TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – The Newark Teachers Union wants to see the Newark School of Global Studies “bias culture” report so badly that they have filed a lawsuit in New Jersey Superior Court-Newark Nov. 3 against the Newark Public Schools.
The NTU wants a Superior Court judge to grant access to the report, which Superintendent of Schools Roger Leon has maintained that it is an “internal report.” By deeming the report as “internal,” Leon reasons that the document is exempt from the Open Public Records Act.
The report, conducted by consultant CREED Strategies, of Newark, examined the existence and degree of on-campus racial harassment of African- and Latin- Americans as reported by students and teachers. The Institute of Global Studies is a magnet immersion high school that opened in a closed middle school building in Lower Broadway in September 2022.
The NPS Board of Education, responding to November 2022 public speaker complaints, granted a data sharing contract with CREED in January. The report was presented at the board’s Sept. 28 meeting – but was publicly discussed in summary form.
NTU filed an OPRA request Sept. 29 on the grounds of “Common Law Right of Access” but was denied by the NPS Central Office. The NAACP-Newark Branch also wanted to view the report Sept. 28 but have not joined the NTU’s request or suit.
Mayor Ras J. Baraka is another interested party – but not to where he is joining the NTU suit. The mayor’s office held, “Why Black & Brown Unity Matters! An Integrational Report” in March, where several Global students aired their grievances.
“Everything that has to do with education is our domain,” said NTU President John Abeigon. “We can’t trust the superintendent’s leadership to know what’s best for teachers and students.”
IRVINGTON – Authorities are asking the public’s help in finding the driver who fatally struck a Newark youth Oct. 9 by the Garden State Parkway here.
State Police spokesman Dr. Jeffrey Lebron said that a 16-year-old boy was walking across Eastern Parkway by GSP north’s exit 143C on-ramp at about 9:24 p.m. that Monday when he was struck by a northbound black Lexus.
First responders found the youth, who remains unidentified, by GSP Milepost 145.2.
Witnesses and security camera footage identified the hit-and-run vehicle as a 2004-06 black Lexus TL that had continued north onto the GSP. The Lexus sustained front end, passenger side door and outside mirror damage.
Anyone who knows of the vehicle and/or the incident are to call the NJSP at (732) 441-4500 Ext. 3400.
EAST ORANGE – Nov. 12 marks the 95th anniversary of the SS Vestris sinking, where an East Orange native performed his last heroic act.
Norman Kirkpatrick Batten, who was born here April 30, 1893, booked first class cabins for himself, wife Marion, business partner of Earl DeVore, DeVore’s wife Ann, son Louis and family dog Speedway Lady on the SS. Vestris for a Nov. 10 Hoboken departure to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Batten and DeVore brought with them a $10,000 Miller Indycar, worth $180,000 in today’s currency. They were planning to race there over the winter. He and DeVore had won an Indycar race each in the 1920s. Batten drove as a relief driver to Roseland resident Pete DePaolo in his 1925 Indianapolis 500-winning drive; DeVore, of Los Angeles, finished second in the 1926 500.
Batten was best known for standing on his car’s seat and steering his flaming Miller away from the pits on the 1927 500’s lap 34. Oil from a broken line had caught fire, causing burns to his right foot and leg – but he received a Carnegie Medal. He had enlisted at Fort Dix for World War One but was honorably discharged after an accident there.
The Battens, DeVores and some 125 other people of the 328 on board got only as far as some 200 miles east of Sandy Hook before the Vestris sank Nov. 11. Accounts of what happened to the Lamport & Holt steamship ranged from the incompetent to the practically criminal.
The liner owners allowed the ship to sail 800 tons over its 10,000-ton limit, some of that load shifting while at sea. An unlocked coal chute was letting water in during a 60-mph gale, causing the ship to list 20-degrees.
Batten and DeVore placed their families and separate lifeboats at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 12 but Batten’s boat kept capsizing. Marion Batten, Ann and Louis “Billy” Devore and Speedway lady were rescued by the USS Wyoming – but Norman Batten and Earl DeVore were lost at sea.
ORANGE – Detectives from the city’s police department and the Essex County Sheriff’s Office are still investigating the circumstances and source of an Oct. 12 shots fired report near Monte Irvin Orange Park.
