TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – A Newark woman and her Perth Amboy attorney have filed suit in State Superior Court-Newark Nov. 16 against the Taco Bell here at 350 Broad St. and parent company Yum! Brands over the assault she had suffered from three employees on May 17, 2022.
Leticia Rivera, 49, and Michelle M. Tullio, Esq. have filed charges of assault and battery, negligence and failing to supervise the three workers who they said had “beaten her senseless.” Rivera said she had suffered injuries from the in-store beating, including a broken pinky, a head cut that required stitches plus pain in her knees, back, head and jaw.
Rivera said she was returning a burrito she had ordered back to the counter May 17, 2022 because that it had “tasted funny.” She asked the manager about exchanging it for a pair of Taco Supremes but the manager said they only had meat and lettuce to make the replacements.
An in-store surveillance recording showed one worker coming out from the kitchen and began to beat Rivera. Two others came from behind the counter and joined in. All three, who were under 18, were charged with simple assault; their case dispositions were not immediately known.
Attorneys from Yum! Brands said that Rivera was “50 percent” responsible for what happened that day.
The Taco Bell at 350 Broad stands on the site of a six-store mini shopping plaza that had opened around 1970. Its anchor store started out as Gino’s Hamburgers-KFC before giving way to a Blimpie’s, a Dunkin’ Donuts and a Muscle Maker Grill. Its Clay Street side stores included a Metro cell phone store, a barber shop and a hairdresser before the whole building was demolished in 2014 for the Taco Bell.
IRVINGTON / MAPLEWOOD – Maplewood police, with help from neighboring departments’ colleagues, have charged an Irvington man Nov. 28 on a pair of November early morning “smash and grab” burglaries.
Christopher Ransom, 52, said MPD Off. Bruno Marto Nov. 29, was arrested and charged for the Nov. 11-12 burglaries of Artie’s and Sabatino’s. Ransom has also been tied to a similar June 26 burglary of a Millburn Avenue bar.
Ransom is accused of being the man who put a brick through Artie’s front door Nov. 11, entering and taking a pair of cash registers. Artie’s had been Artouro’s in Jefferson Village center before moving to 11 Newark Way in September. Ransom allegedly did the same thing to Sabatino’s, 513 Valley St., Nov. 12. Surveillance footage from one of the eateries was supplied to local broadcasters.
MPD has not said how they had tied Ransom to the burglaries but said he had been charged in late June for June 26 burglary, criminal mischief and theft of Pickett’s, 2206 Millburn Ave., by the Millburn border. Ransom was a Union resident at that time.
Essex County Correctional Center records did note that Ransom was charged with a count each of resisting arrest after being ordered to stop his motor vehicle, endangerment and aggravated assault. He is being held there on warrants from Irvington Municipal Court, Newark Police and the Union County Jail.
Ransom has been charged with three counts each of burglary, theft of movable property and criminal mischief plus two counts of the unlawful taking of a means of conveyance.
EAST ORANGE – The family of Sheila Y. Oliver, on Nov. 27, announced that they are retooling her civic association into a charitable organization to honor the late pioneering Lt. Governor.
The Sheila Y. Oliver Civic Association, said cousin Renee Oliver, will now seek to educate and develop young women of color who are interested in government, public policy and community organizing. The private nonprofit association will also support underserved and underrepresented communities towards their economic and social success.
Before it can offer “relevant programs and services in education, employment, housing and economic development,” the Oliver Civic Association will hold a fundraising Legacy Brunch at the Valley Regency in Clifton July 20. Tickets and other details are to be announced on www.sheilaoliver.com.
Oliver, like some public officials, started a civic association to help citizens to improve community affairs or promote orderly neighborhood development. Her self-named organization was launched in 2018.
Oliver was the first African American woman to be lieutenant governor, N.J. Community Affairs director and assembly speaker. The Newark native was General Assemblywoman for the 34th State Legislative district, an Essex County Freeholder and an East Orange School District Board of Education member. The 45-year city resident, 70 died suddenly Aug. 2.
ORANGE – City and county inspectors are sifting through what remains of 32 So. Center St. here to determine what caused the Nov. 20 fire that damaged the vacant Central Meat Market.
The first responding Orange Fire Department crew found the 109-year-old two story 14,000-square-foot warehouse “engulfed by heavy smoke and flames” at 7:15 p.m. that Monday. The incident commander immediately called a second alarm, followed by a third 7:30 p.m. and a fourth 9:30 p.m.
