TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – The ECPO Arson Squad, city fire officials and the State Fire Marshal are looking for the cause of a July 6 fire that damaged a public grammar school here in The Ironbound. The Newark Public Schools and its emergency contractors are meanwhile working to have the East Ward Community School ready to accept teachers, staff and students on or before Sept. 3.
Newark Fire Department units who answered the 3:39 p.m. fire report arrived at 104 Oliver St. that Saturday and brought the blaze under control by 4:11 p.m.
The East Ward Elementary School first opened its doors to some 700 Pre-Kindergarten through Fifth Grade Students in 2019. It is one of the few NPS elementary schools that are not Pre-K-Eighth Grade.
The building at 104 Oliver, before 2019, was the Oliver Street School. Its core dates back to 1869 with additions made in 1904, 1915 and 1921.
Neither NPS nor the Department of Public Safety have said where the fire started in which vintage of the building. No one was injured by the fire.
IRVINGTON – Members of the Springfield Avenue Business Improvement District and FirsTEAManagement touted three ongoing projects within and near the district limits in an annual tri-town development conference June 26.
SABID and FTM officials, in their 15-minute presentation in the Sandwiches Unlimited catering room in Orange, said that the five-story, 37-unit apartment building at 124-130 Ellis Ave. is nearing completion. 124-130 Ellis, just south of its Springfield Avenue intersection, is among several renewal projects along the Irvington-Newark border.
Also under construction is Chancellor Self-Storage, a 122,352-square foot warehouse in that avenue’s industrial zone.280 Park Place, on the 6.5-acre Irvington General Hospital site, has entered its third of five phases. Construction is underway for Hilltop Senior, a six-story building which houses “a mix of studio and one-bedroom apartments.” 280 Park Place Phase One was completed in 2018 – 10 years after IGH closed.
The latest 280 Park/hospital site update was part of the Fourth Annual Tri-Community Commercial and Residential Seminar held here. The seminar hosts real estate development briefs in Irvington, Orange and East Orange from municipal planners and developers.
SABID is a client of FTM, of New York. FTM assists communities’ BID development.
EAST ORANGE / GLEN RIDGE – The U.S. Department of Justice – New Jersey District attorneys have not said why former city business owner and borough resident Ahmed Mahgoub’s June 28 sentencing in Newark has been postponed.
Maghoub, 66, half-owner of F&A Transportation/Smart Union in East Orange and a former Glen Ridge apartment resident, had pleaded guilty before Federal Magistrate Judge Mark Ali March 6 to one count of second-degree false representation for a government contract. Federal attorneys had called for Maghoub being sentenced to prison for five years.
Fazia Ibrahim, 50, F&A’s other half, was to have started pre-trial intervention monitoring on June 28. Ibrahim, who shared the same Glen Ridge and East Hanover addresses as Maghoub, pleaded guilty to a third-degree count of tampering public information or records.
Maghoub and Ibrahim had confessed to falsifying the inspection records of the school buses and medical minivans based out of 144 Evergreen Place, East Orange. They had doctored the records of its drivers and aides who would be unqualified for the jobs.
The altered records, before USDOJ’s 2020 investigation, would be used to gain transportation contracts for Newark Public Schools and other governmental agencies.
ORANGE – Last rites for retired Orange Police Department Capt. William C. Boggier – who combined his service to Orange with his passion for motorcycling for two decades – were held at Essex Fells’ St. Peter’s Church July 13.
Boggier, 63, a West Essex resident who was dedicated to protecting and serving Orange, lost his six-month fight against Lymphoma at his Essex Fells home July 8. Born in Newark Feb. 27, 1964, Boggier grew up in North Caldwell. He settled in Essex Fells with wife Dr. Katherine and daughters Abigail and Zoe in 2001.
Boggier was appointed as one of “Orange’s Finest” in 2001 The certified NJ Police Firearms Instructor was eventually promoted as captain while becoming decorated for his service along the way. Capt. Boggier also served as Commander of OPD’s Motorcycle Unit-Special Operations and Technical Services.
The adult life-long motorcycle rider and certified police academy instructor was a certified Maryland State Police Motor Officer Instructor and, for 19 years, a Rider Education of NJ Coach.
Boggier was last in the news for recovering from an on-duty motorcycle collision that left him with severe traumatic brain injury. A motorist ran a stop sign and ran into the captain’s Harley-Davidson while he was on funeral escort in Woodbridge, 2019. His other injuries – including multiple leg fractures, a broken pelvis and a broken wrist – put him on disability retirement.
Boggier recovered to where he resumed motorcycle riding in 2021 and continued until his cancer diagnosis. Mother Lynn, sisters Tracy and Diane and brother Henry Griffin are also among his survivors.
WEST ORANGE – That funeral arrangements for Watchung Heights resident Grace Drury and her two grandsons are pending a Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s autopsy as of press time have not kept neighbors from erecting a makeshift shrine for them here at 41 Liberty St since July 13.
