2017 02 22 obs1

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February 22, 2017 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXIX, No. 37 Visit our

BUSINESS DIRECT RY on

COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD

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• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent

A Kearny son J remembered

KEARNY – oseph Peden Jr. was about four months shy of official manhood when he – like a lot of his patriotic peers did at the time – enlisted for a six-year tour to join the fight against the Axis forces. The Brighton Ave. resident did this after having completed two years at Kearny High School. As character references, he listed neighbor Stanley Hanze, who worked for the Kearny Shade Tree Commission; “S. Leggett,” a KHS teacher; and neighbor/ banana salesman Angelo Battista. On Sept. 27, 1940, his 18th birthday, Joe was officially inducted into the U.S. Navy as an Apprentice Seaman at $21 per month. The ruddy, 5-feet-10 inch, 150-pound sailor with blue eyes and dark brown hair was a first-generation American whose parents, Joseph Sr. and Sarah Peden, were Irish immigrants. On or about March 1, 1942, Joe’s all-too-brief naval career came to an end when Japanese planes strafed a life raft containing Joe and other sailors whose ship had been torpedoed off Java. Peden, declared to be the first Kearny casualty of World War II, was posthumously honored by his hometown on April 4, 1954, when the Kearny United Veterans Organization unveiled a street plaque bearing Joe’s name across from Garfield School at Belgrove Drive and the newly dedicated street, Peden Terrace, then the site of a new residential development.

Photo courtesy Nancy Hartung

see PEDEN page

Joseph Peden Jr. at the typewriter.

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Better for the Oval: Soccer or baseball?

By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent

KEARNY – The Battle of Gunnell Oval is over … for now … but the guns are still smoking. Advocates for soccer and baseball skirmished last Wednesday, Feb. 15, as Kearny

unveiled its latest plan for a turf makeover of the environmentally compromised municipal youth athletic complex east of Schuyler Ave. that was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Each group reasoned that because municipal and school playing space now available

is at a premium due to keen competition for time slots, and differed over the town’s plan for several overlapping fields. But Fourth Ward Councilman Michael Landy, liaison to the town’s Recreation Committee, justified “multipurpose” fields as a way of

maximizing athletic opportunities for Kearny kids of varying ages, even if that means “bumping” travel teams. Still, the town may be hardpressed to defend its turf against potential incursions from outsiders since part of the $20+ million project’s funding already in hand – $1.1

million – is from the state Green Acres program. And, as explained by Mayor Alberto Santos, “With Green Acres, [fields are] open to anyone who seeks a permit.” However, Landy later told The Observer that the town “can see OVAL page

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