TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Although the Newark Public Schools Board of Education has passed a $1.575 Billion 2025-26 preliminary school budget in recent record time March 27 – but its members may be keeping their fingers crossed.
The board approved the $1,575,742,398 spending plan, 6-0, that Wednesday night at the Barringer High School auditorium. The approval is usually finalized before Memorial Day so it could pass Essex County Superintendent of Schools’ muster and be dialed into the State of New Jersey budget. The proposed budget used to annually go up before voters in April – but the state no longer requires that except for some specific conditions.
State aid, which makes up 84.2 percent of this budget, comes out to $1,328,372.062. It is a six percent, or $75,064787, increase from the 2024-25 budget. Newark is among the 31 “neediest” public school districts as designated for a “thorough and efficient education” by the Supreme Court of New Jersey through its “Abbott v. Burke” rulings.
That $75 million is what the Gov. Phil Murphy (D-Rumson) Administration has allocated to NPS based on the latest school funding formula. The education aid for the bulk of the state’s 564 public districts, however, may be subject to revision by state legislators towards their getting the 2025-26 state budget approved and signed on or before June 30.
Newark property owners are still subject to a school property tax “contribution.” That school tax is $143,902,866 – a two percent increase from the last budget.
The average homeowner’s 2025-26 tax bill comes out to $2,123.94 – or $530.99 per quarterly tax bill. That average is based on the average house assessed at $190,334. Please note that, due to the city’s current revaluation process, 2026-27’s property tax may vary.
IRVINGTON – Joshua Evans, Irvington High School Class of 2009, came to The Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village’s ballroom March 23 to accept his induction into the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
“Evans was an All-Star State Quarterback and two-time Meet of Champions hurdler in his senior year,” stated the NJSIAA. “He is the only athlete to pull off that football/track double.”
Evans, who is also enshrined in the IHS Athletic HoF, won both the 55-meter and the 110-meter hurdles in the state sanctioning body’s 2009 indoor and outdoor Meet of Champions. The Blue Knights jumper and relay runner helped Irvington to the North Jersey Group III state championship.
As a quarterback and defensive safety in his junior and senior years, Evans rushed for 1,403 yards and 14 touchdowns. He completed 123 of 190 pass attempts for 1,856 yards and 18 touchdowns. In his senior year alone, he made 78 tackles and seven interceptions.
Evans used his University of Florida athletic scholarship to play for the Gators 2009-12. He completed 154 tackles while playing 24 of UoF’s 47 games. The NFL Jacksonville Jaguars made him their sixth draft pick in 2013, leading to completing 90 tackles out of the 47 he had played into 2016.
Born June 5, 1991, Evans retired from professional football Aug. 16, 2021.
Evans joined athletes Anthony Ashnault (South Plainfield High School, track), Carol Lewis (Willingboro, track), Francesca Russo (Wayne Valley, fencing) and Nick Vena (Morristown, track) plus coaches Ken Frank (Toms River South, baseball) and Deanna Knobloch (Moorestown, lacrosse) as the NJSIAA Class of 2025.
EAST ORANGE / ORANGE – An Orange man has started his 65-year debt to society since a State Superior Court – Newark judge had sentenced him March 19 in the 2022 shooting of an East Orange on Brick Church ShopRite property.
Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin handed the 65-year prison sentence on Darienne Murray, 37, for murdering Melja T. Oliver, 37. Murray must serve at least 56 years and two months in a state prison before being considered for parole under the No Early Release Act.
A Superior Court petit jury found Murray guilty of murder, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession thereof for an unlawful purpose Oct. 2. The jury deliberated for 80 minutes at the end of a three-week trial.
East Orange police officers and, later, the ECPO Homicide Task Force, responded to a shooting report at 533 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. / Main St. June 2, 2022. They found Oliver lying on a sidewalk alongside the supermarket with a gunshot wound to his head.
Oliver was rushed to University Hospital, where he was declared dead at 1:31 a.m. June 3. Oliver, who was born Feb. 7, 1985, was given last rites at Cotton’s Funeral Home-Newark and Hillside’s Evergreen Cemetery June 18, 2022.
A joint investigation led to Murray’s arrest June 8, 2022 and had since been detained at Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility. Their probe found that Murray had shot Oliver after they had an argument. They did not know each other before then.
It is not clear why Murray’s sentencing was postponed from Jan. 6.
