Wednesday, 17 March 2021
www.TheObserver.com
Vol. CXXXIII, No. 45
ON THE INSIDE North Arlington’s Velazquez gets his much-needed kidney transplant. See page 9
COP OF THE YEAR
BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD • EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
Kearny Police Department’s Anthony Oliveira chosen by Valor Committee, his peers
By Kevin Canessa kc@theobserver.com
I Kearny Police Officer Anthony Oliveira is the department’s 2020 Cop of the Year.
t was only a few weeks ago Kearny Police Officer Anthony Oliveira says he had one of the more intense incidents of his 2+-year career. He was on patrol at around 9 p.m., Feb. 10, 2021, when a radio call ordered all Kearny units to head to Walmart. There, a woman had been setting fire to clothing. Witnesses said they believed she had a knife on her. Later, we’d learn she had earlier that day called a suicide-prevention hotline number, was reported as such to the Jersey City PD where she lives and she’d gone away from her home. “It was intense,” Oliveira recalls of the call. “I was the first to get there. When I arrived I ran to the back of the store where she was. I kept a distance and asked her to put the knife down. See OLIVEIRA, Page 16
GIANGERUSO TICKET INCLUDES 1 NON-INCUMBENT By Kevin Canessa kc@theobserver.com
F
our of five Lyndhurst commissioners will seek a new, four-year term and they’ve formed a ticket with one newcomer. The Lyndhurst Unity team filed its nominating petitions last week for the
May 11 Township Commission election, with Mayor Robert B. Giangeruso atop the ticket, incumbent Commissioners Karen Haggerty, John Montillo and Richard Jarvis and newcomer Louis DeMarco. Current Commissioner Thomas DiMaggio is retiring from public office and will not seek re-election. GIANGERUSO, a retired Lyndhurst
DECISION 2021 cop who was first elected to the commission in 2005, has served most of his time time as Commissioner of Public Safety. A lifelong resident of Lyndhurst,
SPECIAL GREETINGs on page 7
Giangeruso says with the town’s population growing because of housing development in the Meadowlands – which is outside the control of the town - public safety is an increasingly important issue. “I devoted my career to keeping people safe and I want to use my expeSee ELECTION, Page 16