by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – The identity of a man who was found beneath “Winter Storm Orlena” snowfall in Lincoln Park and later died Feb. 1 has not been identified as of press time.
Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said several pedestrians had flagged down a patrol cruiser, telling of a possible man buried in the snow, at 9:40 a.m. Monday. Officers dug to find the “barely responsive” man and rushed him to a University Hospital for hypothermia treatment. He was declared dead by 3 p.m.
“Orlena” had compiled up to 16.2 inches of snow from 3 p.m. Jan. 31 through 5 a.m. Feb. 2 at Newark Liberty International Airport. Mayor Ras Baraka had extended a Jan. 23 stay indoors Code Blue alert through Feb. 2. Those homeless who are unable or unwilling to enter shelters, from the 1,000 daily unaddressed average in Newark, resort to Newark Penn Station or the streets.
Ambrose Retiring, Fontoura Seeks 11th Term
A change of the local law enforcement leadership, between Ambrose’s Jan. 27 retirement and Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura’s Jan. 25 bid to run for an 11th straight term, is underway.
Ambrose, who has been public safety director since 2016, is to retire March 31. His combined 34-year career included time with the then-Newark Police Department, Essex County Sheriff’s Office and Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Fontoura has been re-elected since his acting appointment in 1991. His previous 25 years experience included five as undersheriff after retiring from 20 years as an NPD captain. Former NPD Deputy Police Director John C. Arnold is to challenge Fontoura in the June 8 party primary elections.
IRVINGTON – Township and animal welfare officials are looking for the person who left a dog tied to a pole near Irvington’s downtown Jan. 23.
An animal control officer from St. Hubert’s Giralda Center was called to the corner of North Maple Avenue and Eastern Parkway that Saturday. The St. Hubert’s officer found a small dog tied to the pole with a rope, “extremely matted and in intense pain,” during one of the coldest nights of this winter.
The officer promptly took the small dog, later named Lux, to a local emergency animal hospital. Although Lux’s matted hair was shorn, one of his paws had lost circulation to where the whole leg had to be amputated.
While Lux rests and recovers in St. Hubert’s center in Madison, a $5,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who had abandoned him.
North Maple Avenue and Eastern Parkway are feeder roads between the Springfield Avenue Business District and the Garden State Parkway. The Maple Gardens Luxury apartment complex, a franchise gym and a shopping plaza anchored by Supremo Supermarket are nearby.
Anyone who has seen Lux and any suspicious activity in that area Jan. 23 are to call (908) 526-3330. That number is also good for those who want to make donations to Lux’s rehabilitation.
EAST ORANGE – The East Orange Police Department’s night shift officers found themselves alerting their Orange colleagues after finding a gunshot victim along one of their major streets here Jan. 27.
The victim, who was found by an EOPD patrol along Central Avenue at about 8:55 p.m. that Wednesday, said he was fired at around Orange’s 575 Nassau St. The man was then taken to a local hospital for treatment and recovery.
OPD officers had “found a crime scene” at that Valley section block later that night. No further details have been yet released.
Man Dead in Norman Towers Fire
Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide and Arson units detectives have ruled that the fire that killed a resident here at 500 North Walnut St. early Feb. 1 was accidental.
City firefighters, responding to a fire alarm from a Norman Towers Senior Apartment dwelling unit 4:40 a.m. Monday, were met with thick smoke billowing from an apartment. Upon entry, they found an unconscious and unresponsive Charles Rogers, 61, and traced the fire and smoke from his kitchen.
Rogers, who lived alone in the 16-story, 406-unit highrise, was declared dead at 5:36 a.m. The 1980-built Norman Towers was sold to Community Preservation Partners July 30. A $123 million rehabilitation is being planned.
ORANGE / BELLEVILLE – Sometimes a shared services provider, as in the case of Orange Health Officer Vicent DeFilippo and Belleville’s township and school administrations, may be called to make a call between two client institutions on a rules interpretation.
DeFlippio had one of those, “What does this look like to you?” moments when he received a letter from Belleville watchdog Frank Fleischman III Jan. 19 on how the respective elders in Town Hall and the Belleville High School Auditorium have conducted their pandemic era public meetings. Belleville has contracted its health services to Orange since 2019.
Fleischman pointed out that the Belleville Township Council has usually held its public meetings in Town Hall’s Council Chamber via Zoom since April. Public questions that are submitted in advance are read into the record.
There were two in-person Township Council meetings. Its Nov. 10 meeting at the BHS Auditorium was canceled due to the latter’s “deep cleaning.” Belleville’s Mayor-Council meetings have been back on Zoom ever since.
Belleville’s planning and zoning board meetings have also been held in Town Hall Council Chamber on Zoom since July. (There were no meetings held April-June.)
