TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – City elders intend to apply Mayor Kenneth Gibson’s “Wherever urban America goes, Newark will get there first,” quote to conditionally lowering the voting age here after 12:30 p.m. Jan. 10.
The Municipal Council introduced and unanimously passed a resolution that will lower the city’s voters age to 16 years old – applicable only for the Third Tuesday in April’s Board of Education Member and School Budget elections.
The measure – pending a second reading, public hearing and final vote Jan. 10 – would allow 16- and 17- year-old city residents to register for the above said elections. The US Census-counted 7,257 teenagers, if the resolution passes, would be able to register in time for the April 16 elections.
Newark would become the first New Jersey municipality to lower its minimum voting age from 18. Mayor Ras Baraka and Council President LaMonica McIver, who sponsored the city bill, cited NJ’s Constitution and Title 19 as its legal standing.
“I’m very proud to see Newark take the lead on this issue,” said Baraka Dec. 21. “Democracy is stronger when more people participate and bringing more young people into the fold, who have so much at stake, is a great idea. Our elections will be energized and our school boards will benefit.”
NJ Institute for Social Justice CEO Ryan Haygood and People’s Organization for Progress Lawrence “Larry” Hamm were among those who voiced their support that Wednesday night. Haygood’s institute has a Vote16NJ website. Hamm was 17 when he was appointed to the Newark Board of Education as a student member in the 1970s.
State Legislators have meanwhile reconciled differences between Assembly Bill No. A3690/ Senate Bill No. S1888 – The Voter Empowerment Act – Dec. 21 and sent their measure to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk for signing. Their bill will allow 17-year-olds statewide to vote in party primary elections.
IRVINGTON – The State Regional Examiner’s Office is conducting an autopsy on the couple who were found dead in a Grove Street apartment here Dec. 23 to determine what caused their death.
Responding Irvington Police officers found a man, 25, and a woman, 27, “unresponsive” that Friday at 607 Grove St. A preliminary IPD investigation has ruled out carbon monoxide poisoning and foul play.
SHU Grad, CPA Kelly, 72.
Last rites for Seton Hall University graduate and CPA Michael J. Kelly were a Dec. 17 visitation at Shook-Farmer Funeral Home and a Dec. 18 Funeral Mass at Our Lady of Blessed Sacrament Church prior to his burial at East Hanover’s Gate of Heaven Cemetery.
Kelly, 72, died at his Roseland home with his family around him Dec. 12. He was born Aug. 5, 1951 here in Irvington to Thomas and Mary Kelly. Brother Charles Kelly and sisters Rita and Joan were his siblings.
It is not clear when Patrick moved to Roseland but he graduated from SHU with an accounting degree and was one of the first members of the school’s Pi Kappa Alpha – Eta Beta Chapter, which was founded in 1970. He married his childhood sweetheart, the former Diane Reilly, in 1974. Patrick and Diane would alter raise Kristine, Kathryn and Kelly.
Kelly worked in the IRS-Newark office and taught accounting at SHU and Becker CPA prep courses prior to his retirement. Seven granddaughters are also among his survivors; his parents and sister Joan Mahon predeceased him.
EAST ORANGE – The ECPO Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force is looking for the person who shot a city man and left him for dead yards south of the city border Dec. 23.
Newark Police officers, who were responding to a shooting at its 100 block of Mountainview Avenue, found Kareem Abdul Jarmon Guilford, Jr., 22, of East Orange, lying near the Grand Avenue intersection with fatal gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the Vailsburg scene at 6:34 p.m.
Guilford’s funeral arrangements have not been publicly announced as of Jan. 2.
Hit-and-Run Victim Buried
Last rites for Melody Tiana Regus, 42, who was the victim of a Dec. 15 hit-and-run here, were held at Newark’s Alvarez Funeral Home and North Arlington’s Holy Cross Cemetery Dec. 27. Regus, who was born in Jersey City Feb. 8, 1981, worked for the Essex County Division of Family Assistance & Benefits and had previously resided in Orange and North Newark.
Regus was riding an electric bicycle when she was struck by a Nissan Rogue at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Grove Street 4:25 a.m. that Friday. The vehicle kept going. She was declared dead at Newark’s University Hospital at 4:50 a.m.
ORANGE – Maguedala Filocsaint and her five children, who occupied Mayor Dwayne D, Warren’s City Hall office in an eviction crisis Nov. 8, have been staying with her sister through the Holidays.
How long she and her children can stay there is an open question in part thanks to the bureaucracy she is navigating to find new living space.
Filocsaint and eight members of her family came to 29 North Day St. Nov. 8 in an 11th-hour appeal for help. Her landlord at 756 Vose St. was seeking to lock her out of the two bedroom apartment that Wednesday sunset.
