Concerns stem from long ambulance wait

Maplewood officials to sit down and look at emergency response protocols following March incident

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — A child steps off a school bus and has a seizure. The many parents at the bus stop call 9-1-1. Nearly 20 minutes pass until an ambulance arrives. In that time, onlookers, parents and children become more and more frantic. This is not a cautionary tale; this happened last month in Maplewood […]

South Orange continues to investigate PFOA in H20

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — A likely carcinogen was detected a few months ago in 12 New Jersey water systems at rates above the state’s guidance level, according to a list compiled by the Department of Environmental Protection, and South Orange’s Well No. 17 is among those which — at one point or another, since testing […]

South Orange unveils new website after much discussion

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — At long last South Orange Village has a new website. This long-discussed change was soft-launched last week and can be viewed at www.southorange.org. The new website has several new tools and has improved upon pre-existing ones. Now, on the right-hand side of the front page, there are five clickable categories: “SO […]

Baseball HIB investigation results will not be made public

MAPLEWOOD / SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Some feathers were recently ruffled when it became known that the results of the Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying investigation, conducted by Parsippany-Troy Hills interim Superintendent LeRoy Seitz into the Columbia High School baseball program will not be made public. Seitz has been hired as an independent professional to conduct […]

Village moves forward with contract to switch to NJAW

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The village held a public hearing March 21 regarding the 10-year operations and maintenance contract it will be entering into with New Jersey American Water, which will be providing South Orange’s water instead of the East Orange Water Commission beginning Jan. 1, 2017. The village made the decision to switch from […]

Village expands center SID

South Orange Board of Trustees expands SOVCA’s reach in unanimous vote

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Following earlier village plans, the Special Improvement District in South Orange Village Center has been expanded to include 25 additional commercial properties. These properties will now fall under the South Orange Village Center Alliance’s purview and pay an assessment to help fund the SOVCA. At the March 14 Board of the […]

BOE votes to use banked cap in budget

SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Thanks to the approved use of banked cap, the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education was able to save four elementary school faculty positions, but big staffing reductions are still coming to Columbia High School. On March 21, the BOE passed the $125 million school budget on first reading with […]

BOT clears up inconsistencies in HPC ordinance language

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange Historic Preservation Commission’s role in local affairs has been clarified thanks to an ordinance passed on final reading by the Board of Trustees at its March 14 meeting. Ordinance No. 2016-09, approved with a 5-0 vote — Trustee Jeffrey DuBowy was absent — supersedes and replaces ordinances No. […]

Maplewood to see 1.96-percent tax increase

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood residents can expect to see a tax increase, according to the preliminary 2016 municipal budget, which was introduced at the March 15 Township Committee meeting. According to budget documents, the township’s Finance Committee is proposing a $41.5 million operating budget for 2016. The first reading of the preliminary budget was approved […]