TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Union picket lines that were seen for a week before Rutgers-Newark’s Paul Robeson Student Center may reappear across Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in front of NJIT’s Eberhardt Hall.
New Jersey Institute of Technology’s United Council of Academics, like the three unions who had struck Rutgers University April 9-15, have been working with a new contract for almost the entire 2022-23 school year.
UCAN – representing NJIT’s adjunct professors plus graduate and postgraduate students – said as much in their April 19 letter to Gov. Phil Murphy.
Adjunct professor Scott Kent said that Wednesday the union council had delivered a set of terms to the engineering school’s administration in October. Their demands include more pay for postdoctoral students, six months’ family leave and subsidized health care.
“They didn’t respond to us until a couple of weeks ago,” said Kent to a reporter. “You know what they offered for a raise this year? Zero – nothing.”
“Our goal is to reach a mutually beneficial agreement,” said NJIT’s Marketing and Communications Office, “that addresses as many of their members’ concerns as possible while assuring that NJIT’s interests and long-term viability are protected.”
UCAN, while not preparing for a strike, has not ruled it out.
IRVINGTON – One man was injured afternoon rush hour traffic snarled and buses on up to 12 NJTransit routes were delayed or detoured in the wake of an April 19 shooting here at Springfield Avenue and Grove Street.
Irvington public safety officials confirmed that they had sent cruisers and a detective unit to Springfield and Grove on a report of gunfire there at 3:40 p.m. that Wednesday.
Witnesses told arriving IPD officers that a man was shot at the intersection and taken away by a private car. Leads allowed township detectives to find the victim at RWJBarnabas Health Newark Beth Israel Medical Center for questioning.
It is not known whether the man, who was shot in one of his legs, had shot himself or was shot by someone else. He is expected to recover from the non-life-threatening injury.
Traffic had to be detoured or rerouted by IPD conducted a field investigation. Buses on NJTransit’s. 25, Go25, 37, 70, 90, 108 and 375 routes were directly affected. Buses using nearby Irvington Terminal – including the 13, 26 and 27 buses – were also delayed.
Residual Irvington Center traffic volume also affected the Nos. 39 and 94 buses. Two 39 buses, without explanation from NJTransit’s RSS/Twitter feeds or My Bus phone line, failed to appear at Stuyvesant and Mill streets for some 45 minutes.
EAST ORANGE – “Who is demolishing The Brick Church?” and “Can they do that here?” are questions that have landed in State Superior Court-Newark April 24.
Superior Court Judge Lisa Adubato ended a Monday afternoon hearing by granting an injunction against Zuccaro Construction, of Garfield, and “New Brick Church LLC,” of Brooklyn, from further demolishing the neighborhood’s namesake church.
Adubato’s injunction backs up a stop work order issued by East Orange construction officials April 17. Zuccaro had taken down the north or back side of the 1858-built church building by then. Passers-by noticed that and the perimeter fence around 552 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. / 7 Prospect St. – and called both City Hall and Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake’s field office.
The building was built as the Second Presbyterian Church of Orange, before East Orange had sectioned off from Orange in 1862. The “Brick Presbyterian Church” had most recently been the Temple United Christians Brick Church until it sold the building to NBC for $420,000 in 2020.
NBC had presented a proposal to the East Orange Planning Board in late 2021 that would have added an apartment building wing and repurposed the edifice for residential use. The board rejected that plan for a lack of parking space.
Judge Adubato’s order will last until 552 MLK / 7 Prospect’s ownership is settled. There is a question of whether NBC had sold it to another entity.
ORANGE – Family, friends and Orange Police Department colleagues have left two donation options open to honor Detective. Lt. Walter A. Imbert past his April 17 Funeral Mass.
Orange Police Director Todd Warren and Police Chief Vincent Vitiello announced Imbert’s April 8 death on April 14. Imbert, 45, was a 19-year, eight-month member of “Orange’s Finest,” having joined the force in August 2003.
