Wednesday, 29 September 2021
www.TheObserver.com
Vol. CXXXIV, No. 21
ON THE INSIDE KPD catches Walmart ‘stabber’ in Newark just hours after he fled the scene. He’s charged with first-degree attempted murder BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD • EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
ANGELS IN THE PEWS The Black Poster Project — Angels in the Pews — comes to St. Stephen’s Church, Kearny, this Thursday and serves as a slient remembrance of nearly 400 people who lost their lives to addiction.
See Page 3 By Kevin A. Canessa Jr. kc@theobserver.com William Handlin knows all too well the pain of addiction. His daughter, Nikki Danielle, died last Oct. 19 from an overdose from heroin. “She’d been in a rehab house in Newark and I got a call she overdosed,” Handlin said. “Prior to that, she spent three months in Christ Hospital with a broken neck.” After losing his daughter when she was just 31, Handlin got involved with the Walk for Recovery with the group Alumni in Recovery. Then, he learned about the Black Poster Project — and Nikki’s image and story joined hundreds of others memorialized by the project. The project is a silent memorial to those who lost battles with addiction and thanks to the generosity of a local church, which is serving as host, the project will make its way to Kearny later this week. The Black Poster Project — Angels in the Pews — takes place at St. Stephen’s Church, Kearny and Laurel avenues, Thursday, Sept. 30, from 5 to 9 p.m. Those who wish may visit the project at any point during that fourhour timeframe. While the event takes place at St. Stephen’s, this is a community-based experience and it is open to people of all faiths. The project was created by Dee Gillen after she lost her son, Scott, to an overdose. While preparing for an overdose awareness event in 2019, she felt it would be an impactful visual to have posters of lost loved ones displayed behind event speakers. And impactful it was, so much so that the project continues to grow. What started out with 50 awareness posters is now approaching 400. See ANGELS, Page 8
New Wittpenn Bridge set to (finally) open Oct. 1 By The Observer Staff
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fter a decade of planning, construction, delays, setbacks and more delays, the new Wittpenn Bridge, which connects Kearny to Jersey City over the Hackensack River, is set to open to traffic Friday, Oct. 1, the New Jersey Department of Transportation has announced. Work on the new bridge began in 2011 and was slated to be complete several years ago. However, for various reasons, including bad weather and a
global pandemic, that timeframe was pushed back often. And now, the project that cost taxpayers $500 million, will finally become a reality — mostly. We say mostly because when the bridge does reopen later this week, access to Fish House Road won’t be immediately available to east-traveling traffic. The NJDOT says it could be another year before that happens. But it will make life much easier for commuters, who were often faced with closures, massive lane shifts and various other headaches. The NJDOT says the project consists of the re-
placement of the bridge and the realignment of Fish House Road on the west side of the river. The new bridge is located north of the existing bridge. The existing Wittpenn Bridge is a vertical lift bridge built in 1930 and it is 2,169 feet long with 14 deck-girder spans and three through-truss approach spans, two tower spans and a 209-foot vertical lift main span. The bridge currently provides four 10 foot travel lanes (two eastbound and westbound) with no shoulders. There is no physical separation between opposing traffic on the bridge. (See p. 2)
