NEWARK – Joseph McCallum’s voting with the majority of his Municipal Council colleagues to entrust Invest Newark with the city’s land bank here Nov. 5 turned more than a few heads.
The West Ward Councilman initially joined North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jr. and at-large councilmen Carlos Gonzalez and Luis Quintana in abstaining from the authorization vote.
McCallum, an hour later, replaced his abstention with a “Yes” vote – joining Council President Mildred Crump, South Ward Councilman John Sharpe James, Central Ward Councilwoman LaMonica McIver and At Large Councilman Eddie Osborne. (East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador was absent.)
That vote change solidly passed the ordinance whereby Invest Newark will oversee properties the city has accumulated for future sale or redevelopment. Many of these properties are vacant, abandoned and/or blighted.
McCallum, however, was the council’s representative on Invest Newark’s board of directors when it was the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation. He has since been succeeded by McIver.
The councilman has been accused of using his NCEDC board place to obtain and conceal contract bribes and kickbacks. He has been indicted Oct. 20 by a federal grand jury on wire fraud.
Public speaker Lisa Parker asked the council Nov. 5 why Invest Newark should be made “to make them stewards over anything when clearly there’ve been indictments associated with this.” Invest Newark CEO Bernel Hall had said that the agency is not associated with the accused wrongdoing and is cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice.
IRVINGTON – Having at least one bus driver who knows township streets proved valuable for riders aboard NJTransit’s northbound No. 90 route here Nov. 10.
A “Local Talk” reporter and six other riders who boarded NABI Bus No. 5946 at 10:33 a.m. Tuesday looked up when its driver kept going east on Springfield Avenue instead of turning north onto Grove Street/Essex County Road No. 509.
Those who looked northward on Grove then would have seen its northbound lane marked off by a presumptive telecommunication contractor. By “presumptive,” a New Jersey State Police trooper and cruiser, usually dispatched to oversee fiber optical or copper cable work, were present.
We’re making a detour,” announced the driver. “They usually tell me before leaving (the Hilton garage) but they didn’t with this one. I called this in when I first saw it. I’m from the area.”
The bus operator, who was starting his third round trip of the morning, turned north onto 22nd Street and west onto 19th Avenue before rejoining Grove Street. The diversion covered six blocks.
Details on the utility work, beyond that southbound Grove Street was unaffected, remains scarce. NJTransit.com did not have an alert on it as of Noon Nov. 10. A call was placed to the county Division of Roads and Bridges.
EAST ORANGE – Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II and city Public Safety Director Domingos Saldida said they have a suspect under arrest Nov. 10 from a fatal Nov. 6 car crash here.
Christian Brown, 39, of West Orange, said Stephens and Saldida, was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle with a suspended driver’s license earlier that Tuesday.
Brown is accused of driving a car that ran into three others at Park Avenue and North 18th Street 6:30 a.m. Nov. 6.
The collisions left the driver of one car – John K. Williams, 59, of East Orange – entrapped. Williams, a close friend of Orange Councilman Weldon Monty Montague III, later died of his injuries.
Traffic, including NJTransit No. 41 buses, were detoured during the police rescue and field investigation.
Williams’ funeral arrangements were not disclosed. Brown has reportedly been remanded to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility.
ORANGE / BLOOMFIELD – City police officers found a vehicle reportedly involved in a shooting with Bloomfield police Nov. 9 – but not before the suspected driver had fled into Newark.
OPD officers said they had found a silver four door late model SUV abandoned on Scotland Road by Argyle Avenue, after 2:15 p.m. Monday The intersection was taped off, diverting NJTransit No. 92 buses and other traffic, while searching the area for its two occupants.
The SUV’s description matched that of one reported as involved in an East Orange felony – and one which struck two Bloomfield police officers in front of a Bloomfield Avenue car dealership just after 1:49 p.m.
