By Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Those who remember Clifford J. Minor, Sr., 78, who died here Nov. 17, as Cory A. Booker’s main 2010 mayoral challenger, are just scratching the surface of his six decades’ service to law and order.
Minor headed the “Newark’s Choice Team” who included then at-large Municipal Council candidates John Sharpe James and former Deputy Mayor Ras Baraka. Although a majority of voters returned Booker over Minor, 59 to 35 percent, and turned back Minor’s running mates May 11, 2010, James and Baraka would gain council seats in later elections.
Minor, who had graduated from the former Central Avenue School, was a city police officer who studied in law school at night. Det. Minor, juris doctorate in hand, retired in 1981 to run his own law practice.
Sharpe James, upon his July 1, 1986 inauguration appointed Minor as Newark Municipal Court Presiding Judge. He was also Essex County Prosecutor 1992-97, before incoming Gov. Christine Todd Whitman declined renewing his appointment. Minor returned to private practice here at 50 Park Place.
Minor, however, pleaded guilty in federal court April 5, 2011 to a count each of bribery and perjury in exchange for a two-year sentence at a prison farm. He had admitted to accompanying a client to provide a false confession in 2007 in order to free another detainee. Minor was disbarred in 2014.
The low-key Ridge Street resident’s private services followed his Nov. 25 visitation here at the Whigham Funeral Home. Wife Carol, son Clifford, Jr., two granddaughter and a great-granddaughter are among his survivors.
IRVINGTON – Authorities said that a fight between two men in a Tremont Terrace house has left one dead and the other remaining at large.
Irvington police officers, said township public safety director Tracy Bowers and Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II, had responded to the address on the 10 block on a fight in progress call at 6:18 p.m. Nov. 14.
The officers then found Sameer Tahij Parchment, 23, lying on an apartment floor and bleeding from a gunshot wound. Arriving local EMS medics declared Parchment dead there at 8:22 p.m.
Parchment’s public funeral arrangements have not been announced. His father, Samuel T. Parchment, had died May 25, 2005.
EAST ORANGE – The public first paid last respects to Theodore R. Green, Sr. – father of Mayor Ted Green – during his Dec. 4 visitation in Orange’s Woody’s Home for Services. They also witnessed a livestreamed Dec. 5 funeral at Newark’s New Life Family Bible Church, where he was a deacon.
A post-Rosedale Cemetery burial tribute was held for Grandmaster Green here at the Green’s School of Martial Arts 12:30 p.m. that Saturday. The ceremony was performed by the school’s artists and teachers.
The Green family patriarch and retired Peshine Avenue School of Newark educator had died here Nov. 27.
Second wife Lelia Green, son Terence, daughters Tracey Green, Patrice Adams and Nakiyyah Adams and 22 grandchildren are also among his survivors. First wife Lula Mae Green, who had died here on March 8, sons Kenoise and Jason and daughter Leah predeceased him.
Condolences may be sent to the family via Green School of Martial Arts, 116 Rhode Island Ave., and/or Office of the Mayor, 44 City Hall Plaza 07018.
ORANGE – Firefighters from 12 neighboring towns helped their Orange colleagues in extinguishing a Valley warehouse fire here Dec. 7.
The first OFD units who had responded to 911 calls of a fire at 540 Mitchell St. found the three-story brick building with smoke billowing from its second floor at 9:20 p.m. Monday.
The incident commander pulled two more alarms while firefighters pried open the building’s front door and windows. Personnel had a hard time trying to find the seat of the blaze and with fire traveling within the building’s walls.
City of Orange DPW workers may be reboarding 540 Mitchell while you tread this. The City had attained the long vacant 1905 building as part of its Central Valley Redevelopment Area. It had awarded a 2014 environmental remediation contract for the 12,4805 square foot corner structure to Billings, of Union.
It is not known whether Harvard Lofts, across Mitchell by South Jefferson Street, was evacuated. The warehouse may have been part of the Monroe calculator factory complex, whose Art Deco core building became Harvard Lofts’ parking garage. Units from East Orange, West Orange, South Orange, Bloomfield, Montclair, Irvington, Maplewood, Livingston, Cedar Grove, Verona, Caldwell and North Caldwell helped bring the stubborn fire under control by 11:30 p.m.
WEST ORANGE – A house fire here at the Lourdes section Nov. 23 brought out firefighters from the township and Montclair.
