by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Although the New Jersey MVC Newark Regional Licensing Center was scheduled to reopen Dec. 16, one should call ahead here and to any of the other 38 statewide offices for the time being.
228 Frelinghuysen Ave. is among three RLCs to fully reopen for services Dec. 16 or 19. The Newark, Trenton and Paterson RLCs are among 10 licensing centers and four vehicle offices that the Motor Vehicle Commission has set for a phased reopening Dec. 16-26. This rolling reopening was announced by the state commission Dec. 12.
These 14 offices had been closed the last two weeks for disinfection and cleaning for the Coronavirus. The closures were triggered when an employee had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus although MVC had declined to say whether the contraction was made on or off their premises.
The MVC, in the same Friday announcement, said that its East Orange office at 183 So. 18th St and its 15 other vehicle centers have gone by-appointment-only as of 8 a.m. Dec. 15.
Handling motor vehicle registrations, certificates and transfers by appointment is seen as MVC’s attempt to get ahead of COVID-19’s “second wave” of rising infection. The state arm and its customers, between the virus pandemic and an early summer computer system breakdown, have also faced extended expiration dates and changing office hours.
MVC urges customers to confirm office openings and make appointments on njmvc.gov. The Newark RLC’s inspection station and road test facility have been open throughout.
IRVINGTON – A contracted excavator leveled both 761 and 763 Springfield Ave., Dec. 4 while an Irvington DPW crew began boarding up nearby 744-48 Springfield Ave.
A combination of recent fires and Hurricane Isaias brought the former mostly mixed-use commercial businesses west of the Newark border onto the township’s demolition list.
Isaias’ wind gusts, for example, pulled Easy Electronics’ awning – and the rollgate mechanism behind it – off its front wall moorings and sent it crashing onto the sidewalk Aug. 4. No one was injured on the sidewalk nor inside the vacant three-story structure.
Although Irvington Police set up sawhorses around 763 Springfield, no other visible action was taken until the barriers were replaced after Nov. 26. Its storefront windows remained open for dumped trash and squatters.
A previous fire, which had scorched the three story wood frame building’s east side, had left the 1913-built structure with a visible lean. Real estate websites had listed “NJ Land Development LLC,” of Brooklyn as its owner but in “preforeclosure.”
761 Springfield Ave., owned by the township since 2008, was also levelled. What was once home to Cooper’s Barber Shop or Ross Tax Service had also suffered a structural-damaging fire.
DPW workers, by Dec. 11, had meanwhile re-boarded up 744-748 Springfield and placed a large demolition “X” sign above its corner entrance. At least two fires, on Nov. 17 and June 19, brought Irvington and mutual aid firefighters to the vacant two-story building at 22nd Street
EAST ORANGE – City police officers assisted their Jersey City Police and Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office detectives by arresting an Evergreen area resident here Dec. 5.
Thaddeus Williams, 37, was picked up by EOPD’s Plainclothes Unit along Carnegie Avenue 7:10 p.m. that Saturday. He remains held in South Kearny’s Hudson County Correctional Facility on second-degree charges of unlawful possession of a weapon and possession thereof for an unlawful purpose plus criminal sexual contact.
Williams, said Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez, was wanted in connection with the Dec. 4 fatal shooting of Aieshia McFadden in Jersey City.
JCPD officers told Suarez that they were responding to gunfire from 217-19 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. when they found “an unresponsive woman with an apparent gunshot wound to her torso” there at 8:30 p.m. that Friday. EMS technicians rushed the woman, later identified as McFadden, 36, to the Jersey City Medical Center, where she died at 9:10 p.m.
McFadden’s funeral announcements have not been announced as of Dec. 15. Suarez added that the HCPO Homicide Unit is still investigating the case.
ORANGE – The City Council gave D&R Orange Urban Renewal II/Russo Development a $250,000 loan for their pending 51 Lincoln Ave. market rate housing project Dec. 14 but had set its decision on a 30-year Payment in Lieu of Taxes plan for Jan. 5.
The council unanimously passed Ordinance 59-2020 Tuesday night, to issue $250,000 in municipal bonds so that the city can “provide aid to a redevelopment project located at 33-51 Lincoln Ave and 60 Scotland Rd.”
33, 43, 51and 53 Lincoln Ave. and 60 Scotland Rd. are where D&R wants to build 51 Lincoln. 51 Lincoln, as approved by the Orange Planning Board last summer, would consist of 201 luxury apartment units and 350 indoor parking spaces within a five-story structure.
