TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – A motorist implicated in the Aug. 8 hit-and-run of an elderly Vailsburg resident has been arrested and charged.
Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage, on Aug. 25, announced the arrest of Nylissa Whetstone, 19, of Perth Amboy. Whetstone is accused of driving a car that had struck a senior woman in the Intersection of South Orange Avenue and Sandford Avenue Aug. 8 and leaving the scene.
Frage released photos taken by local surveillance cameras of an orange late model two-door car and of a woman walking by the vehicle that allegedly linked Whetstone to the incident. He did not otherwise say how else she was connected, including whether she was arrested here, in Perth Amboy or elsewhere.
The elderly woman was admitted to University Hospital in stable condition. It is believed that she is a resident of a nearby senior citizens center.
Whetstone has been charged with assault by automobile and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident that caused bodily injury.
Five-Year-Old Dies in Newark
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II and Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Fragé announced that the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force is investigating the death of a five-year-old child.
On August 28, at 7:26 p.m., Newark police were notified of a five-year-old found unresponsive in the bathtub of an apartment on the 400 block of Washington Street, Newark. The child was transported to University Hospital and pronounced dead at 8:19 p.m. The cause and manner of death is pending an autopsy.
The investigation is active and ongoing. No arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office tips line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or 1-877-847-7432. Calls will be kept confidential.
Body Found in Weequahic Park
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II and Sheriff Armando B. Fontoura announced that the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force is investigating the death of a man whose body was found in the lake at Weequahic Park.
On August 29, at about 11 a.m., the Essex County Sheriff’s Office was notified of a dead body in Weequahic Park. Upon arrival, police located a body in the lake. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:06 a.m. At this time, the man has not been identified. The cause and manner of death is pending an autopsy.
The investigation is active and ongoing. No arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office tips line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or 1-877-847-7432. Calls will be kept confidential.
IRVINGTON – Authorities, as of press time, are searching for the suspect who shot a Newark on a township street here Aug. 25 while his friends and family are making his funeral arrangements.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II and Irvington Public Safety Director Tracy Bowers announced that Tony King, 50, had died in a local hospital at 12:05 a.m. Aug. 27.
Responding Irvington police officers told ECPO Major Crimes Unit detectives that they had responded to a gunshot call from the 100 block of Isabella Street at 11:25 p.m. Friday.
They found King suffering from gunshot wounds and called for emergency ambulance service.
Stephens had identified King as a law enforcer in the Essex County Department of Corrections. His last rites have not been announced as of press time.
EAST ORANGE – Members of the 75 Prospect Street Tenants Association have filed a petition in New Jersey Superior Court-Newark’s Law Division Aug. 16 to appoint a receiver to remedy “outstanding habitability issues.”
The tenants association, by getting a receiver, would order and oversee what they said is a long train of defective elevators, inconsistent heating and air conditioning, persistent water leaks, mold and damaged ceilings and walls.
The repair orders would be made by the court-appointed receiver, who would override past infrastructural decisions made by current and past building owners and property managers.
Current and past Prospect Castle LLC and 75 Prospect Holdings are named in the petition as defendants. Other defendants include Platinum Management, of Orange, One Wall Communities, LLC, of Stanford, Conn., Fannie Mae, and SH5 Construction Corp. SH5, of Brooklyn, who holds a 2007 construction lien, is named as “a necessary party.”
The receivership petition is the latest turn of a long series of maintenance and repair issues at the Brick Church landmark 75 Prospect St., or “The Castle.” The 1928 structure holds 44 apartments on its 10 floors.
Tenants, when interviewed by a local television reporter, said that the City of East Orange had fined the owners and property manager $2,000 a day since June until its elevators are repaired.
One tenant said that he believes that the lords of 75 Castle were not making repairs so that the 44 apartments could be subdivided into smaller units.
Platinum said that they were waiting for supply-chain hampered parts for the elevators and that the building is in debt by $1 million. Platinum and Prospect Castle had brought CBRE in June to find a buyer.
ORANGE – Four citizens are vying for the three nonpartisan Orange Public Schools Board of Education seats on the Nov. 7 General Election Ballot.
All three incumbents – Samantha Crockett, Dr. Fatimah Turner and Jeffrey Wingfield – are looking for a majority of participating registered city voters to re-elect them. Their current three-year terms expire on Jan. 4.
India Williams is the fourth candidate, making her first Orange Board of Education campaign run.
It is not known as of press time whether any of the four candidates have formed joint, purpose-built campaign tickets. Crockett and then-candidate Leonor Young first ran in 2020 on a common platform.
Turner and Wingfield had run together in 2020 on the infamously-promoted “Orange BOE Democratic Team.” Board of education candidates, by being nonpartisan, cannot publicize any ties to a partisan political party.
WEST ORANGE – Township Chief Municipal Judge Dennis Dowd, after listening to the West Orange Code Enforcement inspector and the department’s lawyer plus a Pleasantdale bagel shop owner, his landlord and their attorney Aug. 22, have directed both sides to continue negotiating before the Sept. 26 court session.
