East Newark Mayor Dina Grilo, the East Newark Borough Council and police Sgt. Billy Erezuma were on hand Sept. 17 for two special recognitions — the participants of the East Newark Junior Police Academy and Martin Nystrom, a retired EMT who takes the youngsters to Ground Zero to explain to the kids all that happened on that tragic day back in 2001.
Erezuma, a veteran police officer, has coordinated the junior police academy for several years and is known for reminding folks the JPA is one of his favorite weeks of the year.
“We are so proud of the junior police academy,” Erezuma said. “But we couldn’t do this without the support of our mayor and council. Mayor Grilo has been a huge proponent of the JPA and the kids are all better because of it. In fact, she buys T-shirts for the cadets and pays for it out of her own pocket. We are so fortunate to have such a pro-police mayor — and that support makes my life so much better and easier. And it’s even better for the kids.”
Seen here in one photo are the cadets with Erezuma off to the side and Grilo and Erezuma with Nystrom in the other photo.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.