by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Nov. 16, 2021 – with two boys dead and six males injured in four separate shootings – may rank among the worst nights here in terms of gun violence. Funeral plans, for example, have not been announced for either Al-Timar Mayweather or Yashawn A. Hansen, both 17, as of press time.
Mayweather, an outstanding forward and point guard for the Weequahic High School, and another male were found shot by the NHA Oscar Miles Village, Court and Lincoln streets 6:25 p.m. He was declared dead at University Hospital 3:39 p.m. Nov. 17.
Hansen was declared dead 4:07 p.m. Nov. 19. He and a 15-year-old boy were found shot in a car parked along Quitman Street, by Montgomery Street 8:10 p.m. The car they were in was reported as stolen.
A shooting at Maybaum and Tremont avenues 8:40 p.m. sent a man and a 15-year-old boy to the hospital. Both were admitted in stable condition.
The night’s last shooting with injuries was reported from 17th and Hunterdon avenues 10:10 p.m. NPD officers had brought a man to University Hospital when the second arrived in a separate vehicle.
The four shootings came after the arrest of a man who fired a gun that night on the 100 block of Teleford Street and of four other men for shootings dating back to Oct. 23. There were another 11 gun arrests and 696 illegal guns confiscated in the week leading up to Nov. 16.
“We’re shocked and disgusted by this outrageous level of senseless violence and it will not be tolerated,” said Mayor Ras Baraka and Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara in a joint Nov. 17 statement. “We continue to work intensively with our law enforcement partners. We need the entire judicial system to help us as many of these persons involved were released into the community despite having pending criminal cases and previous weapons offenses.”
IRVINGTON – A township man and a Newark man were arrested by Newark police officers Nov. 17 “without incident” pertaining to an early morning Oct. 23 Weequahic shooting that involved a New Jersey Transit bus.
Quashawn Davis, 21, of Irvington, and Hakir Hodges, 25, of Newark, are accused of firing shots from their car into another by 347 Lyons Ave. at about 4:40 a.m. that Sunday.
Newark and Hillside police officers, responding shots fired calls, found two cars and a westbound NJTransit bus by the corner of Lyons and Dewey Street. One car was found “blood scattered and bullet-riddled” and the second had run into NJTransit NABI bus No. 6376.
Witnesses and the NJTransit driver said that the two cars were driving on the wrong side of Lyons while trading shots. The driver pulled over to the curb and tried to move around the dueling cars.
An overall 17 people were taken to nearby RWJBarnabas Health Beth Israel Medical Center’s emergency ward. The 15 bus passengers were walked over by EMS technicians for observation. The other two people were NPD escorted for admission with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
Authorities have not said who Davis and Hodges were specifically involved in the shootout.
EAST ORANGE – A retired 30-year East Orange police sergeant and former PAL youth football director remain under house arrest after a Union County grand jury indicted him on Nov. 16 on 16 child sexual assault and related charges.
Edward Giles, 61, now faces two first-degree counts each aggravated sexual assault of a child and assault thereof where the defendant had supervisory or disciplinary power; five counts of various second-degree sexual offenses against a child, four second-degree of endangering the welfare of a child by photographing or videotaping child in a prohibited sexual act and three third-degree counts of invasion of privacy.
Giles has been under house arrest in Roselle since Oct. 13, 2019. A Superior Court-Elizabeth judge has had him wear an ankle bracelet and have no contact with minors.
Union County Prosecutor William A. Daniel said the grand jury handed down their indictment based on their charges filed against Giles Oct. 11, 2019. Their seven-month investigation – with the assistance of its Special Victims Unit, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Roselle Police Department – was based on the testimony of four boys.
The first victim, an East Orange Wildcats youth player, initially came to ECPO in Newark. He said that Giles, who was a team coach at the time, was assaulted while he was 11-13-years-old 1998-2000. The second victim, also a youth football player, said Giles had assaulted him while he was 12 and 13-years-old 2002-03.
Daniel said that UCO detectives who executed an Oct. 11, 2019 search warrant on Giles’ house “recovered recorded materials resulting in the addition of several charges. The recordings, made April 2018-October 2019 depicted victims 13-15 years old.”
Giles had been living on his EOPD pension when he was arrested. Anyone with additional information is to reach UCPO Lt. Sofia Santos at (908) 577-4256.
ORANGE – The latest major personnel move within Mayor Dwayne D. Warren’s administration was withdrawn during the City Council’s Nov. 15 meeting.
Resolution 58-2021, which was sponsored by Councilmen Clifford Ross and Wheldon M. “Monty” Montague III, was withdrawn during that Monday night’s meeting. That measure would have abolished the civilian Fire Director post.
The withdrawal leaves Fire Chief Gerard Long as POFD’s top firefighter. Long was promoted to fire chief and has represented the department since the council’s Sept. 7 meeting.
Kenneth M. Douglas was Orange’s latest or last fire director. The retired Newark firefighter was at the post six years before resigning to direct the Trenton Fire Department Sept. 1.
