TOWN WATCH By Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Municipal Councilman-at-Large Lawrence Crump could have faced a special Nov. 2 election for his newly-appointed office – but the powers that be in City Hall have decided that it will not happen.
When Municipal Council members appointed “Larry” Crump, Esq. to succeed his mother, Mildred Crump, Aug. 24 – a week before Sept 1. Sept 1 is the state law deadline for vacancies to be filled “at the next general or regular municipal election, whichever comes first.”
Municipal Clerk Kenneth Louis, on Aug. 25, said that there was not enough time to send out and return signed petitions and place candidates on the Nov. 2 ballot – even though this instance had an extra seven days.
“The problem here is a question of timing; we don’t have the time to run the full process for a municipal election,” said Louis. “The County Clerk (Chris Durkin) has a deadline when he has to have his ballots printed.”
Durkin has a Sept. 13 deadline to get the Nov. 2 ballot to the printer. Vote By Mail Ballots are to go out to the printer Sept. 18. The deadlines do not take into account time for legal challenges.
Louis cited a precedent when then-Council President Donald M. Payne, Jr. resigned on March 22, 2012, the day after he was sworn in to fill his late father’s Congressional seat. The Municipal Council declined to hold special elections on Nov. 6, 2012 or 2013, leaving the younger Payne’s seat vacant until the scheduled Newark mayor-council elections on May 13, 2014.
City voters, barring the unexpected, will have their elective say on Larry Crump, the rest of the nine-member council and Mayor Ras Baraka at their May 10, 2022 nonpartisan election.
IRVINGTON – Native son Robert Alan Kinder, who was born here Sept. 11, 1947, had his remains laid to rest here in Clinton Cemetery Sept. 1. Kinder, 73, who died Aug. 28 at the Morristown Medical Center, was best known for owning and operating “Toys 4 All” stores – including two here.
Older brother James, who announced Robert’s death on his own Irvington NJ – Down Memory Lane Facebook page Saturday, said that his brother played football and baseball as an Irvington High School Knight.
The IHS Class of 1965 graduate, after serving in the Army during the Vietnam War, began his retail career by working in the Valley Fair (formerly the Great Eastern) Department Store here at 468 Chancellor Ave. Valley Fair allowed Kinder to open his autonomous Toys 4 All department.
Kinder then teamed up with Irvington resident Frank Bonanno to open their second store in the old Finast Supermarket at 1301-17 Springfield Ave. in 1981. The 19,000 square-foot store, leased from Brounell & Kramer, started life as a Widger Plymouth-Dodge dealership until Oct. 15, 1958.
Kinder and Bonanno and officials from Finast were present at Mayor J. Walter Jonkoski’s Nov. 5, 1981 ribbon-cutting. Kinder was known to supply toys for the Irvington Fire Department’s annual Christmas drive.
Kinder, who bought out Bonnano in 1990, sold the Springfield Avenue store to Springfield Realty, who brought in K&G Fashion Superstore, in 1999. He then retired to Far Hills. (Bonnano died in Watchung July 7, 2007.)
Brother Mark is also among Robert’s survivors; sister Evelyn Kinder Kellerman predeceased him. His visitation was held on Aug. 31 at Bloomfield’s O’Boyle Funeral Home, followed by a Sept. 1 Funeral Maas at Sacred Heart Church.
EAST ORANGE – The police department’s accident bureau has not disclosed what caused a motorist to drive into a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard restaurant front here early Aug. 21. The crash left the driver without severe injuries but caused the early Saturday morning detours of buses on four routes.
EOPD units and East Orange Fire Headquarters personnel responded to a 5:50 a.m. report of a motor vehicle accident at 441 MLK Blvd/Main St. They arrived to find a four-door grey late model car halfway through Rise Caribbean Restaurant’s front window. The driver was already out of her car.
441 shares the same building with 443 King Blvd.’s Domino’s Pizza. The two-story building at the southeast corner of King and South Clinton Street is in direct line with the southern end on North Clinton Street. Clinton Street drivers have to take King Boulevard some 50 feet to continue north or south.