Officers from both law enforcement agencies converged at the Essex County park’s northeastern corner after a shots fired report was made at 10:20 p.m. that Thursday.
Members from both departments said they had found shell casings in the intersection of Central and Oakwood avenues. Findings of the subsequent investigation, including the shell casings’ caliber, have not been divulged.
Central Avenue is an Essex County road. Oakwood Avenue, along the park’s east side, is home to three senior citizens apartment buildings among several private homes. Celebrated Negro and Major League baseball player Monte Irvin lived at 400 Oakwood Ave. in a house that made way for a seniors apartment building.
Authorities are looking to link or quash any connection to the Central/Oakwood shots fired and a man walking into Newark’s University Hospital with a gunshot wound at 10:30 that night. The victim said he was shot in East Orange’s Tremont and Chelsea avenues – where neither the county sheriff’s office nor the East Orange Police Department have any incident report.
WEST ORANGE – Bagels by Jarrett owner Jarrett Seltzer, who left the West Orange Police and Justice Building Nov. 7 with a Municipal Court ruling against him and for the West Orange Zoning Department, considers himself down but not out.
The municipal judge that Tuesday ruled that Jarrett’s use of window shades and similar window covering at his store at 451 Mt. Pleasant Ave. was in violation of two sections of the township code. The judgement comes with a $4,566 fine; he had been liable for a daily $1,500 fine.
The first, Section 14-8.2(b) states that windows be uncovered, not opaque and without items on display. Screening widows from public view requires permission from the West Orange Planning Board. The second section states that signage in windows be no more than 33.33 percent of a window pane’s square footage.
Seltzer tried to counter that the window shades were left over from a dance studio that had closed and moved out. The shading prevents sun glare from entering the store. Bagels by Jarrett has become a take out establishment.
Seltzer, that same Nov. 7, said he will be filing for an appeal with the State Appellate Court in Newark. The filing stays the $4,4566 fine levied against him.
He then announced on Nov. 11 that he has launched a GoFundMe.com page to help with the legal expenses. While Seltzer estimated his pulled permits, fines and legal costs to between $100,000 and $150,000, he is aiming for a $35,000 GoFundMe goal.
Setzler, as of 5 p.m. Nov. 13, has received $8,453 in donations.
SOUTH ORANGE – The South Orange Public Library will start its transition to temporary quarters at 298 Walton Ave. and the closer-by Baird Center Dec. 11-late January 2024.
Moving SOPL two interim locations will allow contractors to build a two-story connector between its current 1968 building at 65 Scotland Rd. and its original Connett Memorial Library. The work is being funded by a $6.529 million State Library Construction Bond fund award.
The transition starts when SOPL is formerly enrolled into the BCCLS.org interlibrary loan system Nov. 26. It will be the latest of the 75 participating public libraries – including West Orange, Maplewood, Livingston, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge and Montclair – in the Paramus-based system.
Dec. 12 is when some of SOPL’s holdings will go to 298 Walton. Some services will be suspended or done over the telephone or online; some other events will be in-person. SOPL, in a sense, is going to the dogs – or where the independent Jersey Animal Coalition shelter was until 2015.
Some SOPL holdings, events and services will be going to the remodeled Baird Center, 5 Mead St., when the latter reopens later this year.
MAPLEWOOD – A 10-year Maplewood Police Department officer is suing the squad, the township and particular individuals for what she said was their not complying with the state CROWN Act.
Off. Chain Weekes-Riveria and her Newark attorney, John D. Doyle, had filed a discrimination suit in State Superior Court-Newark Nov. 8 for Maplewood’s finest and elders for what she said was their not complying with NJ’s 2019 Create and Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act.
The officer, who had been hailed as a “Sheroes of the MPD,” said that she had reported to duty Aug. 20 while wearing her hair in Bantu knots. She received an Aug. 31 note from MPD’s Internal Affairs office, saying that she had “violated the department’s dress code.” Her sergeants on the Aug. 20 shift were disciplined for “failing to supervise” by refusing to order Weekes-Rivera to change her hairstyle.
The named defendants or respondents in the suit include Mayor Dean Dafis, Police Chief Albert Sally and Capt. Peter Kuenzel.
“The Township Committee was made aware on Nov. 10 of the lawsuit that Off. Weekes-Rivera had filed on Nov. 8,” said Township Business Administrator Patrick Wherry. “In response to the lawsuit and based on the recent adoption of the CROWN Act, the Committee has directed the Police Department to immediately review its policies to ensure compliance with the law.”