Det. Lt. Imbert, of late, was the department’s Internal Affairs Division-Professional Standards. The Special Response Team Sniper/Observer Team member was also a Range Instructor. The PBA Local 89 and Superior Officers Association member was honored by the City of Orange and an Essex County Valor Award in 2005 for his outstanding actions in the line of duty.
The National Law Enforcement Associates member had previously served in the U.S. Army as a combat medic stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas and in Kuwait. While with OPD, Imbert worked as a part-time security guard for a Hudson City Savings Bank branch.
Born in Newark Sept. 10, 1977, Imbert, wife Colleen and daughter Giuliana moved to Livingston in 2009. Parents Luis and Teresita Imbert and parents-in-law Phyllis and Mark Diener are also among his survivors. Brother Javier predeceased him.
Imbert had shot himself in the Freddie Polhill Law and Justice Complex here April 8.
Imbert’s Mass was held in New Providence’s Our Lady of Peace Church April 17. Memorial donations may be made to the N.J. State PBA Survivor and Welfare Fund, www.survivorwelfare.com. There is also a FundtheFirst.com donation page. If one is in a mental crisis or are having suicidal thoughts, call 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
WEST ORANGE – Relatives and friends of Christian H. Alleyne, 24, have scheduled his last rites here for April 27-28 while the State Police investigates his April 14 p.m. rush hour fatal accident by the Garden State Parkway’s Pascack Valley Toll Plaza.
State Troopers and other responders converged on GSP South Mile Post 166.8 in Bergen County’s Washington Township at about 4:43 p.m. that Friday. They found an Infiniti that had run off the right hand shoulder near Exit 166 rolled over. Its ejected driver was found under traumatic arrest.
Southbound Parkway traffic, said State Police Sgt. Philip Curry, was stopped while a medical helicopter landed to take the driver to Hackensack University Medical Center at 5 p.m. The man, identified as former West Orange High School student Alleyne, was later declared dead there.
Southbound traffic remained constricted while the NJSP Fatal Accident Unit was called in to investigate. Northbound traffic experienced rubbernecking delays.
Alleyne’s visitation and funeral had been scheduled for April 27 and 28 ay Caldwell’s Galante Funeral Home. His burial is to follow at Montclair’s Rosedale Cemetery. Parents Hendersen and Crystal, daughter Kendall Lily and sister Kyra are among his survivors.
Wall Fall Moves JHS Play
The Roosevelt Middle School Drama Club production of “Legally Blonde, Jr.” will go on as planned April 28-30 – but at the West Orange High School Auditorium. A West Orange Public Schools spokesman said that the move was prompted by a state wall collapsing on April 24. No injuries were reported, and RMS classes continued.
SOUTH ORANGE – Registered village voters will be ratifying candidates for its village president and three of its village trustees May 9.
This May’s only non-partisan municipal election in “Local Talk Land” features an all-woman slate. All four candidates, barring the unexpected, are running uncontested.
Village President Sheena Collum is seeking her third four-year term. Collum is also leading an “SO2023” ticket of three candidates for Village Trustees.
Village Trustee Summer Jones is seeking her second four-year term. Candidates Jennifer Greenburg and Olivia Lewis-Chang are making their debuts.
Greenberg and Lewis-Chang intend to succeed Trustee Donna Collier and Stephen Schnall. Collier was elected to her sole term in 2019. Former trustee Schnall was appointed last year to complete the moved-out Robert Zuckerman’s unexpired term.
May 9 Vote-By-Mail Ballots should have arrived at registered village voters addresses by now and the Village Center dropbox will be open soon. Details, including May 9 polling station location, may be found at the Village Clerk’s office and/or www.essexclerk.com.
MAPLEWOOD – There are residents and officials who are wondering who widespread the purported DPW bid rigging allegations scandal has reached in the light of Assistant Administrator Bailey Barnett’s April 4 resignation.
Bailey announced her stepping down, after two years’ service, at that Tuesday night’s Township Committee meeting. Township officials, including Acting Business Administrator Gregg Schuster, thanked Barnett for her efficiency, helpfulness and for “knowing where everything was, where to ask questions and to get answers.”