The BBOE Trustees, by contrast, have consistently held live in-person meetings – and not on Zoom – since March. Temperature checks, sign-ins for contact tracing, masking and social distancing rule there.
DeFilippo’s response, said Fleischman, was that he recommended that Town Hall meetings be remote due to the then-rising positive. The Orange officer added that the BBOE is “following strict CDC and contact tracing guidelines.”
WEST ORANGE – Instruction and a revised in-class learning schedule that was to take effect has been kicked back to Feb. 8 – and it is not just because of the Jan. 31-Feb. 2 snowstorm.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. J. Scott Cascone, in a pair of Feb. 2 letters, said that the public school district will be all-online learning for the entire week. Cascone cited “the scope of snow movement and removal will take several days” and that he could not guarantee the safety of streets “for students and staff to arrive on Thursday (Feb. 4).”
Once WOPS schools and offices reopen Feb. 8, it will be for those Grade 3-5 students whose parents have chosen in-class instruction. The Grades 6-8 students’ back to the schoolrooms will now happen a week later, on Feb. 16. West Orange High Schoolers, Grades 9-12, will be welcomed inside March 1.
Cascone had actually postponed Grades 6-8 students’ return a week on Jan. 27, before “Winter Storm Orlena” became a factor. He said he came to further staggering Grades 6-12 after listening to parents concerns at the Jan. 25 Board of Education meeting.
The Grade 3-5 students’ Monday return may or may not include those attending the Redwood Elementary School. There had been one positive COVID test among that community Jan. 22 – which has been followed by contact tracing and the self-isolation of those who had recent contact with the individual.
Cascone, on Jan. 23, added that “several members of the WOHS hockey team have tested positive.” Those who are positive and/or been isolated may recover long before their March 1 WOHS personal return.
March 1 will also be after the WOHS Mountaineers’ Feb. 15 last scheduled regular season game. The 3-1 squad, as of press time, is still set to host the Newark East Side HS Red Raiders here at the Codey Arena 8:45 p.m. Feb. 6.
SOUTH ORANGE – The South Orange-Maplewood School District will start its postponed next step in electronic and in-person hybrid learning either when “Winter Storm Orlena” leaves or when you read this – whichever comes later.
Officials at SOMSD and the South Orange Maplewood Education Association have reached a “back to classroom” agreement Jan. 28. SOMEA members will teach only in classrooms among the district’s 11 buildings that have been fully retrofitted with filters and cleaned. Other classrooms will be closed until contractors have upgraded them.
This accord will not include South Orange Middle School, which will remain locked down until Feb. 5. The school is being cleaned after a COVID-positive case was reported Jan. 22.
The agreement was to take effect Feb. 1 – but that was before the three-day snowstorm arrived here 3 p.m. Jan. 31.
SOMSD and SOMEA are now debating on how many classrooms need upgrading. A union-complied Jan. 28-30 survey has half of the two-towns’ 507 public school classrooms, offices and other spaces insufficient. That survey compares to the district’s Jan. 18 Spiezle Architectural Group’s report where some ventilators have no motors installed back then.
East Orange attorney Keri Aellini, representing 11 two-town parents, had meanwhile filed a lawsuit against the SOMSD, its school board and Superintendent Ronald Taylor in U.S. Federal Court-New Jersey District-Newark Jan. 29. The plaintiffs, claiming that special education students are falling through the virtual learning system’s cracks, are calling for immediate full-time all-in-person learning.
MAPLEWOOD – Responding township police officers were able to tie two traffic incidents seven blocks apart on Prospect Street Jan. 28 to one motorist.
MPD officers, said Chief Jimmy DuVal Jan. 29, first went to Prospect and Parker Avenue on “multiple cars of a five-car accident” at 6:19 p.m.”
They first found there the driver and passenger of a car that had been rear-ended and then sideswiped by another vehicle — who had continued south on Prospect. The passenger noted the other vehicle’s license plate number and passed it onto police.
It did not take long to find the “otherer” car: it was found upside down by Courter Avenue after it struck a township tree and a crosswalk sign and ended up against three other cars.
The driver – identified as William Dunn III, 58, of Irvington – was found within the suspected car, asking for medical help. A Maplewood Fire Department rescue unit took Dunn to Newark’s University Hospital for treatment of his injuries. MPD has also asked for tests to be conducted on Dunn to see if he had suffered a medical condition during his Parker Avenue collision.
A second driver was taken by the South Orange Rescue Squad to RWJBarnabas Health in Livingston for treatment of minor injuries. MPD contracted Seton Towing removed two cars that became inoperable. Dunn received summonses for leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving.
MONTCLAIR – The Montclair Education Association’s 1,000 members may be returning to Montclair Public Schools buildings on or by March 8 – but it will not be because they think the classrooms are safe enough.
