oliver’s squad blanked the Mounties, 13-0.
EOPD officers, directed by residents’ incoming 911 calls, arrived at the intersection of Park and Lincoln avenues at 1:30 p.m. They found Sanga-Niangara, “unconscious and unresponsive” at a corner; he would be declared dead at the scene 1:50 p.m. Traffic, including NJTransit’s No. 41 buses, were detoured during the field investigation.
The Park and Lincoln intersection is about three blocks south of EOCHS but some 100 yards west of Paul Robeson Stadium, where Sanga-Niangara had played. It is within two blocks of the East Orange School District’s three junior high schools’ mega building.
Neither Sanga-Niangara’s public funeral details, nor a description of his killer or killers, have been released as of press time.
ORANGE – The Rahway computer consultant who was indicted for offering bribes to a high city official in exchange for steering a $350,000 installation contract in 2015 has pleaded guilty Oct. 14 – and has named that official.
Jeanmarie Zahore, 56, said U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito that Wednesday, had pleaded guilty to one count of making corrupt payments to “an agent of a local government receiving federal funds.” Zahore said that official was “Acting” City Business Administrator Willis Edwards III.
Zahore said that he had approached Edwards prior to the City Council’s Sept. 15, 2015 meeting, as early as Aug. 31, about attaining a contract to upgrade the computer networking system at the Freddie Polhill Law and Justice Complex.
Edwards, at that Sept. 15 meeting, introduced an “emergency” no-bid contract on JZ Nettech’s behalf. The then- acting or “Deputy BA” had arrived at the Polhill complex the day before to advise high Orange police and municipal court officials that their network needed an upgrade. The council, after several questions, approved the “walked-on” contract, 4-3.
Edwards, according to the federal grand jury indictments, gave Zahore a $115,000 advance Sept. 18 so the latter could buy materials to start work. Both the work and the city’s payments were conducted and made Sept. 20-Nov. 1.
Zahore, on Nov. 20 and 23, gave Edwards two $10,000 cash payments in return for the former getting him the networking contract.
Zahore is now facing up to 10 years in federal prison upon his scheduled March 3 sentencing. He is also facing either a fine of up to $250,000 “or twice the pecuniary gain to the defendant or loss to the victims.”
WEST ORANGE – Classes here at the Washington School will have resumed after its 14 day quarantine Oct. 21 and the school district’s transportation department will be up and running again Oct. 23.
West Orange Superintendent of Schools Dr. J. Scott Cascone, in separate moves, closed the Tory Corner elementary school and the district bus service after two students and two staff members had tested positive for the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus Oct. 8 and 12.
The two Washington students, said Cascone, had contracted the virus out of school. The two Transportation Department drivers, however, had exposed themselves to their colleagues, aides, office staff and leadership – shutting down the 22-member unit.
Council Candidate Loses Endorsements
Essex Rising and Our Revolution-Essex County Chapter, as of Oct. 8, have dropped their endorsement of Township Council candidate Brent Scott.
The Essex Rising steering committee and local Our Revolution chapter said they were rescinding their support of Scott after a state-level activist posted on her Facebook page what she said were screenshots of Scott making “inappropriate comments.”
Both organizations stressed that they would continue to endorse candidates Monica Perkowski and Bill Rutherford. They and Scott are among the seven candidates vying for three of the nonpartisan Township Council seats in the Nov. 3 General Election.
Scott, an outgoing West Orange Board of Education member, has not responded to the charge on his candidacy Facebook page. He still retains the endorsement from the Sierra Club Gateway Chapter of Essex County.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – South Orange-Maplewood School District Superintendent Dr. Ronald Taylor is planning to hold a pair of virtual town halls Oct. 26-27 on how he envisions the in-person reopening of the two-town district.
Taylor is to focus on the Pre-Kindergarten-Eighth Grade reopening on Oct. 26 on WebEx. Viewers are to use this link: https://bit.ly/2FAi7eR.
Reopening Columbia High School is to follow on Oct. 27. Its WebEx link is bit.ly/3ITLMir.
Taylor is looking to reopen all schools for in-person learning Nov. 12 – as he had intended to outline before the SOMSD Board of Education at their Oct. 22 virtual meeting.
Both Taylor and the Maplewood Department of Health have meanwhile warned against students attending house parties while unmasked. It is believed that three CHS students had developed COVID symptoms while at such events.
One student’s contraction prompted the tennis team to suspend practice for two weeks. The two others are on the Ultimate Frisbee intramural team which is separate from CHS athletics.
MONTCLAIR – The identity of the man who shot another man near the Bloomfield Avenue Business District here Oct. 20, and perhaps a second suspect, may have been revealed by authorities when you read this.
Montclair police Chief Todd Conforti said that some of his officers and a Montclair Ambulance Squad crew were dispatched to the area of 50 Greenwood Ave. at 1:58 p.m. Tuesday. They were prompted by a 911 caller who said someone had fired fire gunshot rounds the minute before at another man and had fled the scene.
