TOWN WATCH by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Garden Spires Urban Renewal LP and its Reliant managers will have company while they review a Garden Spites Tenant Association petition they had received here Oct. 15.
The petition, signed by 187 residents of the twin 20-story towers’ 560 units, urge GSUR, Reliant and owner Omni America/New York, to repair the water leaks, eradicate mold, fill holes in walls and exterminate rodent infestation that have resurfaced since March 2020.
That month was when Omni and its contractors had completed a $57.8 million rehabilitation of the 56-year-old low and moderate-income buildings. Former MLB player Maurice “Mo” Vaughn and his Omni America partners began the rehab after they bought it and the 110-unit Spruce Spires from First King properties for $45.3 million in 2018.
Some of that rehabilitation money included funds from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development. GSUR has continued the acceptance of HUD Section 8 vouchers from its qualified tenants.
City of Newark Code Enforcement inspectors, last month, has issued violations of the above problems plus defective stoves, overloaded garbage dumpsters and faulty entrance doors. HUD inspectors, on Sept. 21, gave Garden Spires a 96 out of 100 score rating.
Mayor Ras Baraka, Central Ward Councilwoman Lamonica McIver, Code Enforcement Manager Thomas McDonald and NJ Department of Community Affairs officials are also looking over GSUR and Omni’s shoulders. Baraka had ordered the evacuation of Garden Spires’ last 800 tenants over conditions in 2017 and had sued to get the DCA and HUD to suspend First King’s $8 million monthly subsidies prior to its sale.
Omni spokesman Ronn Torossian said that GSUR is replacing the entire kitchen plumbing system due to a problem “that could not have been foreseen during the rehab process”. That replacement includes shutting off water to particular kitchens during weekday business hours.
Garden Spires’ current and new inspection cycles end and resume on Oct. 28.
IRVINGTON – The ECPO Homicide Task Force and Irvington Police are looking for two suspects who left a township man dying in the 20 block of Arverne Terrace here early Oct. 16.
Irvington Public Safety Director Tracy Bowers said his officers, responding to gunfire calls, found Alexander F. Saye, 24, “with multiple gunshot wounds” at 12:25 a.m. Saturday. Medics declared Saye dead at the scene.
Saye’s funeral arrangements have not been announced as of press time.
1 Dead in Rollover
The identity of a person who was killed in an Oct. 17 rollover crash was not released as of press time. A preliminary county/township investigation has the driver of the car lost control, crashed, overturned and burned at Coit and Herpers streets 9:45 p.m. Sunday.
Arriving Irvington firefighters found the severely injured driver after putting out the car’s blaze. Medics declared him dead at the scene. Two injured passengers were admitted into local hospitals.
EAST ORANGE – East Orange General Hospital’s new ownership, for the second time in eight years, is just New Jersey Health Commissioner Dr. Judy Persichilli’s signature away.
The New Jersey State Health Planning Board, on Oct. 14, approved Prospect Medical Holdings’ sale to the EOH Acquisition Group. Prospect’s sale is a lateral in that one for-profit company is selling to another for-profit company.
Prospect, of Los Angeles, had asked for – and received – changing EOGH’s non-profit status from the state as part of its 2016 purchase. PMH had invested $58 million in renovating the hospital through 2021. A new emergency ward was opened in 2018.
Paige Dworak, who had been interim CEO under Prospect ownership, remains at the EOGH helm. The state’s first female hospital CEO will also have a 20 percent ownership stake in the new group. Attorney Troy Schell, of Claremont, Calif., and Ben Klien, the Englewood owner of 36 behavioral health and substance abuse treatment centers, also share ownership.
Dworak, on Oct. 15, said that EOHAG will more than complete Prospect’s renovations. Coming improvements include Essex County’s first in-patient detox center, a 100-bed substance abuse center and a medical group focused on primary care and family medicine.
The 100-year-old, 201-bed hospital, at 870 employees, is this city’s largest private employer. It has had a string of D safety grades from The Leapfrog Group since 2019 and an F in Fall 2018.
