TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – A floral cross was tied to a perimeter fence on the outside of the J&L Parking lot on the southeast corner of Broad and Lafayette streets by 9 a.m. Dec.12 – about where the late Newark Police Traffic Control Officer Jario Rodriguez would be stationed.
Rodriguez. 53, according to Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II, was struck and felled by a motorist -described only as an off-duty Newark Police Division sergeant – at that intersection at about 11:42 p.m. Dec. 11.
Rodriguez, who left Prudential Center employment to join NPD in 2022, was rushed to University Hospital – where he was declared dead at 1:37 a.m. that Thursday. The motorist was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital, where he was listed on Dec. 13 as being in stable conditions for unspecified injuries.
Newark Public Safety Director Emanuel Miranda said that Rodriguez was directing traffic, monitoring bus lanes and checking parking meters like he normally would. He was directing traffic after the Aventura concert at the Prudential Center had let out that Wednesday night.
Authorities, as of press time had not disclosed details of the fatal accident, including the NPD sergeant’s identity. That the motorist was an off-duty sergeant came from secondary sources. Whether he was in uniform and/or driving a city vehicle remains an open question – as is whether he faces summonses or charges.
Jario Juan Rodriguez’s Funeral Mass was set for St. Lucy’s Roman Catholic Church here, followed by burial at North Arlington’s Holy Cross Cemetery, Dec. 19. Born April 28, 1971, his survivors include wife Gretchen Maria Hernandez de Acevedo, mother Sylvia Elysa Alex “Chita” Rodriguez, six children and seven grandchildren.
The accident investigation continues.
IRVINGTON – An Atlantic County grand jury, on Dec. 11, had found that county prosecutors had enough evidence to indict two men in the June 30 murder of Irvingtonian Issac Bishop, 33, in their jurisdiction.
Dyshawn J. Bostick, 28, of Tinton Falls and Franchesa M. Burgos-Gonzalez, 37, of Phoenix, now face counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy and two second-degree weapons offences in relation to Bishop’s murder. Bostick is in Atlantic County custody; Burgos-Gonzalez, who was extradited from Arizona, faces a detention hearing.
June 30 was when a local hunter had found Issac’s body in Weymouth Township’s woods by 13th Avenue at about 2:30 p.m. Bishop was reported as missing in Irvington on June 9; his family said his car was found at Newark’s Pine Grove Terrace with his wallet and identification cards inside.
ACPO detectives, according to their boss, William Reynolds, had found 11 shell casings of the bullets that entered or went through Bishop’s body.
Reynolds said his detectives’ investigation tied Bostick and Burgos-Gonzalez to Bishop’s murder in that they had contacts with Bishop “weeks prior to his body being found.” All three, said the chief prosecutor, “simultaneously headed to Weymouth Twp. from North Jersey” based on cell phone data.
Issac Lee Bishop, who was born Jan. 28, 1991, had attended Chancellor Avenue School and had graduated from Irvington – Frank H. Morrell High School in 2009. His parents and daughter are among his survivors. The Cotton Funeral Service had arranged for “83rd’s” Aug. 2 funeral at Mt. Hermon Baptist Church here and burial at Rosedale Cemetery-Linden.
EAST ORANGE – Mourners of the Dec. 1 passing of Jennie Oliver, 97, are taking solace that she has now rejoined her husband Charles C. and her trailblazing daughter Sheila Y. at the next plane of existence.
J. Oliver was born Jennie Nelson in Jersey City Nov. 13, 1927 and was working for RCA there when she met Charles Clay Oliver. They married and first moved to Newark Weequahic section, where their daughter Sheila had graduated from in 1970. The Olivers moved to East Orange in 1975.
East Orange was where Sheila Oliver, 71, rose to become the first African American woman State General Assembly Speaker and, as of her Aug. 1, 2023 death, first African American woman Lt. Governor. S. Oliver was an East Orange School District Board of Education president, Essex County now-Commissioner and Assemblywoman of the 34th State Legislative District along the way.
One of J. Oliver’s last public appearances was at the Aug. 12 funeral for her daughter at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. “Was all this for her?” she asked son Clay of the massive turnout of mourners and dignitaries.
Son Clay Oliver, Jr., three grandchildren and five grandchildren are among “Jennie Bell” or “JB’s” survivors. Her visitation and funeral were held at Whigham’s Funeral Home, followed by burial at Union’s Hollywood.
Dec. 19 Last Rites for Yvonne C. Blake
A public farewell for former councilwoman and Acting East Orange Health and Human Services Director Yvonne C. Blake, who died on Dec. 7, had been set for 5-9 p.m. Dec. 19 here at the Calvary Baptist Church. Her private funeral has been set for 10 a.m. Dec. 20.
The city’s former Division of Substance Abuse Manager had been a city councilwoman 1990-94. The Shaw University and Seton Hall University graduate was a 42-year Newark Public Schools teacher and, beforehand, an East Orange High School teacher.
ORANGE – The Orange Planning Board was set to hear at their Dec. 18 meeting a proposal that would change the character of a South Ward intersection.