Barnett’s departure came the same day attorneys for former BA Gerald “Jerry” Giaimis filed an affidavit that included her name. Barnett is said to support Giaimis’ assertion that Public Works Superintendent Cesar Riccardi had influenced bids for the renovation of a Municipal Building’s women’s restroom.
Giaimis, who said he was told by Mayor Dean Dafis to resign or get fired on Sept. 26, 2022, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the township and particular individuals March 14. The suit said that Giaimis found the three bids for the restroom repair made last summer had “abnormally high” estimates. Riccardi had recommended to the Township Committee bidder “28 Sunrise Way” for $20,950.
Giaimis found all three bids were made “on a single Microsoft document” while claiming they were from three separate contractors. The then-BA, after noticing similar discrepancies on several $100,000-plus contracts, tried to warn Dafis.
Riccardi was arrested by ECPO detectives March 14 and was charged with second-degree official misconduct. The Township Committee voided 28 Sunset Way’s contract and fired that contractor.
Dafis, former mayor Frank McGehee and the current Township Committee have meanwhile disavowed any wrongdoing in the matter. The ECPO is still investigating the case.
BLOOMFIELD – The owner of Franklin section martial arts school may have returned to teaching classes for the first time in nearly four years, thanks to a New Jersey Superior Court petit jury’s April 14 acquittal.
The jury that Friday found Edilberto “Eddie” Torres, 60, of East Orange not guilty on all 11 counts of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a minor. The owner of Kokusai Karate Dojo on Franklin Street was arrested by Bloomfield police and ECPO’s Special Operations detectives July 2, 2019.
Torres was released from Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility July 9, 2019 on condition by Superior Court Judge Martin Cronin. Cronin ordered Torres not to have any contact with his accuser, or he family or any minor under 17 years old unless he or she is a family member. The dojo owner was also directed not to go within 100 feet of that studio or “any offsite events for the business.”
Kokusai parents and students had meanwhile protested the accusations and had raised bail money for Torres.
One of Torres’ students, an 11-year-old girl, said that he had felt her intimate parts through her uniform several times between April and July 2019. She and her parents first brought the matter to Bloomfield police, who then called for the county’s Special Victims Unit.
MONTCLAIR – How does tenure figure into the status of a former and perhaps returning junior high school principal may well be an over $400,000 question.
State Superior Court Judge Jodi Lee Alper has recently directed the Montclair Public School district to retroactively pay on-leave Renaissance Middle School at the Rand Building Principal Joseph Putrino $403,570 in salary and health benefit waiver funds after he had filed for tenure on Sept. 1, 2021. The figure was found on MPS payroll records shown to a reporter on April 11.
Alper’s directive is to cover a 120-day, no-pay period from Putrino’s tenure filing date. The judge, from her Newark bench, reasoned that Putrino should be paid while awaiting the district’s decision on whether or not to grant the idled RMS principal tenure.
Getting Putrino nearly $404,000 was part of Alper’s Feb. 22 ruling that the Montclair district “immediately reinstate” him as RMS principal. The judge’s ruling confirmed arbitrator Joseph Licata’s Oct. 28, 2022 decision that Putrino be returned to Renaissance.
The district put Putrino on administrative leave Sept. 15, 2020 after he was accused of showing a video to staff that some audience found offensive. MPS later named Maria Francisco as the current RMS principal on July 1, 2021.
Licata and Alper had determined that the district’s punishment of Putrino was “not consistent with just cause.” MPS, which first objected to the principal’s return to Renaissance, has been working with Putrino’s lawyer on a timetable to return.
Some RMS parents, this school year, have meanwhile protested Putrino’s pending return and have petitioned the Montclair Board of Education to retain Francisco as principal.
GLEN RIDGE – Borough Democratic Committee Chairwoman and former borough councilwoman Jacqueline S. “Jackie” Yustein will be an “old” 28th State Legislative District General Assemblywoman now through Jan. 9, 2024.