The first WOFD units who responded to a 4 p.m. fire call that Monday found flames coming out from a Harrison Avenue kitchen window. The incident commander pulled a second alarm and ordered firefighters to run hose lines to that window of the 2.5-story wood frame house.
While one crew extinguished the blaze within five minutes, a second crew searched in what turned out to be an unoccupied house.
A mutual aid unit from Montclair had meanwhile arrived to offer assistance. At least two West Orange police officers blocked Harrison between Chestnut Street and Virginia Avenue to detour traffic.
Firefighters investigated the fire’s cause there until 5:30 p.m.
SOUTH ORANGE – The owners of a Village Center event space were scheduled to answer charges in Maplewood-South Orange Municipal Court Dec. 8 of violating Gov. Phil Murphy’s indoor gathering limit executive order here Nov. 21.
Village Chief of Police Kyle Kroll said that Suite Spot co-owners Russell Bennett, 66, of West Orange, and Othneil Stewart, 41, of Montclair, were each given summonses for exceeding the Governor’s 10-person indoor gathering limit.
South Orange Fire Department officers, responding to activated smoke detectors from 24 First St. 1 a.m. that Saturday, told Kroll that they found between 100 to 150 partiers inside. Village President Sheena Collum, on Dec. 1, said that this was not the first time village first responders had come to the former Cryan’s Beef & Ale House. Collum said that South Orange Municipal Attorney Gerald Poss had recently issued a cease and desist letter.
State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan had mentioned the Nov. 21 violation in his part of Murphy’s Nov. 30 Coronavirus Briefing.
MAPLEWOOD – The Kings Food Market here at 159 Maplewood Ave., “Where Inspiration Strikes” since 1942, will have breathed its last Dec. 11.
Shoppers who went to the Jefferson Village store here Nov. 27 were greeted with a sign that it would be closed for inventory Nov. 30 – Dec. 1. It reopened for a 50-percent discount sale Dec. 2 – a sale that is to last until Dec. 11 or its goods have been exhausted, whichever comes first.
The news was a shock to most patrons, since it was among six Kings stores that had been excluded from Albertson’s Acme Division’s $96.4 million purchase at an Oct. 14 bankruptcy auction. Kings of Maplewood, said a KB Holdings spokeswoman as late as Oct. 20, was being shopped around to other grocers. It had been long held as late as 2015 that Kings Maplewood store was one of its more profitable markets, despite not having its own parking lot.
That same spokesperson, on Nov. 26, said that no buyer could be found. A state WARN 60-day layoff notice was issued to its employees Oct. 20 and had since been offered jobs in other Kings. Mayor Frank McGehee, on Dec. 1, said that he too is looking for a Kings successor.
The nearest and last remaining Kings in “Local Talk” territory, however, is Kings of Upper Montclair, 650 Valley Rd. That store, among the 26 Kings and Balducci’s Albertsons-Acme had bought, is to remain a Kings.
Kings of Maplewood, which opened in 1942, was among the chain’s first stores. Joseph Bildner, of West Orange, and three of his brothers had also opened stores in South Orange (25 Valley St.,), East Orange, (North Grove and Main streets), Orange (250 Central Ave.,) and Newark (79 Mt. Vernon St.) 1940s-60s.
Son Allen Bildner sold Kings to England’s Marks & Spencer in 1988, starting a chain of owners leading to KB Holdings, of Parsippany. Although KB earned $589.4 million in revenue as of July 25, it was owing $114.2 million to its suppliers for an $8.6 million loss. KB, after a year’s research, decided to sell Kings and Balducci’s Aug. 25 through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction.
Kings had looked across the street to the now-Clarus Maplewood at 160 Maplewood Ave as its ground floor tenant in 2014 -but decided against moving into the former 1958 Post Office site. A plaque honoring long time manager Angelo’s plaque remains in Ricalton Square.
MONTCLAIR – An agreement between Cuban Pete’s owner Dominick Restaino and the State of New Jersey’s Department of Health prior to their Nov. 19 hearing at State Superior Court-Trenton made that session moot – and has kept the Bloomfield Avenue eatery open.
Attorneys representing Restaino and Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, on Oct. 30 agreed that the owner pays the state $1,141.03 in expenses for their padlocking 428 Bloomfield Ave. Oct. 26. Montclair Police, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office attorneys and county sheriff’s officers had locked Cuban Pete’s gates on behalf of a Trenton Superior Court’ judge’s Oct. 9 order.