The board has on that Wednesday night’s agenda a preliminary and final site plan approval regarding 538-544 Nassau St. by Vida Capital LLC, Although the address is for a parking lot at Nassau and South Jefferson streets’ southeast corner, the application includes 554-556 Nassau St., where Libretti’s Ristorante has been serving fine dining since 1970, on the southwestern corner.
Vida Capital wants to replace the southeast lot and the two story eatery on the southwestern corner with a pair of six-story apartment buildings totaling 174 units and 182 parking spaces.
The southeast building, or “Site A,” is to hold 122 units and 129 parking spaces – 39 of those spaces, however, are reserved for “mechanical” purposes.
Site B, on the southwestern corner is to hold 52 units and 53 parking spaces. Eighteen of these spaces are for “mechanical” uses; the other 35 spaces are to be found on a ground floor parking deck.
Vida, on the city’s property records, have not bought the two southeastern lots nor the seven across South Jefferson. The nine properties would be affected by the proposal.
The proposed six-story buildings would be standing from across the former F. Berg Hat building and the PSE&G power station transformer lot. The six-story 1907/1864 hat factory was converted to the HANDS Hat City Lofts and community center in 2018. Public Service has recently removed the older transformers from its lot in the wake of completing its “Orange Heights” Substation.
WEST ORANGE – Advocates of the “Black Inventors Hall of Fame and Housing Plan,” who presented their application details to the Township Council here Dec. 10, want to follow through on subdividing the 5.5- acre Mayfair Farms property for affordable housing.
Members of the Horn family, who owned and operated Mayfair Farms for 80 years until its 2022 closing, BIHOF founder James Howard and AMS Acquisitions sketched out dividing the property at 481 Eagle Rock Ave. into eastern and western lots. The hall of fame bought Mayfair Farms with a 90-day due diligence period on Sept. 1.
The Mayfair Farms banquet and catering hall, now used by the Wonder group food preparation and delivery company, will remain but converted into the Black Inventors Hall of Fame. The BIHOF, as first presented on Aug. 14, will also include a museum and STEAM learning center. Its renovated space will now also include a gift shop, a theater and restaurant plus meeting rooms, event spaces and classrooms for those living on the western lot.
That western lot, closed to the public for nearly four years, is where a four-story “200-plus top of the class, multifamily residential” units would be built. Its amenities include a pool, a sauna, steam room and hot tub. Twenty percent of the units will go to West Orange’s inclusionary affordable housing requirement and receive “substantially more” than the $320,000 in annual property taxes Mayfair Forms used to generate.
The proposal’s backers said that they want the township to rezone the eastern lot for B2 museum use and building height, set a “parking requirement that the township doesn’t have” and not touch West Orange’s local Reveille and Housing Law. The historic barn will also remain.
The western lot was originally proposed for a three-story senior citizens housing and community center. It is not known when and to where Wonder Group will go for its preparation kitchen; it had asked the zoning board to allow building 10 meet smokers on the property last summer.
SOUTH ORANGE – The South Orange Library is not letting its main building be closed from using its newly-awarded digital literacy grant.
SOPL Adult Services Librarian Erika Dragonetti told a reporter Dec. 12 that the award from the Public Libraries association will allow her to restart “much needed computer classes” in its temporary quarters here at the Baird Community Center.
SOPL is currently divided between the Baird Center and the former animal shelter at Walton Place while construction between the original library and its 1968 building gets underway. Both locations have limited public computer access.
Dragonetti foresees twice weekly digital literacy classes at Baird into the spring. Students will be using new laptop computers; existing desktop computers will be replaced.
SOPL was one local library from 100 nationwide who were awarded PLA DigitaLearn grants. The grants, funded by a $2.7 million donation by AT&T, aims to help digital learning through DigitaLearn courses and training materials.
MAPLEWOOD – There are more than a few Sherman Place residents since Dec. 10 who are rephrasing a Rick Blaine line, as uttered by Humphrey Bogart, from “Casablanca:” “Of all the streets in all the towns in all the world, he had to pick ours.”
That was the reaction when authorities revealed one of the fake drivers licenses that Luigi Maglione had in his possession when Altoona, Pa. police found and arrested him at a local McDonald’s. The alleged NJ MVC license, issued to a “Mark Rosario June 18, 2024,” lists “128 Sherman Pl.” as his address.
Authorities said that Maglione used that or one of three other drivers licenses to check into a Manhattan hostel Nov. 25 – 10 days before he fatally ambushed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in front of the Midtown Hilton hotel. It is not clear whether he used the NJ license to book a Greyhound bus from Atlanta to New York’s George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal or for taxi or electric scooter rides or to pay for snacks.
That 128 Sherman Pl. does not exist does not calm residents of the 12 houses on the one-block residential street by the South Orange border. They said that they have been getting calls from relatives and friends from far and wide.
“We joked that the address is the tree house in the backyard,” said one resident on grounds of anonymity. “I get that health care’s a problem but it’s still a tragedy – and a ridiculous cover up.”