Long is usually slotted alongside Orange Police Chief Vincent Vitiello on the city council agenda list of department heads since their Oct. 19 meeting.
Vitiello, a 30-year Orange Policv Department member was sworn in as Chief of Police Oct. 14 by Mayor Warren and Police Director Todd Warren. Although Todd Warren has been a director since 2016, he has frequently had Captain/Commanding Officer/Police Chief Vitiello represent him at council meetings.
Two of Mayor Warren’s department head changes happened in late 2020. He had hired, with council confirmation, Nile Clements as CFO. The Mayor kept Marty Mayes as DPW Director but spun off his longtime planning director functions to Laquanna Best.
WEST ORANGE – Those former Ron Jolyn apartment tenants who have been staying in three motels here have been told that the township will not be paying those bills after Dec. 4.
Many of the 30 families and 45 people who were evacuated from 275 Northfield Ave. 10 p.m.-1 a.m. Oct. 11-12 received a letter from Mayor Robert Parisi Nov. 9 that the “Township, having limited resources, cannot continue providing the current hotel assistance beyond Dec. 4, 2021.”
Parisi, in his letter, acknowledged the frustrations that the displaced residents have had in finding permanent housing and dealing with various public and private agencies while trying to maintain as normal an interim life as possible.
“We understand this’ a bittersweet announcement,” said the Mayor, “providing certainty for the near future, on one hand, and the township’s financial limitations on the other.”
West Orange Finance Director John Gross, at the Nov. 9 Township Council meeting, said that “over $200,000 have been spent to date” in aiding the displaced. That money was not drawn from the mayor’s sunshine fund but from the township budget’s surplus.
Ron Jolyn Realty had refunded tenants’ security deposits, October rent and $1,250 per person in relocation costs Oct. 14. The WOHS Fight for Green Club and Our Green West Orange are among other groups that have been independently raising funds for the displaced.
Gross added, on Nov. 9 that the Township Council may have an emergency appropriation before them “soon.” Parisi said the township will work with them and FEMA to find permanent housing. Thirty of the 45 tenants, whose apartments were damaged by a Tropical Storm Ida-related rockslide Sept. 1-2, have meanwhile hired a lawyer to represent them.
SOUTH ORANGE – A Philadelphia economics consultant has recently put figures on the economic impact of the village’s single largest employer – Seton Hall University.
Econsult Solutions, Inc., in its Oct. 14 report, tabbed SHU’s annual economic output within South Orange at $270 million. About $150 million of that figure are wages for the main campus’ 2,160 jobs. Another $23 million is spent by students and visitors for “ancillary spending” in the village’s neighborhoods, supporting another 120 jobs with $7 million in wages.
SHU, founded here in 1856, average $39 million in annual capital improvement spending. That investment for large-scale renovations or new buildings generates 160 construction jobs and $9 million in wages.
SHU’s annual economic impact – when adding its law school and Prudential Center arena use in Newark and its joint medical school with Hackensack Meridian Health Medical Center in Nutley-Clifton – climbs to $1.6 billion.
The school’s annual overall operating output is $504 million, supporting 3,680 jobs and earning $234 million among all three campuses. Ancillary spending on SHU cultural and sports events among all four municipalities rise to $68 million.
SHU alumni, said ESI, enjoy a $927 million “wage premium” in New Jersey thanks to the university’s education and degrees. The consultant also figured SHU gives “almost 50,000 of aggregate community service” by 3,000 volunteers.
MAPLEWOOD – A quality of life group wants township elders to take the next step with the partial gasoline-powered leaf blower ban by completely and permanently banning them.
“The time is now for Maplewood to phase out gas-powered leaf blowers over the next two years,” declares Quiet Maplewood on its website. “Our mission: to provide residents with a safe, quiet, clean air community by reducing the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in favor of environmentally sound alternatives.
Quiet Maplewood attempts to make against the said blowers on noise (users are to wear ear protection against 85 decibels and shut off when people approach within 100 feet), emissions (one gas blower generates more emissions in an hour than a 2017 Toyota Camry being driven 1,100 miles) and other environmental grounds (including pollinating insects being blown away at 200 mph).
The group’s website lists manual raking and electric motored blowers as among alternatives. They cite Green Wheels and New Generation lawn care companies, which serve Maplewood customers, using all-electric equipment – including blowers.
The Township Committee’s year-round Sunday ban is the nearest the current seasonal law gets to Quiet Maplewood’s goal. The 2017-passed law bans commercial use of gas-powered blowers May 15-Sept. 30. Oct. 1-May 14 use is limited to 8 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays and 10- a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays. Residential/individual use and the Maplewood Country Club are exempted.
Quiet Maplewood has 405 signatures towards its 500-signature goal. The petition, as pointed out by critics on a community message board, lacks comprehensive ban language – or whether the ban would be extended to gas-engined lawn mowers and snow throwers.
BLOOMFIELD – A quick-thinking service station employee locked in a shoplifting suspect until township police officers, from around the block, arrived Nov. 5.