“At 1:46 p.m. our ALPR system alerted our PD of a wanted felony vehicle out of East Orange traveling west on Bloomfield Avenue from Ampere Parkway,” said Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia Monday night. “Officers observed the vehicle stopped in traffic on Bloomfield Avenue at Orange Street. They approached on foot and pleaded with the driver in the locked vehicle to exit.”
The driver, said Venezia, began to accelerate first into a civilian car, then a police cruiser before turning onto the officers. Police fired on the SUV before it fled onto Orange Street. The five-shot shootout caused avenue traffic to be stopped and diverted; a police helicopter was deployed to trace the SUV.
A man – later identified as Jeffrey Sutton, 37 – had walked into Newark’s University Hospital at 3:50 p.m. with an arm bleeding from a bullet wound. Authorities who caught up with Sutton has since arrested him in the hospital on aggravated assault, possession of a weapon and eluding police charges.
WEST ORANGE – The township’s public school system remains in an all virtual learning mode while a second elementary school is being cleaned of COVID-19 and cases found in West Orange High School and a middle school are being traced.
The Kelly Elementary School, said WBOE Superintendent of Schools Dr. J. Scott Cascone, has been closed Nov. 9-23. It will remain closed until its sanitation has been completed but with continuing mobile food pickups in its parking lot.
The Pleasantdale section school had been closed after two COVID case had been confirmed.
Cascone, however on Sunday, announced a third positive Coronavirus test in the Kelly school – plus “one individual at Liberty Middle School and two individuals at WOHS.”
WOBOE now has had four schools and five overall facilities temporarily shuttered for Coronavirus sanitation.
The Washington School, in the Tory Corner section, was closed for cleaning until Oct. 21. The district’s entire Transportation Department was similarly closed until Oct. 23.
SOUTH ORANGE – Police detectives have been looking for the driver for an officer hit-and-run since Oct. 22.
Police Chief Kyle Kroll said that one of his officers was patrolling Sloan Street when he noticed “a stolen vehicle parked and unoccupied,” at about 3 p.m. Then the officer approached after watching a man enter the car’s driver’s side.
“The driver abruptly put the car into reverse,” said Kroll, “narrowly striking the officer and smashing into the marked patrol unit” and “fled the scene.”
SOPD detectives found the suspect’s image on a street camera before he entered the car. He is shown as an African or African-American man who wears a goatee, white ear buds, a blue jean jacket and a white t-shirt. He was holding a personal electronic device in the picture.
MAPLEWOOD – A township resident has been back home here since answering charges of cyberstalking and harassment lodged against him in a Brooklyn federal court Oct. 22.
Ken Kurson, 52, had pleaded not guilty to the charges and paid a $10,000 bail bond after surrendering to authorities. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ramos Reyes issued a no contact order between Kurson and the three complainers.
The 17-page U.S. Department of Justice complaint accuses Kurson of a harassment campaign against a Mount Sinai Hospital doctor and two others November-December 2017.
The campaign included installing spyware to trace one victim’s keystrokes, filing false Yelp reviews and misconduct charges against the doctor and hanging up when a victim answers his phone calls.
Federal prosecutors said that Kurson had filed the false reports as “Eddie Train” or “Jayden Wagner.” They said Kurson targeted the three after he and his wife had divorced.
Complaints against Kurson surfaced during a 2018 background check. He had been offered by President Donald Trump’s administration a job with the National Endowment of the Humanities; Kurson withdrew himself from consideration.
Kurson was the “New York Observer” editor January 2013-May 2017 under Jared Kushner’s ownership. Kushner, Trump’s son-in’-law, owned the newspaper and website from 2003 until he put it into a trust over the 2016-17 winter. Kurson also ran for State Assemblyman in the 34th District, while as a Montclair resident and a Republican, in 2008.
MONTCLAIR – Montclair High School’s next principal, a familiar face in the district, may be a Nov. 16 Board of Education confirmation from securing his next job.
