by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – A three-tower residential complex, called The Halo, which received Newark Central Planning Board approval March 15, is poised to rise from 289-301 Washington St. in the coming years.
The Halo, at its 565-foot, 46-story maximum height, would become Newark’s tallest building. It would be seen from New York City – provided that Manhattanites could peer amid Jersey City’s taller towers and if The Halo gets built at all.
Developer Moshe Glazer, of Lakewood and INOA Architects had received CPB approval for their first Halo in 2018. The original version featured two towers for 394 apartments atop a five story base. That first Halo was never built.
Glazer, INOA and construction manager came back this winter with three towers and a six-story base to rise from the .681-acre parking lot. The 38-story tower will hold 248 housing units, the 42-story tower 292 units and the tallest holding 297 units. the third spire would oust the 35-story, 466-ft. National Newark (formerly the National Newark & Essex Bank) Building at 744 Broad St.
The apartments break down to 533 studio, 255 one-bedroom and 161 two-bedroom units. Glazer, on one hand, did not number how many will be designated affordable housing. The site plan does adhere to Newark’s inclusionary housing and local hiring regulations and Glazer wants a range of Halo residents.
The Halo’s third spire would become New Jersey’s sixth tallest building. The other five taller buildings – topping out with the 79-story, 900-ft. 90 Hudson St., are all in Jersey City.
IRVINGTON – Authorities, while having the suspected driver of a silver Nissan Altima in their custody, are still looking for the Altima’s passenger plus a black Dodge Charger – and its driver — that eluded their pursuit from the Irvington Park area here March 9.
Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said that his officers on patrol that Tuesday saw the Dodge, followed by the Nissan, running “at high speed” westbound on Olson Placemear the entrance to Irvington Park.
“In a scene that seemed out of the Old West” said Fontoura, “the Altima pulled up directly behind the Charger before they began to fire several shots from the top window of the (Nissan) vehicle.”
Sheriff’s officers immediately put on their lights and sirens to pursue both cars. They followed the Nissan north on Grove Street until it attempted “a sharp turn” onto Nye Avenue – until it crashed into a fence. Two men bailed out from the Altima’s driver’s side door, starting a foot chase. One man, identified as Shylem S. Bennett, 26, of Newark, was spotted walking south along 21St Street; he surrendered upon approach.
Other officers found inside the Nissan a Beretta AXP .40 caliber pistol with four hollow point bullets in its magazine. Bennet was also found with “25 decks of heroin” on his person.
Bennett has since been held on 13 counts of Controlled Dangerous Substance possession schedule I-IV plus a count of “other” CDS possession and a possession count thereof within 500 feet of public property. He also faces eight counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated eluding plus a count each of possession of prohibited hollow point bullets, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, possession thereof without a permit and prohibited possession by a convicted felon.
Some other officers, who tailed the Charger north on Grove, lost sight of it while both were going west on May Street.
EAST ORANGE – Mayor Theodore “Ted” Green’s 2021 State of the City Address opened on livestream here at the Cicely L. Tyson School of Fine and Performing Arts Jean L. James Auditorium March 4 with his honor and his lectern flanked by portraits of parents Ted, Sr. and Lula Green.
“The biggest understatement I could make right now is that the year 2020 was tough for all of us,” opened Green. “I’d like to take a moment to remember the 273 East Orange residents who’ve lost their lives to COVID-19. Personally, this past year was one of the greatest losses for me – my mom on March 8 and my dad on Nov. 25 – but I couldn’t shut down. Tonight, I wanted to feel their presence again, to thank them both and to know I miss them dearly.”
March 4’s address was also marked with an almost empty auditorium gallery, necessitating the livestreaming instead of the usual overflow crowd of 800. Mayor Green’s family, the City Council, Green’s administrative team, dignitaries and East Orange/Essex County Democratic Committee Chairman Leroy Jones, Jr. made up the bulk of the sparse live audience.
Green also remembered the magnet school’s namesake, actress Cicely Tyson. 96, who died Jan. 29. The Mayor then turned to thank the Department of Policy, Planning and Development for creating EOShopLocal.com as a new small business-resident conduit. Green, noting another COVO alleviating measure, thanked the department for matching 100 businesses with county, state and federal grants.
Increasing housing stock and redevelopment continued last year despite the pandemic. The Mayor called the $400 million Crossings at Brick Church as “our flagship project.” Groundbreaking of its first phase is to be later this spring. The 46-yaer-old rick Church Shopping Plaza will eventually be replaced with 820 housing units, including “216 affordable housing units, a large rental – ShopRite – a seven-story parking garage, future quality rental spaces and new sit-down restaurants for our community.”
