TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Rutgers University teachers and students here, in New Brunswick and Camden have been back to their classes, after an April 9-15 strike, since 8 a.m. April 16.
Gov. Phil Murphy, in a 1 a.m. April 15 announcement from Trenton, said that university administrators and two of the three striking unions have reached a “framework” agreement The framework includes 18 tentative agreements on specific points of former contention.
All three unions – American Association of University Professors-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union and AAUP-Biomedical and Health Sciences of NJ – have, in exchange, immediately stopped all job action and returned to work.
While union members have put aside their picket signs, they have not stored them or put them in the recycling bin.
The negotiating parties still have to come to terms with remaining items before bringing a complete tentative agreement before union members and the Rutgers Board of Governors. The University of Rutgers Administrators-AFT is still weighing as of press time. whether to strike over pay, telework options and job security.
IRVINGTON – The family of a Newark motorcyclist who died in an April 6 collision here may have held his last rites when you read this.
Irvington police officers and local EMS medics said that they had responded to a motor vehicle accident “with injuries” at Chancellor Avenue and Essex Street at 8:45 p.m. that Tuesday.
That called for the ECPO Crash Scene Unit when they found a motorcyclist who had been thrown from his bike after colliding with a car in the intersection.
The rider – identified as James Bell, 34 – was declared dead at the scene. The car’s driver was not physically injured.
Bell’s death is the second one in the family from a motorcycle collision. James “Spud” Harris, 54, of Newark was declared dead just off I-280 West’s right shoulder in Parsippany after 10:15 a.m. Sept. 24, 2017.
State Police-Totowa Barracks investigators had determined that Harris had collided with another westbound motorcycle, went off road and struck a tree.
EAST ORANGE – City and county fire investigators are searching for the cause of an April 14 fire that destroyed or seriously damaged a block of Hyde Park section stores and a house.
EOFD units first responded to an alarm from 225 Central Ave. at 12:30 Friday. Although everyone had evacuated from the block between Watson and Whittlesey avenues, the blaze was quickly spreading ire guts several Central venue businesses from B-S Sally Hair Braid to storefronts at 229 and 233 Central Ave. and an attached house.
City firefighters pulled up to four alarms, calling for all EOFD hands plus mutual aid and/or station coverage from Orange, South Essex, West Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville, Nutley, Millburn and Cedar Grove colleagues.
Traffic, including CoachUSA 24 and 44 buses, were detoured around South Munn Avenue and Oraton Parkway. One EOFD firefighter was taken to Belleville’s RWJBarnabas Health Clara Maass Medical Center for treatment of a minor injury.
225-33 Central Ave. were a later addition to what is the northern border remnant of Hyde Park. Real estate developer Watson Whittlesey (1862-1914) had built the namesake neighborhood – bordered by South Munn, Wilcox Street and Holy Sepulchre Cemetery – in 1897. Most of that section was razed for the Garden State Parkway 1952-54.
Friday’s fire came 40 years and a day after EOFD lost Capt. Robert Wasner in an apartment blaze at .14 So. Munn Ave. Wasner, a 1964 Clifford J. Scott High School graduate and 13-year member, was caught by a fire flashover while searching for a reportedly trapped fourth floor occupant.
ORANGE – City public safety officials and educators are sorting out what happened that brought first responders to Orange High School and Orange Preparatory Academy of Inquiry and Innovation April 11.
Neighbors along Central and Lincoln avenues noticed units from the Orange Police Department and Essex County Sheriff’s Office late that Tuesday afternoon. Both school buildings had already been locked down when the law enforcers arrived in bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles.
A 20 second student’s cell phone video clip, received and aired that night by News12 New Jersey, showed other students in a hallway with their hands in the air while officers, including OPD Chief Vincent Vitiello, asked them to move aside.
It was not long before several parents appeared at the police tape bordering Central and Lincoln avenues asking for their children and about what happened. An “all clear” was given by 6:30 p.m.
The rumors and speculation that went with the clip was that law enforcers had responded to a report of either “suspicious activity” or “an active shooter” within the respective 1973 and 1923 buildings – or that they were victims of a “swatting” false report.
Both Orange Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Gerald Fitzhugh II and West Ward Councilwoman Quantavia Hilbert, in separate April 12 dispatches, said that no active shooter was found nor was there gunfire in the buildings. Fitzhugh added that a message was communicated to his office about a threat, prompting him to put the two schools on immediate lockdown and the district on high alert.