WEST ORANGE – Those who use internal combustion engine blowers and mowers, since a pair of township elders’ actions here March 21 and 25, can keep using them beyond April 15 – but how long this year afterwards may be subject to a third ban attempt in 2025.
The Township Council, on a required 4-1 supermajority vote March 25, failed to override Mayor Susan McCartney’s March 21 veto of the council’s previously approved partial and full ban bill March 11. It is the second such bill vetoed by Mayor McCartney in the past year.
What the council had passed this time was a two-step ban bill. Using petroleum-fueled blowers and mowers by residents, landscapers and the municipality would have been allowed March 1-April 14 and Nov. 1-Dec. 31. The ban would be permanent Jan. 1 onwards – except for gas turbine-engined and electric powered mowers and blowers.
McCartney, in her veto, said that the township did not have the technology, including time-stamped photos of the supposed offense incidents. The mayor added that the bill would be a disproportionate burden on senior citizens, local businesses and the West Orange Public Schools district.
March 25’s council override attempt was made after hearing from residents and landscapers’ public comments that Tuesday night. Councilwoman Susan Scarpa, citing WOPS’ grappling with a projected $11 million 2025-26 school budget deficit, said that “this is not the time” for the ban.
Council President Joe Krakiovak and members Michelle Casalino, Joyce Rudin and Asmeret Ghebremichael voted against the override. Casalino said that the township should wait for a statewide ban. Krakiovak expressed ambivalence; that the ban would be healthy but expensive for residents.
SOUTH ORANGE – Outgoing Councilwoman Karen Hartshorn Hilton, said Village Mayor Sheena Collum March 26, will turn her seat over to former councilman Steve Schnall at their April 14 meeting here at SOPAC.
Schnall may be getting the “SuperSub” nickname since the former two-term elder filled in for Robert Zuckerman’s last six months starting on Aug. 22, 2022. Trustee Zuckerman had moved to work in Asbury Park.
Hilton said on Feb. 13 that she and her husband are returning to their native Massachusetts in April. The 30-year villager was elected to her second term, alongside “HHBSO2021” running mates and first-time candidates Braynard “Bobby” Brown and Bill Haskins May 11, 2021.
Hilton will not be able to take advantage of the “extra” six months the state had added to her term. The State Legislature – by granting the village’s permission to move their May nonpartisan municipal elections on to the Nov. 4 General Election ballot – added a half-year each to Hilton, Haskins and Brown’s terms.
The move means that there will be no May 13, 2025 municipal elections here or anywhere in “Local Talk” territory.
Whether Schnall, Haskins or Brown will run for re-election Nov. 4 remains an open question as of press time. They have until June 3 to file their signature petitions to make that General Election ballot.
MAPLEWOOD – Township police, on March 22, said that they have levied additional charges against a resident accused of shooting at an apartment by the Boyden and Elmwood avenues intersection March 2.
Niles Robinson, 46, as of March 13, now faces counts of second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, third-degree criminal mischief and attempted aggravated assault and fourth-degree possession of a high capacity magazine.
The above counts are in addition to the unlawful possession of a weapon charge he was arrested for on 10:20 p.m. March 2.
MPD considered Robinson as “a person of interest” regarding a shooting at 7:10 p.m. March 2. Officers found ballistic evidence, including a bullet lodged in an apartment wall.
Robinson, who was taken overnight to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility, has since been released.
BLOOMFIELD – This year’s Bloomfield Cruisers Wednesday Cruise Nights will be confined to the Universal Technical Institute at 1515 Broad St. in August, ending a 25-year downtown Town Centre presence.
The Cruisers and Bloomfield Center Alliance had been collaborating together to host and run the motor vehicle display along the first block of Broad Street since 2000. They, UTI, landlord Shelbourne Properties and Bloomfield Township Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs had been holding August Cruise Nights the last five years at the trade school’s Brookdale section parking lot the last four years.
On March 31, the cruiser club broke the news that the BCA will not be producing their part of Cruise Nights this year. The Town Centre-oriented non-profit group’s board of directors said that they found the joint event low on their expenses versus return on investment ratio.
The club is replacing their downtown shows with to-be-announced “fun runs” for June 11, and July 9 and 23. The now-Hot August Nights are to be held Aug. 6, 13, 20 and 27.
Other cruiser events – including the annual June 7 pig roast, Dec. 5 holiday toy drive and party and Dec. 6 Santa’s parade of classic cars – are also on tap.