The Township of West Orange vs. Jarrett Seltzer case, since the June-issued citation and initial June 27 court hearing, hinges on the interpretation of Sect. 14-8.2 (b) of the township zoning code over business window covering.
The statue states that there should be no covering or shading of a business’ display windows during public hours. No goods or equipment be on display. Any signage is to cover no more than 33.33 percent of a window.
Seltzer, who opened Bagels by Jarrett at 451-57 Mt. Pleasant Ave. in 2020, and his landlord said that they had largely inherited the covered windows from an earlier restaurant at 451 and the former Dance Warriors studio at 457.
The window coverings Seltzer, with his landlord’s blessing, has left on saves $3,000 a month in electricity. The window coverings, they added, shields cooking equipment from public sight.
Dowd, on July 27, had stayed what would have been a $1,250 daily fine on Seltzer until a resolution is to be arrived. Seltzer, on his Aug. 24 BXJ Facebook page said that the township offered him an undisclosed fine in exchange for a guilty plea.
MAPLEWOOD – The Township’s planning board, as early as its Sept. 12 meeting, may take up a consultant’s report that singled out eight Jefferson Village properties as non-condemnable areas in need of redevelopment.
The report, researched and produced by Phillips Preiss Grygiel Lehney Hughes LLC Aug. 1, identified eight properties on a block bordered by Maplewood Avenue, Inwood Place and Durand and Woodland avenues in Maplewood’s traditional central business district. (Maplewood’s original commerce hub was named Jefferson Village before it became South Orange Township and, in 1922, Maplewood.)
Two of the said properties are prominent: the former Bank of America branch and the Maplewood Theater Building.
Bank of America had vacated 161 Maplewood Ave., at the corner of Inwood Place, last year. The Maplewood Bank & Trust Co. had its headquarters built on the .466-acre lot in 1928. It was a Summit Bank branch when BoA moved in in 1991.
155 Maplewood Ave., built in 1926, is a two-story structure holding six street-level stores and as many second-floor offices. It is anchored by the six-screen, 1,412-set movie theater, which has been closed since the start of the 2020 COVID pandemic.
The Maplewood Theater had opened March 15, 1927 as a silent movie house and live performance space – the latter use that Mayor Dean Dafis may pose as cue to its future use.
BLOOMFIELD – A Newark man may well have responded to his first municipal court appearance over an Aug. 4 shoplifting here that escalated to a threatened assault.
Responding Bloomfield police officers said that they were responding to ” a man with a knife” call from within a Franklin Square Mall store that Friday.
They soon found the Stop & Shop shift manager, who quickly pointed out a man walking away on 8-12 Franklin Ave.’s parking lot. The officers found concealed health and beauty aid goods on the person, arrested him and brought him back to the supermarket.
The manager identified the man as the one he had stopped in the store’s vestibule. He said that the suspect – who was earlier seen hiding the goods and leaving without paying – displayed a boxcutter and threatened the worker.
The suspect – identified as Justin Anderson, 19, of Newark – was charged with shoplifting, possession of stolen objects, weapons possession and assault by threatening bodily injury.
MONTCLAIR – Township Councilman Peter Yacobellis, on Aug. 23, said that he is done with public life.
Yacobellis is “one and done” as an at-large councilman. He will not pursue a second term in the May 7, 2020 nonpartisan municipal election.
The Out Montclair co-founder is also “none and done” with the 2024 mayoral candidacy campaign. Yacobellis had announced his bid here May 24 and had amassed $40,000 in campaign contributions. That $40,000 would have been used to compete against whoever else who wants to become Montclair’s next mayor.
Yacobellis, in an Aug. 24 interview, said that he was drawn to public service for social acceptance, a tendency that was a response to being bullied as a child.
“I’ve reached a point in my life where I want to make choices that give me the opportunity to thrive and be happy and healthy,” said Yacobellis. “Becoming mayor of Montclair wouldn’t make me happy; I had ignored the churning in my gut months ago. Being under the microscope is not for me.”
BELLEVILLE – Belleville Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Richard Tomko had inadvertently sent Aug. 21 Belleville Board of Education Trustees meeting live or televised audience members to their electronic or at-home dictionaries for the phrase “bully pulpit.”
Tomko, during that Monday night meeting, had accused the present Michael Sheldon of using his position as a “bully pulpit.”
Sheldon is a former Trustee and is currently campaigning for a return to the school board. He regularly records school board and Township Council meetings for social media posting and his own Facebook page.
Tomko may have been expressing his irritation of Sheldon being among the more regular OPRA request filers with the Belleville Public Schools administrative office. The superintendent had uniquely released a list of OPRA request filers and the financial and time expenses of fielding those requests at the April 24 meeting.
The standard “bully pulpit” definition is a public or authoritative position where its occupant has the outstanding opportunity to express an opinion. The term was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09).
The “bully” part of the term, however, depends on its context. “Bully,” is commonly meant as being coercive. “Bullry,” in T.R.’s time, also meant “Suburb” or “Outstanding.”