Green also checked off other redevelopment and rehabilitation efforts, from the ribbon-cutting of 475 William St. and 60 senior affordable units at 160 Halsted St. to modernizing 1,000 units at Norman and Corinthian towers. This was among the thanks and kudos the Mayor bestowed to the city’s departments and workers in their efforts to make the city, “safe and healthy.”
“In the year 2020,” said the Mayor during his one-hour, 39-minute address, “we’ve learned that we can rise above and overcome anything, including the worst pandemic our country has even seen.”
ORANGE – Ward Street will be honorarily renamed Walii Muhammad Way in a ceremony here Noon – 2 p.m. April 3. It is not clear whether the ceremony will be held at the corner of Hillyer Street or the corner of Park Street – but “Local Talk” figures it will be the closer one to the boxer’s longtime family home at 95 Ward St. The date is the closest At-Large Councilman Wheldon “Monty” Montague III could arrange to Muhammad’s April 19 birthday.
Montague’s street naming ceremony, which he arranged by a Sept. 1 City Council Resolution, is the latest honor for the former light heavyweight fighter. He was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame Nov. 12 in Garfield.
Muhammad, 61, according to boxing records, amassed a 12-win and five-loss professional prizefighting record 198-910. The youth from The Valley’s Freeman Street Athletic Club first brought notice by winning the 1976 Golden Gloves Tournament Novice Class.
Muhammad, was born Terence Warren in Orange Memorial Hospital in 1959, was first taken to 108 Parrow St. His family, however, moved to 95 Ward i9n 1964. The Orange High School Class of 1977 graduate used to fight a rival until both decided to go together to gyms on Main and Freeman streets.
“Bro. Wali Muhammad’s dedication was a role model for hundreds of young people, including me,” said Montague March 17. “He commanded respect not by how he used his fists but by how he carried himself.”
WEST ORANGE – It appears that “Executive Suites 2.0” has spawned “Procedural Lawsuit 2.0” as of March 15.
Several township residents had recently filed suit against the township administration and planning board in State Superior Court-Newark. The plaintiffs, a perceived lack of due process, is asking a Superior Court Judge to at least halt the Municipal Council and West Orange Planning Board’s approval process of the revised Executive Suites redevelopment plan.
The new plan, as presented on-line by Mayor Robert Parisi earlier this winter, would replace 1970s-era office buildings at 100 and 200 Executive Dr. with two buildings that would hold 401 housing units. 10 Rooney Circle would be repurposed as the new West Orange Public Library, DPW headquarters and a dog park or animal shelter. Both the new and former versions include a 30-year PILOT tax abatement plan for developer BNE Real Estate Group.
The plaintiffs complain that some presentation dates were rescheduled without proper prior notice. Parisi’s early March virtual presentation on the proposed WOPL portion for example, was advanced a week into February – resulting in only 16 livestream viewers.
Township Attorney Robert Trenk said, on March 10, that the presentation was moved up so that The Township Council can approve BNE as the project’s developer before March 1. March 1 was the deadline so that WOPL could remain eligible for a $3.1 million share of the state’s Library Construction Bond Act.
The Council voted 4-1 March 1 to approve the project’s $30 million, 30-year Payment in Lieu of Taxes for Executive Suites. Lone dissenter Councilman William “Bill” Rutherford disagreed with Township CFO John Gross over whether the redevelopment could be built without the PILOT.
SOUTH ORANGE – Village Chief of Police Kyle Kroll, after 33 years’ service, will be retiring May 1.
Kroll, who has been South Orange’s “Top Cop” the last five years, made his retirement announcement here March 17. He will turn his office over to Capt. Stephen Dolinac, who Village President has named acting chief.
Kroll had served as a captain for 13 years before he was promoted to chief in 2016. The third-generation villager and Columbia High School graduate, while chief, created a Special Operations Division for parking and traffic. He launched the village’s first Community Policing Collaborative.
“Serving as South Orange Chief of Police has been the experience of a lifetime,” said Kroll. “I’m grateful to the Village President and Trustees for putting their faith in me, to my fellow officers for their dedication and support and the community of South Orange for the opportunity.to serve in a place that will always be home to me.”
MAPLEWOOD – The South Orange-Maplewood School District is still aiming for an April 19 reopening of its 11 buildings for the in-person part of its hybrid instruction reopening.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor, in his March 22 update to the community, explained that the March 29 – April 1 Spring Break and April 5-16 are being used as a precautionary quarantine period for students and staff. April 5-16, leading up to April 19, will be all-remote or virtual learning.
