March 28, 2018 • www.theobserver.com • Vol. CXXX, No. 46
Happy Easter & Passover COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD • EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
LOST & FOUND
Warship took maiden trip from South Kearny, sank in WWII, was recently found
T
By Karen Zautyk kzautyk@theobserver.com
his is the story of a ship that sailed from Kearny into the annals of history — and that also became part of one of the most tragic stories of World War II. She was lost during the Battle of Guadalcanal, just nine months after being commissioned. But now she has been found, 76 years following her sinking. The ship was the U.S.S. Juneau, a cruiser constructed at the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. in South Kearny. The yard was opened in 1917 to build U.S. Navy ships during World War I, continued operations through World War II and finally closed in 1948. It was located at Kearny Point, where the Hackensack River meets Newark Bay. The Juneau was launched from Kearny on Oct 14, 1941 — less U.S. National Archives The U.S.S. Juneau, seen here on its maiden voyage in South Kearny, was built there. In than two months before the attack on Pearl Harbor — was World War II, it sank in mere minutes. Now, the wreckage has been found. See JUNEAU, Page 26
Lyndhurst Commissioners lower swim fees By Ron Leir rleir@theobserver.com LYNDHURST — No matter last week’s nor’easter, March 20 marked the first day of spring and, mindful
of the warmer climes ahead, the Lyndhurst Board of Commissioners went with the flow. For members of the Lyndhurst Community Pool, there was some good news as the BOC voted to
introduce an ordinance reducing the prices for residents and nonresidents alike. With the recent opening of a pool by the neighboring Rutherford YMCA, township Rec Commissioner
Tom DiMaggio said his department – whose swim club “is actually showing a nice profit” – wanted to “stay competitive with” other swim See FEES, Page 25
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THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2018
W.H.A.T. will perform Kearny resident’s play By Ron Leir rleir@theobserver.com KEARNY – With the news about school violence tending to dominate the headlines these days, one Kearny resident and former teacher is bravely reminding us there’s a lighter side to life in the classroom, too. Ann Mary Mullane, who just retired after 25 years as career/ tech instructor at Nutley High School, has written “Teaching: A Futility in Four Marking Periods,” which the West Hudson Arts & Theater (W.H.A.T.) Co. will produce May 11 and 12. W.H.A.T. is partnering with No Apology Theatre, Mullane’s nonprofit venture, to present the piece as a company fundraiser, according to company president Jerry Ficeto. “Ann Mary’s daughter, Mary Clare Rivera, who has been part of our cast in a couple of shows, told me her mom was a playwright and I asked if she’d do something in our theater,” Ficeto said. That, he noted, would have
a two-fold purpose: “possibly bring in another demographic to W.H.A.T. and introduce our audience to a new author.” Rivera will be directing her mom’s show in Kearny. Since its public debut in December 2011, W.H.A.T. has chosen to stay with the known theatrical repertory except for an original workshop production in its second season about an autistic boy penned by former company member Joseph Ferriero and another of Ferreiro’s plays, “Kearny: A True American Warrior,” commissioned for the Kearny Sesquicentennial last year. “So this is the first time we’ll be doing a full-blown original production,” Ficeto noted. Mullane’s play, as described by W.H.A.T., “takes you through the day-to-day life and trials of a high school teacher dealing with lesson plans, students, parents and the administration.” The playwright, whose family came to Kearny when she was age 4, went to St. Stephen’s Grammar School, then Queen
of Peace High School in North Arlington and St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, where she picked up her teaching credentials. When she was a high school senior, Mullane honed her writing skills as a summer intern at The Observer. “I did the calendar of events, re-writes, obits and some sports,” she recalled. Mullane got her feet wet as a student-teacher at Kearny’s Roosevelt School, hoping it would lead to a full-time gig in town. But after the school budget was defeated, that opportunity dried up. So she applied for a job with the Nutley school district and was hired to teach business education. It stuck. “Most of the incidents I write about in the play are true – they actually happened,” Mullane said. And although, from the title, those events may sound worrisome from the teacher’s perspective, “the play is a comedy,” the author insists. Mullane said she got the writer’s bug as early as the
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third grade when she began putting together short stories. But it wasn’t until 1999 – after she’d been teaching several years in Nutley – that the idea for a play about a teacher began to take form. “Teaching …” has had three full-fledged productions, in Hoboken, and at theater festivals in New York City and Memphis, Tenn. There’ve been two prior
Mullane productions: “Not My Daughter,” performed at a midtown Manhattan venue, and “After Michael,” which she describes as a “New Age morality play,” done at Rutgers Newark where Rivera studied theater. “Teaching …” runs about 80 minutes with no intermission and, according to the author, is appropriate for audiences ages 10 and older.
