TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark), after 35 years as State Senator, will retire Aug. 31. Rice’s departure will prompt Essex County Democratic Committee Chairman LeRoy Jones, Jr. and his colleagues to file a successor on or by Sept. 15 for a Nov. 8 special election.
The state’s longest-serving African American senator sent his resignation notice “with a full heart” to the Senate Majority Office and the Legislative Black Caucus he had founded Aug. 18. While Rice, 76, did not say why he had called time on his public service career, some observers said that he had been coping with the Aug. 4, 2020 loss of his wife Shirley. Some are saying that he will use his retirement to regain his health.
Rice, highly regarded for his ethics and sometimes lone independent voice, had returned to Newark in 1970 after his tour of duty as a United States Marine sergeant in Vietnam. He joined the Newark Police Department in 1972 and was a detective when some West Ward neighbors asked him to run for Municipal West Ward Council in 1978.
After a questionable election defeat, voters helped Rice oust Councilman Michael P. Bottone in the 1982 rematch. He moved into the office on the corner of South Orange and Sanford avenues he shared with then-State Senator / Newark Fire Director John Caufield. “If something happens to me,” Caufield once told Rice, “you should become senator.”
That opportunity came when Caufield died in 1986 and received backing from Sharpe James and State Democratic Committee Chairman Ray Durkin in the special election. Rice served both as state senator to date and either as councilman (1986-98) or as deputy mayor (2002-06).
Rice ran and won as senator off-line in 2007 against a candidate backed by then-Mayor Cory A. Booker and North Ward power broker Steve Adubato, Sr. He ran twice for mayor and lost to James in 1998 and to Booker in 2006.
Rice’s independent stance is reflected in two narcotics-related issues. He has staunchly opposed a free needle distribution program for drug addicts. Rice, however, had advocated for marijuana decriminalization.
IRVINGTON – Kearny Police officers are hoping that one of the 96 outstanding arrest warrants they had found on a township resident suspected of shoplifting July 31 will keep her in the Hudson County Correctional Center until her appearance in Kearny Municipal Court.
The KPD blotter for that Sunday started with a detective calling from the Kearny Shop-Rite for backup at 7:11 p.m. When an officer arrived, the detective, who was on security detail, said he had a suspect in custody.
The detective told the officer that a store customer pointed out a woman – identified as Javante L. Bynum, 29 – who had left the supermarket without paying for several items. The inspector said he had found snow crab legs, a sippy cup and several greeting cards – all at a total of $96.92 – in Bynum’s possession.
It was when the officer ran a records search on Bynum at KPD Headquarters that 96 warrants were attached to her name for an aggregated $48,000. Each arrest carries an average $500 fine.
Whether any of the said traffic warrants were issued by “Local Talk” municipal courts was not immediately known.
EAST ORANGE – Mourning bunting was put up at East Orange Police Headquarters and its flag lowered to half-staff Aug. 6-20 in tribute to one of its retired police captains, Berkely Jest.
Jest, 58, of Bloomfield, had suddenly died Aug. 6. His cremation at Montclair’s Rosedale Cemetery on Aug. 20 was preceded by an Aug. 19 visitation at Cedar Grove’s Shook-Farmer Funeral Home.
Berkely E. Jest was born in 1963 in Newark and had eventually settled in Bloomfield. The former EOPD patrolman rose through the ranks and had retired in April 2018 as captain.
Jest was a member of Newark’s King David Association of Free and Accepted Masons Lodge No. 80. He was also a charter member of East Orange Police Benevolent Association Local No. 16 since its 2014 founding.
Jest was among four superior EOPD officers named by nine other officers in five misconduct suits filed in State Municipal Court-Newark in 2018. It is not known as of press time whether or how the charge against him was adjudicated.
Wife Shikira M. Jest, children Toniesha Hill, Vanessa Bass, Sharell Williams and Briana Vazquez; mother Lee Ethel Jest, sister Cheyonne Jest and three grandchildren are among his survivors. Father Louis Emmanuel Jest had predeceased him.