OHS Principal Jason Belton, that same Wednesday had reportedly said that a teacher’s medical emergency had caused the false alarm. There is no further information as of press time of whether that teacher was taken to a hospital or medical condition.
WEST ORANGE – The “From Darkness to Light: Mosaics Inspired by Tragedy” art exhibition and March 19’s screening of “A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting” here at JCC Metrowest may have struck closer to home here at “Local Talk” Land.
“From Darkness to Light,” unlike the New Jersey Film Festival’s sole “A Tree of Life” screening, is on its seventh stop of a traveling tour. Both the still and moving arts focus on the tragedy of the Oct. 27, 2018 shooting that killed 11 people and perseverance and hope since then.
A lone gunman entered a building in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill section that Saturday that housed The Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and the New Light Congregation.
One of the killed Shabbat service worshipers was Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, from Newark’s Weequahic section. Jerry had likely attended the Maple Avenue School 1956-65 before his family moved to Springfield and its Jonathan Dayton Regional High School. The Dor Hadash member had attended Maple Avenue School’s 50th anniversary reunion.
Tree of Life’s rabbi – Cantor Jeffrey Myers – was born and originally raised in Newark. Myers had obtained a B.A. in education from Rutgers-Newark before getting an M.A. from the Jewish Theological Institute and his rabbinical ordainment. Myers was able to get all but eight TOL members to escape.
“From Darkness to Light” has an indefinite run at JCC MetroWest.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The legacy of William “Billy” Patrick Holland, 90, who had died at his Naples, Fla. retirement home March 22, may well be counted in the hundreds of youth he had influenced in South Orange-Maplewood for 60 years.
Holland was a longtime auto shop teacher at Columbia High School. Some of his students, who had talent and/or needed a break, he had hired to work at his Valley Texaco service station at 300 Valley St., South Orange.
“Billy,” who was born Dec. 1, 1932, most likely came here in the 1950s after having been honorable discharge as an Army Military Police officer in West Germany He and wife Susan raised sons Deven and Darren Holland and Dante Roberts and daughters Dorothy Katcher and Kelly Roberts in Maplewood’s College Hill section.
Holland must have been happy to teach from a new auto shop when Columbia High School’s 1968 wing was opened. His after school time was spent owning and operating the 24-hour filling station, repair and towing service on the southeast corner of Valley and Fifth streets.
Holland also participated in the Boy Scouts of America’s South Orange-Maplewood Explorers Club.
Billy and Sue Holland retired to Florida long before Chevron-Texaco sold 400 Valley St and 449 other Mid-Atlantic stations in 2010. That corner station was a Pizza Hut franchise and a dog grooming parlor before becoming its present Valley Automotive Sales.
Seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren are also among Holland’s survivors.
BLOOMFIELD – The township’s 14th and latest chief of police is on his beat as of press time.
Capt. George Ricci, who has been the Detective Bureau’s commander since 2019, was formally promoted and sworn in by Mayor Michael Venezia at the Oak View School earlier this month. BPD’s top uniformed officer answers to both Venezia and Public Safety Director Samuel De Maio.
Although Ricci is a 24-year member of “Bloomfield’s Finest,” he has 26 years’ law enforcement experience. The then- N.J. Training School for Boys corrections officer joined BPD in 1999.
Then-BPD Chief John “Jack” McNiff paid attention to newcomer Ricci’s strong sense of community and desire to help youth. McNiff had Ricci take DARE school and assigned him as the Fairview’s DARE officer. The Middle School Resource Officer was soon promoted to detective and reassigned to the Youth Aid Bureau.
Det. Ricci became Sgt Ricci, YAB and Patrol Supervisor in 2011. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2015 and Captain and Special Operations Bureau Commander in 2019. Special Operations include the YAB, Community Policing Division, Fugitive Apprehension Team and the Traffic Bureau. He became Detective Bureau Commander later that year.
“I’m in the firm belief that Chief Ricci is ready to take the reins of the department,” said De Maio, “and lead our men and women into a bright future for the department and the community we serve.”
MONTCLAIR – The Township Council and particular municipal employees, since April 12 can be legally indemnified.
