by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – A city department head has been apologizing to the Municipal Council and North Ward residents since allegedly making derogatory comments about the area a during the council’s Oct. 21 virtual meeting.
The Rev. Patrick Council, as Director of Recreation, Cultural Affairs and Senior Services, had sent the following apology, through Mayor Ras Baraka’s Office of Public Information Oct. 22, for making an offensive remark while on Zoom:
“During the Zoom meeting, an employee brought to my attention that there was not a scheduled stop in the North Ward (for the Mars Wrigley Halloween Truck Tour). At which time, I was dealing with two major issues developing at the 2 Nevada (St.) Senior Building and the Club House on Spruce Street which were more important at the time. What you heard was the latter part of my frustration.”
What Dtr. Council said on air was, “I don’t give a F___ about no North Ward. That’s what M&M (Mars Wrigley) said.”
Council’s two sentences, made while apparently distracted on Zoom, brought immediate rebuke from Newark’s elders.
“We shouldn’t be having that kind of language, man,” responded At-Large Councilman and North Ward resident Luis Quintana. “It’s not appropriate for elected officials, for no one. I take offense when people use that kind of terminology.”
“And to say ‘F’ about a certain ward of the city,” added North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jr., “I’m sure the Business Administrator (Eric Pennington) will address this.”
Council said he has since had Mars Wrigley add candy tour stops in the North and South wards. Although the meeting was aired live on NWK TV78 and other cable television channels, a recorded copy was not available that Friday.
IRVINGTON – Dr. Angelica L. Allen-McMillan, in just over three years and two positions in between, have gone from Irvington Public Schools’ Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction to designated New Jersey Commissioner of Education.
Gov. Phil Murphy announced his appointing Allen-McMillan, 51, of Montclair, as his next education commissioner Oct. 21. Allen-McMillan’s appointment is subject to confirmation by the State Senate Education Committee later this year.
Allen-McMillan would succeed Dr. Lamont Repollet, who left July 1 to become Kean University’s latest president. Interim Superintendent Kevin Dehmer will resume his post as assistant commissioner/CFO.
Allen-McMillan, pending confirmation, is leaving her job as Interim Morris County Executive Superintendent. She had been commuting from Montclair to Morristown since 2018. Allen-McMillan had left Irvington in April 2017 for a similar assistant superintendent’s post in Newark Public Schools.
The Cornell Class of 1991 labor and industrial relations graduate started her 25-year career as a substitute teacher. The future Seton Hall University masters and doctorate holder in educational administration was a Life and Physical Science teacher in the East Orange School District.
Allen-McMillan worked in two of South Orange-Maplewood School District’s buildings. She was an assistant principal in Maplewood’s Clinton School and Principal at South Orange’s Marshall School.
“A product of New Jersey’s public schools,” said Murphy, “Angelica has worked in all levels of education and knows exactly what our teachers and students need to succeed.”
EAST ORANGE – The man accused of running a stolen bakery truck into the Planned Parenthood Clinic here in 2018 has pleaded guilty Oct. 22 – signing onto a likely state prison term and a deportation ticket.
Marckles Alcius, 34, of Lowell, Mass., said Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II that Thursday, has pleaded to the following three counts: using a stolen vehicle as a weapon, aggravated assault and causing or risking widespread injury or damage.
Alcius confessed to taking the bread van and deliberately running it into Planned Parenthood’s waiting room here at 560 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Feb. 14, 2018. The impact injured two patients and a staff member. Alcius, at that time, told arriving police that he was willing to die in the crash.
By agreeing to the plea bargain, Alcius will have to serve at least 85 percent of his state prison sentence – a sentence that may be up to 10 years, starting on Jan. 7. Alcius, as a Haitian native, will then be deported at the end of his sentence.
Alcius, who had entered the country legally, had been facing first-degree terrorism charges prior to Friday’s plea bargain – which could have jailed him for up to 30 years.
ORANGE – What will likely be the first Orange Planning Board public hearing on replacing the Orange Commons Shopping Plaza with a Wawa convenience store and service station was set to be held outdoors in the City Hall parking lot 7:30 p.m. Oct, 28, weather permitting.
That hearing, barring the unexpected, is to continue for another date in November. At least two sessions are anticipated to hear 164 Main LLC’s proposal and experts and for OPB members and the audience to ask questions.
Replacing Orange Commons with a Wawa at 150-164 Main St. was first broached by the developers in a public information session at the nearby Church of the Epiphany in 2018. The meeting, hosted by Councilwoman Donna K. Williams and Epiphany, saw some 20 members of the public appear.
