TOWN WATCH
MONTCLAIR – Township officers were summoned to a Glenfield Middle School restroom early May 17 – but not out of a biological need.
Montclair Superintendent of Schools Jonathan Ponds had brought them there to record a probable hate crime marking. Someone had found a swastika drawn in that restroom and notified the GMS Main Office – who then called Ponds’ office.
“I’m informing you about an antisemitic act that occurred at the Glenfield Middle School,” said Ponds in an open letter to the community later that Friday. “We condemn all acts of antisemitism and hate and we’re committed to addressing and eradicating it.”
This is the latest incident of antisemitic symbols or statements that have marked the township’s communal areas.
A swastika was drawn or etched on a Montclair High School Desk and on another desk at the Montclair Cooperative School. Antisemitic stickers had been placed on objects in Edgemont Park.
NEWARK – Newark Public Schools administrators have been recently told by the New Jersey Department of Education to present a “District Improvement Plan” on its academic standards.
NJDOE based their request on the state Spring 2023 state exam results, where 29 percent of NPS students can read at grease level and 15 percent compute mathematics at grade level.
The NPS Central Office, in October 2023, sent a letter to the then-acting education commissioner questioning their data’s accuracy. The commissioner’s office recently responded with: “Our data’s accurate, come up with a DIP.”
NPS recently presented a plan where English Language Arts scores are to improve up to 33 percent and math up to 23 percent on or by October 2024’s test battery.
NJDOE will be grading NPS’ progress by Quality Single Accountability Continuum standards all 565 public school districts are to go by. QUSAC is familiar to some Newarkers for it was used by NJDOE to gradually grant NPS full autonomy 2016-20.
IRVINGTON – Township officials said that they had shut down “a substantial drug distribution network” here May 17 and had arrested a township man they said was at its center.
based their request.
Mayor Anthony “Tony” Vauss and Public Safety Director Tracy Bowers said they had concluded a several-month surveillance of a Springfield Avenue address by conducting a search warrant late that Friday night.
IPD officers said that they had found “a significant quantity of narcotics and a cache of weapons” at the address. They had not disclosed the “major hub for illegal activities” address or what type of building it is.
Arrested at the scene was Lamont C. Purnell, 37. He has been charged with weapons and controlled dangerous substance possession.
It is presumed, as of May 28, that Purnell had posted bail and was released.
EAST ORANGE – Peter C. Eagler, 69, who died May 11, overcame his Passaic County orientation 1986 and doubled as representing East Orange, Montclair and other Essex County towns in the then-34th Legislative District 2001-2011.
Eagler had started out as a Clifton city councilman in 1990 and doubled as a Passaic County Freeholder (now Commissioner) in 1996. He then considered a 2001 bid for the State Senate on the 34th LD.
Back then, legislative redistricting kicked in, adding Clifton to East Orange, Montclair and other Essex County towns in a new 34th district.
Eagler was paired with Willis Edwards III, of East Orange for the 34th assembly seats and run with State Senate candidate Nia Gill, of Montclair on an off-line Democratic ticket. Eagler was the top vote-getter in a seven-candidate primary field.
The Essex County Democratic Organization paired Eagler with former Essex County Freeholder Sheila Y. Oliver, for the 34th Assembly in 2003. He considered running for a third term off county line in 2008 but declined. The Passaic County Democrats dropped him that year but remained on the Clifton Council until ill health prompted him to retire in 2022.
Eagler graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a BA in political science in 1976, became a safety inspector for the N.J. Highway. He later became heritage festival administrator at the PNC Bank Art Center and Authority. a student ticket coordinator at NJTransit.
The General Pulaski Memorial Parade Committee Executive Vice President was a member of Wayne’s Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, where his Panikhida Service was held on May 17. Burial was eld at Clifton’s East Ridgelawn Cemetery. Sister Virginia Eagler is among his survivors.
ORANGE – “Local Talk” has learned that longtime Orange Police Department officer and dispatcher Bill Sautter, 88, had died in Whippany March 27.
Sautter had joined “Orange’s Finest” as a beat patrolman in 1956. He turned in his nightstick for a civilian dispatcher’s microphone from 1962 until his Marc 1988 retirement.
William Dewey Sautter Jr. was born in Orange Nov. 1, 1936 and graduated from Our Lady of the Valley High School in 1954. He enlisted into the U.S. Army and served until his honorable discharge in 1956.
The VFW Orange Post 376 member met and married Eileen Halpin in 1958. The moved to Whippany in 1972, where he joined American Legion Post 155.
Son William J. Sautter, daughter-in-law Marge, sister Teresa Acecare, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren are among his survivors. Services were held at the Par-Troy Funeral Home April 2. Memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, www.stjude.org.
