TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Some baseball fans in “Local Talk Land” remembered when Rickey Henderson, upon his Dec. 20 death from pneumonia in a San Francisco hospital, had some of his final hurrahs here with the Newark Bears 2002-04.
Henderson. who died five days short of what would have been his 66th birthday, was already hailed as Major League Baseball’s “King of Steal” when he joined the 2002 Atlantic League of Professional Baseball champion Bears. The 2009 MLB Hall of Famer was well on his way to a career record 1,406 stolen bases when he was dropped by the Boston Red Sox at the end of 2002. He, at 43, was the oldest American League player at that time.
Metropolitan New York City fans remembered Henderson’s stints with the Yankees (1985-89) and the Mets (1999-2000) among the nine MLB teams he had played for in his 25-year career.
Henderson joined the AA-level independent Bears, while hoping to return to “The Bigs,” while playing at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. He hit eight home runs and made 33 runs batted in during his 56 games here for a .339 batting average. He was named to the Atlantic League’s all-star team and named is all-star game MVP after making an RBI double.
The Los Angeles Dodgers called up Henderson and bought his contract for the rest of 2003. He added three more stolen bases, made 15 hits for a .208 batting average in those last 30 games. The Dodgers team was his last in MLB.
Back with the Bears for 2004, Henderson knocked in nine home runs and 31 RBI for a .281 batting average. Henderson, who never announced his retirement, helped the Golden Baseball League San Diego Surf Dawgs to the team and league’s inaugural championship in 2005. He returned to the Mets as a batting coach and first base coach in 2006-07 for a player opening that never came.
The Chicago-born but mostly Oakland, Calif-raised Henderson played four times for the now-Sacramento/Las Vegas team. The then-Oakland Athletics retired his No. 24 in 2009. Wife Pamela and three children are among his survivors.
Professor Charged With Sexual Contact And Harassment
Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II and Essex County College Police Department Chief of Police Anthony Cromartie announced that Gnanaseharan Selliah of West Orange, was taken into custody and charged with criminal sexual contact and harassment.
The defendant, an adjunct professor at Essex County College in Newark, is accused of engaging in sexually inappropriate contact with an adult student in November 2024.
These allegations are merely accusations. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they enter a guilty plea or are found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
IRVINGTON – A township woman is being held in Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility on murder charges since a Dec. 17 gunfire exchange with Newark police across its border with East Orange.
A Dec. 20 ECPO release said that A-Jahada Amirah Bostwick, 26, is being held on first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and second-degree weapons offenses.
Newark Police Division officers said that they were near 433 North Fourth Ave. in its Roseville section that Tuesday when they heard gunshots and rushed to North Ninth Street and Springdale Avenue in East Orange’s Ampere neighborhood. They were fired on their approach, starting the gunfight.
The county release did not say how the fight ended but they had apprehended Bostwick unharmed – and found Tyron T. Whitely, 38, of Red Bank, unresponsive. Whitley was rushed to University Hospital, where he died. The initial and later gunfire injured no one else.
Authorities have not said how Bostwick is tied to Whitley’s death. Whitley’s celebration of life service was set for 9-11 a.m. at the Shrewsbury Avenue AME Church, 258 Shrewsbury Ave. Red Bank.
EAST ORANGE – Yvonne C. Blake was eulogized at her private funeral service here at Calvary Baptist Church, followed by interment at Montclair’s Rosedale Cemetery, Dec. 20. Mayor Theodore “Ted” Green, who also presented a City Council proclamation, former Fifth Ward Councilwoman and county commissioner Carol Clark and the Rev. Robert S. McCaskill, Sr., – Pastor of Bloomfield’s Union Baptist Church, were among that morning’s speakers.
Blake, who turned 76 Dec. 5, died Dec. 7, 2024. She was a former three-term Fourth Ward Councilwoman, an East Orange High School student and teacher and, at the time of her death, the city’s Acting Health and Human Services Director – and Substance Abuse Division director.
Blake is considered an East Orange daughter although she was born in Georgetown, S.C. and having attained her health and physical education bachelor’s degree at Raleigh, N.C. ‘s Shaw University. Her family of 10 moved here before her teenage years, allowing to become EOHS Class of 1966 – and develop a passion for teaching.
