TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Tributes to Wayne Shorter, 89, from within and beyond the jazz world have been pouring in since the Newark native’s March 2 death in a Los Angeles hospital.
For all the praise for Shorter’s seven decades of innovative and evolving work, his collaboration with the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Carlos Santana and the Oscar, 13 Grammys and other awards, none of it would have happened if not for some key turns in the Ironbound youth’s life.
Shorter was born Aug. 25, 1933 in a Newark that was a jazz enclave and the birthplace of Savoy Records. Clubs, movie houses and stage theaters were found across the wards and radio serials ruled the airwaves. The improvision and innovation fueled Wayne and older brother Alan’s playtime imagination.
Although parents Joseph and Louise sent the brothers to clarinet classes, Wayne thought his calling was in graphic art. Wayne, then 12, won a contest for his drawing of a football game that got published in a daily newspaper and helped his teacher to recommend his entry into Arts High School.
Wayne took the AHS classes that interest him but otherwise detoured to the Adams Theater on 28 Branford Place for the movies and musical acts. Arts administrators, after catching Shorter out, assigned him to their music theory teacher Achilles d’Amico.
D’Amico not only helped shorter to graduate with the Class of 1952, he had Wayne switch from the clarinet to the tenor saxophone. Shorter then entered U.S. Army service, where he used his Fort Dix leave to attend New York City jazz clubs.
Wayne and Alan began playing in Newark with the Curtis and Nat Phillips bands. Jazz enthusiast Amiri Baraka, Sr. recalled that Shorter’s eccentric behavior coined the local “Weirder than Wayne” term but also earned “The Newark Flash” name for his performances.
Mayor Ras Baraka and WBGO-FM honored Shorter by renaming part of Park Place “Wayne Shorter Way” April 29, 2022. Shorter was too ill to attend. Three wives, daughters Miyako and Marianna and a grandson are among his survivors. Alan died in 1987 and daughter Isya in 1984.
IRVINGTON – Township elders are working to help its property owners with flood mitigation here and literally downstream.
Irvington’s Council, for example, unanimously approved its $9.35 million share of The Joint Meeting of Essex and Union Counties’ $52 million flood mitigation project here Feb. 27. The council specifically authorized issuing a $9.35 million municipal bond issue to cover its Joint Meeting project share.
This project involves installing an effluent discharge pump at the Joint Meeting’s wastewater treatment plant in Elizabeth. The pump will discharge treated wastewater further into the Arthur Kill.
The flood mitigation aspect is where the pump will keep the effluent from backing up the Joint Meeting’s sewer system into its members’ storm drains. The system, from its height at Summit to Elizabeth sea level, otherwise runs on natural gravity.
The project also includes a new sludge dewatering station and connections to a pair of cogeneration motors.
It is presumed that the Joint Meeting has similarly asked its members and customers for paying their shares of the project. East Orange, Maplewood, Newark, South Orange and West Orange are also among its 11 members. Orange, who has a part of its system connected with the Joint Meeting, may have also been asked.
Irvington.net still offers applications to apply for the township’s Tropical Storm Ida Disaster Relief Grant. Ida turned the Elizabeth River into a raging torrent Sept. 1-2, killing a father and his daughter here. Applicants must first file with FEMA.
EAST ORANGE – Funeral services for Fifth Ward resident and retired pastor Lloyd Terrell, here at Faith Temple No. One Original Free Will Baptist Church, where he was a member, Feb. 25. The remains of the 50-year minister here and in Georgia and Iowa was entombed in Elizabeth’s Rosemount Memorial Park.
Terrell, 72, the 40-year pastor of Newark’s Franklin-St. John’s and St. Matthew’s United Methodist Churches, died in the presence of his family here Feb. 18.
The man who became the Rev. Dr. Lloyd Preston Terrell, Sr. was born in Akron, Ohio in 1951 as the seventh of 10 children. He came here in 1984 by way of Akron Public Schools, the U.S. Army, Augusta, Ga.’s Paine College and the Dubuque (Iowa) Theological Seminary.
While at Franklin-St. John’s, Pastor Terrell founded Agape Food Pantry, the church’s community center and credit union and Prayer Center US. He authored “Pray, Pastor, Pray,” “Sending Up My Timber” and “Never Too Busy to Pray.”
“Pastor Lloyd” attained a doctorate in ministry from the New York Theological Seminary and – at 66 years old in 2016 – an associate’s degree in mortuary science from Eastwick College-Nutley. He and his wife of 47 years, Marguerite, retired in June 2022 and became Faith Temple members.
Sons Lloyd, Jr. and Dr. Ralph Bunche Terrell, Sr., daughters Dr. Alice Marguerite Terrell-Bryant and Zelma M. Crump, brothers Rev. Dr. James Edward Terrell, Robert Terrell and Victor Terrell, sisters Patricia Jenkins, son-in-law Lawrence “Larry” Crump, sister-in-law Hon. Judge Mary Terrell, eight grandchildren and seven godchildren are among his survivors.
