NEWARK – The scrap metal fire that began in Port Newark Jan. 24 may be finally extinguished and its smoke dissipated by when you read this.
The fire at 206 Calcutta St., whose first alarm was sounded at 8:15 p.m. Monday, has proven to be a stubborn blaze to put out. The fire began beneath a pile of mixed metal and plastic here at the Eastern Metal Recycling yard.
A couple of traffic helicopters during Tuesday morning rush hour showed EMR workers using two of their claw excavators to expose three of the fires. They were assisting Newark firefighters and the Essex County Neptune System in extinguishing the fire.
The plume of metal and plastic particles was taken northeast by that morning’s frontal system. The hazy pattern drifted some 20 miles over The Ironbound, Elizabeth, Bayonne, Jersey City, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and The Bronx.
DEP and EPA were registering as high as 152 on the air pollutant scale, prompting the NYC Office of Emergency Management to call an “unhealthy” condition. Residents were directed to close their windows and not to go outside. (The EPA sensor at Central Park normally reads 75 on an average day.)
There were 40 firefighters still at the scene Noon Jan. 25, searching for and dousing any flareups or hot spots. NPD was assisted by the Bayonne Fire Department and the Port Authority Police Department. Adjacent Clipper Street was closed in both directions.
A similar fire had happened at the same address Sept. 22.
IRVINGTON – The Florence Avenue Elementary School will most likely leave its mourning bunting above its Springfield Avenue entrance for the late Herbert Bell through Feb. 1. The Florence Avenue community went into mourning after learning that Bell, 63, had died on Jan. 4.
“Bell was a security guard the last 26 years at the Florence School,” Irvington Public Schools Superintendent Dr. April Vauss told “Local Talk” Jan. 25. “He was also a security guard at some of our other schools. His funeral was held yesterday (Jan. 24).”
Herbert St. Aubyn Bell, who was born June 17, 1958, came here from Jamacia. The Tranquility All-Age and Buff Bay High schools graduate came to the Irvington-East Orange area in 1979 with experience in Jamacia’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Bell initially joined IPS security while studying electronics at Essex County College. Although he earned his ECC Associates in Electronics degree in 2003, he stayed with the school district while raising his family.
Wife Maureen, mother Gertrude, seven children, 16 grandchildren, one great-grandchild, brothers Horace, Emerson, Eric, Kenneth and Alfred and sisters Beverly, Yvonne, Jean and Maureen are among Bell’s survivors. Father Wesley and brothers Lincoln and James predeceased him.
Bell’s remains were interred at Union’s Hollywood Memorial Park Monday after a Sunday visitation and funeral at the Newark English Seventh-Day Adventist Church at that city’s Norman Road. Memorial donations may be made to the Buff Bay SDA Past Students Association.
EAST ORANGE – ECPO detectives concluded a seven-month child sex assault investigation with the Jan. 17 arrest of a city man.
Abdul R. Crowley, 44, said Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II, was linked to the July 4 aggravated assault through collected DNA evidence.
The teenage victim immediately reported the crime to one of her family members, who reported it to the East Orange Police Department and the ECPO Special Victims Unit. Crowley, said Stephens, was arrested without incident Jan. 17, charged and remanded to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility.
Crowley is being held on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child 13-16 years old through supervisory power. He has also been charged with a count each of sexual assault where the actor is at least four years older than 13-15-year-old victim, aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child through sexual contact.
Student Killed in Maryland
Funeral arrangements are pending for city resident Ikemefuna Justin Eguh while Towson, Md. area police are looking for his killer. Baltimore County Police said that they had found a man, later identified as Eguh, dead with a gunshot wound by Altus Apartments, 22 W. Susquehanna Avenue 2 a.m. Jan. 11. Eguh’s apartment was a block outside of the Towson State University campus.
Eguh was a TSU senior majoring in Exercise Science and, as JiG, was an aspiring musician with over 19,000 Instagram followers. Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland has posted a $2,000 reward towards information leading to an arrest. A GoFundMe.com page has been posted for his funeral expenses.
ORANGE – The last of the original “Open Line” radio host trio, Judge Bob Pickett, had died here late Jan. 18. Fatiyn Muhammad, who has continued the Sunday morning public affairs program on WBLS 107.5 FM, announced Judge Pickett’s passing Jan. 19.
Pickett, 73, and cohosts James Mtume and Bob Slade began their long-running program on WRKS, 98.7. They moved to WBLS when WRKS transitioned to WEPN Sportsradio April 30 – May 14, 2012.
Pickett brought 35 years’ legal experience with him to the “Open Line” microphone in 1989. The 30-year attorney of civil and criminal litigation was appointed as a New Jersey Administrative Law Judge by Govs. Brendan Byrne (D-West Orange) and Tom Kean (R-Livingston) 1981-85.