She returned to “The Home of the Panthers” after attaining a master’s degree in education from Seton Hall University and stayed for 28 years. “Coach Blake,” when not as student activities assistant coordinator, led the Panthers cheerleading squad and their nationally recognized “rhythmic cheerleading” style.
Blake, on one hand, left the East Orange School District for 12 years at Newark Public Schools – where she was a teacher and health and physical education chairwoman at Central High School and Academy Principal of Weequahic High School’s Allied Health Sciences Program. She, on the other hand, further served East Orange
The Hon. Blake was Fourth Ward Councilwoman 1984-86 and 1990-97, serving on the council’s Health, Education & Welfare and Law & Education committees. Her peers had once named her their Council President. Outside of City Hall, she was Chief Operating Officer of Kaleidoscope HealthCare ambulance service of Jersey City.
Son Kevin Mickens, brother Larry Ali Blake, Jr. and sisters Prof. Sandra Blake and Dr. Shelly Blake are among her survivors. Brothers Johnny Rahim, Victor Joseph, Kenneth Edmond and Edwyn Tarreall Blake predeceased her.
ORANGE – Although the Orange Planning board approved SYMREC Orange JV LLC’s preliminary and final site plan application for 205 S. Essex Ave in November and memorialized it at their Dec. 18 meeting, the redeveloper’s plans remain not completely clear as of press time.
SYM Real Estate Corp., of Lakewood, was approved by the City Council on July 5, 2023 as the official redeveloper of the “Central Valley Redevelopment Area.” That area includes the former Orange Memorial Hospital, the former Ippolito Funeral Home and adjacent properties.
SYMREC Orange JV LLC is partners with Orange Flats LLC, Orange NJ Holdings LLC, 256 Henry Holdings LLC (for the Ippolito property) and 184 Matthew Holding LLC in the purchase and redevelopment of the overall 8.25 acres covering nine lots bordered by South Essex Avenue, Henry Street, Ivy Court, Matthew Street and Central Avenue. The property area includes the former hospital parking lot/Record Ambulance site to 205 So. Essex’s north.
The partnership’s current plan calls for redeveloping the 1928 former Mary Austen Hall nurses dormitory on the southeast corner of South Essex and Henry into apartment units and retaining the powerhouse at South Essex and Central Avenue. While those two buildings will be repurposed within national and state historic registers’ stipulations, the other five buildings will be replaced by apartment buildings.
“Local Talk,” however, has not found how or whether 205 Essex, a 1926 two-story professional/office building on a .21 acre lot, fits into the five parties’ hospital redevelopment plan. Block 3702, Lot 20 has not been added – or at least not yet – to the other nine lots. The site plan application is subject to state Open Public Records Act regulation.
205 S. Essex currently houses E&M Pharmacy and two physicians’ offices. E&M had been there since 2012 and Drs. Mehesh and Sanjay Patel going back to 2005. The property was last bought by Harsh 7 Naini, of Florham Park, May 14, 2009.
The building started out as a residence until the city planning board permitted its rezoning to office-medical/mental health use by 2000. It is to the understanding of “Local Talk” that the SYMREC and its four partners’ hospital redevelopment plan needs to pass N.J. State Historic Preservation Office Historic Sites Council and Orange Historic Preservation Commission muster.
WEST ORANGE – Town elders, on Dec. 15, announced that they have received a grant to improve the pedestrian streetscape between its Tory Corner with Main Street into Orange’s High Street, starting in July 2025.
The project – pending final January-June public input and design settings – will standardize the seven-to-eight-feet wide sidewalks to federal ADA standards along the street’s .4-mile length. Flashing pedestrian signs, “street trees, enhanced lighting” and trash cans will be installed along its five eastbound blocks and seven westbound blocks.
Curb bump outs will be installed at Washington’s intersection with Columbia Street and Wellesley Avenue to “shorten the Washington Street crossing distance, improving pedestrian safety.” This Tory Corner intersection is landmarked by Jimmy Buff’s restaurant and the former Washington Ford building.