About the only confirmation that Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II, West Orange Fire Chief Anthony Vecchio and Police Chief James Abbott Drury would make 4 p.m. July 15 was that Drury, 75 and her 3-year-old and 8-year-old grandsons had died as the result of the 11 a.m. Saturday fire. The boys’ names were being withheld as they are minors.
Vecchio said that the first fire units arrived at 61 Liberty just after 11 a.m. – and found heavy smoke coming from the kitchen. Firefighters quenched the blaze – and then found the three occupants. The trio were taken out and given CPR until they were declared dead at the scene.
Township code inspectors deemed 41 Liberty, a 2.5-story house built in 1910, uninhabitable. Several neighbors told reporters that the Drurys had moved back into the house last month due to a separate fire there last year.
West Orange Superintendent of Schools Hayden Moore, saying that he used to live a few doors away from the Drurys, confirmed that the older boy was a student at the nearby Washington Elementary School. Moore has set up a GoFundMe.com page for the family.
Grace Drury’s former husband – Robert, 59, a union roofer – died Set. 17, 2008. Detectives from the ECPO Crime Scene Investigation Bureau and the West Orange Police Department are continuing their investigation.
SOUTH ORANGE – The Village Council – after mulling over New Jersey American Water’s $19.7 – $50 million bid to buy the municipal water system and fielding public speaker questions, voted 4-2 July 9 to place the utility’s bid up to a Nov. 6 General Election public referendum question.
NJAW – who had been supplying the village’s water since 2018 – is offering $19.7 million to buy the village’s water infrastructure. The utility is offering an additional $50 million towards replacing any lead service lines they may find. It is not clear whether NJAW would absorb any debt South Orange Water had accrued.
The utility, who was the sole responding bidder, said it would freeze the current rates for the first two years. There would be annual 3.5-percent increases on water customers on years three through five.
Sam Di Falco of the Food & Water advocacy group said during that Tuesday night’s council meeting that NJAF charges $8 per Centum (or hundred) Cubis Feet with neighboring towns being charged an annual average of $720 CCF. The proposed rate increases, said Di Falco, would bring SOW water customers being charged up to $1,000 annually.
Several public speakers at the council meeting that Tuesday night asked if SOW is participating in the state and federal lead line replacement programs. The advocate urged village elders to seek out federal and state grants for infrastructure improvements instead of having NJAW “privatizing” SOW.
The village has to file the public question proposal to Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin’s Election Division no later than 81 days before the Nov. 6 General Election.
MAPLEWOOD – The Township Committee may be posting a final draft of Mayor Nancy Adams’ letter on the state of NJTransit commuter rail service on one of their August meeting agendas. The resolution, supporting Adams’ July 2 introduction urging improved rail service, did not make July 16’s meeting agenda.
Adams and her four Township Committee colleagues may have listed to public comments about the state of rail service and the resolution letter July 16. One member of the public, on July 2, asked that the letter have Amtrak and NJTransit’s improvements include ADA handicap access compliance.
Adams’ initial July 2 resolution letter calls on state and federal representatives to urge Amtrak and NJTransit to make “immediate” corrective measures and improvements particularly on the Northeast Corridor Line. The Amtrak-owned infrastructure used by NJTransit had 10 major problems since mid-May, causing widespread traveling disruptions for hours at a time.
The letter may call upon Amtrak, through Capitol Hill and the Trenton State House, to improve the NEC beyond the much needed $15 billion Gateway Tunnels under the Hudson and the new Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River. Gateway’s groundbreaking finally happened last week; the Portal Bridge has been under construction since 2023.
It has been learned that the overhead power wires, signals, switches and related equipment were last overhauled in the 1960s or 1930s – or have not been touched since its 1910 construction by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Automatic overhead wire tensioners, which keep the power lines stable despite the weather, have only been installed between Trenton and New Brunswick and between New Haven and Boston.
The recent NEC rail woes affect NJTransit’s Morris & Essex Line here and the Montclair-Boonton Line. M&E and M-BL Midtown Direct service to New York Penn Station are rerouted to Hoboken whenever failures happen in New York or in the 114-year-old tunnels or on the seven miles towards Newark.
BLOOMFIELD – Riders here and in Montclair may well be making the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield’s “I Get No Respect” refrain in the wake of CoachUSA’s July 10 intention of ending two of its local bus routes here as soon as Aug. 16.
CoachUSA, which is in the midst of dismantling the largest bus company in North America through Chapter 11 bankruptcy liquidation, has told NJTransit that Wednesday that it will terminate 20 Community Transport, Inc. bus route operation contracts with NJTransit Aug. 16. It has posted a state labor department WARN layoff notice for its Paramus-based 123 employees to take effect Sept. 8 – unless a buyer appears.
Those 20 routes, as described in CoachUSA’s notices, operate in Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties. Two of those routes, however, start, end or stop in Bloomfield and Montclair. That they run in Essex County were not mentioned by Community Transport or its parent.