There is no known connection between the street and Maglione, who was North Baltimore’s Gilman School Class of 2016 valedictorian. (Gilman is a private all-boys high school.)
BLOOMFIELD – Township elders will be entering 2025 with full strength, since Rosalee Gonzalez and Widney Polynice were sworn into two vacant council seats here Dec. 16.
Councilwoman Gonzalez was sworn into the First Ward seat Monday night that was vacated by now-Mayor Jenny Mundell. Gonzalez is an Essex County employee.
Councilman Polynice was inaugurated into Richard Rockwell’s At-Large Council seat. Rockwell had resigned Nov. 21. Polynice, a William Paterson University graduate, is director of Social Vibes Marketing & Sales.
Polynice and Gonzalez were announced by Mayor Mundell Dec. 4 and their names were added to the township staff directory by Dec. 13. Both are appointees, recommended by township Democratic Committee Chairman Assy. Michael Venezia, and are subject to special elections in the coming year.
Adult Library Closed Through Jan. 1
The Bloomfield Public Library Board of Trustees announced that the 1967 Adult Library building here at 90 Broad St. will be closed Jan. 16 through New Year’s Day to “manage building-related issues.” Adult circulation material pickup, reference department and photocopying services will be in the 1927 Children’s Library next door for the interim. BPL card holders will have BCCLS.org card privileges in neighboring libraries as do card holders who have affixed ReBL system stickers on their cards.
The Adult Library, which was built to relieve the now-Children’s Library, has had roof leakage and heating issues in recent months. Both attached buildings were part of a 2019-21 strategic plan. Michael Venezia, when he was mayor, had talked about replacing the buildings with a new five-story structure.
MONTCLAIR – Those who had missed the Dec. 4 Montclair Public Schools superintendent search public input session here at the Montclair High School George Innes Annex will get a to-be-announced second session soon.
That second date will be announced by the Montclair Board of Education and the New Jersey State School Boards Association – who organized that first Wednesday night session. MBOE and the state association are conducting a joint search this time.
Whoever will be selected to take the MPS helm will be succeeding Interim Superintendent Damen Cooper and ultimately the late Dr. Jonathan Ponds. Cooper is the district’s director of secondary education curriculum. He is wearing two hats simultaneously but is anticipated to return to his previous job full-time.
Ponds, who joined MPS in June 2020, suddenly died July 12. MBOE members had just granted him a five-year contract extension into 2029.
Animal Shelter Staying Open
Town Manager Michaell Lapolla led several Montclair elders in declaring Dec. 13 that the Montclair Animal Shelter is staying – and that there are no talks about replacing the shelter building with another redevelopment project.
A Dec. 12 petition to “Protect the Montclair Animal Shelter” from rumored closure had received 737 signatures overnight. MAS Director Liz Morgan, however, said that the township does not allow her to talk to the media.
GLEN RIDGE – Those who wanted to witness the Glen Ridge Country Club’s site plan application before the borough’s zoning board of adjustment Dec. 12 discovered that the application had been transferred to the Glen Ridge Planning Board’s Jan. 15 meeting.
Glen Ridge Planning Director and Deputy Business Administrator Erik DeLine said that the GRCC had its attorney, John Veteri, withdraw the plan from the zoning board’s agenda. The application was then resubmitted for planning board consideration.
The country club wants to cut down 56 trees on its property in order to build a children’s swimming pool and a parking area. GRCC then, as now, is asking for a variance to build the members’ pool within 13 feet of its property line. Borough regulations require a 100-foot setback.
The club has proposed replacing the 56 to-be-fell trees paralleling the Ridgewood Avenue part of its property by planting 45 new ones. Veteri said that his client has the cutting permit from the borough.
Glen Ridge and Bloomfield neighbors who reside along the GRCC property are concerned about the loss of landscape screening and noise from the proposal. Members of Sustainable Montclair, some from the borough, held a picket line by the GRCC entrance one November Saturday.
BELLEVILLE – The former Kmart’s prospective new tenant took a step towards moving into the 77,800-square-foot structure when the Belleville Zoning Board of Adjustment, on Dec. 5, approved having the entire building at 371-411 Main St. open to a single occupant.
Transformco Realty, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., Had been pursuing the certificate of occupancy clarification for its client since Oct.3. The holder of former Kmart and Sears properties nationwide had reportedly signed Aldi supermarkets as its new tenant.
How much work Transformco and Aldi have to do to make the 1977-built one-story department store into a supermarket remains unclear. Kmart, in its later years, installed a grocery section as it had done at its West Orange, Kearny and Clifton stores.
Kmart moved out in April 2021, prompting the Township Committee to adopt a 371-411 Main Street Redevelopment Zone – which keeps the building and parking lot within the BB-1 commercial retail use zone. Belleville elders had meanwhile considered demolishing the building and quartering the lot for residential redevelopment.
How much of a say Lidl Supermarkets, at 414 Main St., will have remains unclear. The outlet, which opened Aug. 18, 2021, remains that shopping plaza’s anchor tenant. 414 Main used to be an A&P/SuperFresh supermarket – but has one-quarter of the Kmart building’s space across the street.
