March 30, 2016 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVIII, No. 44 Visit our
BUSINESS DIRECT RY on
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
Seeking volunteers for cleanup BELLEVILLE – Want to participate in a civic pride community service project? The Belleville Historical Society is seeking volunteers to help clean up the cemetery at the former Dutch Reformed Church on Rutgers St. this Saturday, April 2, and next Saturday, April 9, for an upcoming commemorative event. Michael Perrone, president of the society, said the cleanup activity will proceed each day, from about 9 a.m. to around 3 p.m. “If they can, people should bring their own rakes to sweep up the leaves in the cemetery grounds, if they can, since our supplies are limited,” Perrone said. The cemetery contains the graves of more than 60 Revolutionary War soldiers and noted historical figures from that era. Perrone said the society, which typically pitches in to spruce up the area on the leadup to the Independence Day holiday, wants to get a “headstart” now for several reasons. In a vault below the church, he said, there are the remains of a number of Chinese imsee CEMETERY page
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• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
Fire wrecks house, office
By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
Page 26
LYNDHURST —
A
rapidly moving fire ravaged a two-and-a-half-story building on Stuyvesant Ave. in Lyndhurst during Easter weekend. Paul Haggerty, chief of the Lyndhurst Volunteer Fire Department, said the fire was reported initially by a passerby calling on a cellular phone at 4:35 p.m. Friday, followed by “a flood of calls” from neighbors. Shortly afterward, the first responding Lyndhurst fire units arrived to find “heavy fire coming from the storefront dental office” of 217 Stuyvesant, between Tontine and Court Aves., with the flames “blowing out on to the street.” And those flames soon engulfed a vehicle parked in front of the building, he said. Haggerty said the fire quickly spread into the cockloft at the top of the century-old building — so fast, he added, that, “We weren’t given a fighting chance
Photo courtesy JeffStang91 on YouTube
see FIRE page
Firefighters from five communities struggled to keep Stuyvesant Ave. blaze in check.
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St. Cecilia’s re-creates Christ’s death By Kevin Canessa Jr. Observer Correspondent
KEARNY – More than 150 parishioners of St. Cecilia’s Church — from the English-, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking communities — gathered as one for “The Way of the Cross” —
or, the Living Stations of the Cross — last Friday morning, Good Friday, in West Hudson Park, commemorating the passion and death of Jesus Christ. It was the penultimate Holy Week event leading to Easter Sunday. Actors portrayed everyone from Christ to Mary
Magdalene to the Roman soldiers who tortured Jesus and ultimately crucified him — and at times, the dramatization seemed as real as what likely happened to Jesus the day he died. He was whipped. He was kicked. He was spat upon.
It couldn’t have been much more realistic, save for putting nails into his wrists and feet. Why do this on Good Friday? Jesus’ death is always marked on Good Friday, the most somber day in the see STATIONS page
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