by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Last rites were held at West Orange’s St. Joseph’s Church and East Hanover’s Gate of Heaven Cemetery July 21 for former Councilwoman Marie L. Juliano-Villani, 100.
Villani, whose appointment to succeed her ailing husband Ralph Villani turned into 20 years as at-large councilwoman, died in Caldwell’s Claridge House July 13. She had turned 100 on July 4.
Newark native Marie Sicnolfi first married RCA Records executive C. Robert Juliano and moved to West Orange’s Gregory section to raise sons Allen and Robert, Jr. Robert Juliano suddenly died, prompting Marie to start her own House of Juliano clothing, jewelry and interior design business in South Orange.
Marie Juliano supported several Newark area charitable organizations, which led to her meeting former Newark Mayor Ralph Villani. Villani who was mayor under the city commission form of government 1949-55, was an at-large councilman 1962-73. He took ill, forcing him to resign in May 1973, prompting the City Council to ask Marie to fill in until the term expired June 30, 1974. (He died of a heart seizure Feb. 28, 1974.)
Marie Villani, however, announced her run as at-large councilwoman in early 1974. She, with the help of the majority of participating voters, went from becoming the third woman Municipal Council member to the first to win an at-large seat and be re-elected four more times.
Villani often cast the decisive vote in many city council decisions, including the support of the controversial and never-built 1970’s Kawaida Towers. She resigned in 1993 after pleading guilty to a federal charge of misusing city funds.
Son Robert, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren are among her survivors. Son/legislative aide Allen, both husbands, sisters Lucy and Jo and brother John predeceased her.
IRVINGTON – Prospective residents who move into 722 Chancellor Ave. or neighbors with long memories should not be surprised if movie scenes, the aroma of baking pizza and/or a local comic’s routine come to mind on or by November 2022.
NRP Group, of Cleveland, Adenah Bayoh, of Irvington, and their contractors have been building 722 Chancellor – a five-story, 56-unit structure of affordable housing – from the southwest corner of Chancellor and Union avenues since its July 1 groundbreaking.
722 Chancellor is rising from a lot that had been vacant since the 1980s. The 20,712.46-square-foot space, however, had been the home for the Chancellor Theatre and its storefront tenants for six decades.
The Chancellor opened as a single screen, 1,250-seat theatre for motion pictures and live performances as either the Roxie or Roxy Theatre Sept. 25, 1928. It became the Rex Theatre in 1930 after another theater owner, Sam “Roxy” Rothafel sued over the first name. Eddie Steinberg replaced “Rex” with “Chancellor” after buying the house from RKO in the early 1950s.
It was during the Rex era when Joseph Levitech became an increasing presence in the theater and the neighborhood in the 1930s-40s. Levitech, who began visiting relatives around the corner at 396 Union Ave., was one of its ushers and was a comedic performer in the late 1930s.
Levitich used 396 Union as an address to enroll at Irvington High School after he was expelled from Newark’s Weequahic High School in 1942. He dropped out of IHS in 1943 and changed his name to Jerry Lewis. He would use “Jerry” instead of “Joe” to avoid confusion with boxer Joe Louis. “Jerry Lewis” would go on to become an acclaimed entertainer, and is most known for teaming up with Hollywood legend Dean Martin.
Those with more recent memories remember Falcone’s Pizza, which operated along the Union Avenue side of the Chancellor building in the 1970s. The Chancellor’s patronage declined that decade and the entire was demolished in the 1980s.
EAST ORANGE – The new owners of the former Western Beef/Victory Chrysler-Plymouth building here at 1A Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd have summed up their intended use in a single word: Expansion.
That is the summation from the comptroller of both 1 MLK, LLC and FM Construction Group from 100 Dr. MLK Blvd. Aug. 3. FM and affiliated vehicles and equipment have spent the past month emptying the 48-year-old, 30,000-square foot building. All of the KLM Laundromat’s washing machines and dryers, which had occupied 2,000 ft. of the structure, were seen lined up at a corner of the 2.34-acre lot.
While FM has been i9n residential and commercial construction since 1986, 1 MLK, LLC is less than three months old. The latter entity bought the property from Western Beef’s real estate arm June 22 for $3.4 million.
Western Beef, of Queens, N.Y, abruptly closed the supermarket by 5:30 p.m. Set. 8, 2019, ending a 34-year run here. It had moved into the vacant Victory/Metro Chrysler dealership in 1985.
The sale to 1 MLK LLC is so fresh that the ink is still wet on its deed transfer document at the Essex County Hall of Records Registrar’s office in Newark. Nor has the new owner indicated whether it would need to file a site plan application with the East Orange Zoning and/or Planning boards.