Montclair Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jonathon Ponds has so appointed Edgemont Montessori School Principal Jeffrey Freeman Nov. 10. Freeman’s appointment and pending BOE confirmation allows the latest interim principal, Eileen Gilbert, to return to her Assistant Principal position.
Freeman, before he was made Edgemont principal June 30, 2019, was last in MHS 2013-18. He was the Center for Social Justice Small Learning Community’s lead teacher. Freeman’s work with the Restorative Justice Initiative was recognized with a promotion to MHS Assistant Principal.
The Montclair State University double bachelor in English and secondary education was first brought to MHS as an English teacher ion 1999. He attained, in between, an education administration master’s degree from the University of Scranton.
Freeman would become MHS’ second principal since James Earle ended his longtime tenure in 2018. Anthony Grasso left July 1 to become Cedar Grove’s superintendent. Terry Trigg-Scales was interim principal until her contract expired Oct. 30.
COVID Closes School
Dr. Ponds announced, on Nov. 9, that the Nishuane School will be closed for COVID sanitation this week, with a projected Nov. 16 reopening. The closure and cleaning were due to a staff member testing positive late last week.
“Close contacts within the school have been notified and are in quarantine,” said Ponds. “This period will be over before schools are scheduled for hybrid opening Nov. 16.”
GLEN RIDGE – A borough resident recently told reporters that she had received a call from Joseph R. Biden.
Alice Roberts told CNN “New Day” host John Brennan Oct. 22 that she had received the call from then-Democratic Presidential Candidate Biden. Roberts is the widow of GRPD Sgt. Charles “Rob” Roberts, 45, who had lost his battle against COVID-19 complications here May 11.
“There’s not a lot of highlights in my days,” said Roberts, “and that was definitely a highlight. He is the kind, caring guy . . . and that’s what we need right now in the White House.”
The now-presumptive President-Elect, said Roberts, had called her at 11 p.m. local time. Their conversation had lasted 20 minutes.
“It was, honestly, like talking with a friend,” said Roberts.
Roberts may have attracted Biden and New Day after she had a guest editorial published in a statewide publication Oct. 20. Her column complained of President Donald J. Trump of “ignoring (the pandemic), downplaying it and pointing fingers.”
BELLEVILLE – A rise in COVID cases have more than closed two of the township’s public schools. Indeed, it may affect how the Township Council conducts its public meetings for at least the near future.
Belleville Public Schools Superintendent Richard Tomko announced here Nov. 9 that both Belleville High School and School 7 will be closed and will not reopen until Nov. 16. (Details on the cases were not made available as of Nov. 10.)
Closing BHS left the Township Councils and officials with no choice but canceling its scheduled 6 p.m. Nov. 10 public meeting in its auditorium.
“The closing of the school does not leave the township with enough time to properly publish a change of venue notice in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act or move it to a virtual meeting,” declared a Monday township website notice. “There’s also not enough time to legally notice a rescheduling notice before the next regularly scheduled meeting.”
Belleville Township Council’s next scheduled meeting, including the put off Nov. 10 agenda, is set for 6 p.m. Nov. 24. That meeting, for the first time since the public was welcomed back to the council chamber gallery or BHS auditorium last month, may become virtual-only again.
“Belleville Health Officer Vincent DeFilippo is recommending that all meetings, going forward,” concluded the township statement, “should be held via virtual technology fir the health and safety of all residents and meeting participants.”
NUTLEY – Township public high and middle school students and parents are to cross off Nov. 16 as the return to in-person learning. Students in Grades 7-12 are to continue the hybrid learning schedule until Nov. 30, when they are to switch to all-virtual learning.
That is the announcement Nutley Public Schools Interim Superintendent Dr. Julie Glazer posted here Nov. 10. Glazer’s word came after a special Board of Education meeting held the night before.
The board arrived at the postponement in light of increasing COVID infection rates statewide.
Wednesday community meal distribution from the Lincoln School lot was scheduled to resume 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Nov. 11.
