TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – It appears that six-block-long Branford Place downtown will be further transformed with new construction now that the Newark Landmarks and Historical Preservation Commission has approved on April 2 the demolition of a 105-year-old building here in the Four Corners Historic Zone.
The Commission, at its April 2 virtual meeting, approved the demolition of 48-54 Branford Place – also known as The Branford Building. The two-story building on the place’s south side had been the site of a restaurant and of a 103-space parking garage.
Replacing about 99 percent of the Branford Building will be a 347-foot-tall, 32-story tower by DeRosa Group’s Branford Studios LLC. Branford Studios will house ground floor retail/commercial space and a north end parking garage entrance, parking spaces on floors two through six and 441 residential units floors seven-32. The limestone ‘Branford Building” nameplate will be among the old structure’s recycled masonry features.
The LHPC oversees any modifications and/or new construction in the neighborhood surrounding The Four Corners zone – Broad Street/Ken Gibson Boulevard and Market Street. Its focus here, like with other historic zones, is on whether existing buildings can be saved.
The Branford Building, said Russell DeRosa and project manager Jeff Ling, cannot be saved without enormous expense. Having the existing building support the tower with more pillars, they said, would inhibit parking space. Water damage, they said, made the existing building too far gone.
This project on the L-shaped .44 acre lot is a block east of the Essex County Wynona Lipman Family Court Building and the Halo near-twin apartment complex under construction. Construction resumed on the 42-story, 1,075-unit Halo Tower March 15 after a 10-month dispute between the developer and its lender was resolved.
IRVINGTON – Hensworth Ogle’s unintended last trip on Earth was from the Cotton Funeral Service at 125 Bergen St. to the Fairmount Cemetery and Crematorium at 620 Central Ave, both in Newark, April 26.
Ogle’s last intended trip was to start at East Orange’s Brick Church station April 4 but he never got to wherever he was going. He was fatally struck by NJTransit Morris & Essex Line Train No. 424 at about 2:06 p.m. that Friday.
Train No. 424, an eastbound local from Gladstone to Hoboken, had been scheduled to stop at Brick Church at that time. It left Gladstone at 12:52 p.m. and was to arrive in Hoboken Terminal at 2:29. It is presumed that Ogle was on the eastbound platform although an NJTransit spokesman first identified him only as “a male trespasser.”
Service at Brick Church was suspended during NJTransit Police and ECPO’s field investigation. Ogle was declared dead at the scene. NJT said that none of 424’s 100 passengers and crew were injured but it is not known whether they were transferred to a later train. NJTransit, at 4:38 that Friday, said that the M&E was running with 30 minute residual delays.
ECPO had identified the struck man as Ogle, 52, April 10 after contacting his relatives. Cotton had little information on Ogle other than his being born Jan. 7, 1973. “Local Talk” extends our condolences to his relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbors.
EAST ORANGE – The Warren County Prosecutor’s Office said that they have been holding a city man, accused of driving and crashing a school bus on Interstate 80 while drunk April 19, at their county correctional center in Belvidere.
State Police troopers who responded to an accident report on I-80 West, Milepost 3.0, in Knowlton Township 7:45 a.m. that Saturday. They said they found an “unmarked” school bus “with heavy front end damage” in the highway’s left lane. They came aboard to find its driver -Pierre R. Tranquilis, 47, of East Orange – with another adult and 25 boys on board.
Troopers told WCPO detectives that Tranquilis “showed signs of impairment” and that he had failed the standard field sobriety tests that were given to him. NJSP said he had refused to tell troopers how much alcohol he had consumed. They also found “an open bottle of beer placed behind the passenger side front tire.”
Authorities told WFMZ-69 Television that there was one child who had suffered “a minor injury.” The other 25 people were transferred to a similar bus presumably from the same unidentified company.
The passengers’ destination was said to be “to a sporting event.” Other details, including who the group was and where they came from, remain undisclosed.
Tranquilis is being held on charges of DWI, having an open alcohol container on board, second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, third-degree endangering another person and fourth-degree assault by auto. He has had an appearance before State Superior Court-Belevidere by April 22.
ORANGE – Those who were about to enter or leave Orange City Hall or were passing by 29 North Day St. just after 4 p.m. April 24 missed a potentially serious auto accident here.
The Orange Police Department said that a four door silver Nissan Sentra heading north on North Day that Thursday afternoon lost control and landed on City Hall’s front lawn, felling a utility light pole and dislodging trash can along the way.
