TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – An Aug. 1 visitation and service for former 17-year South Ward Councilman Donald C. Bradley is to be held here at Zion Hill Baptist. Bradley, 91, had died July 24.
Donald Cornelius Bradley, who was born July 18, 1934, was a substance abuse counselor for Newark Public Schools when he started “The Brady Bunch” civic association. He advocated for more senior housing, youth centers and drug treatment programs for teenagers. The Winston-Salem State University student had also led its NAACP chapter with sit-ins of local businesses.
Mayor Sharpe James, in January 1989, asked Bradley if he wanted to be appointed to his former South Ward seat. Donald M. Payne, Sr. just resigned the seat as he had been elected as Congressman. Bradley was confirmed by the Municipal Council by acclamation but with two members abstaining.
Bradley, whose mentor was the late Earl Harris, went on to win that year’s special election. Ward voters re-elected him in 1990, 94, 98 and 2002. Then-lawyer Dwayne Warren was his main opponent in that last election.
Bradley, who retired from City Hall in 2006, was selected as Council President by his peers 1992-2006. The former West Side High School All-Essex basketball player and track runner founded the South Ward Cultural Center, was president of the Weequahic High School Fathers’ Club and PTA. The Newark Teachers Union member was also a Sunday school teacher at Nutley’s First Baptist Church.
A complete biographical obituary has not been posted as of press time.
IRVINGTON – A decades-long mystery – The Reformed Church Home – sits on the southwest corner of Nye Avenue and Nesbitt Terrace.
The structure at 720 Nye Ave. was once a home for congregants of the Reformed Church – one of several that the denomination has in the country. This particular building was constructed to a Colonial style in 1961.
“Local Talk” has passed by the two story building and there has been little activity here this decade. A roofing contractor repaired part of the building’s south wing in October by installing plywood sheets over any dislodged shingles and holes.
“Local Talk,” over time, noticed other holes developing on the north wing’s roof. Daylight shines through the roof and ceiling into the empty rooms. These square openings were first mistaken for skylights.
“Local Talk” has learned that a building’s roof is the single most important part of the structure. Covering the holes and repairing the roof will prevent moisture and mold from damaging its interior.
Information on the status and future of 720 Nye would be welcome.
EAST ORANGE – Relatives and friends of Kawuan Nickels have set Aug. 8 as his funeral while the ECPO Homicide and Vehicular Accident unit detectives continue investigating his fatal July 23 motorcycle accident here.
County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II and East Orange Police Chief Phyllis Bindi said that her officers had responded to a 5:15 p.m. call that Wednesday of an accident at the T-intersection of Halsted and Edgar streets in the Elmwood section.
EOPD officers arrived to find Nickels, his 2009 Kawasaki ZX600 motorcycle and a damaged unoccupied SUV at the scene. Nickels was rushed to Newark’s University Hospital, where he later died.
A preliminary investigation has Nickels riding his bike on northbound Halsted when he and another vehicle turning north from Edgar sideswiped each other. Nickels lost control and rear-ended the parked SUV. Authorities found that the Kawasaki was unregistered – and that Nickels had a suspended Pennsylvania driving license.
A GoFundMe.com page said that Nickels is survived by his parents, “siblings and daughters.” The page for his funeral expenses was set up on July 26.
ORANGE – The city lost a practically life-long resident in Cynthia Jewell Walker, 78, when she lost her year-old battle against cancer June 25.
Walker’s obituary, as posted by Woody’s Home for Services July 17, lists her also being late of Glen Ridge. and passing away at Belleville’s Clara Maass Medical Center.
Walker was a 24-year administrative assistant for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey before retiring in 2008.
Brother Rudolph “Rudy” and sister Sylvia Walker are among her survivors. Her parents Henry Jr. and Ida and brother John Walker III are among those who predeceased her.
Cynthia J. Walker is not to be confused with Cynthia Walker, who is a Park Avenue School First Grade teacher and a Montclair resident.
Walker’s services were private. Memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the American Cancer Society “or a charity of your choice.”
WEST ORANGE – An application to build multiple housing units on the closed Mayfair Farms property here at 481 Eagle Rock Ave. has returned as a “builder’s remedy” lawsuit filed against the township July 8 by 481 Eagle Rock Dev. LLC, of Fort Lee.
Eagle Rock Dev. wants to build 421 apartment units on the 80-year-old closed banquet and catering hall. The 421 units includes 82 affordable housing units under the state’s Fair Share Housing Plan plus “a 41 unit bonus for redeveloping the property.” Eagle Rock Dev., when finished would satisfy 15 percent of the 660 units that the N.J. Department Community Affairs and the Council of Affordable Housing projects as what West Orange needs on or by 2035.