BLOOMFIELD / GLEN RIDGE – Registered Bloomfield voters here may find themselves voting for Township Mayor twice in as many years in 2024-25.
Mayor and General Assemblyman-Elect Michael Venezia announced on Nov. 9 that he will leave his municipal post Jan. 6 so that he will be sworn into his newly-elected job in Trenton Jan. 9. His stepping down will start a 35-day clock where the Bloomfield Democratic Committee will present three names for Township Council consideration as Venezia’s successor.
The council, on or before Feb. 14, will vote and swear-in the appointee – who will start completing Venezia’s unexpired term. Venezia has been into the first year of a three-year term after getting re-elected without opposition in November 2022.
A state statute, where a governing body has to run a special election for any unexpired term that is longer than a year, will then be held here Nov. 5, 2024.
The appointed mayor will have the option to run in the unexpired term election in 2024 – and for a new three-year term in November 2025. Whether it will be the same person or two different ones depend on the appointed mayor’s desire and/or Bloomfield Democratic Committee backing. The November 2025 election is also scheduled for the Council’s three at-large seats.
Venezia will continue to serve Bloomfield as a 34th Legislative District Assemblyman Jan. 9 onwards – along with Orange, East Orange, Glen Ridge, Belleville and Nutley.
MONTCLAIR – The Montclair Public Library Board of Trustees found themselves working overtime during the Veteran’s Day weekend over who has access to their conference space.
The trustees held a special emergency meeting at 3 p.m. Nov. 11 to review reconsideration forms over an event scheduled for 1:30 p.m. here Nov. 12. The meeting was a panel conference by the Jewish Voice for Peace -Northern New Jersey Chapter and moderated by “Quaker historian” Steve Chase.
The trustees allowed the conference to proceed but had MPL Director Janet Torsney issue the following statement:
“The Board concluded that there was no basis to cancel the event, which is not a library program, so it should be permitted to proceed as scheduled. The Open Conversation is being held by a group of nonprofit organizations. which followed the proper procedure to request meeting room space.”
The MPL Meeting Room Use policy states: “Permission to meet at the library does not in any way constitute the library’s endorsement of any organization’s viewpoints, beliefs, policies or affiliations.”
“Local Talk” noticed two police saw-horse barricades flanking the Main Library’s main entrance at the 2 o’clock hour Sunday. North Fullerton Avenue was closed to vehicular traffic between Plymouth Street and Roosevelt Place by at least a police squad car each from Montclair and Glen Ridge.
Some 50 people, wearing “Stand with Israel” and “Bring Them Home!” signs, were behind one side of the barricades. Another five people, including one wearing a “Jews for a Free Palestine” shirt, stood behind the other set of barricades.
BELLEVILLE / NUTLEY – Police officers from both townships assisted detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Task Force in searching three properties in a Nutley man’s name – and in arresting him – here Nov. 9.
Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said that search warrants were served on Omar Rios, 44, and three of the properties he either owns or leases — 510 Franklin Ave. and 94 Bloomfield Ave. in Nutley plus a detached garage at Belleville’s 45 Watchung Ave. that Thursday.
510 Franklin which used to house the Franklin Theatre, is better known since 2001 as the Franklin Commons apartment, storefronts and office building. 94 Bloomfield hosts the COVID-94 Bar.
The search served at 510 Franklin’s Apt. 15 yielded “more than 800 grams of cocaine, a hydraulic press used for compressing cocaine for distribution, cutting agents, packaging material and $50\8,070 in suspected proceeds from drug sales.
Another $273,920 “in illicit drug sales proceeds” were found at 94 Bloomfield. The 45 Watchung visit yielded “10 exotic vintage cars believed to be purchased from proceeds of illicit drug sales.”
BCPO detectives believe that Rios used the latter two locations as “stash houses.” Musella did not say how his Hackensack-based office began to investigate Rios and his properties.
Rios has been housed in Hackensack’s Bergen County Jail; he may have an appearance before the Central Judicial Processing Court when you read this. He faces first-degree counts of narcotics possession, possession thereof with an intent to distribute, drug paraphernalia and maintaining a controlled dangerous substance manufacturing facility plus a second-degree count of money laundering.