Although there were no reported injuries from the mishap as of 4 p.m. April 25, the Nissan had suffered a dislodged front bumper, a folded-up hood, a damaged left front A-pillar by the driver’s side door and a deployed airbag. It was removed by a city-contracted tow truck.
Arriving OPD and fire fighters promptly closed North Day between Main and William streets, diverting traffic including NJTransit No. 21 buses. A PSE&G work crew arrived to re-erect the downed pole.
City Hall’s front lawn, which now bears deep tire tracks, used to have a natural tree at its center until 2021. Originally Orange High School’s second building in 1871, it had been city hall for decades. Its basement police station and jail moved to the old Tremont Avenue School in 1973 and had extensions built on its south and western sides in 1978.
WEST ORANGE – Local and state firefighters extinguished a brush fire here in Eagle Rock Reservation – but not before it had burned 18 acres – April 22-23.
A West Orange Fire Department spokesman said they got their first call from the reservation’s northwest parking lot at about 10:39 p.m. that Tuesday. The first fire units and Essex County Sheriff’s Office patrol cars found the blaze another half-mile northwest in the reservation, prompting mutual aid calls to the State Forest Fire Service and, through the Essex County Mutual Aid Coordinator, the Verona Fire Department.
WOFD was able to move three of its pickup trucks near the fire and created fire breaks with department-supplied rakes, shovels and backpack leaf blowers. They were joined by three State Forest Service brush trucks and a VFD unit to make more fire breaks. They were helped by Mother nature supplying a stream as a natural break.
Sheriff’s officers deployed a drone to help direct firefighting.
Although the fire burned itself out by 1:40 p.m., SFFS stayed on scene until dawn April 23 to extinguish any rekindling. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo (D-Roseland) closed the entire 804-acre reservation here, Verona and Montclair that Wednesday as a precaution.
SOUTH ORANGE – Grove Contracting, of Verona, and its to-be-hired subcontractors will be rolling up their sleeves on the South Orange Public Library Connector Project, now that the Village Council has awarded them the construction contract.
The Council awarded the $14.1 million award bid to Grove with a unanimous vote here April 14. The project will build a two-story connecting wing with an atrium between SOPL’s current 1968 building with its 1895-96 Connett Library building.
This project is actually the second phase of a renovation and expansion project that has been going on since 2023. SOPL was subdivided to part of the Baird Center and the former Jersey Animal Coalition shelter so that interior renovations can be made.
SOPL and the village brought back the Connett Library after its 1974-2018 tenant, the EIES audio book reading service, went out of business. The older building was named after longtime library benefactor Eugene Connett, who died in 1906.
The renovation and connection is partially bankrolled by a $6.5 million New Jersey State Library Construction Bond Fund grant. That fund has partially funded the new West Orange and Maplewood public libraries plus improvements to the Newark, East Orange and Glen Ridge libraries.
MAPLEWOOD – The township’s police detectives are looking for the public’s help for more information on the suspect who robbed a Springfield Avenue filling station and assaulted one of its employees April 20.
Maplewood Police Officers who responded to a robbery call at the Phillips 66 station at Springfield and Millburn avenues met an employee there just after 7 a.m. that Saturday. The station had of late been a Union 76 station.
The employee said that “a black man dressed in all black clothing entered 2018 Springfield Ave. on or before 7 a.m. The suspect then took between $300 and $400 from a cash register.
The employee said he tried to intervene but was punched in the chest by the suspect before the latter left on foot towards Union on Laurel Avenue. The worker declined medical attention.
Anyone with information is to call MPD Det. Isetts at (973) 761-7925 or wisetts@maplewoodnj.gov.
BLOOMFIELD – Two single family home fires two days apart left three residents and a firefighter injured here April 22-23.
The later fire, 2:58 p.m. April 23 at 52 Laurel Ave., injured a resident and brought units from six neighboring departments to the scene or to cover Bloomfield stations. BFD Chief Louis Venezia said that the first units responded to a car fire in the back of the house – and found flames reaching the house.
East Orange – whose station was closest to Laurel Avenue – Belleville and Nutley supplied mutual aid. Units from West Orange, Montclair and Verona covered stations.
The one resident suffered minor injuries and refused medical attention.
Three residents and a firefighter were injured in the aftermath of a 12:47 a.m. April 22 fire at 102 Woodland Rd., whose blaze was visible to passing Garden State Parkway motorists. Venezia said that the 2.5-story house blaze started on the rear porch deck and spread.