Filocsaint showed Deputy Planning Director Chris Mobley, and wanted to show Mayor Warren, three years worth of code violation summonses and other documentation exhibiting what she said was the landlord’s neglect of the apartment. She had resorted to a rent strike.
Although Warren was not in the office that Wednesday morning Mobley arranged a private call between the mayor and Filocsaint – and the Essex County Division of Welfare’s Temporary Rental Assistance office. Filocsaint told a reporter that no one had room for her that day – until her sister stepped in.
Filocsaint added that she is in a bureaucratic quandary. The recent divorcee receives alimony and child support, on one hand, which disqualifies her from receiving some assistance. Landlords, on the other hand, require a certain income to rent – a figure affected by inflation.
Filocsant’s path to a new dwelling is also not straightforward thanks to “The Scarlet E” – Eviction – on her records. The documentation does not allow explanation on why the eviction – just that the tenant has been evicted, which turns off many landlords.
WEST ORANGE – Township officials said that they have spent more than $14,000 in legal fees while contesting bagel shop owner Jarrett Seltzer – and are anticipating to spend more while Seltzer takes his case to State Appellate Court.
Readers recall that a West Orange Municipal Court judge ruled on Nov. 7 that zoning code inspectors were correct in finding Seltzer and his Bagels by Jarrett shop at 451 Mt. Pleasant Ave. in violation of its window visibility rule. The judge agreed with Township Attorney Richard Trenk’s contention that more than 30 percent of window area is obscured to the customers.
Seltzer contended that his bagel shop inherited the window coverings when the dance studio in the same building had closed. The shop remains take-out-only since the pandemic. The windows’ opaqueness and customer in-and-out saves on energy costs.
The judge assessed Seltzer $4,566 in fines, based on the up to $1,500 daily penalties made by the zoning officers. The $4,566, however, is stayed until Seltzer’s appeals outcome.
Trenk and his Trenk, Isabel, Siddiqi & Shahdan P.C. firm, of Livingston, meanwhile billed the township $14,770 Aug. 1-Oct. 31. The bill, on one hand, is based on the firm’s $100 to $150 an hour billing and Trenk’s own $150 an hour rate. It does not include postage and other fees.
Most of the $14,770-plus billing, even if the township recoups $4,566 from Seltzer, will be paid by West Orange taxpayers.
SOUTH ORANGE – Authorities, on Dec. 18, have identified the man who was fatally struck by a NJTransit Morris & Essex train just south of South Orange station here Dec. 13 as Joseph DeBari, 21, of Bridgewater.
DeBari, according to NJTransit Police, was struck by an eastbound out-of-service train across from Fourth Street at about 7:37 p.m. that Wednesday. The train was being moved by its crew as an unpassengered express to New York Penn Station.
South Orange Police and Rescue, the South Essex Fire Department and NJTransit Police were promptly at the Solan Street side of the station, which was promptly closed. M&E service between Newark Broad Street Station and Millburn were suspended until 10:30 p.m.
DeBari, according to Seton Hall University and Kearns Funeral Home – Whitehouse, was a junior accounting major in the university’s Stillman School of Business. He was on the sports editing staff of “The Setonian” student newspaper.
Born in New Brunswick, DeBari was a lifelong Bridgewater resident before moving here. The Bridgewater-Raritan High School Class of 2021 graduate enjoyed playing and spectating many sports and having family days at the beach.
Parents Giovanni and Angela DeBari, maternal grandfather Albert Demeter and brother Christopher are among his survivors. His funeral was set for Kearns-Whitehouse on Dec. 21, followed by burial at Basking Ridge’s Holy Cross Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to Aaliyah in Action.
MAPLEWOOD – Township police detectives are asking the public to be on the lookout for the two males who committed a push-in armed house robbery here in Newark Heights Dec. 15.
A resident of a Hughes Street house told responding MPD officers at 10:20 p.m. that he had heard a knock on the door. Two males pushed in, one of who was holding a knife.
The suspects stole cell phones, several other electronic devices, a bag of clothing and “other personal items.” They were both described as African or African American males 25 to 30-years-old wearing black hooded sweatshirts with the hood pulled over their ski masked faces.
Suspect No. 1 is described as being 5-ft., 5-in. tall, of thin build and wearing gray pants. Suspect No. 2 is described as being 6-ft, tall, of heavier build and wearing black pants.
BLOOMFIELD – A township firefighter has spent his year end holidays suspended without pay and a permanent restraining order from the fellow firefighter who has accused him of racial harassment.
Four year BFD Firefighter Patrick Thomas, who has been off duty since Nov. 16, and attorney Thomas R. Ashley have filed their harassment complaint against Ff. Walter Coffee and notified the department, other particular officers and the township Dec. 19.