NJTransit, at OFD request, suspended all service on its Morris & Essex Line between Newark Broad Street and Summit for 2.5 hours so that firefighters can attack the fire from the elevated right-of-way. South Center Street was closed between Main Street and Freeway Drive West.
OFD and mutual aid firefighters from neighboring towns helped battle the fire, which included five ladder trucks and a roof collapse. Other mutual aid units covered the Marty Di Marzo Fire Headquarters. Units from Montclair, West Orange, East Orange, Irvington, Newark, South Essex FDs, New Jersey Transit Police Emergency Services Unit and the New Jersey State Fire Marshal were among those at the scene.
The 1914 building had been vacant for at least 14 years, going by the October 2010 calendar on an otherwise empty office wall in a photograph. City property records have Queenie 32S, of Bronx, NY owning it since buying it from LSREF2 for $310,000 on Dec. 23, 2023. Eagle Pool 1 bought it from a Jan. 7, 2013 sheriff’s auction for $100 before selling it to LSREF2 for $366,919 June 20, 2014.
A contracting crew from West Orange was seen Dec. 2 boarding up second floor windows and filling two 20 cubic yard dumpsters with debris.
WEST ORANGE – The Pleasantdale Turkey, while most others were having their Thanksgiving dinner Nov. 23, was getting used to its new home at Wharton State Forest in Hammonton.
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said that they had captured “Turkules” (Turkey + Hercules) on Nov. 22 – Thanksgiving Eve. The wild turkey’s evasion of USDA DEP Game and Wildlife and township officials had been since late last summer.
USDA had not described how or where they had apprehended the bird, who had called a grass patch off Pleasant Valley Way and Pleasantdale Avenue a busy intersection – home. It had both been fed by passing motorists and had backed up traffic for up to a mile.
Those who wanted to see “Turkules” from a respectful distance Nov. 22 were disappointed. Neighbors had named the turkey and hooded sweatshirts had been printed with his likeness and new name.
It became wise to watch “Turkules” from afar. It had become territorial over the weeks, charging at pedestrians, joggers and bicyclists. The bird was also known to peck at the hubcaps of cars parked at Kessler’s Rehabilitation and the Daughters of Israel.
“Turkules” left here with a pardon from Mayor Susan McCartney.
SOUTH ORANGE – Village police and ECPO detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying a newborn who was left behind a Village Center apartment building on Nov. 28, 1986 – the day after Thanksgiving.
It is not like the then-baby boy could have told them. Sanitation workers found him in a blanket and wicker picnic basket atop a garbage can behind 5 Cottage St. dead.
Advances in DNA technology, however, prompted SOPD detectives to reopen the case. While they are hoping for matches with genetic databases for probable relatives accounts from witnesses would help.
Detectives believe that the basket and the yellow table runner within were locally bought. The infant, wrapped in a towel, still had his umbilical cord attached and weighed five pounds. The towel carried a transfer of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy holding hands and a “Love is Happiness” legend.
Confidential calls are to be directed to the ECPO tips hotline.
BLOOMFIELD – The tenants of a Watsessing building told a news outlet Nov. 21 that they have had a contentious autumn with their landlord to the point where they went on a rent strike.
The six tenants, in their class statement, said that they are withholding their rent until Alex Pavlovsky makes repairs to their three story building that they said was from his neglect or vandalism. The charges include his alleged removal of PSE&G utility meters and serving eviction notices.
Residents in six of 14 apartments said they were told by “the former property owner in September that the property was in foreclosure and that Mr. Pavlovsky doesn’t have a Certificate Of Occupancy.” A check with township construction code officials at the Municipal Building confirmed that the landlord does not have a COO “and that the building is not up to code.”
Without that certificate, the landlord cannot rent or lease out space at 34 Cross St. One real estate website, as of Dec. 4, has one apartment available for a per-night rental.
Several of the websites have 34 Cross as being built as a warehouse in 1924. More recent photos show evidence of exterior and interior renovations. It is not clear whether Pavlovsky or a previous owner had done the revamping.
Pavlovsky, who has a Miami address, when confronted by the lack of a COO, they said, cut off utility power and water and served eviction notices. Four Bloomfield Police officers were called to 34 Cross Oct. 17 by residents who told them that he was threatening them in text messages with eviction and water cutoff. One resident turned the water back on from the building’s basement.
Nov. 21 calls for comment from Pavlovsky and township officials remain unreturned as of press time.