Bloomfield firefighters, joined by colleagues from Belleville and Nutley, helped bring the fire under control by 1:45 a.m. Units from East Orange, Montclair and Clifton brought station coverage.
Bloomfield Mayor Jenny Mundel said that three people were taken to the Clara Maass Medical Center for treatment and/or observation. Two residents suffered “serious but non-life-threatening injuries” and an unidentified injured firefighter was taken for evaluation.
MONTCLAIR – A suspended Montclair Public Schools teacher is to enter his plea before a State Superior Court judge in a May 2 arraignment since a grand jury had returned two bills of indictment on him in early April.
The grand jury, after reviewing the ECPO-submitted case against Amir Doctry since March 21, indicted him on two counts of third-degree making terroristic threats. A grand jury hands down an indictment, indicating that there is enough evidence to send a case to trial.
Doctry is accused of ranting against Northeast Elementary School Principal Dr. Joseph Putrino on social media Jan. 12. Putrino had police remove him for previous “erratic behavior.” Montclair Public Schools closed their buildings as a precaution Jan. 13 until Doctry was arrested that day in Philadelphia.
Putrino, who MPS assigned him to Northeast since Oct. 2, 2023, had been put on administrative leave from Glenfield Middle School Sept. 2, 2020. His reassignment came after a judge upheld a March 2023 arbitrator’s ruling to have the district reinstate the principal.
Six African American Glenfield teachers, in their 2020-updated discrimination suit against the district, cited Putrino’s Sept. 1 screening of comedian Josh Pray’s “Appreciate Teachers – A Father’s Apology,” on that “Back to School” day. The late Dr. Jonathan Ponds stopped Putrino’s airing after the first two minutes.
Doctry’s rants reportedly included, “Dr. Racist Joe is dead – he dies tonight.”
BELLEVILLE – The Township Council paused several bills – including one involving the proposed replacement of Belleville Hall and the other a Fairway Park improvement project change order – here at its April 22 meeting.
Mayor Michael Melham and the council voted to table Resolution 72-2025, which would have greenlighted Fairway Park Improvement Phase 2. The tabling came after Township CFO Frank DiMaria discussed the cost of the park’s “Historic Soil Remediation.”
Fairway Park, south of Joralemon Avenue and The Third River bank, is in the midst of a $975,000 conversion to an “all-inclusive park.” The plan will provide recreational opportunities for people of all abilities above meeting federal ADA compliance.
Fairway is to have swing sets and seesaws that everyone can use and, one playground apparatus, a transfer platform for wheelchair users. A new baseball diamond, basketball court and an upgraded community garden are also included.
Resolution 29-2025, a financial agreement between the township and the redeveloper of 260 Washington, was meanwhile quietly withdrawn. The redeveloper intends to replace the 1870 Old Belleville Hall and Elks Lodge next door – both vacant – with a five-story apartment building.
There was also little comment on the council’s withdrawing Resolution 71-2025, which would have awarded a grant writing contract to Gabriella V. Bennett-Meany. Bennett-Meany is currently the Belleville Board of Education Trustees’ president.
NUTLEY – A township man who was staying at a Lyndhurst motel April 17 has been held in Hackensack’s Bergen County Jail since that Thursday night on assault, attempted assault and intoxication charges.
Lyndhurst Police Detective Capt. and public information officer Vincent Auteri said two officers had responded to a 911 call of a person acting erratically at the Winslow Motel, 204 Rutherford St., at 7:30 p.m. They arrived to find an erratic shirtless man on the second floor balcony who noticed police and ducked into an open motel room.
The two officers carefully walked to the second floor where the man – identified as Steven Tantalean, 34, of Nutley – bolted out of the room. Tantalean advanced towards one of the officers with clenched fists despite police orders to desist. The two officers tackled Tantalean to the floor and, with a third arriving officer, arrested him.
Police called Lyndhurst EMS to the scene after they had noticed “signs of drug use,” including his admitted recent consumption of crack cocaine.
The medics also treated the motel clerk for a facial injury. The employee said that the suspect had hit his face, swiped his personal keys and tried to enter the receptionist room.
Tantalean, after treatment at Oradell’s New Bridge Medical Center, was charged with being under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, resisting arrest, second-degree robbery, third-degree aggravated assault of a police officer and burglary and fourth-degree obstruction.