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Sports & Recreation..................................................13 Health & Wellness Directory.......................................14 Real Estate..............................................................18 Real Estate Directory................................................19 Obituaries...............................................................20 Classifieds..............................................................22 Business Directory....................................................24 Tax Time.................................................................25
THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2018
03
USCG wants input on Passaic River bridges By Ron Leir rleir@theobserver.com Plans are afoot to fix or replace four movable Passaic River bridges classified as “structurally deficient, functionally obsolete.” In a March 9 release, the U.S. Coast Guard said it has received a “draft navigation impact report” from the N.J. Department of Transportation/N.J. Transportation Planning Authority and a “project initiation request” from Conrail to “rehabilitate/ replace” those spans. They are: • Point-No-Point (railroad) Bridge between the Kearny meadows and the industrial area of the Newark Ironbound parallel to the N.J. Turnpike. • Bridge Street (vehicular) Bridge (County Rt. 508) links Harrison and Newark. • Clay Street (vehicular) Bridge connects East Newark and Newark.. • Kingsland Avenue (DeJessa Memorial/Avondale vehicular) Bridge links Lyndhurst and Nutley. According to the Coast Guard, “The future navigational use of the lower Passaic River is a factor in the consideration of the optimal replacement designs for each bridge project.” Coast Guard bridge permit
applications have not yet been submitted for these bridge project proposals. The Passaic & Harsimus rail line runs along the PointNo-Point Conrail bridge. Built in the 1890s, its piers were damaged by a fire in 2000. It is to be replaced by a single-leaf-bascule bridge with a maximum vertical clearance of 21 and 142 feet in the open and closed positions, respectively, to rise west of the existing bridge. The Bridge Street Bridge is a swing bridge built in 1913 and is a three-span Pratt through truss structure with its center span 244 feet long riveted. This bridge has a vertical clearance of seven feet at mean high water. No recommendation on a final disposition has been made. The Clay Street Bridge, built in 1908, is to be replaced by a fixed highway bridge with a vertical clearance of 15 feet at mean high water – which would limit vessel access for boats with height requirements on the Passaic River. The Kingsland Avenue Bridge is a swing bridge built in 1905 as a four-span through-truss structure, with a vertical clearance of seven feet and 12 feet at low and high tide, respectively. No formal proposal has been made for this bridge.
Mariners and interested parties are invited to submit comments on navigational access and safety issues, including the need for clearance gauges and extended nighttime navigation through the bridges. Owners of boats docked near the bridges are asked to provide information about the type of vessels, length overall, draft, beam and
height from the waterline to the highest fixed point and to structures such as tuna towers, flying bridges, fixed antennas and radar units, and whether these structures can be disassembled, dismantled or lowered. Also explain where the vessel is primarily moored and the monthly frequency of passage under the bridges. Sent written comments to: Office of the Commander
(dpb), First Coast Guard District, Battery Park Building, 1 South St., New York, N.Y. 10004-1466, through April 9. For more information, visit the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center website at www.navcen.uscg.gov/?page Name=pnBridges&Active=1& region=1. Or call the First Coast Guard District Bridge Branch at 212-514-4332.
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Observer’s e-Edition to be offered Mondays for fee Looking to continue to set cutting-edge trends in the newspaper industry, The Observer’s e-Edition, normally available every Wednesday at noon, will become available Monday evenings beginning April 2, for a nominal fee, the newspaper’s co-owner and Advertising Director Lisa Feorenzo announced recently. The decision to make the e-Edition available for a fee wasn’t an easy one. However, it will allow advertisers to get their word out early — and readers to have access to classified ads and stories well in advance of other readers. “There are plenty of times where we’ve been asked by readers if they could have early
access to classifieds,” Feorenzo said. “And we understand it’s very competitive when people are looking for new rentals, etc. So this will certainly be a good way for our readers to have early access to the paper, whether it’s to get a jump on stories, photos or to get quicker access to the apartments for rent, rooms for rent and the like.” The e-Edition will go live, Monday, April 2 — and every Monday thereafter. The cost per edition is $2.50. “We’ve been way ahead of the technology curve with live news and more. We hope to do the same here, too,” Feorenzo said.
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