TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Those who think that non-profit groups can replace lost federal funding with other public and/or private sources may be getting a test case here – while it lasts – with the Essex County Family Justice Center.
The center – housed within Essex County’s Nelson Place government complex and which annually serves over 11,300 domestic violence survivors and their children with social services – announced April 30 that it faces “imminent closure” if they are unable to replace federal funding.
ECFJC, continued the announcement, said it has lost about 87 percent of its operational budget funding since January. Interim center director Elizabeth Guerrero said that many of the federal funding sources were withheld, frozen, suspended or not renewed since Jan. 20.
President Donald J. Trump had issued executive orders to freeze funding programs as being “under review” or cutting them outright for not being aligned with his administration’s priorities. Some of the funding restrictions or shut off have been the result of federal personnel having been dismissed through the Department of Government Efficiency quasi-agency.
ECFJC, since 2010, have been providing direct or allied social services for victims of domestic violence and their children. Its clients – mostly women from Newark, Irvington, East Orange and Orange – have no resources when they leave their abusive partners.
The New Jersey Citizens Action office in Nearby Halsey Street is sharing the center’s pain center. NJAC said it had to end its fair housing program March 31 due to the federal government’s funding drying up.
IRVINGTON – A township man and woman were respectively killed and injured after a five-car collision on the New Jersey Turnpike early on April 26.
The 45-year-old woman driver, according to New Jersey State Police Sgt. Charles Marchan, was driving south on the Turnpike’s inner roadway when her Ford F-250 pickup truck rear ended a Ford E-350 pickup in the right-hand lane by Milepost 70.1 in Cranbury, between Exits 8A and 8, at 4:45 a.m. that Saturday.
Although the E-350 pulled on the right shoulder, the woman parked her F-250 8 on the right travel lane. It was then that the Mercedes SUV of Ruis Parral Antonio, 38, ran into the E-350’s rear end. Antonio parked his SUV in the right travel lane and both he and the fellow Irvingtonian got out of their cars “and stood in the travel lanes.”
A Ford SUV, driven by a 33-year-old Bridgeport, Conn. driver, then struck both township drivers and the Mercedes. A Toyota SUV also struck the Mercedes – but the injuries were already suffered.
The female F-250 motorist was admitted to a local hospital with serious injuries. Antonio was declared dead at the scene.A funeral service was held for Ruis Marbel Parral Antonio May 3 in the Alvarez Funeral Home-Passaic. The Aug. 1, 1985 Mexican native also had a Paterson address. The State Police is continuing its investigation.
EAST ORANGE – A pair of East Orange Fire Department ladder trucks hoisted the American Flag above Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard/Main Street before the fire department headquarters here May 1 for the late Martin J. Lamb.
Lamb was being given firefighters honors that Thursday morning while his remains were being taken from Cotton Funeral Home’s Orange parlor, where his service was held, and his internment at Bloomfield’s Glendale Cemetery. Lamb, 56, died here April 18. His last earthly trip included his procession pausing under the flag at 468 Dr. King Blvd for a moment of silence.
Lamb was a 21-year member of “East Orange’s Bravest,” from being a fire academy graduate who was sworn into service Jan. 27, 2004. He was promoted from a line firefighter to eventually the department’s Medical Office Unit administrator.
Born Feb. 1, 1969, Martin Bryant Lamb was a lifelong East Orangeite. The Clifford J. Scott Class of 1987 graduate made the 50th anniversary of the “Tartan” yearbook, marking the school’s founding golden anniversary.
The Rev. Edward R. Allen, Pastor of New Hope Baptist Church, was officiant and Joshua Nelson was organist at the Ashland section resident’s service. Condolences included those from the city’s FMBA Local 223.
ORANGE – A chain of events that started with city police officers arresting a school bus driver at a Doddtown intersection in 2018 has practically ended in a Newark courtroom April 28 with the bus company owners being barred or monitored for the next 10 years.
A-1 Elegant Tour owner Shelim Khalique, 55, of Wayne, had pleaded guilty to second-degree making false representations on a government contract and fourth-degree falsifying public records before State Superior Court Judge Michael J. Ravin. In exchange, Khalique and A-1 Elegant, of Paterson, are barred from seeking government contracts for 10 years. He is to pay a $250,000 anti-corruption profiteering penalty and enter a Pre-Trial Intervention Program for two years.
Shelim’s brother, Jwel Khalique, 45, of Totowa, is to have American Star Transportation, LLC, of Paterson, be subjected to weekly independent monitoring at company expense. That monitoring includes weekly lists of bus drivers and bus aides or monitors, their drug test, driving, background checks and certification records and J. Khalique’s signed confirmation statement available to the state and county school superintendents.
