By Ron Leir KEARNY – It’s a tie game, runner on second. The batter singles to right and the runner legs it to third, ready to dash home. But as he rounds the base, his cleat catches in a hole along the baseline and he trips. An unfortunate scenario, indeed, but one that’s happened more than once at the Little League East field at Kearny’s Gunnel Oval sports complex off Schuyler Ave. Town officials ...

  By Anthony J. Machcinski The Town of Kearny lost one of its fi nest members when Firefighter Michael Tortorello passed away Jan. 16 at the age of 40. Tortorello, who lived in Kearny before moving to Lyndhurst 12 years ago, was with the Kearny Fire Dept. for 15 years before retiring last year due to illness. Well respected and loved by his peers, Tortorella was remembered as a hard worker. “He was a ...

By Jeff Bahr Bloomfield resident Gene Nichols is teaming up with the Bloomfield Public Library in an effort to help preserve individual family histories. Nichols, a retired journalist and public relations executive, has offered to videotape community members, 65 and older, as they recount fond memories and major milestones in their lives. Nichols says that he nursed the idea for some time. It stems from a yearning to know more about his ...

  By Ron Leir  NUTLEY – The Nutley governing body has chosen Commissioner Mauro Tucci as interim mayor to serve until the May municipal election when a permanent chief executive will be picked from among the winners of the election. Tucci, who will continue his duties as head of the Department of Parks & Public Property while he occupies the mayor’s seat, was the beneficiary of a 3-1 vote of the governing body. Public ...

  By Ron Leir  EAST NEWARK – A local tavern that has incurred the borough’s wrath for a series of past indiscretions may have shot itself in the foot. Last November East Newark imposed a one-year closing of the Ambatenita Bar & Restaurant on N. Third St. for various liquor law infractions but the licensee appealed to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. So the borough and the licensee ended up with a settlement ...

A rash of D.W.I.’s took place in Kearny this week as Kearny Police were left to clean up the mess. On Saturday, Jan. 14, Sgt. John Becker was on patrol on Passaic Ave. near Riverview Court at about 1:15 a.m. when he observed a vehicle driving erratically, then pull into the town parking lot on Passaic Ave. Knowing that the location has featured prior illegal activity, Becker approached the vehicle from ...

Two incidents regarding a fake public works agent have taken place this week. Two residents of different locations were approached by what they described as a male, possibly Hispanic, of average height and build with dark hair. Upon gaining entrance into a Pavonia Ave residence, the man, who claimed he was checking the water, managed to get to the second floor and steal jewelry from. After these incidents, Kearny Police Chief John ...

  By Lisa Pezzolla Each week, The Observer reports the news and views of the general population of East Newark, Harrison, Kearny, North Arlington, Lyndhurst, Belleville, Nutley, and Bloomfield. Obviously, we cannot voice everyone’s opinion within a limited space every week, but there is one demographic we have always tried to place in the paper. Our “Bridging the Gap” column featured the work of young writers culled from our eight-town coverage area who, ...

It spread across the news outlets like free beers at a “kegger.” Four American Marines had done the unthinkable to the corpses of Taliban fighters who had once opposed them. If you missed it, suffice to say that, in a final show of supremacy, our boys indignantly trained their “weapons” on the combatants’ dead carcasses, effectively treating them as urinal pucks. “Oh, the humanity!” the talking heads screamed. “What were these vile ...

Jan. 18 At 5:14 p.m. police arrested Skye Rivera, 18, of Warwick, N.Y., on charges of trying to pass a bad check and forgery at the Chase Bank on Stuyvesant Ave. Police said Rivera tried to cash a fraudulent check made out to her in the amount of $1,087.82. She was sent to the Bergen County Jail, Hackensack, on $15,000 bail with a 10% cash option, pending court action. Jan. 17 At 9:50 ...