ORANGE – Riders on NJTransit’s Morris & Essex Line are getting an excellent, if passing, view of PSE&G’s “Orange Heights Switching Station” project.
The utility has contracted J. Fletcher Creamer to start sinking steel pillars into the ground of 536 Freeman St. Some of the pillars will support eight step-down transformers PSE&G will install; some others will support the 50-to-70-foot tall perimeter wall that is to line the property along Freeman, South Jefferson and Forest streets.
What that perimeter wall will finally look like is between PSE&G’s contractors and the Orange Planning Board’s “Board Experts.” That was the condition a majority of the board carried Preliminary and Final Site Plan Application No. 21-12 on March 23.
Board Chairman Dwight Holmes, North Ward Councilwoman Tency Eason, Mayor Dwayne D. Warren and members Enock Faustin, Chris Mobley and Callistus Onyluke approved the application. Board Vice Chairwoman Antionette Jones abstained; Member Sharandra Bennett was absent.
The application, which was first heard Feb. 3, mentioned that the new station site is within the city’s Central Valley Redevelopment District. The site is also within the Valley Historic District, as designated by the Orange Historic Preservation Commission and abuts the Valley Arts District.
PSE&G’s experts said that the new station will replace the current station at South Jefferson Street, which was installed in 1970.
The pillars will be sunk through a one-foot-thick bed of white crushed stone. The layer was added to raise the transformers as a flood prevention measure. Three houses, including two at 541-43 Forest St., have been demolished.
WEST ORANGE – The township’s intention to replace the current West Orange Public Library with more senior citizens and affordable housing took a step forward when the Council approved Ordinance 2685-22 at their Aug. 9 meeting.
The Council unanimously passed the ordinance entitled “Master Plan Consistency Review (Fair Share Housing Center Settlement Agreement Implementation.” The legislation adjusts the WOPL tract in the OB-2 Zone to become entirely earmarked for senior/affordable housing.
Council President Susan McCartney explained at the meeting that the ordinance carries out a settlement between the April 14, 2020 township and the N.J. Fair Share Housing Center. A State Superior Court-Newark judge had approved the measure July 10, 2020.
West Orange elders envision a five-story 65 unit building where 46 Mt. Pleasant Ave. is now. A library satellite annex may go into some of the 7,500 square feet of street level community space. The housing is part of the township’s 2019 Master Plan.
The Township Council had approved, 4-1 April 26, to sell WOPL to West Orange Senior Housing LLC. The Alpert Group is being considered to buy the building on WOSH’s behalf – but a redeveloper has not yet been selected.
Township Attorney Richard Trenk said that WOPL will be going to 10 Rooney Circle, north of the Essex Green Shopping Center “and will hopefully have an empty building next spring.” Trenk also mentioned the Jan. 29, 2015 library facade collapse, where “anyone who were near it could’ve been killed 20 seconds before.”
The split-level WOPL building opened in 1959. Its extension over the municipal parking lot, whose east side facade fell, was built in 1979. The township has allocated $2.1 million and received a $3.1 million state library grant in 2021 to renovate 10 Rooney Circle.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – Police in both towns have been looking for a pair of armed robbers who crossed their shared border here since Aug. 18.
Maplewood Chief of Police Jim DeVaul said his officers had responded to a 911 call, made 9:18 p.m. that Thursday, from the township’s Burr Road.
Responding MPD officers met with two 18-year-old women at the corner of Burr and Parker Avenue. The victims said that they were walking in the area when two males had approached them and had demanded their cell phones. One of the suspects displayed a black handgun.
The victims said they and the suspects struggled until one of the women was forced to the ground and her cell phone was taken.
The suspects then fled into “a black four-door vehicle that was waiting for them.” The vehicle then sped north on Burr into South Orange. The fallen woman suffered “a minor abrasion to her right elbow but declined medical attention.”