The Khaliques, according to Attorney General Matt Platkin, more than shared A-1 Elegant and American Star assets and personnel. They were charged in 2020 for deceiving contracted school districts that they had qualified drivers to transport school children in Essex, Passaic, Hudson and Union counties.
Orange police officers had stopped a standard yellow school bus with its driver, aide and a nine-year-old boy aboard at Thomas Boulevard and Dodd Street at 8:40 a.m. Sept. 21, 2018. They had stopped the A-1 bus on reports that it had collided with several cars, two utility poles and a fire hydrant from as far east as Park and North Arlington avenues in East Orange.
OPD summoned local EMS to treat the boy for a leg injury and the 51-year-old driver from Paterson for not being able to stand upright. The aide said that the driver was nodding off. The driver, after local treatment, was handed 27 summonses by Orange and East Orange police, including for driving while intoxicated and under license suspension and child endangerment.
A subsequent investigation found the records improprieties with A-1 Elegant and American Star, leading to contract cancellations by Paterson and other school districts.
WEST ORANGE – Township elders and administrators have been looking for an alternative planning consultant to handle West Orange’s affordable housing obligations since the Township Council turned down hiring a Montclair firm April 22.
A resolution which would have named the Nishuane Group as West Orange’s affordable housing planner was turned down by the Council 2-3. Nishuane Group, which was one of two firms responding to the township’s request for proposals, may be better known for assisting Orange with its redevelopment zones and master zoning plan.
Nishuane – in the resolution recommended by Planning and Development Zoning Director and Zoning Official Geniece Gary-Adams – would have drawn up a plan for submission to the state Council on Affordable Housing on or before June 30. The state Department of Community Affairs is seeking all applicable municipalities to submit plans or challenge the allotments set by COAH for 2025-35 before July 1.
Gary-Adams said pre-vote that the DCA could impose an affordable housing builders’ remedy without township consent and/or impose fines on West Orange should it or other municipalities miss the June 30 deadline.
Council President Jose Krakoviak and Councilwoman Asmeret Ghebremicael voted for Nishuane. Colleagues Michele Casalino, Joyce Rudin and Susan Scarpa prevailed with their “No” votes.
“The contract doesn’t make sense,” said Rudin. “It’s outlining $500,000 for a plan and, after that, no designated list of responsibilities and, yet, itemized services we’d be paying for. What’s beyond our control is that we don’t have a full-time in-house planner.”
When Krakoviak asked Gary-Adams to revisit the other RFQ bid, the zoning director said that it would have to be a consultant; time has run out on hiring a full-time planner before June 30.
SOUTH ORANGE – If you are still using a gas leaf blower powered by an internal combustion engine in the village, put it away – now – and keep it stowed until Sept. 30.
Village elders have posted a reminder April 29 that gas leaf blowers are prohibited from use 12:01 a.m. May 1 through 11:59 p.m. Sept. 30. That ban applies to residents, property owners and commercial landscapers.
Electric motored blowers may be used but between hours: Weekdays 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. Operating on weekends and presumably major holidays are 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Violators are subject to a $500 first offense fine and a second $1,000 fine. Third and subsequent fines are $1,000 and risk a blower operating ban by the village.
Those in Maplewood have been under a perpetual ban, “except for a turbo (turbine) blower” since Jan. 1, 2023. Turbine, turbo or “Buffalo” blowers may be used May 1-Sept. 30 7 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, 7-3 Saturdays and 9-3 Sundays. Electric blowers are welcome year-round 7-6 weekdays and 9-5 Saturdays but are banned on Sundays.
Gas blowers are currently banned in West Orange April 17-Oct. 31, allowed Nov. 1-Dec. 31 but will join Maplewood in perpetual banning on Jan. 1, 2026. Montclair has also banned gas blower use since Oct. 15, 2023. Glen Ridge silences gas blowers May 15 -Oct. 15 with specified exceptions.
MAPLEWOOD / BLOOMFIELD – Respective private and public entities in their respective towns have their Lead Service Line Replacement Programs underway.
In Maplewood, service provider New Jersey American Water and contractor Montana Construction, of Lodi, have broken ground here in the College Hill and Hilton sections. NJAW, which has posted notices early last month, is directing Montana with their post-April 15 findings.
In Bloomfield, the township’s LSLRP of 798 lead or galvanized lines have been recognized with an April 23 award from the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities at the latter’s summit. The township’s engineering department has recently passed replacing 1,300 lead or galvanized lines – or over two thirds of Bloomfield’s over 3,400 such lines.
Both townships are complying with the DEP’s mandate to eliminate water utility or water customer-owned lead and galvanized lines statewide on or by 2031. Municipalities have been drawing from the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
NJAW intends to eliminate 2,000 LSLs and to test another 3,000. The work is estimated to run into 2026. The regional water utility is using Montana, one of several major contractors from Newark’s 2018-21 LSLRP.