Restaino must adhere to all present and any future relevant executive orders issued by Gov. Phil Murphy. That includes Murphy’s Nov. 10 order to close all indoor dining, except for takeout or delivery, 10 p.m.-5 a.m. daily.
Cuban Pete’s seating, since its Nov. 6 reopening, is no more than 49 diners – 25 percent of its 197-seat capacity. All indoor and outdoor tables must be spaced six feet apart. All other mask and social distancing rules apply.
“The parties acknowledge that if Cuban Pete’s at any time is found in noncompliance with any of the above conditions,” concluded the agreement, the N.J. Health Department “will issue another closure order, file another show cause order and seek the court’s permission to lock the premises.”
It is not clear whether fines for the three citations authorities have issued Restaino between June and October have been dismissed or dropped. Cuban Pete’s violations had been mentioned by Murphy and State Police Col. Callahan during one of their Coronavirus Briefings.
BLOOMFIELD – Five of “Bloomfield’s Finest” were congratulated for their service upon their official Dec. 1 retirement.
Mayor Michael Venezia and Public Safety Director Samuel DeMaio sent off Capt. Glenn Wiegand, Capt. “Patsy” Spatola, Lt. Thomas Icolari, Det. Michael Volante and Off. Ben Christiano that Monday afternoon here at the Ralph J. Colasanti Law Enforcement Building.
Wiegand, Spatola, Icolari, Volante and Christiano – with their families present – each received handshakes and plaques from Venezia and DeMaio. They each served Bloomfield or at least 25 years.
“Thank you for your dedication,” said DeMaio. “You’ll be greatly missed.”
The retiring fivesome, indeed, took a collective 125 years experience, with them out the building’s door.
GLEN RIDGE – The borough’s Starbucks here has been named by one of its former employees in a wrongful termination suit filed in Newark federal court Nov. 17.
Betsy Fresse, of Newark, said that she was terminated by Starbucks Aug. 22, 2019, some 11 weeks after she was told by her manager there that she was not required to wear a t-shirt that the corporate office had just shipped over.
The shirts, which arrived at 710 Bloomfield Ave.in early June, were made with the Starbucks logo and a variation of the LBGTQ rainbow flag during Pride Month. Fresse said she did not wear the shirt during her barista shifts “because her religious beliefs prevented her from being so.
Fresse said she received a call several weeks later from Starbucks’ ethics and compliance helpline about her request to be exempted from wearing the shirt. She explained that wearing the shirt would compromise her religious beliefs.
Starbucks sent Fresse a letter of separation Aug. 22, declaring that “her comportment was not in compliance with Starbucks’ core values.” The letter said that she had refused to wear the shirt handed to her and said that her employees “need Jesus.”
Freese said that she had treated all customers with respect and “holds no enmity toward individuals who ascribe to the LGBTQ lifestyle.” She has requested and received Sundays and particular nights off to attend religious services.
A Starbucks corporate spokesperson maintains that its employees are not required to wear the said shirts or, aside from the trademark green apron, “requires partners to wear any approved items that they’ve not personally selected.”
BELLEVILLE – The township’s planning board, going by Dec. 10’s meeting agenda, will not be deciding on modifying the School One site’s use until next year.
Belleville’s planners had listened to a proposal from CME Associate’s engineer to consider adding residential use to the commercially-zoned block. CME is asking that residential dwelling units be added along the block’s Academy Street or north side.
The block with the township’s Valley Redevelopment Area is bordered by Academy, Main, Rutgers and Stephens streets. It had been where School One stood until Belleville Public Schools closed it in 1980 and sold Block 9403, Lot 1 to the township for $1 in 2011.
“81 Stephens St.” remains a vacant lot since the township demolished School One in 2013. The board had approved plans for a Quick Check convenience store and filling station in 2016 – but nothing has since happened there.
Current lot owner O&R Urban Renewal Corporation, LLC may file a site plan application once the planning board decides on the proposed residential subdivision.
NUTLEY – Nutley Superintendent of Schools Dr. Julie Glazier, depending on how the township’s board of education votes Dec. 21, may have something added to or subtracted from her contract.
What Glazier and the school board have in mind will not be known until after the panel holds a special closed session that Tuesday night. They had posted a notice of the agenda addition here Dec. 8.