The accident caused detours on NJ Transit’s 21, 71, 73 and 94 bus routes. Rise had recently replaced the former Stage 5 Restaurant & Grill at 441 King.
ORANGE – City and county authorities have been looking for a vehicle, and its driver, who struck and killed a male by a major intersection here Aug. 29.
Orange police officers and local EMS were called to the intersection of Central Avenue and Scotland Road 2:30 a.m. Sunday — where they had found the victim. OPD, by standard operating procedure, promptly called in the ECPO Homicide/Major Crimes Unit.
ECPO Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Fennelly, in a Sunday statement, said that the male was declared dead at the scene. His identity had not been released as of press time.
Wanted is the driver of a red pickup truck that had fled on Scotland Road. This remains an active investigation.
WEST ORANGE – Whatever action is being taken on the proposed amended Edison Lofts II Redevelopment Plan is incremental until either the Township Council votes on a related $13 million bond issue or negotiations between the township and original redeveloper Prism Capital Partners reach an agreement – whichever comes first.
The West Orange Planning Board’s Sept 1 agenda, for example, includes reviewing the township’s Downtown Redevelopment Plan Fourth Amendment and the council’s pending adoption of Ordinance 2656-21. That ordinance would fire Prism and seek a new developer for Edison Lofts II, mainly 55 Lakeside Ave, within 45 days.
The Township Council hired Prism in 2006 to redevelop 21 acres where the present and former Thomas A. Edison factories stand or stood. Prism had turned the former Edison Storage Battery Factory at 177 Main St. into 330 award-winning apartments and storefront commercial space.
“Edison Lofts I,” however, took until 2019 to complete, with a Prism payment default and a pair of redevelopment amendments made along the way. The township had recently asked Prism what they had in mind for Edison Lofts II – where the Edison Phonograph Works was imploded in July 1974 to make way for the Barton Press building and the township DPW garage.
Edison Lofts II originally included 230 apartment units, some as affordable housing, and extending Ashland and Standish avenues north across the property. That plan, however, was drawn in 2010. The Council and Mayor Robert Parisi’s administrators have used a May 25 payment default as a reason to attempt severing Prism from Main Street Redevelopment Phase II.
Prism has meanwhile countersued, which caused Council President Cindy Matute-Brown, at the Aug. 22 council meeting, to remind everyone that she and her colleagues cannot comment about the suit.
Prism’s suit contends that township officials are trying to oust them from Phase II so they can make a more direct deal allegedly with a motion picture studio.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The South Orange-Maplewood School District Board of Education is to hear from the public and vote on Schools Superintendent Dr. Ronald Taylor’s new proposed contract on Sept. 20.
Board President Thair Joshua, at their Aug. 23 meeting, introduced the three-year contract that Taylor and the panel’s Negotiations Committee had recently agreed to. Taylor, late of Willingboro Public Schools, had been on a two-year contract since his July 1, 2019 appointment.
The contract, as introduced, calls for Taylor to receive a $226,051 a year salary with annual two percent increases, topping out at $235,164.08 before June 30, 2024. This contract, however, loses Taylor’s merit pay bonus. It would take effect retroactively from July 1, 2021; Joshas said that negotiations started late due to the district’s focus on the pandemic.
Taylor and other public school superintendents statewide were capped at $190,000 until that was lifted in late 2019. His 2020-21 salary was $196,584 plus a merit pay bonus of $19,658. The average full-time public school superintendent earned $179,304 2020-21 a four percent increase from 2019-20.
The board’s Sept. 20 meeting and public hearing will be held both live at the SOMSD Administration Building, 525 Academy St., Maplewood, and via Zoom.
BLOOMFIELD / NUTLEY – The passing of 50-year Bloomfield resident Thomas Strumolo, Sr. was also mourned by those in Nutley, Belleville, Newark and beyond the northeastern Essex County area.
Strumolo, 73, who died Aug. 3, was best known to Nutleyites as “Capt. Strumolo.” Strumolo came from the Essex County Police Academy to join the Nutley Police Department and serve for 35 years.
Strumolo, Sr. rose to the rank of Captain in 2009 before retiring. Son Thomas J. followed his father’s beat and is now Nutley’s Chief of Police.
