Community Corner

The Week in Union County

Here's what made news around the county this past week.

Each week, Patch takes a look back at the news in Union County for the past week. Among the top stories,  in Cranford for a fundraiser to benefit the Carly Pfeiffer Memorial Fund, and a settlement was reached between the Mountainside and Berkeley Heights boards of education.

 

Cranford

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In Cranford, police Thursday that turned out to be unfounded on a NJ Transit train. Passengers were held on the train for about 15 minutes until police finished the search.

 

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New Providence

Longtime New Providence resident  died May 21 after battling lung cancer. Nick, 51, was in his home with his family by his side. Nick was born in Italy, lived in Chatham and moved to New Providence 40 years ago when he was in third grade. Before working as an Assistant Foreman with the New Providence Department of Public Works, Nick had a successful landscaping business. He used his talents as a landscaper to help beautify the town, including projects such as Veterans Memorial Park, the , , and many more.

The New Providence varsity softball team  after defeating the Roselle Park Panthers 7-5 in the North 2, Group 1 quarterfinal on Thursday afternoon. Although New Providence committed more errors than the Panthers, the second-seeded Pioneers led 6-0 after five innings of play, followed by sloppy plays in the field. Sophomore right hander did well to hold the Panthers at five runs in the sixth. Roselle Park still had the tying run on second with just one out after scoring its five runs. Squeri then retired the next two batters on a strikeout looking – her fourth K – and a ground out to first. The Pioneers scored an important insurance run in the bottom of the sixth when senior Jessica Pacheco drove in junior Nicole Saitta from third with a single to center. The Pioneers will now face either Dayton or Dunellen on Tuesday at Allen W. Roberts Elementary School field. Whippany Park will host Secaucus in Tuesday’s other semifinal. The winners will play in the final on June 3 at the higher seed.

 

Clark

 Art teachers selected a variety of works in different styles and categories including painting, sculpting, drawing, puppetry, printmaking, ceramics and graphic art.

It was a rough week in Clark sports.  and  ended their State tourney runs in the second and first rounds, respectively. 

 

Garwood

a Class E felony, after trying to meet an underage youth in White Plains, New York on May 13. Madeira, 43, is also the proprietor of the Leather Supply House and Madeira Pipe Organ Service located in the old Aeolian Organ Company building in Garwood. Investigators from the Westchester County District Attorney's Office observed Madeira in online chat rooms, where he allegedly engaged in graphic discussions with who he believed to be an underage youth (the responder was actually one of the DA's investigators).

 Legg retires at the end of June and Underhill will be sworn in at council's June 28 meeting. Underhill, a 25-year member of the Garwood PD, has served six years as a lieutenant assigned to patrol and was recently transferred to the detective bureau to cover for Captain Leonard DiStefano who retired in January. Prior to lieutenant, Underhill served five years as a sergeant assigned to patrol. 

 

Summit

Mare Restaurant Group announced that Honey Browns, its southern comfort food restaurant on Union Place, would be closing after just nine months in business. Rocco Flores, director of operations, said that "misconceptions" about the cuisine resulted in lackluster turnout for dinner. But the owners plan to open a new restaurant, Pizza Vita, in July. The new restaurant will feature authentic Neapolitan-style pizza. Mare Restaurant Group also owns Bona Vita Osteria in Summit.

 

Mountainside and Berkeley Heights

Mountainside BOE President James Ruban announced a settlement between the Mountainside and Berkeley Heights boards of education, marking the end of litigation spanning the past five years. The case addressed disputes between two districts over the calculation of tuition and resource room charges paid by Mountainside to Berkeley Heights School District for high school education. 

Mountainside School District will pay Berkeley Heights $330,000 over the next five years for tuition owed, based on the agreeed-upon calculations. According to Ruban, School Business Administrator Daniel Saragnese is confident the payment schedule will not be a problem for Mountainside School District. Both boards have agreed upon a new formula to calculate tuition of the Mountainside special education students attending Governor Livingston High School. The new tuition formula will be based solely on the cost of usage of the Governor Livingston Resource Room.

 

Springfield

Sailors, models and towers dominated Springfield this week. Springfield native and Navy Ensign Mauricio Blondet returned to the tri-state area when the ship he is stationed aboard, the USS New York, . The trip was the first time the amphibious assault vessel visited its namesake city, and Ensign Blondet led tours of the ship for civilians.

 

Meanwhile, Jonathan Dayton High School’s cafeteria swapped food trays for a runway when models strutted and posed in haute couture fashions designed by Dayton senior Jennah Santos. Eight models showed off Santos’ fashions in a display of .

 

The hearings over a proposed 175-foot cell phone tower on the Summit/Springfield border, inching toward a conclusion. For the fourth time in as many months, engineers and attorneys representing T-Mobile appeared before Springfield’s Board of Adjustments to argue the need for a tower at the Knights of Columbus property.  After the T-Mobile representatives rested their prime case, residents made statements. The Board is expected to vote on the tower at their June 22 meeting.

 

 Scotch Plains and Fanwood

Raiders Raise more than $150k for Relay: Close to 1,000 people spent last Friday night and Saturday morning at the track behind . There, they took part in the Relay for Life, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. The participants, spread across nearly 100 teams, , according to the event's website, surpassing this year's goal by more $25,000.

Coyotes Spotted in Fanwood, Scotch Plains: Fanwood Police Chief Richard Trigo after a town resident reported a possible coyote sighting early Sunday morning. Trigo said the resident of Locust Avenue believes to have observed a coyote at approximately 4 a.m. He advised anyone who comes in contact with coyotes, or any other wild animals, to be careful. Scotch Plains residents also reported seeing coyotes, including what appeared to be coyote cubs, in the area of Hillside Cemetery.

 

Westfield

Tuesday's meeting of the Westfield Town Council  between a resident and former councilman during and after the meeting. Former Councilman Sal Caruana and resident Maria Carluccio argued over the placement of a stoplight on Adina Enclescu's Central Avenue yard. Carluccio has been lobbying the Council since September to have the light removed from her neighbor, Enclescu's yard. Caruana, who voted for the light's placement came to the meeting to defend the light's location. Following the meeting, Caruana and Carluccio continued their argument in the hallway.

 in Cranford Monday for a fundraiser to benefit the Carly Pfeiffer Memorial Fund. The fund was set up to provide for the education of Carly Pfeiffer, the only child of Westfield firefighter Jim Pfeiffer, who died in August following a freak accident while off-duty at his Mountainside home.

Democrats and Republicans on the Westfield Town Council  over the week. The debate started when a Democratic activist questioned the Republican majority Council over the budget process and defended Democratic Councilman Dave Haas' no vote on the budget. Republican Councilman Mark Ciarrocca then said the absent Haas told him he voted not for political reasons. Haas, reached by phone in Maryland, then said that the Republican majority runs the Council in a political manner and he will not become a committee chairman as the only Democrat. Republican Mayor Andy Skibitsky said politics did not play a role in committee assignments and said he believes Haas is attempting to run for higher office.


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