ORANGE – The full City Council, in a pair of unanimous votes here Oct. 19, has allowed Mayor Dwayne D. Warren and one of his staff members to “lawyer up” regarding a lawsuit from a former City of Orange Township employee.
All seven council members passed Resolutions 462 and 463 – 2021 Tuesday night. 462-2021 permits Daniel C. Stanziale, of North Haledon, to represent Warren, Louis Copeland and the township for no more than $20,000. 463-2021 retains Lamb Kretzer LLC, of Secaucus to represent Copeland for $10,000.
Both resolutions refer to a suit recently filed by Essex County District 3 Commissioner Tyshammie Cooper against Warren, Copeland and the Township in State Superior Court-Newark.
Cooper v. City of Orange Township, Warren and Copeland, Docket Number is ESX–L006733-21, was not immediately available as of press time. It is not clear whether the suit pertains to the City Business Administrator’s Aug. 7, 2019 withdrawal of a bill retaining an attorney for Cooper, her Jan. 31, 2020 dismissal as Mayor’s Chief of Staff – or both.
Warren had swiftly dismissed Cooper as his chief of staff in 2020. She held that job since 2016 for a reported $109,000 annual salary.
Business Administrator Chris Hartwyk, without explanation, withdrew Resolution 266-2019 at that Aug. 7, 2019 Council meeting. The resolution would have Whipple Azzarello, Esq. represent her. Pulling that resolution would mean that Cooper would have to hire her own legal counsel.
Cooper, on one hand, was named among 11 persons of interest in 2017 subpoenas issued by the U.S. Department of Justice over the city’s handling of Orange YWCA-Rec Center and Orange Public Library contracts and finances.
Cooper, on the other hand, has been elected and re-elected as District 3 Commissioner in 2018 and 2020. The former East Orange Fourth Ward Councilwoman represents East Orange, Orange, South Orange and Newark’s West Ward on the county level.
WEST ORANGE – Public and private entities are seeking permanent housing for the 45 families displaced from a Hutton Park apartment complex that was damaged by Ida and since condemned.
Ron Jolyn Realty and township officials have been arranging for the demolition of both 61-year-old two-story buildings at 275 Northfield Ave. since Oct. 14. They were acting on the Oct. 8 recommendations of three engineering firms in their 10 p.m.-1 a.m. Oct. 11-12 evacuation.
The engineers, in their report, said that “The slope behind the apartment complex is unstable. There is a high risk of further failure, which would likely result in significant property damage and possible loss of life.”
They had come to their recommendations after inspecting a rockfall behind the apartments in the Sept. 1-2 wake of Tropical Storm Ida.
Part of the rock face (where nearby Seton Hall Preparatory School’s Kelly Athletic Field rests on) slid into the rearmost apartment building, taking toppled trees and several parked cars with it. Parts of that building’s roof, basement and rear brick facade were damaged.
The engineers’ assessment reached the West Orange Municipal Building after it had closed Oct. 8 for the federal holiday weekend. Township officials, once they saw the report upon Oct. 11’s start of their business day, promptly coordinated with Ron Jolyn’s owners, attorney and other entities.
Mayor Robert Parisi and apartment owners held an Oct. 14 information meeting at the Wilshire Grand Hotel – one of three evacuees were taken to. Attorney Steven Eisenstein, of Roseland, gave each leaseholder a check for returned deposit, October rent and $1,250 in extra relocation costs. Part of the hotel rent is being paid by Parisi’s sunshine fund.
The mayor gave a list of emergency and apartment referrals, including the food pantry at Orange’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. Essex County brought a “pop-up” COVID testing and vaccination station. FEMA took applications for relocation and other assistance.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The alleged Oct. 6 hajib removal in a Seth Boyden School class has been under Maplewood Police and ECPO investigation since late Oct. 12.
South Orange-Maplewood School District Superintendent Dr. Ronald Taylor, citing the district’s memorandum of understanding with the MPD, said he has deferred the investigation to Chief of Police Jim DeVaul and Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II 4 p.m. that Tuesday.
Taylor, in his announcement, also cited the need to have the Seth Boyden community continue its instructional mission safely despite the glare of the international spotlight.