Attorneys for Montclair Public Schools have filed a back-to-work injunction in New Jersey Superior Court-Newark Feb. 2. A judge, after a hearing on or around presstime, may then grant or dismiss MPS’ injunction.
MPS Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Ponds, after a series of Jan. 23-30 mediation sessions with MEA leadership, said he was filing suit Tuesday “with a heavy heart – but the status quo can’t continue.” Mediation is to also continue while a court hearing is being scheduled.
A mediator was called in after Ponds, on Jan. 22 was unable to get enough MEA staff back into the schools for a Jan. 25 hybrid learning launch.
MPS and Ponds’ Tuesday filing came as no surprise to MEA President Petal Robertson, who said she has seen the lawsuit coming since Jan. 27.
“We’ve been informed that it is this district’s plan to take the association to court over our advocacy for the health and safety of our students and staff,” said Robertson. “We’ve always been, and still are, committed to the mediation process.”
Montclair Mayor Sean Spillar, whose day job is as an NJEA vice president, has been urging both sides to keep negotiating for an agreement, Members of Montclair parents for In-Person Learning and Concerned Parents and Community Members of Montclair, who urge full in-person classes, held their protests before selected MPS schools Jan. 25.
BLOOMFIELD – Nicholas Zois’ dream of reviving his 65-year-old Roxy Florist has ended with his posting a “Lot for Sale” sign on where 326-328 Glenwood Ave./55 Washington St. in Town Centre’s Five Points had stood.
A contracted demolition crew had finished off the 1925 “Roxy Florist Building” Jan. 19 what a gutting Jan. 21, 2020 fire had started. The fire, which happened on Zois’ 89th birthday, burned out him and his seven retail or professional tenants.
Zois, 90, of Verona, as late as March, had hoped to build a new two-story building. He had no plans to retire from being a Bloomfield florist.
Zois, whose father owned Forest Hill Flowers at Newark’s Broad and Market streets, came to the former Bloomfield Bake Shop and Glenwood Hotel as a former U.S. Army medic with a desire to start his own floral business in 1965.
“Mr. Roxy” gradually became its landlord through tenants’ retiring their leases. He had rented out space to Kolby’s Place Barber Shop, the Bloomfield Center Alliance, attorneys Salvatore Alfano and Joseph Fusella, Heavenly Bites/Heavenly Flavors, Winfield Security and Samadhi Yoga Studio Jan. 1, 2020.
Bloomfield and ECPO fire investigators had not found a cause to the 7:48 a.m. Jan. 21, 2020 fire other than it was not suspicious. The four alarm blaze brought 100 firefighters
from nearby Belleville, Montclair, Nutley, East Orange, Newark, West Orange, Irvington, Cedar Grove and Clifton to bring it under control by 11 a.m. Ten NJTransit and DeCamp bus routes were among the detoured traffic.
Qorrell Wright, thanks to a Feb. 5 fundraising party for all tenants and two Gofundme.com drives, reopened his barber shop and brought back his 11 employees to 595 Bloomfield Ave. Sept. 25. Attorneys Alfano and Fusella have moved to 2 Broad St. and 375 Franklin Ave. The Bloomfield Center Alliance has its temporary quarters at Bloomfield College’s Richards Hall.
GLEN RIDGE – The attorney for the borough’s police department union has confirmed that a third hostile work environment suit in four years has been filed against Chief of Police Sheila Byron-Lagattuta in State Superior Court-Newark Jan. 22.
Attorney Paul W. Tyshchenko, who represents PBA Local 58, said that Sgt. Ryan Schwartz, citing unfair treatment and harassment by Glen Ridge’s “top cop” “for years,” had filed suit.
“Chief Byron-Lagattuta’s deplorable leadership and unprofessional management style was not confined to her treatment of Sgt. Schwartz,” said Tyshchenko. “When morale at the (GRPD) got so bad that PBA Local 58 feared that it could begin to negatively affect the department’s ability to operate, Local 58 held two votes of no confidence in the chief – both of which were approved by 95 percent of the PBA’s membership.”
Those two votes, said Tyshchenko, held in 2018 and 2020, were then delivered by Local 58 President Off. Joseph Ulianoto the Borough Council.
The borough and Sgt. Merritt Carr had settled a four-year-old suit against the chief for $765,000 Aug. 1. A three-year-old suit by former GRPD dispatcher-turned-Byron-Lagattuta’s personal assistant was settled later last year for an undisclosed amount.
Tyshchenko is a member of the Fairfield Caruso, Smith, Picini P.C. firm.
Byron-Lagattuta, of Cedar Grove, became the GRPD’s first woman chief upon the March 31, 2010 retirement of John R. Magnier.
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