Bloomfield Mayor Jenny Mundell said she had learned that the township’s LSLRP effort received one of five nationwide 2025 AQUARIUS Recognition Program for Exceptional Projects by the US EPA at CIFA’s Water Infrastructure Summit. Bloomfield and the other four recipients were selected from 16 nominees.
The award hailed Bloomfield replacing 798 lead lines from the first 1,600 lines they had inspected. The township intends to continue their replacement program through additional public and/or private funding.
MONTCLAIR – Locals and baseball fans have been invited to the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center 4 p.m. May 12 to celebrate what would have been the legendary Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, philosopher and longtime Montclarion’s 100th birthday.
Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Bob Costas is to host the celebration by Berra family members, dignitaries from MLB, Montclair, Montclair State University, NJIT; and friends and neighbors of the former Upper Montclair resident.
Both Costas and Berra have St. Louis, Mo.as part in their formative years. Lawrence Peter Berra was born May 12, 1925 in St. Louis, was raised in the Hill section, learned baseball and was offered a contract by the St. Louis Cardinals Costa was hired by KMOX 1120 AM to host its “Open Line” call-in show and cover Missouri Tigers and The Spirits of St. Louis ABA basketball games.
Berra turned down the Cardinals’ offer, served in the U.S. Navy in World War Two and was called up by the New York Yankees in 1946. The catcher appeared in 14 World Series, won 10 of them, was a 15-time All-Star and three-time MVP. He was Yankees player-manager in 1963, brought the New York Mets to the 1973 World Series and last managed for the Houston Astros.
Berra, 90, died in his sleep of natural causes Sept. 22, 2015 in a West Caldwell assisted living facility he and his wife Carmen had moved to in their last years. The museum, learning center and minor league baseball stadium had opened on the Little Falls part of MSU’s campus in 1998.
The celebration is to end with a “surprise announcement of a major community-based initiative” to be held on or near Berra’s Sept. 22 passing date.
BELLEVILLE – Renters in eight luxury apartment buildings here, Newark, Orange, Maplewood and Bloomfield may be checking their rental bills in light of N.J. Attorney General Matt Platkin taking a Texas-based software company and 10 major landlords to U.S. District Court on collusion and rent fixing charges April 23.
Platkin filed the charges against software provider RealPage and 10 property owners or management companies in concert with the state Division of Consumer Affairs on violations of the U.S. Sherman Antitrust Act and the N.J. Antitrust and Consumer Fraud acts. The 10 companies include AION Management LLC, of Philadelphia; AvalonBay Communities, of Arlington, Va.; Kamson Corp., of Englewood Cliffs; and Russo Property Management, of Carlstadt.
Russo has built its Vermella apartments in Belleville, Newark and Orange, among other North and Central New Jersey towns. AION Management has apartments in Belleville and Maplewood. AvalonBay has built namesake apartment buildings in Bloomfield and Maplewood. Kemson has finished a building in Orange’s Valley section.
RealPage offers software programs that set rental rates with participating landlords and property management companies. The data includes “proprietary, non-public data” that the landlords normally keep to themselves, but save as part of the software contract.
The pooled information is used by the software provider to set inflated, artificially high or “supercompetitive” rent which the landlords and management companies abide by. The landlords do not compete with each other at risk of penalties from other landlords.
The suit calls for the following remedies, including:
- Reimbursement of any generated profits from the accused practice.
- Equitable relief, civil penalties and damages.
- Appointing a monitor at defendants’ expense to ensure court-ordered remedies are enacted.
- An injunction halting the accused practices.
The respondents, including the four who have apartments in the five “Local Talk” towns, have not issued any public comments on the suit.
NUTLEY – When longtime Nutley Board of Education Charles W. Kucinski, Jr. ends his service, he can always go to an auditorium of one of his alma maters with his name on it.
The Nutley Board of Education unanimously approved naming the Lincoln Elementary School Auditorium after Kucinski at its April 28 meeting. There will be a to-be-announced ceremony, including a sign dedication later this year.
Kucinski, a lifelong Nutleyite, attended Lincoln before he was promoted to the then Nutley Junior and Senior high schools. He graduated from NHS before its building became the John H. Walker Middle School.
First elected by a majority of participating voters on April 20, 1982 Kucinski was re-elected four times through 1997 – and then re-elected April 20, 2010 and four more times to date. Kucinski was board president seven times 1985-2021 and vice president five times 1983-2019.
Lincoln Elementary’s classrooms have also had the likes of actor Robert Blake and sailor Anthony Di Petta – who was killed in the line of duty during World War II. Its auditorium was last in the news when it was damaged by an Oct. 9, 2023 fire.