The 709 Route runs between Bloomfield Town Centre and Paramus’ Garden State Plaza via Broad Street, Broughton Avenue and W. Passaic Avenue since when it was Trackless Transit. The 705 serves the Montclair State University main campus on its way between Passaic and Wayne’s Willowbrook Mall.
The same WARN notices also list CoachUSA’s ONE division losing 131 employees and Megabus Northeast LLC, both out of Elizabeth, losing 108 employees Sept. 8. Orange-Newark-Elizabeth’s 24, 31 and 44 operations were picked up by NJTransit. Renco Group, of New York City, has expressed interest in acquiring part or all of Megabus Northeast.
Community Coach 77, another CoachUSA division from Paramus, is also being shopped around. Its riders in West Orange, Orange and East Orange have not heard of CC77’s fate and are watching over Community Transport’s shoulder.
MONTCLAIR – The Montclair Public Schools Board of Education, as of 11 a.m. July 16, have not announced an emergency meeting to at least appoint an interim or acting superintendent of schools in the wake of Dr. Jonathan Ponds’ July 13 death. The board’s next scheduled meeting is for a retreat on Aug. 26.
The MPS and greater Montclair community were shocked to learn after 11:30 a.m. that Friday that Ponds, who had just returned from his vacation, had died. BOE President Melanie Deysher and board member Brian Fleischer made brief statements to the press when approached that afternoon.
“It’s a terrible loss,” said Fleisher. who said he was told Ponds had been admitted to a local hospital July 11. “I viewed him as a friend and a colleague.”
“Dr. Ponds always said, ‘Keep the main thing,’ ” said Deysher. “He lived every minute here in Montclair, personifying that ideal. It was always about what’s doing the best for the students of Montclair.”
Jonathan Ponds was first hired by the BOE in June 2020 to be a stabilizing influence for the public district. MPS had gone through five superintendents and interim or acting supers in as many years.
Ponds was into his first month of his extended five year contract, which was to expire June 30, 2029. The school board made that extension last month while he still had a year left on his then- current contract.
There have been no obituary or funeral arrangements made public as of Noon July 16.
BELLEVILLE – The outgoing Township Council, at its last meeting June 25, approved a redevelopment plan that would replace the Irvine-Cozzarelli / “The Sopranos” Funeral Home here at 274-78 Washington Ave with a five-story, 74-unit apartment house.
Premier Development, of Englewood Cliffs, has also proposed the demolition of a private house on 163 Valley St. and the former Elks Lodge at 254 Washington adjacent to the funeral parlor that was the scene of several HBO “Sopranos” episodes.
(Belleville members have recently moved across the Passaic River to join the Kearny Elks Lodge No. 1050 at 160 Elm St. Lodge 1050 is now the Kearny-Belleville Elks Lodge.)
Premier has also had “The Essex” apartment building at 78-100 Washington and the new QuickChek at 190 Cortlandt St. approved. The QuickChek has recently opened on the School One site and Essex is having finishing touches done as of press time.
Premier was also the Feb. 18, 2022 host and sponsor of “A Better Belleville” cocktail party fundraiser for Mayor Michael Melham and his ticket’s at-large council slate. Melham, who voted for the redevelopment June 25, is also an ex-officio Belleville Planning Board member.
The developer’s proposal now needs a BPB site plan approval to schedule the funeral home’s “last rites.” Their presentation may be placed on the panel’s agenda as soon as their Aug. 5 meeting. That agenda, however, has not been posted as of presstime.
NUTLEY – Nutley High School’s “Maroon Raider Nation’ and the greater township community paid tribute to one of their own, Charles S. Piro, with his last rites July 9-10. Piro’s visitation was held that Tuesday here at the S.W. Brown Funeral Home, followed by a life celebration at Belleville’s Nanina’s in the Park that Wednesday.
Piro, 48, a member of Nutley’s 1992 state football championship team and a businessman, died here on July 3. “Chuck,” except for his 1993-97 pursuit of a Rowan University bachelor’s degree, had been a lifelong Nutleyite since his Aug. 9, 1975 birth.
“Chucky,” NHS Class of 1993, joined the Maroon Raiders wrestling and football teams – the latter with older brother Joe Piro. C. Piro was on the 1992 varsity football squad that won the NJSIAA North Jersey Group III, Section 2 state and Essex County championships with a 8-1-2 regular season win-loss-tie record. (Brother Joe is into his 20th season as NHS Athletic Director.)
Piro returned to Nutley to own and operate Piro Painting until 2007 – when he became general manager of the Franklin Steakhouse. He and Stephanie Rizzi met while working together at 238 Franklin Ave., leading to their marriage – which outlasted the steakhouse. (238 Franklin is to reopen as the Hudson Rose “Elevated American” restaurant Aug. 2.)
Charles moved onto being Accent Painting Group’s account manager until he fell ill. Sisters Julie Piro and Jackie Searle are also among his survivors.
Donations may be made to the Hackensack UMC John Theurer Cancer Center via: HMH Foundation, 343 Thornall St., 7th Flr., Edison, NJ 08837.