First responders told MPD detectives and Essex County Sheriff’s Officers that they found a 30-year-old Montclair man lying in the street with several gunshot wounds. The victim, who was stabilized and rushed to Newark’ University Hospital by MAS, remains listed in critical condition as of press time.
Officers promptly closed Greenwood between Claremont and Glenridge avenues, including the latter entry to the USPS main Montclair Post Office. Parts of Forest Avenue, Greenwood Place, North willow Street and Walnut Streets were also closed to traffic.
The first suspect, said Conforti, was arrested minutes in the area. The Montclair resident had matched the description and direction a shooting witness gave to arriving police.
Conforti said that the suspect and the victim knew each other but, other than that the shooting was “an isolated incident,” refrained from further details.
A second man, also of Montclair, was later taken into custody for questioning. A search of sewer and storm drains, assisted by a sheriff’s K-9 unit, yielded two guns. The investigation has since been turned over to the ECPO Major Crimes Task Force.
BLOOMFIELD – Those who want to attend the next Bloomfield High School football game, against the squad brought in to replace Barringer High School, may want to contact BHS athletic director Steve Jenkins before leaving home.
Local high school sports maven Mike Lamberti Tweeted Oct. 18 that “Bloomfield’s game with Barringer, scheduled for Oct. 23, has been cancelled. (The) Bengals will host Northern Valley/Demarest High.”
“Local Talk,” as of press time, has been unable to find out why BHS’s game against the Barringer High School Blue Bears, set for 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at Newark’s Schools Stadium, was called off. It is not known whether the game has been postponed or scratched from the calendar. Ticket refunds have not been addressed.
A call was made to reach Barringer Athletic Director Terrance Brogdon Oct. 20.
Lamberti further Tweeted that BHS’s match against the Northern Valley Regional High School Norsemen “on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 1 p.m., in a rare day game, at Foley Field.”
The problem “Local Talk” found, however, is that NVRHS’s own website has the game being held at their Norsemen Stadium in Demarest 4 p.m. Oct. 26 – a Monday. Maxpreps.com and another high school athletics website maintains 1 p.m. Oct. 24 at Foley Field.
BHS’s Jenkins can be reached at (973) 680-8600, ext. 4170 or sjenkins@bloomfield.k12.nj.us Please note that spectator attendance will be limited to parents of players, cheerleaders and/or the marching band.
GLEN RIDGE – If you are planning to go door-to-door to receive treats this Halloween, you better skip this borough.
Mayor Stuart Patrick and the Borough Council, on advice from the Glen Ridge Board of Health posted an Oct. 29-Nov. 1 ban door-to-door trick-or-treating where treats are handed out, here on Oct. 18.
“The (Federal) Centers for Disease Control has determined that it’s a high-risk activity,” said Stuart, “to participate in traditional trick-or-treating, where treats are handed to and received by children who go door-to-door.”
The borough’s announcement also cited that “a homeowner can give out more than 1,000 pieces of candy causing some streets to become extremely crowded.”
Glen Ridge follows Plainfield and Bound Brook in banning their Halloween traditions as a COVID-curbing social-distancing precaution.
Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp had cancelled its annual “Trunk or Teat,” where candy is taken from car trunks. (Mapp is also Orange’s Finance Director.) Bound Brook also added “haunted houses, hayrides, mazes and Halloween parties that exceed indoor or outdoor crowd limitations.”
“Local Talk” advises trick or treaters and/or their parents to check with local authorities to see which Oct. 31 activities are still on and/or socially adjusted.
BELLEVILLE – The Township Council’s first meeting allowing members of the public into the council chamber gallery Oct. 13 yielded several residents and a plating company owner being irked over their recently hiked water bills.
The Belleville Water Department’s new billing, since Oct. 1, has rates going up to 200 percent more from what they were paying the last quarter. This predominantly affects all Belleville water users – except those who are directly served and billed by the Newark Water Department.
Mayor Michael Melham, in his Oct. 15 explanatory press release, said that the Township Council “recently voted to increase water fees” to pay Newark $1.6 million “in back water payments.”
Belleville buys all of its water from Newark even though it owns and maintains most of its own supply lines. Melham explained that its contract with NWD had expired in 2015. Neither BWD nor the township government have meanwhile kept up with increasing its water rates to keep pace with Newark’s charges those six years.
“While the Township has run a loss for six years, meaning we pay Newark more than we collect in water bills,” said Melham, “we’ve also been out of contract for many years. We currently owe and have already begun to pay back Newark $1.6 million in back water payments.”
The water payment deficit to Newark, in the mayor’s view, is the latest of “some of the long term problems that have plagued Belleville.” Melham, since taking office July 1, 2018, credits “hiring a full-time CFO and a full-time, outside professional Township manager” as part of a “professional team ‘watching the store.’ “