51 Lincoln, to go up on Lincoln Avenue’s west side and across from NJTransit’s Orange Station, qualifies for state tax incentives since it is being built within the Orange Transit Development Zone. One of the two parking levels, by agreement between D&R and the City of Orange, will be leased to the city for 30 years for public use.
The quarter-million loan to D&R would go towards “infrastructure.”
Although the council approved 59 and 60-2020 on their Dec. 1 introduction, Orange elders have tentatively set the latter’s public hearing and final vote for their Jan. 5 meeting.
60-2020 calls for a “30-year tax exemption and a financial agreement between the City and D&R.” The agreement is for a 30-year PILOT where D&R pays the city between 2.25 percent on the first year to seven percent on the last year. Orange would be getting a 3.83 percent average during the PILOT’s life.
WEST ORANGE – A Newark woman, who was arrested here after a car chase, is anticipated to return to West Orange Municipal Court either in person or via Zoom before Dec. 31.
Aaliyah Richardson, 18, had been charged with eluding and theft before being remanded to Irvington’s township court Dec. 1.
The WOPD blotter states that officers were looking for a 2013 Dodge Dart that had been reported as stolen from 83 Main St at 5:30 a.m. when a patrol cruiser “almost immediately” spotted a car matching its description while on Pleasant Valley Way.
When the patrol united turned on its lights and sirens to pull thee Dart over, its driver did not do so for it and other WOPD cars along the Way.
The pursuit continued into Greentree Road – a dead end street. The driver, later identified as Richardson, exited the car and raised both her hands.
Richardson, who was arrested without incident, was found to have a warrant out from Irvington.
SOUTH ORANGE – SOPAC is looking for a new movie theater operator since Bow-Tie Cinemas had let its lease here expire Nov. 30.
Bow-Tie, following governors’ executive orders, closed all of their theatres in mid-March – including SOPAC, Clairidge in Montclair and Millburn.
“Cinemas 5 at SOPAC” reopened June 16 but did not last the summer. Its Facebook page had offered $99 “private screenings” for up to 20 patrons among its five screens and 558 seats. It last held a remote screening of “Zappa,” a documentary of musician Frank Zappa, Nov. 27.
“Attendance remained too low based on state guidelines and the corresponding drop in concessions dropped revenue way too much,” said Village Trustee Steve Schnall Dec. 4. The Village and Seton Hall University own SOPAC.
Bow-Tie came to SOPAC when it bought the 42-theatre Clearview Cinemas chain in June 2013. It also picked up Clearview’s leases for the Millburn Theater and Montclair’s Clairidge and Bellevue movie houses. (It closed the Bellevue in 2017)
Schnall said that SOPAC had spent this dormant period exploring how to alternatively use its spaces – “and even whether operating a movie franchise would be viable.”
“Cinemas 5” loyalty reward holders may either go to the only known open Bow-Tie theater in Norwalk, Conn. SOPAC is meanwhile willing to rent out its theater, gallery and meeting spaces.
MAPLEWOOD – Patrons and neighbors of the Maplewood Theater here are wondering if the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions have claimed the 93-year-old motion picture house.
Current operators CJM Cinemas, of Hawthorne, had informed its landlord, Lost Picture Show, LLC, of Green Brook, that it was letting its lease here at 155 Maplewood Ave. lapse on Nov. 30. CJM, after a 20-year run here, had removed its property by then.
The theater, which was playing “Fatima” and “Tenet” on two of its six screens when it closed by Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order March 13, has remained closed. CJM tried to re-open its sister Hawthorne 5 Aug. 30, only to close that Passaic County movie house again Sept. 21.
What was once one of New Jersey’s largest movie theaters opened March 15, 1927 with “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” silent, starring the late Rudolph Valentino.
The theatre – after adapting to talkies, live performances and Sunday screenings – was closed 1988-90 while the then-owner and the township had squabbled over how many screens it should hold. CJM, after signing its first lease in 2000, found that the 1,412-seat theater was subdivided into a six-plex in the 1990s.
“The Four Horsemen,” based on a 1916 novel, is traced to the Apostle John’s vision of “Conquest, War, Famine and Death” in the Book of Revelation.
MONTCLAIR – Some restaurateurs have taken down their temporary outdoor structures in advance – but not necessarily in anticipation – of the forecasted Dec. 16-17 snowstorm.
