January 7, 2015 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVII, No. 33
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
4-year contract for cops
• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
Break-ins disrupt holiday week
By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent NORTH ARLINGTON – The borough has nailed down a new labor pact with the police union and narrowly approved a two-year extension of its contract with Police Chief Louis Ghione. At a special meeting Dec. 29, the mayor and Borough Council unanimously voted to enter into a new agreement with Patrolman’s Benevolent Association Local 95 that will provide annual pay increases of 1.25% for four years, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2017. The prior three-year contract had expired Dec. 31, 2013. The new agreement, which covers all 28 members of the North Arlington Police Department, except the chief, calls for annual pay raises of 1.25%, with no other changes to the existing steps in the salary guide or benefits. As of last week, no new salary guide spelling out how pay levels for each police rank will change over the life of the contract had yet been prepared, according to Borough Administrator Steve LoIacono. It took a state arbitrator, Frank Mason, to settle the prior contract: Mason awarded no pay increase for 2011, a 2.5% pay hike effective April 1, 2012; and an additional 2.5% raise see CONTRACTS page
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By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
a black male with a hoodie emerged from a pickup truck parked outside and smashed the glass front door with a HARRISON – brick. n the 24 years that his famOnce inside, the burglar ily has operated Fulger’s removed two cash registers Golden Beer & Liquor, with an undisclosed amount there’s never been any trouble of cash and cigarettes and fled, from the outside. “It’s a nice, probably in the pickup truck, friendly neighborhood,” said Green said. owner Hitesh Patel. Last week, Fulger owner Now, however, Patel is applyPatel told The Observer he was ing for a permit to carry a gun. asleep in an apartment above Christmas week was marred the store when he was awakfor Patel and several other Harened by a call from one of his rison merchants when their longtime customers informing shops – all within a few blocks him that, “my main door is of each other on Harrison Ave. shredding – they broke in.” – were burglarized – possibly Patel said he immediately by the same individual. went downstairs to investigate. Harrison Police Capt. He found a brick – the one beMichael Green said the first lieved to have been used by the incident was reported at 4:18 burglar – at the store entrance. a.m. on Christmas Day, from And, he said, “I saw everything Fulger’s, at Harrison and Davis Aves., where – as the store’s see BREAK-INS page surveillance tape revealed –
I
HPD
Images of suspected burglar and his getaway vehicle were captured on store surveillance tape.
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Winter haven for Hudson homeless By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
KEARNY – If you open it, they will come. That’s what Hudson County has done for the adult homeless population and they’ve been coming.
They are directed to the third floor of the former U.S. Naval Reserve Readiness Center at 53 Hackensack Ave. in South Kearny to accept the hospitality of a “warming center.” It’s a place where folks with nowhere else to go can come in from the cold and spend the
night in a safe environment. It’s safe because it’s monitored/staffed by the county Department of Corrections. And while they have no beds or cots, DOC is continuing to collect bunches of recliners that serve just as well for the exhausted men and women who are guests of
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the facility. “We feed them, give them toiletries, shower facilities, clean clothing if they need any, and there’s a big common area where they can interrelate or watch TV,” said DOC Director Oscar Aviles. see WARMING page
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