The developers, on Wawa’s behalf, answered questions ranging from lighting and landscaping to employment and community support. 164 Main LLC, back then, said they were willing to help fund the likes of restoring Grace’s auditorium/gymnasium.
The developers want to replace the 20-store, 24,000 square-foot building on the 1.39-acre lot with a 5,051 sq. ft. Wawa. The store and fueling island are a size comparable to one open since Dec. 16, 2016 at 1511 Springfield Ave. in Maplewood. Its 50 parking spaces would be reduced to 44.
164 Main, of Chatham Borough, has owned Orange Commons S.P. since 2017. The Commons was built in 1976 to replace a burned out main line church. Its Rent-A-Center anchor store was consolidated with East Orange’s Brick Church Shopping Plaza outlet and moved to 349 Main St. in 2019.
WEST ORANGE – A contract, pending approval by West Orange PBA Local 25 and the Superior Officers Association, will change how the township handles health benefits among its retired employees.
The Township Council approved a memorandum of agreement with the two unions, on a 3-2 vote here Oct. 6, ending its part of three years’ negotiation. The three-year pact will actually run retroactively from 2018 until Jan. 1, 2022; the expired contract was honored during township-union bargaining.
The agreement will end the township paying PBA and SOA members’ health benefits upon their retirement. This will affect new WOPD hires after Jan. 1; the present retirement health plan will be grandfathered in with the current employees.
Mayor Robert Parisi, who voted for the MOA, Township Administrator Jack Sayers and CFO John Gross, at the Oct. 6 meeting, said that the township will yield savings some 25 t0 30 years ahead, when the new hires retire.
Councilman John Krakoviac and Councilwoman Cindy Matute-Brown, citing that the savings will not be realized until at least 2045, voted against the MOA.
PBA Local 25 President Larry Dominguez and SOA President Michael Cassidy said that the administration had been steadfast about not negotiating on retirees’ health benefits since 2018. Cassidy expressed concern that prospective police officers will go to other towns first after comparing benefits.
SOUTH ORANGE – The paths of the South Orange Performing Arts Center and its Executive Director, Craig Sumberg, have parted as of Oct. 23.
Paul Bartick, SOPAC’s Board of Governors Chairman, announced Friday that Sumberg was “relieved of his duties” due to “budgetary cutbacks brought on by COVID-19.”
Sumberg was brought on Jan. 1 – 10 weeks before the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus pandemic prompted closing most art and entertainment venues.
“We’re sorry to see Craig go,” said Bartick. “We’re grateful for the steady presence he brought to SOPAC as we faced the pandemic’s impact.”
MAPLEWOOD – There is something in how the air flows through the South Orange-Maplewood School District buildings that has given Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Taylor pause since Oct. 22.
Taylor is now asking the SOMSD community to add “tentative” to Nov. 12’s intended in-person learning reopening while he and contractors resolve any air circulating and/or heating issues. The delay has postponed his two Columbia High School and elementary school virtual town hall meetings until an unspecified later date.
“It was brought to our attention (Oct. 21) that a detailed walkthrough of our buildings has yielded warranted concerns around ventilation work needed to safely welcome back the return of our staff and students,” said Taylor Oct. 22. “We’re in close contact with our vendor and our Facilities Department began re-auditing the work performed in all of our district school buildings.”
MONTCLAIR – Whether Cuban Pete’s Restaurant here has re-opened by press time, or remains padlocked until a Nov. 19 court hearing in Trenton, may be a moot point when you read this.
ECPO attorneys, Essex County Sheriff’s officers and Montclair police, enforcing a court order from State Superior Court-Trenton, padlocked 428 Bloomfield Ave 5:20 a.m. Oct. 26. They came in long before owner Dominick Restaino and his 48 employees could start their workday.
“There were no warnings, nothing,” said Restaino, of Denville, Monday afternoon. “It’s a bad dream – I’m out of business.”
That lockdown was ordered by the New Jersey Department of Health and Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli. Persichilli cited the three Executive Order violations issued to Restaino and seven warnings from Montclair’s police and health departments June 23 – Oct. 4 for the shutdown.
The three order violations were observed and Restaino ticketed for Aug. 7 and 23 and on Oct. 3. The first two were over having any diners indoors; the third for having exceeded the 25-percent indoor dining capacity limit.
The lockdown order was initially issued from Mercer County-based court Oct. 9. MPD and MHD officers who visited Cuban Peter’s Oct. 10-12, however, found the 292-seat eatery, including its 73-seat EO-directed indoor capacity “fully operational.” Restaino told the officers Oct. 10 that he was complying with the orders.
