Wednesday, 22 September 2021
www.TheObserver.com
Vol. CXXXIV, No. 20
ON THE INSIDE Fatal fire claims father and son in North Arlington BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD • EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
He said he didn’t know how many, ultimately, didn’t make the cutoff. earny vehicle own“We are working on getting ers fuming over de- a second mobile unit and/or an lays in getting their additional date,” Santos posted. paperwork handled In a phone interview, the or getting shuffled from one mayor said that, initially, there service agency to another can were hopes for two mobile expect some relief soon. units Oct. 5 but that expectation The New Jersey Motor was dashed after the potential Vehicle Commission is sending second unit was damaged by a mobile unit to the town Oct. Hurricane Ida and is still await5. It will be stationed in front of ing repair. Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Now he’s anticipating a reA recent posting on the turn of a mobile unit sometime town’s website alerted residents in November. to “Agency-on-Wheels” proSantos said that the legislative gram and requested interested office of Assemblywoman Anpersons to register in advance gelica Jimenez, representative for appointments. of the 32nd legislative district, Evidently, demand for the “made me aware of the (mobile service was so intense that the unit) program” and he reached 65 available slots were gobbled out to the MVC to arrange for a up in “less than a day,” accordvisit to Kearny. ing to Mayor Alberto Santos. As soon as the visit was con-
By Ron Leir For The Observer
K
firmed by the MVC, the town posted public notices on the municipal website and social media, the mayor said. The fact that people speedily registered for the program “shows there’s definitely a need for it,” he noted. “Even when you go (to a motor vehicles agency) in person, it can be time-consuming and when you don’t have to drive (to an out-of-town location) it’s less stressful,” he added. Town resident Jane DoffontCarey offered an example of just how frustrating an in-person visit can be in a recent Facebook posting in which she related a visit to a Newark-based MVC station she and her 17-year-old son made in June to get him a driver’s permit. “We had an appointment,” Doffont-Carey said. “We waited three hours on line.
At 4:30 (p.m.) there were still many people waiting for their scheduled appointment. An announcement was made that they were closing and everyone needed to go online and re-schedule. We have been trying since to schedule another appointment. For the past two months, each time I go online to reschedule, it always states: ‘“no appointments available.”’ That’s for the entire state. … This is so frustrating. I hope we can get another date with the mobile unit.” Another resident hoping to visit the mobile unit is Third Ward Councilwoman Carol Jean Doyle. “I have plates to retire,” Doyle said. “I happened to have found them in my trunk. They’re about a year old. I think the mobile unit is going to do a lot of good.”
See Page 15
William Connolly The NJMVC spokesman said , the agency has two Mobile Units that were launched in 2018. In the first few months of the program, the Mobile Units were used to supplement agencies that were overburdened. For example, while the South Plainfield agency was closed, one Mobile Unit was committed full-time to the nearby Edison agency. In the fall of 2018, we began deploying the Mobile Units to community events and locations. We have not tracked the total number of towns or locations they have visited, but we aim to serve as many different communities across the state as possible and rarely visit the same location multiple times in a year. See MVC, Page 14
Fife says he’s running for third full Harrison mayoral term Harrison’s incumbent Mayor James A. Fife says he’s seeking another term with a full slate of council candidates in 2022. Fife told The Observer last week he will run with incumbents Jesus Huaranga in the First Ward, Ellen Mendoza in the Second Ward, Larry Bennett in the Third Ward and James P. Doran in the Fourth Ward.
While he doesn’t expect an intraparty challenge in the June 2022 primary, he did acknowledge the possibility of a challenge from a slate of non-affiliated candidates, who have until primary day, to file nomination petitions. Fife became mayor early in 2014 when he was appointed to fill a vacancy created after former longtime friend Mayor
Raymond McDonough died unexpectedly on Feb. 12, 2014. At that time of his initial appointment, Fife, a longtime Harrison educator, was serving as chairman of the Harrison Redevelopment Agency and president of the Harrison Board of Education. He was also a member of the Hudson County Community College’s Board of Trustees.
Fife, 82, won election to the mayoralty in 2014 and 2018. In 2018, he and the four he’s running with this year, squared off and handily beat political nemesis and a team he formed, former Councilman Anselmo Milan, in a primary in June 2018. He and the ticket easily won in November that year with no general election challengers.