It appears that Eagle Rock Dev. has the blessing of the Horn family, who have owned Mayfair Farms until it’s 2023 closing. The Horns had also owned nearby Pal’s Cabin restaurant before it was replaced by a CVS Pharmacy and the adjacent gold driving range that became West Orange/Target Plaza in the 1950s.
The developer is taking advantage of West Orange failing to file its Fair Share Housing Plan with the DCA on June 30 – like most of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities have done to meet a critical affordable housing shortage. They are using the legal builder’s remedy approach, where they will ask a Superior Court judge to allow greater density buildings and override some zoning restrictions.
Mayor Susan McCartney said that she and the Township Council were to receive contracted planning firm Heyer Gruel’s fair housing plan in the closed session part of its July 22 meeting. While “late may be better than never” may apply to West Orange’s plan, there may be other real estate developers who want to see how Eagle Rock Dev.’s approach fares.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – All that stands between Ritzer Field getting all but two acres covered with artificial turf is an Aug. 28 vote by the South Orange-Maplewood School District’s Board of School Estimate.
The SOMSD Board of Education members present, after listening to 25 public speakers’ comments, voted unanimously at their July 24 meeting for Field Option D 2.0 from among four proposals. Board member Bill Gifford was absent that Thursday night.
Option D 2.0 calls for a $7 million, 59,400-square-foot soccer, softball and lacrosse field to Columbia High School’s northwest and a softball diamond – all but two acres of the Valley Road and Hixon Street field being artificial turf.
A half-acre of the remaining grass would be cared for by an upgraded water irrigation and detention system. Mature trees will be complemented by new plantings.
The turf or grass Ritzer Field advocates who spoke at the SOMSD Administration Conference Room – including residents, students, staff and alumni – were split 15/10.
Turf backers cited the fact that some visiting field hockey teams that the CHS Cougars compete with will not play on grass. Some games end up being held as far away as Butler; one soccer player said he had to join a club for the lack of a suitable field. One speaker presented a 1,027-signature petition for installing turf.
Grass favorers said that artificial turf is plastic and can run off with the irrigation system. School Superintendent Jason Bing said that he had to think. The Board of School Estimate, made up of SOMSD Board, South Orange and Maplewood officials, vote on major budget spending.
BLOOMFIELD – Mayor Jenny Mundell and the Township Council may be posting a “Township Attorney Wanted” application as early as their combined Aug. 11 conference and regular meetings. Danielly Christiano will meanwhile head Bloomfield’s law Department, as she has had since Michael J. Parlavechio, Esq., resigned July 25.
Parlavecchio was sworn into the New Jersey Superior Court-Newark bench that Friday in an Historic Courthouse chamber in Newark. The Millburn resident is being assigned to Vicinage 5 – Criminal Division. His term is to initially run seven years but will sunset on his 70th birthday.
Parlavecchio leaves as Bloomfield’s township attorney after succeeding Steven Martino in April 2016. He has also been chief counsel to the Essex County Board of now-Commissioners (then-Freeholders) since April 2003.
The Seton Hall University School of Law graduate’s private practice has been with the Morristown firm Bevan, Mosca & Giudetta, PC, LLC since 2009. He has specialized in land use, redevelopment, regulatory and legislative affairs.
The St. Peter’s Prep alumni is Essex County Democratic Committee’s parliamentarian and was on the Millburn Zoning Board of Adjustment.
MONTCLAIR – “Wait – and hurry up,” may best describe the latest developments on reopening the Bellevue Theatre, here at 260 Bellevue Ave., after being closed for almost eight years.
Montclair Film Board of Trustees President Evelyn McGee Colbert and building owner Jesse Sayegh announced on July 18 that they have signed “a multi-year lease” to operate the now-three screen movie theater. The Bellevue LLC intends to have the 103-year-old building open in time for the Oct. 17-26 Montclair Film Festival.
Full-time screenings are projected for November – exactly eight months after Sayegh’s lease expired with Bow Tie Cinemas. Bow Tie, also used to run the Clairidge at 486 Bloomfield Ave., and the Screens at the South Orange Performing Arts Center. Montclair Film now operates both movie houses as non-profit entities.
The Bellevue LLC-Sayegh agreement came just when Complete & Accurate Construction Matos Group, of Newark, had finished some major renovations. Contractor president Joe Matos said that one of the four theater screens was removed to create ground-level retail space. That space was something that Jesse and daughter Doreen wanted to make Bellevue more financially viable.
The Bellevue opened May 13, 1922 for silent films and stage performances with a second floor restaurant. Subsequent owners had its 1,700 seats divided by four screens.