The federal Transportation Alternatives grant program is coming from USDOT’s Surface Transportation Block Grant for small scale projects. The grant’s value was not disclosed as of Dec. 16.
The project will improve what is also known as Essex County Road No. 671, connecting County Rd. No 659 – Main Street with CR No. 638 in Orange’s High Street – which opens a question on Orange or Essex County’s parts in the process.
This project includes three Washington intersections – at High, Burnside and Bradford streets – in Orange. It is not known whether that city’s elders and residents were at Dec. 17’s preliminary engineering public workshop here or were otherwise given the opportunity to comment.
A second and final workshop is to be announced before July’s groundbreaking.
SOUTH ORANGE – Patrons were to be getting some – but not all – of the Baird Center’s services here on Dec. 27 in the wake of a Dec. 23 water pipe leak.
The leak, which became evident from 5 Mead St.’s second floor 6 p.m. that Monday, forced the evacuation of the entire building. A remediation contractor was called in to complete the cleanup on or by Dec. 26.
There are Baird parts still closed off as of Dec. 27, starting with the South Orange Public Library’s temporary space. Village Mayor Sheena Collum said that Thursday that the library’s shelving and books had to be moved to allow the floor to dry. SOPL’s website said that the 5 Mead St. space remains closed “until further notice.”
SOPL patrons can use the institution’s other temporary space at 298 Walton Ave. Cardholders with ReBEL and/or BCCLS stickers can use libraries in neighboring towns.
The mayor added that Baird’s elevator subcontractor was to diagnose and fix that lift also on that Thursday. The elevator had broken down for the second time in as many weeks. The center’s HVAC compressor will also be replaced under warranty; there had been heat complaints in the previous 14 days.
The 1890’s-era Baird Center had reopened in April after a $15 million renovation and expansion. SOPL has split itself between Baird and the former Jersey Animal Coalition Center while a $16 million project revamping and connecting its previous to buildings at 45-59 Scotland Rd.
MAPLEWOOD – At least one South Orange-Maplewood School District parent wants the Board of Education, at the latter’s Dec. 19 meeting, to stop searching for school bus companies through its third party process.
Nicole Josey spoke at that Thursday night session that her eight-year-old son has had five different drivers, three different aides, “two early pickups and multiple very late pickups, by the school bus company that has been contracted to serve OMSD’s out-of-district students so far this school year.
Josey and her son’s experience lows had been on Sept. 9, when he was left behind at school for an hour after dismissal and on Nov. 27, when he waited two hours for the bus home. The worst event was on Dec. 13, when he was attacked by an 18-year-old student while waiting for the bus.
“When I received that devastating phone call (Dec. 18), I left in the middle of my work conference and ran to my son’s school,” said Josey. “I’ve written countless emails, gone to meetings, taken off work to transport my son – myself and my husband. The list goes on.
Josey, who is Co-President of the President’s Council, said that she has volunteered on various PTAs and related groups the last seven years but feels that “this district is failing my family and families like mine.” She said that she had heard similar experiences from other families and wants “another bus company” to replace the current outfit’s “unprofessional” owner and staff.
The board, who has been working with SOMSD administration on reviving the district’s courtesy bus program, did not immediately respond to Josey’s plea.
BLOOMFIELD – Relatives and friends have been making funeral arrangements for Vilma Huamani-Centeno while authorities are investigating her fatal accident in Saddle Brook, since Dec. 16.
Huamani-Centeno, 65, said the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, was struck by a car while trying to cross U.S. Rt. 46 East there at about 9:11 p.m. that Sunday. The incident happened from across the Walmart at 189 Rt. 46 West.
Responding Saddle Brook Police officers said they found Huamani-Centeno unresponsive and summoned local EMS. Medics rushed her to a local hospital – where she was declared dead on arrival.
SBPD, with assistance from their East Rutherford and Tenafly colleagues, closed Rt 46 E at its Fifth Avenue intersection while they and the BCPO Fatal Accident Investigation Unit conducted their field study.
The driver, who stayed at the scene and was cooperative, has not been charged as of press time. Huamani-Centeno’s arrangements have not been announced as of press time.