Wanted are “two black males 19-20 years old. One is skinny with short-cut hair and wearing a black COVID mask. The other is short with a medium build, wearing a black COVID mask and possibly a zip-up jacket.” The gun displayed may have been a revolver.
BLOOMFIELD – Those who would use the Garden State Parkway’s Brookdale South/Connie Chung Service Plaza for food, fuel, restroom and/or carpooling purposes have had to go elsewhere since Aug. 17.
Contractors for GSP parent New Jersey Highway Authority had locked gates to the plaza’s Broad Street entrance and barricaded its GSP exit ramp. A backhoe was seen parked across five of the carpool parking spaces 8 a.m. Aug. 23; surveyors were seen taking measurements by the Sunoco fuel pumps.
The NJHA intends to replace the 1953-55 restaurant and service station – originally housing a Howard Johnson’s and a Cities Service – with an all-new building next spring. An exact grand reopening depends on contractor Applegreen LLC’s schedule and the weather.
While the Sunoco station and a convenience store are to return. its McDonald’s will be replaced by three other chain eateries: Burger King, Starbucks Coffee and Chick-fil-A.
Municipal officials from Bloomfield and Montclair had appealed to the NJHA Board of Commissioners to replace Chick-fil-A with another restaurant last winter. They cited the Atlanta-based corporation’s past funding of charities that oppose same sex marriage for their objection. A 2019 corporate statement said it had ceased such funding.
Northbound GSP motorists should also note that its nearby Vauxhall/Whitney Houston Service Plaza will be simultaneously closed for similar work. Both projects are to cost an overall $10 million as part of the NJHA’s Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike service plaza rehabilitation plan.
GLEN RIDGE – Those who remember mother Rose V. and daughter Wendy Ann McArdle are mourning with the family on their respective deaths 10 days apart.
Rose Vivian McCardle, 99, had died in a Browns Mills home July 18; Wendy Ann, 66, had died in Bloomfield July 27 – the day of Rose’s funeral service.
The former Rose V. Fredericks and the late John M. McArdle had moved into 66 Clark St. in the 1960s shortly after their marriage. Rose, who was born July 6, 1923 and was raised in Bloomfield, was a former World War Two nightclub singer-turned bookkeeper. John, who worked for the Newark News, was the borough’s Democratic Party Chairman who made an unsuccessful mayoral bid in 1969.
Rose and John raised Wendy, who was born Oct. 3, 1955, and sons John and the late Brian at 66 Clark. Wendy, a Glen Ridge High School Class of 1973 graduate, also graduated from Montclair’s Katherine Gibbs School of Business and worked in Bell Telephone’s Glen Ridge office while raising son Ryan Connor.
Rose put 66 Clark up for sale in 2014 after John’s death. Wendy continued to live in Bloomfield’s North Center section while “working in the hospitality field at The Chandelier” in Belleville. Rose’s July 27 repast and Wendy’s Aug. 16 memorial were both held at The Chandelier.
Brother John, son Ryan, aunt Helen Fredericks, nephew Kyle and niece Ariel are among Wendy’s survivors. Rose’s remains were interred at Union’s Hollywood Memorial park after July 27 service at Bloomfield’s O’Boyle Funeral Home.
MONTCLAIR / LITTLE FALLS – Those who want to send their farewells to the Jersey Jackals during the Frontier League’s regular season may have to go to Augusta’s Skylands Stadium to do so Sept. 2-4.
Skylands Stadium and the Sussex County Miners (at 49 wins and 36 losses) will host the Jackals (42-42) in their last three Frontier League East regular season games. The Jackals will be returning to at least Sussex County, N.J. after visiting the Trois-Rivieres Aigles (43-42) Aug. 26-28 and the league-leading Quebec Capitales (55-30) Aug. 30-Sept. 1.
The Jackals were scheduled to have their last regular season home game here at Montclair State University’s Yogi Berra Stadium, hosting the New York Boulders (46-38) Aug. 25.