GLEN RIDGE – The borough’s Board of Education succeeded Kyle Arlington with Winnie Kievit, after accepting the former’s resignation, at their July 22 meeting.
Kievit, who is Glen Ridge Public Schools’ Technology Director, is Acting Superintendent through Sept. 30. Whether Kievit will be made permanent superintendent or return to her directorship – and whether the school board will conduct a superintendent search – remains an open question.
“I decided to pursue opportunities that reflect professional interests and allow me to tend to personal/familial commitments,” said Arlington in that Tuesday’s letter. The 2019-24 Kenilworth superintendent and previous Millburn assistant superintendent leaves the borough after a year.
Arlington emphatically told a reporter in an email, “It has NOTHING to do with Mr. White,” referring to former Ridgewood Avenue School teacher Gerald White, who resigned in May. White has been accused of “grooming” an 11-year-old student and continuing a relationship with her into her freshman year at Glen Ridge High School.
The girl’s parents have filed a suit against GRPS. Ridgewood Principal Keith Dionovan and Vice Principal Jonathan Heitmann have been put on indefinite leave since May 19.
BELLEVILLE – Those who mourned singer and author Connie Francis’ July 16 death at a Deerfield Beach, FL hospital included those in Newark and Belleville who remembered her as Concetta Rosa Maria Franconova. Francis, 87, was born Dec. 12, 1937 in Newark to longshoreman and roofer George Franconova, Sr. and Ida in Newark.
The Franconovas, including younger brother George Jr., who was born in 1940, largely grew up in The Ironbound section until Concetta was midway through Arts High School. Francis later recalled listening to people singing on her largely Italian-Jewish block and her father playing the concertina. Father George, when he discovered that Concetta had musical talent, first had her perform “Anchors Aweigh” on an accordion at four-years-old on an Olympic Park stage in Irvington.
Concetta was balancing her high school studies with making regular appearances on the NBC “Startime Kids Rare Talent” television show. CBS talent show host Arthur Godfrey, after Concetta’s 1950 appearance, suggested that she use “Connie Francis” as her stage name.
Concetta/Connie moved with the family to 182 Forest St. Connie graduated as Belleville High School Class of 1955 as salutatorian and George, Sr. became her full-time manager. She was about to accept a four-year medical scholarship with NYU when her recording of “Who’s Sorry Now?” became a pop music hit.
Francis and the Concettas eventually moved to New York City and Hollywood for her 53 popular song entries and multiple albums in several languages. She wrote two memoirs and became a champion for victims’ rights. Francis was experiencing a resurgence this year when her recording of “Pretty Little Baby” became a sleeper hit on TikTok.
Throughout her triumphs and tragedies, Francis never forgot her local ties and more than paid occasional visits. The corner of Forest Street and Greylock Parkway was renamed Connie Francis Court and Belleville High School Auditorium “Connie Francis Theatre” in 2009. (The renamed auditorium is the current BHS. The BHS on Washington Street that she graduated from became Belleville Middle School in 1965.)
A capacity Funeral Mass was held for Francis at Pompano Beach’s St. Colman Catholic Church July 17. Son Joseph Garzilli, Jr. is among her survivors.
NUTLEY – ON3 redeveloper Prism Capital Partners will test the Nutley Planning Board’s reclassification of 275 Kingsland St. ‘s permitted uses by presenting a plan for “a major data center” in the near future.
Nutley’s planners and commissioners had rezoned the 11-acre property by Cathedral Avenue for research and development use after Prism withdrew a plan for a warehouse last month. Critical residents called the warehouse “a truck depot ” and voiced concern that it will generate more truck traffic.
Nutley has been home to another data center, at 492 River Rd., for eight years. The 130,000 sq. ft. site is a core center for BT Radinez Compute, which provides a cloud platform serving capital markets in 50 countries.
The Nutley council have also reclassified a 150,000-sq. ft. lot of ON3’s 114-are main campus for ‘research and development” use. Details on the R&D zone, like the data center on Kingsland, were not available as of press time.
Prism will inform Clifton’s elders of the two rezonings but they are beyond the 200 foot radius from that city’s border to warrant their permission and public hearings. Clifton has recently approved Prism construction of 1,074 housing units and 90,000 s.f. for retail space. Prism was authorized by Nutley and Clifton to redevelop the former Roche Pharmaceutical headquarters in 2016.
“Local Talk” remembers when 275 Kingsland was a Victorian era factory that housed Orechio Communications’ cable television studios in the 1980s. Frank Orechio owned a cable franchise and the Nutley, Belleville, Bloomfield and Glen Ridge weekly newspapers now in the Gannett USA fold. Brothers Youngest brother Carmen was a Nutley Commissioner and a state senator; eldest brother Carl was a state general assemblyman.