They have appealed to Mayor Michael Venezia, the Township Council and administrators for help.
MONTCLAIR / NUTLEY – The Nov. 11 death of Father Charles Brady, Jr., at Point Pleasant also brought those who had remembered him in Montclair, West Orange, Orange, South Orange and Newark into mourning.
Brady, 88, was a West Orange-Pleasantdale section native who had graduated from St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in 1953 and, later, Seton Hall University. He had finished second in the 1952 NJSIAA state wrestling championships.
Fr. Brady became an ordained priest, assigned to Orange’s Holy Spirit (which merged with East Orange’s Our Lady Help of Christians in 1983) and Montclair’s St. Peter Claver parishes 1966-73. He started St. Peter Claver’s Christian Youth Organization, motivated and encouraged respective youth through sports programs and by opening church basements for social gatherings. He and Nutley native and track coach Clinton Taylor co-founded Montclair’s Soul Stompers drill team and local Junior Olympics team, which continue to date.
Brady and Taylor, who moved to Montclair in 1963, organized St. Peter Claver’s football, basketball and track teams. Those teams amassed 28 Essex County championships, eight AAU State championships, four Eastern State championships and three National championships.
Brady, in a 2014 reunion at Glenfield Park’s Wally Choice Community Center, showed home movies of him having dinner with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King when they had visited Montclair. He had remained in touch with King’s children.
Brady left the priesthood in 1973 to marry Carmie. They moved to Pt. Pleasant to raise Matt, Scott and Patrick and to start his Associated Financial Planners business. After Cramie’s May 21, 2004 death from cancer, “Charley” and his sons started the Carmie Brady Foundation and Bradys’ to Hope Lodge for children suffering serious illnesses.
Brother Robert and five grandchildren also attended his Funeral Mass at Bay Head’s Sacred Heart Church Nov. 18. Memorial donations may go to CarmieBrady Foundatin.com, PO Box 91, Manasquan, 08736.
GLEN RIDGE – Brothers Al and Carl Kindberg have decided to end their Glen Ridge Auto Repair run, after 45 years, here at 12 Herman St., at the end of business Nov. 30.
The brothers had kept the general automotive repair business going after their founding father, Al, Sr. died in 2001. It was the father, who was in the plastic injection molding business at the time, who had found the garage behind The Arcade shopping plaza and asked his sons to join him in 1979.
Carl at the time was pursuing an industrial education and technology major at then-Montclair State College – which he has since completed. Al was service manager of Vandervier’s Texaco Service Station at East Orange’s 38 New St.
Al, on Nov. 29, remembered driving about six miles west on Bloomfield Avenue to attend Pine Brook Speedway some Friday nights. They watched distant relative Bruce Kindburg, of Mine Hill, drive and then own three-quarter midget cars. Bruce, who owned Bruce’s Speed Shop in Rockaway, died on his 65th birthday April 5.
Glen Ridge Auto Repair was a family business, with mother Ann doing the bookkeeping and office management. Mother Ann died July 15; borough officials and customers were among those who went to her July 18 funeral at Cedar Grove.
Between Mother Ann’s death and Al and Carl respectively turning 67 and 64, the Brothers Kindberg agreed to hang up their hand tools. They will focus on tying up loose ends of their mother’s Cedar Grove estate.
BELLEVILLE – Belleville Public Schools will be switching Pre-Kindergarten child care providers, from Champions to Apollo After School, on Feb. 5.
PBS Superintendent of Schools Dr. Richard Tomko, in his Nov. 30 announcement, said that Champions had been providing before- and after- school care at several of its buildings for several years. The private company had also run a summer camp.
The BPS Board of Trustees, at a recent meeting, decided to award a contract to Apollo. Apollo, as of Feb. 6, will more than continue Champions’ programs. Tomko said that Apollo will soon thereafter bring additional courses, like competitive chess.
“The Apollo After School programs will offer a range of fun and educational activities to keep your children safe and active until you pick them up,” said Tomko in a Nov. 30 open letter. “Apollo is committed to preserving committed staff members who are highly cherished by your children. Apollo will exert every effort to transition any current program employees, ensuring continuity and familiarity for both children and families.”
Apollo After School and enrichment clubs are found at Morristown, Mendham. Champions still serve 28 other New Jersey public school districts with the closets being Caldwell and West Caldwell and in 26 other states.
Transition details, including registration and charging rates, are to be found at www.bellevilleschools.org.