By “Expansion,” FM would be extending its operations from the Fantin Supply complex at 100 King Blvd. The building may be refitted for material and/or vehicle storage. Vehicular and equipment maintenance here remains an open question as of press time; the structure had opened as a car dealership with a parts and service area.
The downside of 1 MLK’s purchase and FM’s renovation is that a new supermarket here will have to wait until The Crossings at Brick Church starts its Shop-Rite replacement or if a prospective new grocer approached the planning board.
ORANGE – City police plus the ECPO Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force visited the Seven Oaks neighborhood twice in late June on separate murder and missing person calls.
OPD and county detectives were joined by the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, a Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office member and a Bergen County Sheriff’s officer when they converged at 164 Elmwynd Dr. June 25. Their early evening search, which also taped off Elmwyd Drive, extended across South Center Street into the pond of nearby Monte Irvin Orange Park.
On-sire authorities told RLS Media that they were looking for “the body of a missing Hispanic male from Newark who reportedly had ties to Orange.”
164 Elmwyd Dr., built in 1930, is a two-story, four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom house sited on 1.31 acres. Although the house is listed as “off-market,” its overgrown shrubbery and several boarded-up windows suggest it is vacant. The current owner has owned the property since 2003.
City and Essex County authorities had visited a house along Elmwynd’s 300 block June 21 – which resulted in the recovery of a man’s body. Responding OPD officers, who arrived on a suspicious activity call, said they found William T. Harris, 79, having been felled by a blunt force trauma head injury.
Harris’ obituary has not been posted as of press time.
Seven Oaks, in Orange’s South Ward, are mostly composed of houses built in the early 20th Century.
WEST ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD / MONTCLAIR – The protests and criticism within and outside of the US Olympic Fencing Team over the presence of one of its alternate members may linger long after their part of the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games was completed on Aug. 1.
West Orange resident and Montclair High School graduate Alen Hazdic, as the alternate, stood with teammates Jake Hoyle, Curtis McDowald and Yeisser Ramirez before the men’s epee team faceoff against Japan July 30 – and did a double-take.
Ramirez, McDowald and Hoyle were wearing pink face masks in protest of Hazdic’s presence while being accused of sexual misconduct 2013-15 and 2019. Although Hazdic’s suspension was lifted so he could attend the games, USA Fencing has kept him in a hotel away from the rest of the team.
“I asked them if they had an extra (pink) one and they said, ‘Oh, no.’ ” said Hazdic. “I told Hoyle that I was frankly embarrassed to be his teammate. They never asked me for my side of the story, for evidence or how I felt.”
It was not long after the men’s epee team lost to Japan, 45-39, Friday morning in the round of 16 before two present and recent Maplewood-based teammates took notice.
“I hope that we don’t get too caught up in the warm and fuzzies of symbolic gestures that we forget to ask the questions,” said women’s foil team member Jacqueline Dubrovich on Instagram. “Performative activism doesn’t address the issue. The people/systems who enabled and protected a violent predator aren’t being held accountable.”
Dubrovich, who was born in Paterson and was raised in Pompton Plains, had moved in here with coach/fiancé Brian Kaneshige. Kaneshige, Columbia High School Class of 2012, is on the men’s foil team.
“Team USA men’s epee fencing team wore pink masks in their opening match at the Olympics as a show of support for sexual assault victims,” posted 2016 women’s team saber bronze medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad along with a team photo on Instagram. “Kudos for the team for taking a stand.”
SOUTH ORANGE – The first in-person joint public information meeting in 18 months on the impending consolidated fire department revealed more than the new entity’s name here at SOPAC July 26.
The first joint in-person Village Trustees-Maplewood Township Committee held since the COVID pandemic outbreak has the two-town firefighters working under the name of “South Orange & Maplewood Fire Services upon the merger’s completion.
The consolidation update, led by Village President Sheena Collum and Maplewood Mayor Frank McGehee, repeated that the combined force would have 71 members. That roster breaks down to eight to 10 firefighters in South Orange’s stations (instead of the current six to eight) and 14 to 17 firefighters in Maplewood stations.
The combined bravest will be led, however, by one less fire chief and four less deputy chiefs. Those five positions will be lost by attrition; none of the other firefighters or officers will be laid off.
SOFD Deputy Chief Michael Commons, in the public comments segment, called the merged departments “a solution in search of a problem,” and compared the plan to Montclair’s 1991-92 absorption of the Glen Ridge Fire Department.
(It is not immediately known whether Commons is being retained or let go in the merged roster.)
“The population, construction and socioeconomics are very similar; they have 92 firefighters and don’t provide EMS,” said Commons. “You want to do this with 71 in these two towns. I don’t see how you can support that.”