MONTCLAIR – If you want your takeout food order from the township here to include utensils and/or condiments on or after March 1, you will have to ask for them.
The Township Council, in a unanimous Dec. 17 vote, passed their “Skip the Stuff” Ordinance No. 0-24-36. It follows Maplewood, Jersey City, Hoboken and 13 other New Jersey municipalities in the waste reduction move. They are usually linked to bans on Styrofoam and other plastic food containers and single-use bags – which Montclair passed in 2019. (Maplewood passed their law in 2020.)
Restaurants, take out services and other vendors tend to automatically include single-use plastic and/or non-plastic utilities, chopsticks, stirrers and condiment packets with customers’ orders. If customers do not want them or decide not to use them, they either get stored in shelves – or thrown out with the garbage.
New Jersey’s Clean Water Action has been promoting “Skip the Stuff” bills as a means to reduce the waste stream. Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Anderson, who introduced the ordinance in November, said her bill was based on other towns legislation. Montclair Business Improvement District Executive Director Abhishake Shaw, that Tuesday night, endorsed the measure, saying that “Skip the Stuff” will reduce business costs.
A statewide “Skip the Stuff” law, billed A5331 in 2022-23, has been circulating in the General Assembly the last three years. It would follow their May 1, 2022 single-use plastic bag ban.
GLEN RIDGE – Marie Ann Glancy, 94, who died in Clifton Dec. 17, may have lived here with husband Anthony Robert Petillo to raise their two sons and a daughter – but her influence was long felt in East Orange, Bloomfield and Belleville.
Born Marie Ann Petillo in Belleville May 17, 1930, Glancy returned to Belleville High School as one of its physical education teachers. She left BHS to marry Petillo and moved to Glen Ridge to raise sons Robert Eugene and Eugene Edward Glancy and the future Joanne Decker.
Glancy, after raising her children, resumed teaching at East Orange High School as a health instructor and as a Bloomfield College adjunct professor. She retired from both to Clifton in 1990.
Three grandsons, three granddaughters and seven great-grandchildren are also among her survivors. Husband Anthony and son Robert predeceased her.
Bloomfield’s O’Boyle Funeral Home, who posted Glancy’s obituary Dec. 20, has not announced the date of her private service.
BELLEVILLE – Vincent D. Cerca is likely enjoying the holidays as a retired civilian since ending his 30-year career as a police officer here with a Dec. 3 ceremonial “walkout.”
BPD Capt. Cerca walked out of the Public Safety Building at Noon that Tuesday to the applause of colleagues, relatives, friends and dignitaries. Cerca, who had just received congratulatory remarks, was then driven to his Valley home in the back of a marked squad car.
Cerca’s being among “Belleville’s Finest” coincided with working out of the 1994-built Public Safety Building his whole career. The modern structure is connected to the 1913-built Belleville Town Hall.
Cerca, who retired as Patrol A Commander, was promoted from sergeant in 2016.
His successor, likely to be promoted from the 110-member force, is to be announced.
NUTLEY – Bergen County law enforcers and prosecutors are asking the public’s help in finding more information on a college professor that they had arrested on sexual assault charges here on Dec. 20.
Prof. Zameer Buksh, who named Newark on his LinkedIn profile, was arrested by the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office and Bergen Community College Police on charges of criminal sexual contact and harassment by offensive touching. He was released on summonses to return to Hackensack’s N.J. Superior Court later this month.
BCC, as of Dec. 22, indefinitely suspended Buksh, who has been a six-year instructor on business administration and accounting. He is also a business law teacher at Eastwick College’s Nutley campus; it is not known whether Eastwick has also suspended him.
Buksh is also a professor in St. Peter’s University Graduate School of Management/MBA Program in Jersey City. He has been an adjunct business professor at Essex County College’s Newark campus 2017-18.
BCC PD called in the county sheriff’s officers after a student came into their Paramus main campus station on Dec. 11. She said that Baksh had kissed her on the cheek, made “inappropriate comments” and grabbed her genital area earlier that Wednesday.
Those who have information may contact BCS Det. Samantha Oh at (201) 336-4546.