He first came here to be the Newark Board of Education’s General Counsel. He came with a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Law School and as an aide to U.S. Sen. and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.).
The South Ward resident had produced and written the syndicated “Visions of Black America” series. It had earned him “Best Syndicated Show” by the Garden State Association of Black Journalists.
“We were saddened when almost three years ago when Bob Slade passed (March 24, 2019),” said Muhammad. “Then last week (Jan. 9) we lost ‘The 3rd Answer,’ James Mtume (of South Orange). And I’m heartbroken to say we lost Judge Bob Pickett.”
Pickett’s memorial arrangements have not been announced as of Jan. 25. Memorial donations, however, may go to The African American Fund of NJ, So. Harrison St., East Orange 071. He had been a co-founder of the then-Black United Fund of NJ and its chairman
WEST ORANGE – It can be said that the road to 43 million worldwide “Bat Out of Hell” album sales for the late Michael Lee Aday / Meat Loaf and his band began here in West Orange.
Aday, 74, who died in Nashville Jan. 20, had performed Nov. 8, 1977 here at “Creations” at 414 Eagle Rock Ave. It was the first live performance by the vocalist and his band after Epic Records’ Cleveland International label had released the album Oct. 11.
“Mr. Loaf,” composer Jim Steinman and musician/producer Todd Rundgren had been recording and mixing tracks for “Bat” at various studios in New York’s Woodstock and Manhattan and at the House of Music here at 1400 Pleasant Valley Way 1974-76.
Loaf and Steinman had also spent 1976-77 getting rejected by 40 record labels before Epic/Cleveland Int’l. signed them up. Part of the problem was that the album’s operatic style did not easily fit into the industry’s genre categories.
One cut, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” was eight minutes, 28 seconds long – nearly three times longer than the average hit radio song. Epic, while trying to get airplay at key radio stations, pressed a 5:32 “Paradise” 45 rpm single.
Loaf and his same-name 10-member band went to “Creations: A New Dawn in Entertainment,” knowing that they had to build record sales on their live performances. The former Crystal Lake Casino big band venue was chosen in part for its proximity to Loaf’s rented house on Rock Spring Road.
Loaf, who exhausted his 250 lbs. self every set, and the band started taking off in 1978, leading to the 43 million (and counting) sales. Second wife Deborah Aday and daughters Amanda and Pearl were at his bedside Jan. 20.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The ECPO, on late Jan. 19, has decided not to file criminal charges against the Seth Boyden Demonstration School teacher accused of removing a hijab off a student’s head.
“Following a full investigation and thorough review of all available evidence and applicable law, the Office has concluded that there’s insufficient evidence to sustain a criminal prosecution in this case,” said that late Wednesday statement. As prosecutors, we have a legal and moral obligation to only bring charges in cases where we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime has been committed.”
Attorney Robert L. Tarver and parents Joseph and Cassandra Wyatt, on behalf of their second-grade daughter, intend to file a civil suit against the South Orange-Maplewood School District and teacher Tamar Herman. Herman remains on administrative leave since Oct. 6.
SOUTH ORANGE – Retired South Orange Fire Department Chief Pasquale “Pat” Giordano, in a sense, paid one last visit to the fire headquarters here at 11:36 a.m. Jan. 13.
The hearse, carrying Giordano’s body at the head of the 16-car procession from the Preston Funeral Home to his final resting place, paused for a moment before 56 Sloan St. They were met by on-shift SOFD personnel in full dress salute and one of its engine units on its apron.
It is not known whether the procession had also stopped in front of the Lenox Avenue house he and wife Dorothy Ann had raised son Michael Giordano and daughters Dorothy Ann Westreich, Deborah Giordano-Abalos, Mary Jo Dempsy and Grace Qualqliariello.
Giordano was born Dec. 22, 1932, in Orange and served in the Army during the Korean Conflict – but was otherwise a lifelong villager. The Columbia High School Class of 1950 graduate worked for the Maplewood Post Office between his honorable discharge and joining the SOFD.
Pat was among “South Orange’s Bravest” for 41 years plus being the village’s OEM Coordinator. The N.J. Division of Fire Safety Coordinator Level 1 and 2 Instructor was also a Certified Fire Investigator by the state Division of Criminal Justice.
Giordano preferred non-fiction for reading, was an ardent gardener and loves spending summers with family along the Jersey Shore. He died Jan. 7.
Brothers Alex and Anthony, sister-in-law Margaret Monica Giordano, 10 grandsons, three granddaughters, six great-grandsons and a great-granddaughter are also among his survivors. Brothers Angelo and Michael, sister Grace and son Patrick are among those who predeceased him.
MAPLEWOOD – New Jersey’s oldest living resident, Edith Hodes Rose, who lived 63 of her 111 years here, has died in Winchester Gardens Jan. 11.