WEST ORANGE – Neighbors of a Northfield Avenue mother and daughter, who were recently burned out of their Northfield Townhouses condominium apartment May 14, have started a GoFundMe.com page.
The mother is a West Orange High School graduate and the second generation of a township family. She was the one who was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene by responding township firefighters and EMS.
The daughter is a lettered three sport WOHS student athlete. They also have a dog and two cats.
Neighbors behind the crowdfunding drive are seeking to help them with their first and last month’s rent for a new apartment. Their condo unit was water and smoke damaged. The funding will also help with their furnishings, clothes, supplies “and more.”
The mother and daughter happened to live next door to 95 Northfield Ave, where an “octogenarian” man and woman were taken out unconsciousness by WOFD personnel. They were declared dead at Livingston’s Cooperman Barnabas Hospital. Their identities have not been disclosed as of press time.
SOUTH ORANGE – The parents of a of a daughter who died while in supposedly supervised isolation in a Seton Hall University dorm room here Sept. 20, 21, have filed a wrongful death in New Jersey Superior Court-Newark May 15.
Kristin McCartney, 20, of Charlotte, N.C., was supposed to check out of a dorm room used by SHU to house students who had been diagnosed with having COVID-19. The sophomore had tested positive for COVID on Sept. 9.
A residence life staff member entered McCartney’s room later that day and found her lying face down on the floor, unresponsive. The staffer promptly called SHU and village police and the regional medical examiner. Village police had concluded that McCartney had suffered an epileptic seizure.
McCartney’s parents said that SHU had known that the School of Diplomacy and International Relations’ epilepsy and had neglected to check in on her. As a result, she had suffered a Grand Mal seizure and choked on her own tongue.
McCartney’s Parents has named the university, its board of trustees and board of regents. SHU has not commented on the suit as of press time.
MAPLEWOOD – A Mass of Christian Burial was held here for Maplewood native Sister Ann Infanger, 90, was held in Greensburg, PA’s Chapel of the Assumption May 24. Infanger, after 74 years’ devotion as a Sister of Charity and a Seton Hall professor, died May 20 at the sisters’ Caritas Christi motherhouse.
Ann Infanger was born in Maplewood Dec. 20, 1933. She and her family were members of South Orange’s Our Lady of Sorrows Parish. She joined the Sisters of Charity of Greenburgh, Pa. Sept. 8, 1956.
Sis. Infanger attained her Bachelor’s degree in biology at Seton Hall University and a doctorate in genetics at Ithaca, NY’s Cornell University. She returned to teach microbiology and general biology, genetics and seminars in evolution at Seton Hall. She would be honored for her 50 years with Seton Hill in 2010.
She and Helmut Bertrand wrote a groundbreaking book on the genetics of bread mold in “Current Genetics. The sister received the Sears-Roebuck Award for Excellence in Education and Seton Hall’s Case Professor of the year in 1991.
Infanger is survived by her sister and brother-in-law Catherine and Fred Crean.
BLOOMFIELD – The township’s zoning board of adjustment had been mulling a developer’s plan to convert a vacant convent into affordable housing.
Valorev Capital, of Brooklyn, have approached the Archdiocese of Newark and the zoning board about converting the former convent at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish into eight to 10 senior citizen apartments.
The developer’s plan calls for renovating the convent to hold eight double housing units and four single units. There would be two parking spaces per unit.
Valorev is ready to present a 99-year lease to the archdiocese pending zoning board approval.
The convent, which used to house the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, has been vacant since 2019.
BELLEVILLE – Township police and ECPO detectives are investigating a homicide that happened early on Memorial Day.
Belleville Police Officers initially responded to reports of “a domestic disturbance with criminal damage” at 8:18 a.m. May 27. They were on their way to the 7300 block of West “A” Street when they also received a report of shots fired.
Officers and Abbott EMS arrived to find a shot victim. Efforts to revive that person were unsuccessful.
Other officers meanwhile found a firearm and a male suspect on premises. The suspect was arrested and taken to Belleville Police Headquarters for booking.
Details are forthcoming as this is a continuing investigation.
NUTLEY – Commissioner John V. Kelly III became Nutley’s latest and youngest mayor here at the May 21 Board of Commissioners Reorganization meeting.
Outgoing Mayor Joseph Scarpelli forwarded a resolution making Commissioner of Public Affairs Kelly mayor to which all commissioners agreed. All five incumbent commissions were sworn into their new terms minutes beforehand.
Kelly, 39, becomes Nutley’s youngest mayor. the late Frank Orechio, 45 had held that distinction. Kelly, a lifelong Nutleyite, is the grandson of John Kelly, Sr. The elder Kelly was also mayor and a nine-term state assemblyman.
Nutley, like Maplewood, have a municipal commissioners or committee structure. The township elders select a mayor from amongst them. Kelly seemed likely to become mayor since he received the highest number of votes May 16.