ORANGE – The Orange Police Department may have completed its mourning period for retired Sgt. Lawrence “Larry” Vincent Roche on Feb. 25 but his memories linger on.
Those memories of Roche, 71, who died in Hampton Jan. 24, may include patrolling with future OPD Capt. Don Wactor on the midnight tour, being a training officer for other police men and women, being a Sussex County Sheriff’s Office Substance Abuse Evaluator – and rescuing at least two children in a local apartment building fire.
Roche, who was born in Newark Jan. 24, 1951, joined “Orange’s Finest” after his Army tour in Vietnam was over. The Clifford J. Scott Class of 1969 graduate was an East Orange resident until he and his 1972 bride Kathryn Layton Roche moved to Newton in 1976.
Sgt. Roche received various awards and citations over the years. Although the circumstance of his rescuing several children from an apartment fire was not immediately available, his actions received a commendation from the New Jersey State Senate.
The Orange PBA Local 89 member attained his associate’s degree in criminal justice from Essex County College, his bachelor’s in sociology from then-Montclair State College and a master’s in education from Seton Hall University.
Sgt. Roche retired from OPD to join the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office and to Hampton.
Son Michael, daughters Regina Hannapple and Shannon Lombardo, brothers Kevin and Brian Riche and George and Bruce Layton and seven grandchildren are among his survivors. His Memorial Mass was held Feb. 4 at Newton’s St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church.
Memorial donations may be made at Make-A-Wish Foundation, 1702 E. Highland Ave., Suite 400, Phoenix, AZ 85016 and/or RCCA Charities, 89 Sparta Ave., Suite 130, Sparta 07871.
WEST ORANGE – Township administrators, with Mayor Susan McCartney and Councilwomen Michelle Casalino in attendance, said two things about the now-municipal Rock Spring Golf Club.
The first is that the golf club is costing West Orange more than planned.
When West Orange bought the 188-acre, 18-hole course from the Montclair Golf Club in 2019 for $11.2 million. the anticipated debt service was $700,000 and an annual tax loss of $585,000. The purchase was made during Mayor Robert Parisi’s administration over wholesale housing redevelopment fears and an Essex County offer to buy.
Township Business Administrator/CFO John Gross and Attorney Richard Trank, however, said that the tax losses are now $640,000 and over $1 million in debt service.
Second, the department heads at the Feb. 16 special public meeting said that 15 to 18 acres of the course should be used to build housing. The redevelopment’s tax revenue will help offset the debt service and tax losses. What exactly will be built there is to be addressed in the next year or two.
Officials under Parisi’s administration made two proposals. The first, in 2019, called for 175 residential units, 30 of which to be affordable, would be built on half of the golf course along Northfield Avenue for $7.5 million. The 2021 proposal entailed building housing for $2 million along a new road from Northfield and Ridgeway avenues.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – Two separate reports of unruly adults on South Orange-Maplewood School District property 16 days apart March 3 and Feb. 14 prompted two of its schools to enter lockdown.
Columbia High School was put into a “modified” lockdown March 3 after a teacher told its main office about a “verbal altercation with a man” on Ritzer Field at 8:06 a.m. The main office then called the Maplewood Police Department.
The MPD police dispatcher meanwhile got a call from the CVS across Valley Street about “an unruly male who assaulted a patron” before leaving the pharmacy. MPD officers and members of the South Essex Fire Department rescue squad found the man at Valley Street and Jefferson Avenue.
The man was described in the MPD release as “exhibiting signs of clear altered mental status” and carrying “a purple toy water gun protruding from his pocket.” SEFD medics evaluated the man and took him to RWJBarnabas Health Newark Beth Israel Medical Center for observation.
MPD took the man under custody upon hospital release on an outstanding Pennsylvania warrant. He remains detained in Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility.
The Clinton Elementary School entered a Code Red “total lockdown” 9:06-25 a.m. Feb. 14 after a parent became irate in its main office at 9:03 a.m. Arriving MPD officers and SEFD medics were able to interview the parent and brought that person to a local hospital.
At no time were the Columbia or Clinton student bodies threatened.
BLOOMFIELD – The manager of a Franklin Square shopping plaza store came to police headquarters here Feb. 21 to report $600 worth of merchandise being stolen earlier that Tuesday.
The manager said three men had walked into the Marshall’s Department Store at 8-12 Franklin St. that morning and selected several items displayed on the store floor.
All three, who had been acting as if they were purchasing the items, fled out the door with them instead. The $600 figure was arrived at after an inventory.
The suspects are described as “African American males” without further description. They will be charged with shoplifting should they be arrested. The incident remains under investigation as of March 1.
