Photos courtesy of BCPO
From l.: Adan L. Cueva, Adan R. Cueva and Angel Cueva-Castro

LYNDHURST —

A Lyndhurst businessman and family members have been criminally charged in an alleged scheme to defraud homeowners.

In a statement released April 8, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli announced the arrest of Adan R. Cueva, 31, along with his brother Angel C. Cueva-Castro, 26, and his father, Adan L. Cueva, 57, all of Lyndhurst, in connection with the plot to cheat homeowners.

Read more »

Photos by Karen Zautyk
John Donovan (top) and Deaglan Walsh and Martin Macedonio rid Elm St. of graffiti blight.

By Karen Zautyk
Observer Correspondent

KEARNY –

If you had occasion to drive or walk along Elm St. between Midland and Oakwood Aves. recently, you had to have noticed the illiterately obscene graffiti defacing multiple homes.

Siding, retaining walls, garage doors, etc., on both sides of the block had been spray-painted with meaningless scrawls and a specific sentiment: F–k KPD. Or, more accurately: F-k KPD. Read more »

HFD

HARRISON –

The death of an elderly woman at a Harrison fire scene last Monday, April 8, has been characterized by fire and law enforcement officials as a tragic accident.

That was the conclusion reached by investigators from the state Division of Fire Safety, in consultation with the Harrison fire official and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office.

Assistant Hudson County Prosector Gene Rubino identified the victim as Irene Fenton, 72.

Fenton was the lone occupant of a second-floor rear apartment at 209 N. Second St. where firefighters responded at about 12:30 p.m., following an emergency 911 call, and found Fenton lying on a landing just outside her apartment.

Read more »

Photos courtesy of Passaic River Coalition
Samples of Lyndhurst parkland that the Passaic River Coalition has developed, together with the township, after acquiring small lots along the riverbank.

By Ron Leir
Observer Correspondent

LYNDHURST –

By month’s end, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expects to complete a design plan for purging a 5-acre section of toxin-laden tidal mudflats alongside Riverside County Park in Lyndhurst, said Ray Basso, director of the Lower Passaic River Cleanup Project.

That would be the first phase – and demonstration model – of a longterm plan for cleaning up an 8-mile stretch of the river that experts believe is the most polluted part of the Passaic.

But the 70 corporate entities (the Cooperating Parties Group) who’ve accepted responsibility for the cleanup because their predecessor companies that polluted the Passaic – and others – have already voiced concerns that EPA’s plan will be too costly to implement or that it doesn’t go far enough.

So it remains to be seen what the final outcome will be.

In the meantime, Basso and the EPA are working diligently to create the design that, according to Basso, will accomplish, via dredging, excavation of the top two feet of contaminated sediments – an estimated 20,000 cubic yards of soil – containing predominantly PCBs, dioxin and mercury, and the application of sand and a woven “geotextile” fabric cap that would absorb any loose contaminants.

The dredging would extend, roughly, from the Passaic River shoreline to the navigation channel, he said.

The EPA has come up with a preliminary cost estimate for the job of $25 million – all of which would be financed by the CPG – although, according to published reports, that group would prefer remediating “pollution hot spots” along the Lower Passaic’s entire 17 miles.

At the same time, the Passaic River Coalition, an advocacy group that seeks to reclaim riverfront acreage for public access, also opposes the EPA design plan as insufficient. Since the coalition owns waterfront land at the most northern point of the Lyndhurst mudflats targeted for cleanup, it’s a “primary stakeholder” in the process, said Ella Filippone, executive director of the coalition.

Filippone said that both a state tidelands permit and a state waterfront development permit are needed for the cleanup to proceed but she says the coalition “won’t sign off” on approvals for those permits “because I want them to remove the total mass of dioxins or PCBs, not just scrape off the top 12 inches – that’s not cleaning up the river.” Read more »

Heroes of yesterday (Pervis Robison Jr.)

By Karen Zautyk
Observer Correspondent

NUTLEY–

On the morning of April 10, 1963, the USS Thresher (SSN 593), one of the U.S. Navy’s then relatively new fleet of nuclearpowered submarines, was conducting deep-diving trials 220 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.

On the surface, the ship USS Skylark maintained radio communications with the sub, which was circling beneath it, deeper and deeper into the sea. Then the transmissions from the Thresher became garbled, and gradually they ceased.

Continued attempts to contact the sub were futile.

Fifteen Navy ships were dispatched to try to locate her, another futile enterprise.

By 6:30 p.m., she was declared missing. She had been lost with all hands: 112 crew members and 17 civilian technical advisers. The Atlantic had become the grave for 129 souls; the Thresher, their coffin. Flags across the U.S. flew at half-staff. Read more »

Photos by Ron Leir
Neighbor is fearful that roof of old factory will topple onto his house.

By Ron Leir
Observer Correspondent

KEARNY –

A distraught First Ward resident appealed to the Kearny governing body last Tuesday night for help. Joaquim Ponte said he lives at the lower end of Johnston Ave., with only a narrow alleyway separating his neat two-story home from the rotting former William Pries Iron Works building at 24 Johnston Ave.

Ponte said the old factory structure poses a clear danger, with sections of the west wall and roof exposed and beginning to separate. Only days ago, pieces of the crumbling infrastructure fell into the alley, he said.

While the building has been empty for years, now it is starting to show scary signs of neglected maintenance, Ponte said.

Directly across from the site is a municipal toddler park, Miglin Playground, at the corner of Sheridan Ave., so there is the possibility – however slight it may be – of children wandering too close to the old metal fabrication site and, potentially, into harm’s way. Read more »

Photos courtesy of KFD

By Karen Zautyk
Observer Correspondent

KEARNY —

A stubborn brush fire, fanned by strong winds, destroyed a large swath of the Kearny meadows last week and felled two firefighters, who required treatment for heat exhaustion.

The Kearny Fire Department was assisted by units from four other companies and by the Kearny Police Department in battling the blaze, which broke out about 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9. It was declared under control at 5 p.m., KFD Chief Steve Dyl reported. By the time it was over, flames had destroyed an area about a mile long and 500 feet wide, authorities reported. Read more »