The Bloomfield Centre Alliance will continue to run its own downtown events while promoting store facade improvements and streetscaping.
MONTCLAIR – A motorcade of mostly United States Postal Service vehicles came to Watchung Plaza at 8:30 a.m. March 21 and stopped near the plaza’s rock with a plaque affixed — like they have done on or near that date for the last 30 years.
The drivers and passengers, led by National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 342 President Raheem Payne, left their vehicles and converged around the stone and plaque. Payne laid a wreath and began to talk about the five people who were shot by another postal worker at the nearby former Watchung Post Office Branch on Fairfield Street.
The assailant herded five people – postal workers Scott Walinsky, 41, and Ernie Spruill, 36, and customers Robert S. Leslie, 37, George Lomaga, 59, and Dave Grossman, 45 – to the back of the storefront office at the close of business 4 p.m. March 21, 1995 after taking $5,000 from the cash register. He then shot each one in the back of the head before fleeing.
Walinsky, Spruill, Leslie and Lomaga died. Grossman, the sole survivor, gave his recollection notes while bedside, helping law enforcement to locate and arrest the shooter.
“These four men were more than victims of senseless violence,” said Payne. “They were fathers, sons, friends, and colleagues; their lives matter and their absence is still deeply felt by those who knew and loved them.” Grossman, added Payne, “carries with him the weight of both loss and resilience.”
The shooter – Christopher Green, then 29, of East Orange – pleaded guilty. He is now serving consecutive double life in prison sentences since Sept. 22, 1995.
BELLEVILLE – The debuting Belleville High School girls flag football team got their spring season off to a losing start, falling to a more experienced West Orange team, 34-6, here at School 8 Sports Field Monday night.
The Buccaneers are the latest “Local Talk” high school to add a girls flag football team, joining the likes of Newark’s American History and Barringer, Irvington, South Orange-Maplewood’s Columbia, and Nutley. They are among 27 teams who have been added to the NJSIAA Super Football, Big Central and North Jersey Interscholastic conferences.
What started out as a high school club activity two seasons ago has developed into a five-week regular season and a May-June playoff schedule. Semifinal games are to be played at Clifton June 7 followed by the championship round at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford June 14.
The NFL New York Jets team, who shares MetLife with the Giants, has been driving Northern New Jersey’s flag football pilot program. The NFL said they have 18,000 leagues playing across the nation. The International Olympic Committee had recently told the NFL and USA Football that it had added flag football as a sport in the Summer games in Los Angeles for 2028.
In the near-term, the NJSIAA is anticipated to formally sanction girls flag football next year. That sanctioning body’s greenlight will create an official state tournament for 2027.
This year’s Buccaneers are being coached by Brian Antab – who is also the varsity boys head football coach. They are scheduled to play: *6 p.m. April 9 at Millburn; *4:15 p.m. April 15 here against Livingston; *5 p.m. April 22 at Irvington; *4 p.m. April 29 against Columbia.
NUTLEY – When the Feb. 28 NJSIAA Nutley-Payne Tech boys basketball first round playoff game’s final buzzer sounded in Newark, it was for the end of Nutley’s season – and the end of that school’s era.
Head Coach Robert “Bob” Harbison, walked off the court with the Maroon Raiders after a 91-41 loss that Wednesday – and, after 26 years, walked into athletic retirement. He had said before the playoffs that his last game would be however high his team would climb into the North 3 Section 2 championship rounds.
Harbison and the Maroon Raiders, who amassed a 15-10 regular season win-loss record, had made the Super Essex Conference post-season five straight times His squad also won this season’s Charlie Dolan Holiday Tournament in Kearny.
The walk off was the latest step in a three-year “long goodbye.” He had stepped down as 22-year head baseball coach with a 288-195 record, making five Greater Newark Tournament finals in the old Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League and winning one GNT title.
2022 also saw Harbison step down as an assistant football coach under the late legendary head coach Steve DiGregorio. Bob and Steve mentored son Matthew Harbison as their quarterback in 2021.
Bob Harbison is himself Nutley born and bred. The NHS Class of 1984 graduate who lettered in baseball, basketball and football returned to coach 30 of his 42-year career here. The now-New Jersey City College finance degree holder was an assistant basketball coach for Bloomfield along the way home.
Harbison remains in NHS classrooms as a special education math teacher. (The Payne Tech Lions were edged by Mendham, 56-57 in March 4’s second round.)