Born on Aug. 5, 1947 in Newark, Strumolo was raised in Belleville by Township Commissioner Vincent and mother Helen Petrill Strumolo. He became a licensed real estate agent in 1978 and was employed by Castle Realty, of Nutley, since 2006.
One can say that love moved Strumolo to Bloomfield. He met and married resident Connie Pallante in 1969. He and Connie moved to Bloomfield in 1971 to raise Thomas J. and the late Vincent.
Grandchildren Tommy, Jr., Vincenza and Natalia; brother Vincent and sisters Nicki Ann Cordi and Josephine Fontaine are also among his survivors. Son Vincent, who wrote his 2001 “A Fight for Life” autobiography, died Aug. 29, 2019.
A Funeral Mass for the former PBA Local 33 president was held in Nutley’s St. Mary’s Church Aug. 7 before his burial at East Hanover’s gate of Heaven Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to the American Cancer Society.
MONTCLAIR – The Montclair High School varsity football team will get its first test of the 2021-22 season under Interim Head Coach Pete Ramiccio when they host East Orange Campus High School here 8 p.m. Sept. 3.
Those involved with the MHS Mounties are hoping that Ramiccio’s receiving the legendary John Fiore’s headset and clipboard Aug. 1 will be seamless. Fiore, citing “an ongoing family matter,” took a leave from coaching July 27.
Fiore, as head coach 2010-20, helped the Mounties to a 93-31 win-loss record. MHS reached seven NJSIAA sectional championship games, winning the 2012-14 and 17 editions. They earned 2012, 13 and 17 undefeated seasons.
Ramiccio has been at Fiore’s side as associate head coach since 2016. He first joined the Mounties in 2010 as defensive coordinator. Ramiccio doubles as an English teacher at the Glenfield Middle School since 2016.
Fiore will not be far away from Ramiccio and the Mounties for the year. He retains his physical education teaching job at MHS.
GLEN RIDGE – Borough railroad station riders who needed minor repairs to their bicycles can thank BSA Troop 855 Scout Zane Pagano, and those who helped him, for installing a bicycle repair stand here.
Pagano and several of his troop members installed the I-Fixit stand at the southeastern corner of Glen Ridge Station at 255 Ridgewood Ave. July 13.
The stand features Allen keys, screwdrivers, wrenches and an air pump. I-Fixit also wears a QR code so that riders can access repair videos.
Pagano’s thanks include Borough Administrator Michael Zichelli and the Department of Public Works plus those who responded to his 2,500 project appeal brochures and those who contributed $1,824 to his GoFundMe.com page.
The above served as the community improvement project towards Pagano’s attempt to attain Scouting’s highest rank – Eagle Scout. He came up with the repair stand idea after noticing more than 30 bicycles parked at the station on one of 2020’s early winter days.
Pagano’s project organization included producing a bicycle safety and information brochure which he and his fellow scouts among the borough’s homes and producing a GoFundMe introductory video. He had to wait until October to launch the project due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
BELLEVILLE – A mystery has surrounded a letter brought by the Belleville Public Library & Information Center Board of Trustees attorney 20 months ago concerning “a conflict of interest.”
A local watchdog came across a single-page entry on the trustee’s minutes of its Jan. 15, 2020 meeting last March. The observer had been going through OPRA-requested library trustee documentation in search of any reports of water damage or repairs to the library’s atrium.
The Jan. 15, 2020 minutes state: “Old Business; AlphaDog – Lawyer submitted a letter of conflict of interest.”
AlphaDog Solutions, a website design and operation company catering to local government and businesses is Mayor Michael Melham’s day job. Melham was elected mayor in 2018.
Melham, like most mayors, has the power of appointing members to various boards and commissions – including the library’s board of trustees. Mayoral board appointments and providing a budget minimum are the extent of a town hall’s involvement with its public library.
The nature of the BPL attorney’s letter regarding AlphaDog is not publicly known. The watchdog’s request for the lawyer’s opinion to the acting library director and current legal advisor was met with statements that the letter “is considered privileged.”