This shoplifting happened on the Bloomfield side of Franklin Square. The shopping center is built on the former Bamberger’s furniture warehouse site and extends east into Belleville.
MONTCLAIR – What started out as Feb. 21 conflict of interest allegations against a township councilman has resulted in the Feb. 24 resignation of two advisors of the advocacy group the said councilman leads.
Aminah Toler and Cathy Renna, in their Feb. 24 joint statement, said that they had tried to meet with Out Montclair Executive Director and At-Large Councilman Peter Yacobellis in January. They had wanted to ask about any relationship that he may have with the Lackawanna Plaza’s owner.
Yacobellis founded Out Montclair to provide community, solidarity and support to Montclair’s LGBTQ+ residents. A majority of participating voters had first elected Yacobelis in 2020.
Yacobellis, said Toler and Rennai, canceled their meeting “at the last minute” and has not rescheduled. Their quitting Out Montclair came three days after public speaker David Herron said he had filed formal conflict of interest charges against the councilman with the N.J. Attorney General’s Office.
Herron, during the Feb. 24 Township Council hearing of citizens, accused Yacobellis, as OM chief executive, of receiving around $35,000 from developer David Placek. Placek has a controversial plan to redevelop Lackawanna Plaza’s train terminal and closed Pathmark supermarket before the township’s council and planning board.
The Montclair resident, that Tuesday night, implored Yacobellis to recuse himself from any communication, let alone deliberation or decision-making, on the Placek Lackawanna Plaza plan.
Yacobellis, after a closed discussion with Acting Township Attorney Paul Burr, that he has “constantly sought council” in how he as councilman and how Out Montclair “color within the lines.” He said that his and OM’s financial records are in the public realm “and everyone can look at the facts.” In Autumn 2021 advisors stepped down from Out Montclair, a two-year-old organization.
OutMontclair advisors quit in wake of Peter Yacobellis’ latest Lackawanna Plaza plan alleged conflict of interest.
BELLEVILLE – There are those on both sides of the Township Council dais have been wondering since Feb. 28 whether its municipal government is meting the letter or the spirit of state public meeting law.
First Ward Councilwoman Marie Strumolo-Burke announced at that Tuesday night’s meeting that she would note “no” on all resolutions listed on the agenda. She cited that the only full set of said ordinances for public review are not accessible.
Public speakers Michael Sheldon and Carmela Fleischman also brought up the public’s inaccessibility of a complete agenda packet before Mayor Michael Melham and the council.
State law requires that a municipal governing body’s agenda be published at least 48 hours in advance of the scheduled meeting and posted for public display in the municipal building.
Belleville has its agenda and a full set of its proposed ordinances and resolutions on a bulletin board next to the Council Chamber’s front doors. The thumbtacked set and board, however, are in a locked glass case.
Sheldon has since published a spreadsheet of advance agenda postings/publications in 25 municipalities: all 25 in Essex County plus Hudson County’s Kearny and Bergen County’s North Arlington and Lyndhurst. “Local Talk” will focus on its 12 towns.
Sheldon used Belleville’s “Never” posting as a baseline. He rated East Orange and Irvington as posting partial full agendas and Newark as “Almost.” The other eight “Local Talk” towns publish and post full agendas.
NUTLEY – It seemed as if Patricia Cole, 46, who died Feb. 24 in Chevy Chase, Md.’s Holy Cross Hospital, always wanted to be in journalism.
Cole, who was a gifted digital copy editor in National Public Radio’s Washington, D.C. desk, had graduated from Nutley High School in 1995 as Editor-in-Chief of its Maroon and Gray student newspaper.
NHS English teacher and M&G faculty advisor Ronald Bonadonna brought “Patti” to the paper for her talent and skill. The Washington elementary and Walker Middle schools graduate had also received an award from the Nutley Board of Education after her winning prize article was published in the then-Newark “Star-Ledger” in 1994-95.
Patricia Kathleen Cole, who was born Dec. 31, 1976, was accepted into the Penn State University Honors Program and its “Daily Collegian” paper. The 1999 journalism graduate further learned her profession at “The Orlando Sentinel,” “Columbus Dispatch,” “Washington Times,” The “Star-Ledger” and Law360.com before arriving at NPR in 2017.
It can be said that Cole’s copyediting had saved more than one news story and a reporter’s career. Her insight and critical eye made sure that each article was right, fair, important and meaningful.
Patti had won a national headline writing contest in 2012 and became a contest judge for ACES: The Society for Editing. Her depression, however, overtook her Feb. 24. An NPR colleague, when cleaning out Cole’s computer files, gained access through her password – a variation of Ronald Bonadonna’s name.
Cole’s Funeral Mass was held at Upper Saddle River’s Church of the Presentation March 2. Mother Maureen and brother Michael are among her survivors. Memorial donations may be made to the ASPCA.
If anyone is contemplating suicide or in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