“Our Central Office and Seth Boyden’s main office have been flooded with hundreds of calls,” said Taylor. “We have received over 2,000 emails, a majority of which have been from parties outside our community and New Jersey.”
Taylor said that most of the correspondences condemned the second-grade teacher’s alleged actions and “strongly advocated for adverse personnel action.” Some of the messages and calls, he added, were “Threatening, disrespectful and threatening.”
County prosecutors and township detectives are investigating threats made to the district, the school and the 30-year teacher.
BLOOMFIELD – Although the Violante family has vowed to reopen their Oct. 10 fire-damaged meat market and catering business, they have understandably not set a reopening date.
Co-owners Theresa and Aniello “Neil” Violante, Jr., Catering Manager Dina Violante, Neil and Dina’s three sons and three employees have been assessing damage and salvaging what they can from 126 Bloomfield Ave. The Violantes, who own the two-story commercial-residential building, have to first pass Bloomfield building inspectors’ “fit for habitation” muster.
The first Bloomfield Fire Department units arrived to find flames coming out from the market’s back kitchen and smoke filling its floorspace around 11:30 a.m. Oct. 9. The incident commander pulled two more alarms for all Bloomfield hands and mutual aid.
Units from Orange, West Orange, Belleville, Montclair and Nutley either covered BFD stations or came to the scene. Bloomfield Police detoured traffic away from Grove Street and partially rerouted Bloomfield Avenue. The fire was brought under control by Noon. There were no reported injuries but occupants in the four apartments were displaced.
Violante’s was originally closed to handle its Columbus Day catering clients Oct. 9-11. “Local Talk” noticed its mobile kitchen trailer being readied for an away event 10 a.m. that Sunday.
Theresa and the late Aniello Violante, Sr. started their market at 149 Hoffman Blvd., on the southeast corner of North Grove Street, in East Orange in 1969. They moved to their present location here in 1979. “Junior” Violante succeeded his father when the family patriarch died in 2010.
MONTCLAIR – The township’s Oct 8 denial of a park use permit renewal has left a parents group having to decide on whether to replace its COVID testing vendor or otherwise radically change its short-lived program.
Lani Sommer-Padilla, speaking on behalf of her 10 fellow parents, asked the Township Council Oct. 12 to amend the permitted use ordinances for Montclair’s parks. The ordinance has long prohibited for-profit entities from advertising, offering or selling “any article, service or thing” in a township park.
The parental group of 11 had opened two free after-school coronavirus testing sites adjacent to two Montclair elementary schools Sept. 30; the Montclair Inn by the Hillside School and Nishuane Park by the Nishuane School. While the sites were open to the community at-large, Montclair school students were the main group they wanted to receive tests.
The group, who was concerned at what they saw was Montclair Public Schools’ slow pool testing start for 2021-22, partnered with the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence and MediRite Urgent Care. MFEE handled the “pop up” sites’ publicity while MediRite provided the on-site PCR tests and registration by its website. (Students under 16 need written permission from their parents or guardians.)
Sommer-Padilla and colleagues received permission to use Nishuane Park Sept. 30 but were denied its renewal for a prospective October return. Township administrators, who said the Sept. 30 permission was “a mistake,” cited MediRite’s for-profit status for the denial.
Sommer-Padilla, at the Oct. 12 meeting, said that MediRite allowed the pop-up sites to test insured and uninsured students. She acknowledged that the company collects reimbursement from insurance carriers or the state.
Montclair Public Schools, as of Oct. 14, halted its own 2021-22 pool testing when word surfaced that vendor Ginkgo Bioworks is being investigated by some of its investors over potential securities law violations. While Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Ponds said the district was pleased with Ginkgo’s services last year, their $287,302 program was being “paused out of an abundance of caution.”
NUTLEY – Mayor Mauro Tucci is inviting his Belleville, Bloomfield, Clifton, Little Falls, Montclair and Woodcliff Lake (formerly West Paterson) colleagues to his Third River Mayor’s Group. The recently announced group will seek comprehensive solutions to flooding along the river.