“What we’ve consistently said there (are) grave concerns with 71 and that this isn’t safe – and not with the merger itself,” said NJFMBA President Ed Donnelley. “Never once we ever said, ‘Don’t do this,’ ‘Stop,’ or ‘Enough.'”
BLOOMFIELD – Township police officers are seeking the two men who made a June 23 tag team armed robbery of North Center restaurant patrons and the car they fled in.
Two patrons of the Town Pub at Broad and Pitt streets told responding BPD officers that they were at an outdoor sidewalk table when a man approached them. The man drew a silver handgun at them and demanded their possessions.
The victims said they surrendered their wallets, keys and cell phones. The suspect then entered a late model silver Chevrolet Malibu – which sped west on Pitt into Glen Ridge.
Bloomfield police have posted a photo of the gun toter and the silver Malibu. Both the gunman and the driver were described as “African American men.”
“Thank you for the Bloomfield Police that arrived in seconds, got the description of the car and are working on catching them,” said Town Pub management. “(We’ve) never seen or heard of such an incident in our area or the Town Pub since our establishment.”
“We’ve detectives on it in a task force approach,” said Bloomfield Public Safety Director Samuel de Maio. “We’ve also added patrols in the North Center Area. This was an isolated incident in town (but) the same suspects did commit similar crimes in surrounding towns.”
BELLEVILLE – A few seconds’ destruction – as two downtown store owners and the driver of a car that had crashed into their storefronts have learned here early July 28 – can take days, weeks or longer to recover from.
“Yes, We’re Open” is the sign Belleville Pizza Adrian Ciiku or one of his employees had spray painted onto a plywood board Aug. 2 that is temporarily replacing a storefront glass pane Aug. 3. An employee said that 145 Washington Ave. had been closed since a car speared through them at about 3:20 a.m. that Wednesday.
The T-Mobile store at 143 Washington, however, remains closed as of 5 p.m. Aug. 3. Assorted debris, including ceiling tiles and the remains of a display, are piled in a corner.
“I rushed over here and it’s like, ‘what the heck’s going on?'” said T-Mobile manager Saad Ahmad 8 a.m. July 28. “It’s horrible, as you can see.”
Belleville Police Chief Mark Minichini said that a four-door car, driven by a 24-year-old woman, had lost control at Washington and Belleville avenues at 3:20 a.m. The southbound car diagonally speared through the pizzeria and halfway into the cell phone store, entrapping the driver.
Minichini said that the driver, after being treated for injuries, was charged with possessing stolen property and eluding police before being remanded to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility. While the chief said that the car, reported as being stolen from Newark at 3 a.m., was pursued. That pursuit was broken off seconds before the crash.
The T-Moble store was the older of the two affected establishments, having been present longer than Belleville Pizza. The restaurant replaced “World Class Martial Arts in 2015. They are part of a single-story, five-store strip center.
NUTLEY / CLIFTON – The difference of opinion on what mixed-use entities should go on the ON3/ Hoffman LaRoche site between Nutley and Clifton became apparent in three decisions made in court and in public hearings July 21-28.
State Superior Court-Newark Judge Keith E. Lynott, in a partial ruling July 21, found Nutley’s ordinance barring through traffic on ON3’s Metro Boulevard unenforceable. Nutley’s township commissioners, concerned that the boulevard between Route 3 and Kingsland Road would be used as a throughway or a bypass, passed a “local traffic only” ordinance and put up temporary barriers in 2019.
Lynott’s ruling came the same day the Clifton Planning Board had approved Prism’s site plan application to build a Marriott AC/Element Hotel on the city’s side of the property. The 266-room, seven-story hotel would rise from the southeast corner of Route 3 and Metro Boulevard.
Prism, the redeveloper approved by both Nutley and Clifton, has submitted plans to the Clifton board July 28 for a supermarket to go up on the southwest corner of Route 3 and Metro Boulevard. The 37,000-square foot grocery store will fall between the smaller Aldi or Lidl stores and the 40,000-plus sq. ft. supermarkets desired by the likes of Shop-Rite and Stop and Shop.
Nutley and Clifton initially agreed that Prism would repurpose ex-Roche buildings or build new structures for medical, research, educational and/or office use on their 116-acre shared site in 2016. It is the single largest redevelopment project in New Jersey.
Prism has attracted Hackensack Meridian Health School of Medicine, Quest Diagnostics and Ralph Lauren to the remodeled or new buildings The developer recently said that its 1.45 million sq. ft. of existing space will be filled by 5,500 daily commuters by year’s end.
Nutley’s elders and lawyers have argued that plans newly approved by Clifton would earn tax revenue for them while the township would shoulder the traffic volume. The township, which received 200-foot radius notices for the Marriott and would for the supermarket, also has the option of appealing to State Appellate Court.
