July 9, 2014 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVII, No. 7
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
Old church now local landmark
• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
State VFW picks Kane By Karen Zautyk Observer Correspondent
By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent BELLEVILLE – For the 13th straight year, as part of the Independence Day holiday observance, the Belleville Historical Society paid tribute to the Revolutionary War dead interred in the old Dutch Reformed Church cemetery and all the sons of Belleville who made the ultimate sacrifice in combat since then. This year, township residents were treated to a twopart celebration: On July 4, the Belleville Historic Preservation Commission designated the old church building – whose origin as the Reformed Dutch Church of Second River dates from 1697 – as a local landmark. Cemetery ceremonies were deferred to July 5 because of weather vagaries. On Friday, BHPC members, led by Robert Grolimond, installed a temporary plaque at the front entrance to the church which, according to historical accounts, was rebuilt in 1725, 1807 and 1853. For the past three years, it has been occupied by an Hispanic congregation, Iglesia Pentecostal LaSenda Antigua. A permanent bronze plaque, now on order, will be installed at a future date, Grolimond said. The Antonio Iovino family is subsidizing the costs, he see TRIBUTE page
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NUTLEY – n 1969, when John F. Kane Jr. returned to his hometown following his tour of duty in Korea, his father, John Sr., a Nutley police sergeant, encouraged him to enroll as a member of the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “I asked him why,” recalled Kane Jr. (whom everyone knows as Jack), “and he said, ‘Because someday you might need the VFW.’” Now, the VFW has officially recognized that it needs Jack Kane. At the organization’s 95th annual convention, held in Wildwood last month, the lifelong Nutley resident and former commander of Nutley Post 493, was elected 2014-15 New Jersey state commander, representing the 236 VFW Posts in the Garden State. His duties will be many, but his primary goal is to increase membership. Like other veterans’ groups, the VFW’s ranks have been thinning as the
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John F. Kane
see KANE page
Industrial park on road to renewal By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
KEARNY – A long-derelict commercial site along the Belleville Turnpike is on the path to a rebirth as a “state-of-the-art” industrial park now that the Kearny Planning Board has cleared
the way for a subdivision of a tract of land off the Pike. Attorney Donald Pepe, representing the applicant, said the board’s approval marked “the first step in our redevelopment plan” for the 22-acre site formerly known as Jeryl Industrial Park that stretches up to Schuyler Ave.
and borders on Arlington Park Cemetery. Pepe told the board that granting the subdivision “provides an expedited path to redevelopment and remedial action …. We’re doing cleanup on a piece-by-piece basis to move the project along.” Pepe’s client, Vincent Alessi,
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who also has business interests in Bayonne, told the board that Ridge Crossing, the new name for the site, became the leaseholder for the property as of mid-August 2013 and faced many hurdles. To begin with, Alessi said, an assessment of the site indisee JERYL page
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