It is not clear why it took from Oct. 9 to 26 to execute the padlocking. Restaino told one reporter that he will be challenging the closure at the Nov. 19 hearing.
BLOOMFIELD – The ECPO Arson Squad and Bloomfield Fire Department inspectors are continuing their investigation of 14 Evelyn Place here while friends and relatives continue to mourn the loss of Warren Froehlich,
Froehlich, 85, was found by BFD personnel in his first floor apartment with serious injuries during a fire there on Oct. 7. Bloomfield Volunteer Emergency Squad personnel, after firefighters pulled him out, performed CPR while rushing him to Mountainside Hospital. Froehlich was pronounced dead there at 12:57 p.m.
Fire Chief Louis Venezia said the first responding BFD units came to the three-story Tudor-style apartment building at 7:25 a.m. They found heavy smoke coming from the first floor – and almost all of the residents taking the fire escape.
Montclair firefighters and Bloomfield police also arrived at the scene. Belleville and West Caldwell units provided coverage from BFD’s headquarters.
Venezia added that the county arson squad is investigating as a standard operating procedure. All of the building’s fire and smoke detectors were working. Flames and smoke, however, kept firefighters from reaching Froehlich sooner. The blaze was brought under control by 8:05 a.m.
Services for Froehlich were held at the Fallon Funeral Home Oct. 14 in Jersey City – the city where he was born Dec. 20, 1934. The U.S. Navy veteran was also a self-employed carpenter for 50 years before retiring in 1997.
The body of Froehlich, who had been a resident here since 1980, was interred here at Glendale Cemetery Oct. 15. Wife Mary, daughter Florence Harmon, brother Walter, cousin Juanita Cooper, niece Selena Poysaw “and many other family members” are among his survivors.
GLEN RIDGE – The school day start and dismissal routine here at Bloomfield and Ridgewood avenues have not been the same since the Sept. 14 passing of Glen Ridge School Crossing Guard Robert Temmler.
“Robert was hired as a crossing guard April 2, 2012,” said Police Chief Sheila Byron-Lagattuta Sept. 16. “After completing training, he remained at the same post, Bloomfield/Ridgewood avenues, west side, until his untimely passing. If anyone wants to send condolences, please send them to GRPD and they’ll be forwarded to his family.”
Robert Diem Temmler’s life both began Feb. 21, 1941 and ended Sept. 16 in East Orange. He was raised in Keansburg and lived most of his adult life in Montclair before moving to Bloomfield in 2007.
That Temmler, 79, was proudest while serving as a GRPD Crossing Guard is significant given his other life experiences and achievements.
Temmler was a Green Beret paratrooper during the Vietnam War era 1965-68 before earning a bachelor’s degree at Drew University and an MBA from Michigan State University. He worked as a program analyst for several institutions before his 2012 retirement.
Wife Eugene, son Brendan Tendrich, daughters Claire Hundley, Lauren Temmler, Ailias Groves and Corrine Brewster, sister Charlotte Kiewiet, three grandsons and three granddaughters are among his survivors.
Temmler’s funeral, arranged by Verona’s Prout Funeral Home, is to be announced. Memorial donations may be made to the charity of your choice. The GRPD, between Temmler’s death and the Oct. 9, 2019 retirement of East Orange’s Valentine Jackson after 20 years, is looking for more guards.
BELLEVILLE – Incumbent Belleville Board of Education Trustee remains in the running for re-election, as of press time, despite her reported Oct. 20 arrest for driving while intoxicated.
Patrolling BPD officers, said Lt. John McAloon Oct. 21, found a car parked outside of Michael’s Roscommon House, 531 Joralemon St., at 12:50 a.m. that Tuesday. The vehicle was found with its engine running, partially blocking the street’s eastbound lane – and its driver asleep behind the steering wheel.
The vehicle was also across the street from Belleville Public School No. 7.
When officers awoke the driver, her documents identified her as Erika Jacho, 41. Jacho, said officers, refused to submit to a Blood Alcohol Content test.
Jacho was arrested and released 6:20 a.m. Oct. 20. She was charged with DWI, DWI within 1,000 feet of a school, refusing to take a BAC test and parking within 10 feet of a fire hydrant.
Jacho, who was first elected in 2017, is running with newcomer Fernando Acevedo, Jr. on “Building Belleville’s Future” team They are among eight candidates, including two other incumbents, in the Nov. 3 nonpartisan election.