“I’m going to look into evidence that there was previous knowledge with respect to what Mr. Coffee was going to do,” said Ashley to a reporter, “and, whether by virtue of their silence, they turned a blind eye to his racist actions.
Ff. Thomas said that he has been unable to return to duty after what he said was the second incident over a noose in a week by Ff. Coffee happened in Nov. 16. Thomas, Coffee and other BFD members were having a rope and rappelling training day when the latter handed the former a rope tied into a noose.
“He (Coffee) was laughing and he was like ‘I want you to figure out what type of knot this is,’ ” said Thomas. “My reply was, ‘I know exactly what this is – a noose. This is what people used to my ancestors from trees.” My Captain and another one of the firefighters came in to check on me – and I could tell by the look on their faces they were in shock.”
Thomas said Coffee the week before told him, “There’s a noose upstairs on the table.” Thomas replied “Why would I want to see a noose? He looked at me, laughed and was like, ‘I’m just telling you.”
ECPO attorneys, in their charging documents, said that the Nov. 16 incident was captured on firehouse video. A township spokesman said that its officials are outraged and disappointed, found the actions unacceptable and re “exploring all disciplinary options.”
MONTCLAIR / GLEN RIDGE – Glen Ridge High School’s loss may be Verona’s gain come next football season when Montclair native Manjeet Singh takes the helm as the Hillbillies’ head varsity coach.
The Verona Board of Education voted at their Dec. 12 meeting to hire Singh to succeed former seven-year head Hillbilly coach Kevin Batty. Batty’s teams amassed a 33-26 win-loss record, including a 12-0 NJSIAA Section 2, Group 2 Championship in 2019. Verona, however, finished this season 2-8.
Singh’s contract does not include teaching in Verona Public Schools. He works as a Montclair-based Compass real estate agent “off-season.” Verona also tends to hire their coaches on a year-to-year basis.
Singh, who was St. Joseph’s Regional High School of Montvale’s assistant coach 2018-20, joined Glen Ridge Public Schools in 2022. His GRHS team garnered an 11-10 record those two seasons, including winning the 2022 NJSIAA Group 2, Section 1 Regional Invitational Championship – the Ridgers’ first playoff victory since winning the 1982 Group 2, Section 1 crown.
The Montclair High School Class of 1996 graduate was part of the Mounties’ 1994 state championship team as a wide receiver and tight end. “Manj” is also flag football director for Centercourt Montclair. Singh began his coaching career by being freshman defensive coordinator for Don Bosco Preparatory High School 2016-18.
“Being from Montclair growing up, all you heard was Montclair, Cedar Grove and Verona,” said Singh Dec. 12. “Coaching against Verona the past two seasons, I felt the energy in that program. When the opportunity came, I said, ‘Why not give it a shot?’ “
BELLEVILLE – The Belleville Board of Education Trustees, in a split vote here Dec. 18, have agreed to settle its renovation work in the leased 335 Union Ave. with its property owner Michael Melham.
The board accepted a Nov. 30 settlement to break its five-year lease with Melham by paying him $2,500.
Trustees Nicole Daddis, Frank Velez and Tracy Williams voted to approve. Outgoing Trustee Erika Jacho voted “no.” Trustees Gabby Bennett-Meany and Luis Muniz abstained and Mike Derro was absent.
BPS had entered the five-year lease with landlord Melham to lease 335 Union in 2021 but moved out when Melham had trouble securing a Certificate of Occupancy because Mayor Melham was in litigation on a separate matter with Belleville’s construction code official.
Landlord Melham got a COO from the Lyndhurst code official in 2022 and BPS moved back in around Aug. 30, 2023. Landlord Melham, however, asked about the rent BPS did not pay while they had vacated.
NUTLEY – A former Nutley bank employee, accused of committing wire fraud for four years here, posted a $100,000 unsecured bond after his Dec. 12 arraignment in Newark’s federal court. It is unlikely that Jorge Nova, 35, of Passaic, will be visiting this township anytime soon.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys said that Jorge “was an employee at a commercial bank in Nutley in 2014, where a customer received Social Security Administration retirement benefits via direct deposit.”
The SSA was not notified of the customer’s death and the deceased’s checks kept coming to his account. into October 2018. Nova is accused of using self-issued debit cards to drain the deceased’s beneficiary SSA deposits.
“Nova also registered new accounts with a money service provider in the deceased’s name,” continued the federal indictment. “He withdrew more than $105,000 from that second account.”
The wire fraud count is punishable by a maximum $1 million in fines and 30 years’ imprisonment. Neither the bank in Nutley nor the money service provider were named in the indictment.