April 19 is also the date the district and the South Orange-Maplewood Education Association are to reappear before State Superior Court Judge Jodi Lee Alpert. Alpert, who approved SOMSD-SOMEA’s March 15 re-entry agreement, has left April 19 open in case both parties have not ironed out “Phase 4 re-entry” details.
Dr. Taylor also reminded parents that March 25 is the last date to switch their children from virtual to hybrid instruction.
BLOOMFIELD – Township detectives said that they have had a suspect, in connection with the Feb. 7 Bloomfield Avenue doorway shooting, in custody since March 9.
BPD’s Detective Bureau, said Public Safety Director Samuel DeMaio, had arrested an Andre King while he was leaving his Newark residence and was about to enter his girlfriend’s car 9:30 a.m. that Tuesday. King was originally arrested on an outstanding warrant.
Detectives said they had identified King from security camera recordings surrounding 547 Bloomfield Ave. Feb. 7. A man, whose party was refused entry to PLUGG Studios 3:30 a.m., on COVID capacity limits, drew a gun and fired at the doorman. That firing shattered the glass front door and left a gunshot wound on the guard’s right hand.
King is being held in Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility on charges of aggravated assault, possession of a weapon and possession thereof for an unlawful purpose.
MONTCLAIR – The Montclair Public Schools Board of Education, in its recently filed civil suit against the Montclair Education Association, declared that the district had lost 459 students since the COVID pandemic and its lockdowns began.
The board and their attorneys said that at least half of students who left the district were elementary school students. The overall figure includes 117 students who the plaintiffs said had gone to private and other non-public schools.
The figures are being used by the MBOE in its contention that the “delay in restoring in-person instruction” is causing “irreparable harm to students.” A State Superior Court Judge, in a ruling that rejected MPS administrators’ call for MEA members’ immediate return to classrooms, said that the district had failed to prove “irreparable harm” to students who had to rely on remote or virtual learning.
Those few private schools who talked with a Montclair-based reporter conformed that there has been more competition for their classroom seats but also cited more families moving here among other factors. Most Montclair-area private, religious and charter school officials declined to comment.
MPS and MEA leaders are meanwhile ironing out details that would open the district to a virtual/in-person hybrid model on or by April 19.
BELLEVILLE – The commotion over the transfer of a painting from the Belleville Public Library atrium to Mayor Melham’s Town hall office may have either been resolved – or may have brought in N.J. Attorney General Gurbir Grewal – when you read this.
Belleville Historical Society President Michael Perrone, during the BPL Board of Trustees March 17 meeting, read a statement that the library’s allowing “Landscape of Belleville,” painted in 1831 by Thomas Natt, to grace the mayor’s office wall since June was done without “the authorization of the Hatch family or the Belleville Historical Society.”
Perrone presented a letter from owner David Hatch to Belleville Police Chief Mark Minichini that his father’s biggest fear that the painting would be hung “in a politician’s office.” The BHS leader said he had made copies of the two letters to Grewal’s office.
Perrone told library trustees that the painting, valued at $125,000 in 2010, be returned to the atrium within seven days – or face legal action.
A majority of BPL trustees passed a resolution to loan Mayor Melham the art until July 1, 2022 – the end of his first term. Melham – nominally an ex-officio, or non-voting trustee – appoints the library’s board members.
Hatch’s father, after discovering “Landscape of Belleville” in his basement, donated the art to BHS in the 1950s. The historical society then loaned the work to BPL for public display in 1963. The Hatchs are direct descendants of early settler Josiah Hornblower.
Neither Grewal’s office, Melham’s office nor Interim Library Director Frances Barardi offered comment.
NUTLEY – Members of the township’s fire department, with assistance from their Irvington colleagues and Nutley police among others, helped bring Victor A. Mellillo home for the last time here March 17.
Nutley and Irvington’s bravest, in full dress uniform, first escorted Melillo’s body from Atlantic Health Care Morristown Hospital to the S.W. Brown and Son Funeral Home St. Patrick’s Day. They returned to Brown’s for Melillo’s final escort May 22 for his Funeral Mass here at Holy Family Church and burial at North Arlington’s Holy Cross Cemetery.
A joint NFD-IFD honor guard stood vigil during May 21’s visitation at the funeral home.
Melillo, 21, had died in Morristown March 8 – four days after being suddenly stricken during a training exercise at Parsippany’s Morris County Public Safety Training Academy. He was training as a recruit for the Irvington Fire Department. He wanted to follow in the boots of his father, Victor G. Milello,,who was a longtime and retired Belleville firefighter and arson investigator.