Essex County and State Democratic Committee Chairman LeRoy Jones announced Yustein’s April 19 election by municipal party Democrats. She succeeds Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Newark/Nutley), who can now resign himself to a seat on the Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of N.J. Board of Directors.
Caputo (D-Nutley) had sought retirement since March 22 when Glen Ridge, Nutley, Bloomfield and Belleville were redrawn into the “new” 34th LD that also kept East Orange and Orange. The Newark native and former 1967-71 North Newark Republican Assemblyman, this March, was facing a June primary collision against fellow Democratic Assembly incumbents.
Yustein was chosen April 18 from a field of four that included Newark West Ward Democratic Committee Chairwoman Jeanette Seabrooks, Irvington Public Schools Board of Education member Annette Beasley and United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 1342/253 official Jamie V. Serritella, of Nutley.
Yustein is in a caretaker Assembly role, running out Caputo’s remaining term. A majority of participating new 34th LD voters are to pick her successor in the Nov. 7 General Election.
Jones and the county Democratic committee are fielding Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia and Essex County Newark Tech High School Principal Carmen Morales, of Belleville, as its Assembly candidates. Outgoing Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake (D-East Orange) is running as the 34th LD’s State Senator.
BELLEVILLE – Neighbors by NJ Route. 21 North’s Exit 6 and motorists who take that exit to local streets here, North Arlington and Kearny may well be asking themselves, “Gee, that was quick work,” since it was reopened by 3 p.m. April 19.
The Passaic Valley Water Commission, with NJDOT permission, had reserved the closing of Exit 6 from 6:30 p.m. April 17-24 to replace a 16-in. diameter water transmission line. That transmission line serves PVWC customers in North Arlington and eastward.
A closer on-site inspection by the regional water supplier, however, determined that closing the whole exit ramp for so long was not necessary.
“PVWC’s engineering team determined that the ramp doesn’t need to be closed at this stage of the repair process,” said a commission spokesman from its Clifton headquarters that Wednesday.
Motorists and Belleville may want to keep their detour maps handy in the near future. The commission is planning future repairs “with local authorities” and will advise the public of coming repairs.
NUTLEY – Police here and in Secaucus are thanking one of their Springfield colleagues for helping to bring three of four suspects wanted for two April 9 donut shop armed robberies in their jurisdictions on April 11.
The Springfield officer said that he had noticed a silver Chevrolet Equinox parked in that township’s Wawa lot on 680 Morris Tpke. 12:15 a.m. April 11. The Equinox was similar to the one involved in the respective early morning April 9 Secaucus and Nutley Dunkin’ Donuts robberies.
Secaucus police had first reported that its store on 216 County Ave. was hit at 2:56 a.m. April 9. Two men entered, one of them carrying a handgun, one held the store employee at gunpoint while the other took about $350 cash before fleeing into a silver Equinox. Two other Chevy occupants had doubled as lookouts.
Nutley Police Chief Thomas Strumolo said that the same quartet hit the Dunkin’ at 177 Washington Ave. 5:40 a.m. that same Easter Sunday. Four masked people – “three males and a gun-carrying female” – entered, stole $740 cash and re-entered the Equinox. The car “then fled north towards Clifton.”
Nutley police and Secaucus’ Anti Crime Unit put out a joint APB on the car and its suspects – which was on the Springfield officer’s mind.
The three men in that car were interviewed. A search found a 9 mm. handgun – with its serial numbers defaced and a 17 round magazine clip – within the car. That weapon led to the arrest of Ocean Roberts, 19, of Bayonne, for unlawful weapons possession.
Roberts, since April 15, has been held at Newark’s Essex County Correctional Center on counts of armed robbery, cons[piracy thereof, unlawful possession of a defaced weapon, possession thereof for an unlawful purpose, aggravated assault, criminal restraint and endangering the welfare of a child.
Both Yanik Pendleton, 22, of Bayonne, on April 15, and Wilmer Arias-Dejesus, 19, of East Newark, on April 16, were charged with armed robbery and conspiracy thereof. Pendleton has been remanded to Kearny’s Hudson County Jail. The fourth person in the Nutley robbery remains at large.