Once that Thursday night game with the Boulders is finished, it is anyone’s guess whether the Jackals will return home here for the playoffs. The Jackals will need to rise from seventh place in the standings and beat out Trois-Rivieres, the Boulders, the Ottawa Titans and the Miners for the third and final playoff berth in the last 10 games.
Jackals co-general manager Reed Keller announced here Aug. 17 that the team will leave the only home they have known at the season’s end. Keller has not said where the team will go next year other than it will stay in the independent Frontier League.
The 5,000-seat Yogi Berra Stadium, built in a former strip mine quarry that MSU had bought, opened with the Jackals in 1998. The Jackals had won six league championships in 1998, 2001-02, 2014 and 2019-20. The Jackals won those crowns while in the Northern League (1998-2002), Northeast League (2003-04), the Can-Am Association of Professional baseball (2005-19) and the All-American baseball Challenge (2020).
The Jackals is among seven New Jersey minor league teams and stadiums that had opened 1994-2001. The Newark Bears (1998-2013), Atlantic City Surf (1998-2009) and the Camden Riversharks (2001-15) have since closed.
BELLEVILLE – Whatever memories that bass guitarist Bill Pitman may have had of Belleville, it may have been before he could attach a time to it.
Pitman, 102, who had died at his La Quinta, Calif. home Aug. 11, may be more familiar to those who have heard scores of popular music, commercials, radio and television shows and movies from the 1950s into the 90s.
Pitman was a member of the Los Angeles-based “Wrecking Crew,” who supplied background music for the likes of Frank Sinatra (“Strangers in the Night,” 1966), The Ronettes (“Be My Baby,” 1963), “Star Trek,” (1966-68) and “Goodfellas” (1990).
The crew, a loose group of freelance musicians who worked various styles at a break-neck pace, helped develop Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound.” Glen Campbell and Leon Russell were also among the group’s alumni.
William Keith Pitman was born here Feb. 12, 1920 to NBC Radio bassist Keith and Broadway dancer Irma Kunze Pitman. They first lived at 45 Lincoln Ave. in 1923 and at Nutley’s 288 Whitford Ave. in 1926. The Pitmans had moved to Manhattan and Bill was attending the Professional Children’s School by 1927.
Bill Pitman, a World War Two-Pacific Theater veteran, moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career once he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army Air Corps. His first big break came when he successfully auditioned for singer Peggy Lee’s band in 1951.
Pitman, who was part of the 2008 “The Wrecking Crew” documentary, had suffered a fractured spine from a fall last month. Third wife Janet Pitman, son Dale, daughters Donna Simpson, Jean Langdon and Rosemary Pitman; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren are among his survivors. Last rites have not been published as of press time.
NUTLEY – Longtime Nutley High School coach Bob Harbison may not be in the Maroon Raiders’ baseball dugout or alongside the football gridiron – but he will remain on the hardwood’s sidelines as its boys basketball head coach.
Harbison, who has led the baseball team since 2004, decided to cut back on his duties on Aug. 12. While Nutley Public Schools Athletic Director Joe Piro has time to find a new baseball coach, he also has an immediate assistant football coaching position to fill.
“I have about five more years teaching and bought a house down the shore,” said Harbison, who teaches special education mathematics at NHS. “It’s a good time to relinquish some duties.”
Harbison leaves the baseball diamond with a 288-195 win-loss coaching record. He had helped bring the Maroon Raiders to six Greater Newark Tournament entries – including making last spring’s semifinal round against Bloomfield.
The NHS Class of 1984 graduate was a lettered scholar-athlete in baseball, football and basketball who continued playing baseball for nearby Fairleigh Dickenson University.
Harbison, as head basketball coach since 1999, brought the Maroon Raiders into the 2021-22 NJSIAA North Jersey Section II Group 3 tournament before falling to sectional champion Colonia.
“I always liked basketball slightly more,” said Harbison. “There’s slightly more control in basketball than in baseball.”