Some eatery owners have struck their tents or removed their igloos on or ahead of a Dec. 8 deadline set by Montclair Construction Code Official Samuel L. Souza.
Souza, on Nov. 23, issued a notice whereby pre-existing temporary outdoor dining structures need to receive building permits and certificates of occupancy permits and pass construction code and fire inspections on or by Dec. 8.
Those who do not get the said permits from the building code office and inspections by the fire department and code enforcement by then will have been directed to dismantle their said outdoor dining structures or risk fines and possible shutdown. No new temporary outdoor structures have been allowed since Nov. 30.
Souza said that he and other township officials were concerned about such structures, built to help restaurants meet pandemic-related dining executive orders, will be used into the winter months. Some owners may add heaters and electrical outlets; some may be using non-fire retardant materials.
Montclair code enforcers, said Souza, had waived permits and inspections of structures standing for longer than 180 days during this spring and summer. Those permits and inspections, however, were needed all along.
Some structure owners may have removed their tents and igloos in the face of a Nor’easter that may produce around six inches of snow. Some may have removed their structures so that municipal and county snow plows can navigate streets and county roads.
BLOOMFIELD – Mayor Michael Venezia and the Township Council will take public comment on two measures that they had approved on their Dec. 14 introduction, prior to a decisive Dec. 29 special meeting vote.
The first bill, introduced by Township Administrator Matthew Watkins, would establish a “Special Emergency Funding for Terminal Severance Liability” for township employees.
The fund would create a $1.212 million three-to-five-year low interest loan so the township can pay severance benefits of retiring employees in 2021 in case that year’s municipal budget revenues fall short.
“It’s going to be a tricky year for 2021 – we had 28 retirements alone in 2020,” said Watkins. “In agreement with our auditor and finance staff, we need to save and hang on to our cash for use in 2021.”
The other bill would have more Bloomfield firefighters in Belleville and Nutley beyond mutual aid. Watkins said that the proposed “Emergency Shared Service Agreement” with Nutley and Belleville will not cost Bloomfield.
“We were approached by Nutley to enter into an interlocal agreement between (them) and Nutley,” said Watkins. “It’s to provide our neighboring towns with some help in case of an emergency or something catastrophic. If we incur any costs, we’d be reimbursed through COVID or FEMA funding.”
GLEN RIDGE – The Glen Ridge Public Schools community are hoping that Superintendent of Schools Dirk Phillips’ next report will not announce any new positive COVID cases.
There have been 19 positive cases reported among the 2,000 student body, five school district since Nov 27. Phillips, in three reports Nov. 30-Dec. 7 said that the cases are from people among Glen Ridge High School, Ridgewood Avenue Upper Elementary and Central School.
While RAUES and Central have one case each and a third “is not linked to the schools,” the remaining 16 were from GRHS.
Phillips, in successive emails, said that 14 of the GRHS positives were members of one of its athletic teams. The other two “had contact with the team.”
It is not clear whether the said Ridgers team had to cancel or forfeit games as a result of the testing and isolation.
GRPS have been on an all-remote learning model since Nov. 30. Those in that community are to report their test findings to their schools’ nurses.
BELLEVILLE – Mayor Michael Melham had been honoring Florence Pentol’s memory by having flags here at Belleville Town Hall and other municipal buildings lowered to half-staff Nov. 17-Dec. 17.
Melham said he wanted to recognize Pentol’s five decades’ contribution to the township. The salute may be the closest tribute some will pay without having to go to her Nov. 23 prayer service, funeral and burial in Linden.
The former Florence Zamorski was born in Elizabeth in 1931, was raised in Linden and had lived in Jersey City before moving here in 1962. She and first husband John “Jack” O’Neill came to Belleville so she could work as a banking industry secretary.
Pentol, off bankers hours, had been a longstanding Belleville Public Library Board of Trustees and Rent Levelling Board member. She had served as treasurer for the Concerned Citizens of Belleville and the Senior Citizens Friday Club. She had also served as a poll worker for the Essex County Board of Elections.
Pentol died Nov. 17 here at RWJBarnabas Health Clara Maas Medical Center. Brother Tadeusz “Teddy” Zamorski and twin sister Helen Banko are among her survivors. She had outlived O’Neill and second husband Chester Pentol and eight brothers and sisters.
Pentol’s visitation was held Nov. 23 at Linden’s Kowalski Funeral Home, followed by her Funeral Mass at St. Teresa of the Child Jesus R.C. Church and burial at Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