The council, headed by Deputy Mayor/Councilman William “Bill” Hurlock, passed an ordinance that Wednesday night where the township attorney can determine whether council members or employees may be represented by the Montclair Legal Department or hire an outside attorney to represent them in work-related legal matters.
Put another way, Montclair’s taxpayers will be paying for legal representation should a council member or an employee be named as a respondent or defendant in a job-related matter.
Any pending, threatened or completed civil administrative or arbitrative judgements, settlements or actions lodged against a responding employee or council member in civil court are covered. Criminal charges may be covered “provided that the preceding have been dismissed or results in a final resolution found in favor of the employee.”
“We should absolutely be indemnified when we’re acting in our official capacity,” said Councilman Peter Yacobellis, who added that he is on a state plan. “The idea that anyone who wants to serve if your house or retirement be at risk is absurd.”
Second Ward Councilwoman Robin Schlager recounted when she was among the respondents named in a suit over an earlier Lackawanna Plaza plan while she was on the Montclair Planning Board. The township attorney at the time told Schlager that she had to hire her own attorney. That suit was dismissed last December.
Councilman Robert “Bob” Russo and several public speakers questioned the resolution’s timing in light of settling suspended Town Manager Timothy Stafor’s status. Some other speakers asked why the measure was introduced on March 27 as a late-starting item.
BELLEVILLE – Authorities have identified the Florida man who they have found on a feeder road to Route 21 South early April 12 – but are still investigating how the late Frensly G. Bouquet got there.
Belleville and Newark police, responding to reports of a man shot “along the 2100 block of McCarter Highway, found Bouquet, 27, of Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., at 1:45 a.m. that Wednesday.
They found Bouquet “unconscious and unresponsive with several bullet wounds.” The ECPO Major Crimes Unit was promptly called. Bouquet was declared dead at the scene at 4:04 a.m. April 13; his funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
Main Street/McCarter Highway was closed between Belleville’s Mill Street and Newark’s Verona Avenue into Thursday morning rush hour. (Main Street becomes the McCarter Highway south of the Second River bridge.)
Rt. 21 Exit Closed a Week
NJDOT and the State Police have closed Route 21 North’s Exit 6 to Route 7 East from 6:30 p.m. April 17 until April 24 so that the Passaic Valley Water Commission may repair a broken 16-inch diameter transmission line.
Motorists are being asked to take posted detours or alternate routes. PVWC’s North Arlington customers may experience a drop in water pressure during the work.
NUTLEY – Those who stop at the Seaman Pervis Robison, Jr. memorial outside of the municipal building here and/or have seen his picture in a class case inside may have paused with some more poignancy around April 10.
It was on April 10, 1963 when the USS Thresher (SSN-593) was lost with all 129 hands aboard, including Robison, 19. It was the first sinking of a U.S. Navy’s new atomic submarine fleet ship, which led to several testing and safety improvements.
There are those in and around Nutley who remember where they were that day when the five-year-old Thresher was reported lost 220 miles southeast of Boston. The ship had done a trim test for buoyancy April 9, stayed underwater overnight and resumed radio contact with the USS Skylark surface ship at 6:30 a.m. April 10. It then kept periodic contact with the Skylark as it deep dived in 100 foot increments.
The Thresher neared its test depth at 11 a.m. when a garbled underwater telephone message of “minor difficulties, have positive up-angle, attempting to blow (its ballast tanks)” and “900.” The Skylar’s crew, presuming that the Thresher had sunk, called for a 15 ship search party. That party found a debris field at a depth of 3,800 feet on April 12. An investigation narrowed the wreck’s cause to a broken pipe or fitting that flooded its engine room.
There are those who remember Robison, who was born here Dec. 15, 1941. The Lincoln Elementary School and Nutley High School (1962) graduate was an NHS track star, member of a local Baptist church and treasurer of the Reinheimer Club.
“Duck” enlisted into the Navy, went through its recruit training and radio training school before being assigned to the USS Cavalla (SS-294). He was assigned to the Thresher Jan. 11, 1963.
President John F. Kennedy ordered all flags lowered to half-staff and half-mast April 12-15. Robison’s mother led the first memorial service in the NHS Auditorium. Subsequent memorial services have been held at the outdoor monument on the sinking’s anniversary and/or Memorial Day.