The employee at Akar VII Exxon at 491 Bloomfield Ave., told responding BPD officers that he has the suspect inside. He also held a pair of broken glasses he said he was wearing until the suspect hit him in the face during an escape attempt.
The worker added that Khalil Holland, 18, of Montclair, had tried to steal a $15 Juul vape pen.
Holland was charged with robbery and was remanded to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility until he had posted bail.
MONTCLAIR – That the township’s traditional two-hour “free” holiday parking begins on Nov. 27 will come as a relief to motorists who have had to play “parking meter roulette” lately in municipal lots or on curbsides.
Those attempting to use the 1,300 “smart” parking meters may find 11 percent – or 143 meters – broken or nonfunctioning this season. That “out-of-service” figure or rate is up from 59, or 4.5 percent, in June. The industry standard is two percent – or 26 meters in Montclair.
One can avoid playing roulette by using the Park Mobile app – but that is not foolproof. Some meters do not have app instructions. The current meters still use 2G cellular telephone technology in a 4G-5G world, draining the meters’ batteries.
Add Montclair police’s enforcement of parking at broken meter ticketing and it is no wonder that three Bloomfield Avenue businesses have been ordering and wearing “Montclair Parking Sucks” t-shirts.
The Township Council has directed the Montclair Parking Authority to start erecting parking kiosks in municipal lots. The meters’ upgrade to 4G technology will be completed by the end of 2022.
The council, however, did not act on a move to stop parking at broken meter enforcement. Nor has “liable for jail time” language has been struck from tickets.
GLEN RIDGE – Montclair Fire Department officials are seeking the cause of a borough house fire that displaced a family here Nov. 19.
Montclair firefighters, said Deputy Chief Robert Duncan, were responding to a fire call along Woodland Avenue at 7:08 p.m. Friday. They found the family outside and fire coming from the house’s third floor.
The MFD incident commander pulled a second, “all hands” alarm while the first unit set to extinguish the fire. Units from East Orange, Orange, West Orange and Clifton supplied MFD station coverage. (MFD has supplied fire services to Glen Ridge since 1991.)
Duncan said there were no reported civilian or service personnel injuries. The last MFD unit went home at 9:06 p.m.
BELLEVILLE – The township honored past and present resident veterans Michael Donnelly and with proclamations and honorary street renamings here during November.
Veterans groups and civic officials renamed a block of Riverdale Avenue for Vietnam Veteran Michael John Donnelly, among other Veterans Day observances, Nov. 7. Donnelly, 75, was a Belleville High School Class of 1963 graduate and had attended Lincoln Technical Institute in Newark before entering the Army.
Donnelly – who was born in Newark Dec. 26, 1945 and who recently summered in Clearwater, Fla., but was otherwise a lifelong Belleville resident – came home by 1968. He was a 35-year New Jersey Highway Authority maintenance supervisor who raised daughters Trecia and Susan with wife Joyce here.
Donnelly’s exposure to Agent Orange, however, led to Type II Diabetes that cost him both his legs by 2016. Although the amputations prompted Donnelly’s retirement from the NJHA, he joined several amputee groups. He was able to walk, with the help of physical therapists onto Yankee Stadium for the latter’s Aug. 28, 2016 “Veteran of the Game.”
Donnelly died here Aug. 7. His Funeral Mass was held at St. Peter’s Church and burial at Glendale Cemetery Aug. 12. A grandson and three granddaughters are also among his survivors.
Mayor Michael Melham and the Township Council had meanwhile honored surviving World War Two veteran Bernardino Colasurdo with their Nov. 9 proclamation.
Colasurdo, who turned 101 in August, served in the European and North African Theater with the 135 Infantry Regiment’s First Battalion, Company B. He has been a Belleville resident for the last 65 years.
NUTLEY – Those who were at the Township Commissioners Nov. 4 meeting live or online may have witnessed the start of Nutley’s divorce from Prism Capital ON3/ Hoffman-La Roche redevelopment project.
The commissioners passed Resolution No., 299-21 authorizing Inglesino, Webster, Wyciskala & Taylor LLC to study the feasibility of Nutley buying back its part of the Roche Pharmaceutical headquarters’ 117 acres. That buy-back, pending results of the $25,000 study report, may be by condemnation or eminent domain.
That buyback will not affect the structures already renovated or built: the Hackensack Meridian Health School of Medicine, Modern Meadow, 100 and 200 Metro Boulevard and its parking garage.
The state’s largest redevelopment project, south of Route 3, was to be a collaboration between Nutley and Clifton vis ON3 in 2015. Relations between Nutley and Prism’s ON3 had deteriorated over the last three years.
A State Superior Court-Newark judge had recently ruled that Nutley could not block an internal roadway. That decision ended the township’s three-year claim that the road would be used as a bypass to/from Route three, adding traffic onto Nutley streets. (Nutley wanted a Route 3 “flyover” ramp instead.)
A war of words has erupted between the township and developer over “piecemeal” development and the frequency of development meetings.