Rose, who moved back here after her husband’s death in Brick Township in 2002, was among the U.S.’ 30 longest-lived residents. The former Edith Rodes and attorney Joseph P. Rodes married in 1938 and first moved here to raise Marc, Charles and Joan.
Edith Hodes was born in Newark, the fifth of eight children of Russian immigrants in 1910. She celebrated Dec. 10, the date of her parents Hyman and Fanny’s naturalization, as her birthday because she had no birth certificate.
Hodes survived the 1918 influenza epidemic to work for the Newark Board of Education. She met Joseph while both were members of a nearby athletic club. They retired to Brick in 1971.
One of Rose’s siblings had also reached 100 and another four Hodes brothers and sisters lived past 90 years old. Husband Joseph died at age 95.
Son Charles, daughter Joan, grandsons Douglas, Mitchell and Michael, granddaughter Jennifer and 11 great-grandchildren are among her survivors. Son Marc and her six siblings are among those who predeceased her. Rose’s funeral arrangements have not been announced as of press time.
BLOOMFIELD / GLEN RIDGE – The posters of a Jan. 21 petition want to make the stormwater runoff in the area of Glen Ridge and Bloomfield’s Malois Avenue a federal case.
The petition on Google docs is asking Congress Members Donald M. Payne (D-Newark) and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) to talk with Bloomfield and Glen Ridge officials on resolving the flooding that lower Malois Avenue have been recently suffering. (Bloomfield and Glen Ridge are slated to be moved from Payne’s 10th Congressional District to Sherrill’s 11th CD this year.)
The petitioners assert that the curbside “canals” along the borough’s part of the avenue are inadequate. The recent runoff backs into Bloomfield’s stormwater drain pipes, causing flooding.
Included in the petition are photos of flooded basements and streets at Glenwood and Maolis avenues and Second and Thomas Streets in Bloomfield during and after Tropical Storm Ida Sept. 1-2. One photo shows a six-foot-high watermark on a Malois Avenue door.
The petitioners call for “sufficient storm drainage infrastructure in Glen Ridge” and “that the drainage systems of Bloomfield be inspected for further improvement.”
MONTCLAIR – Nine candidates have filed signed petitions with the Montclair Public Schools by 4 p.m. Jan. 18, to vie for the two additional Montclair Board of Education seats in March 8’s special election.
Yvonne Bouknight, Melanie Deysher, Phadera Dunn, Jerold Freier, Noah Gale, Lauren Q. Griffin, Holly Shaw, George C. Simpson and Jennette L. Williams. They are competing for Montclair voters’ favor in gaining a nine-month and a 20-month BOE seat.
Bouknight is a retired reading specialist from the Glen Ridge BOE. Deysher is a Nishaune School parent volunteer and a former board member. Dunn, a co-founder of Montclair Moms of Color, is a therapist who used to work in charter schools before becoming their critic.
Deysher and Dunn are supported by Vote Montclair, who advocated for the elected board conversion.
Freier is a former board member and Township Councilman who is an adjunct professor at Montclair State University and Rutgers-Newark. Gale, MHS Class of 2018, is a Montclair State University student. Griffin is an NYC Department of Education teacher and a long-term substitute teacher at the Northeast School.
Shaw is a Watchung Elementary and Glenfield Middle School parent. Simpson is a copywriter for Prudential, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management and other clients. Williams is the League of Women Voters-Montclair’s Education Committee chairwoman and on the Northeast School PTA.
LWV-Montclair is set to hold a candidates’ night on Feb. 18.
BELLEVILLE – The Belleville Board of Education Trustees, on the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. Richard D. Tomko, approved at its Jan. 24 meeting a five-year lease on another property – this time in the Valley section.
The district will enter a $125,000 to $159,776 lease with Cortlandt Holdings LLC Feb. 1 for 25,000 square feet at 522-554 Cortlandt St. The lease space is a third of the 76,000 sq. ft. “useable space” within the 80-year-old former grocery warehouse.
The lease, as listed on Finance Resolution 11.11 on Monday night’s agenda, starts out at $15 per sq. ft 25,000 – or $125,000. The lease, for July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023, rises to $20 psf – or $150,000.
The BPS-Cortlandt Holdings lease will increase by two percent per year for the remaining three years. The lease ends June 30, 2026 at $159,776.
Cortlandt Holdings had put a site application before the Belleville Planning Board on Nov. 2, 2020 where 522-554’s southeast quarter would be demolished for parking and the remainder subdivided for industrial use.
The space at 522-554 Cortlandt is for “an Auxiliary Athletic Facility and School Gym Annex.” It is nine blocks due east of Belleville High School and 10 blocks northeast of Belleville Middle School.
The BBOET has approved leases in the last year for two houses adjacent to BHS and the office part of a mixed-use professional-residential building on Union Avenue about two blocks north of Elementary School No. 3.
