News

The West Essex Tribune is celebrating six decades of showering the first baby of the new year with an assortment of gifts generously donated by our advertisers. The first baby of 2018 born to Livingston parents will be named the winner of the Tribune’s 60th annual First Baby Contest.

The rules to determine the winner are the same each year: The first baby of 2018 must be born in a nearby hospital to parents who currently reside in Livingston. The exact time of the birth must be certified in writing by the attending physician.

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For the third season, through a contact made by Livingston resident and Springfield chiropractor Dr. Gary Hecht, students at Springfield’s Jonathan Dayton High School collected coats for Livingston Philanthropies. Philanthropies founder and director Jeff “the Coat Guy” Friedman, along with Livingston business owner and volunteer Neil Greco and his new truck, accepted 216 warm coats from Club co-coordinator Jennifer Mortensen on behalf of the school.
Mortensen, who teaches biological sciences and special education and helps coordinates the high school’s Volunteer Club, is dedicated to helping the poor, homeless and disenfranchised. “We are so pleased to help make a difference,” she said.

Children will have an opportunity to meet Santa Claus when he arrives by fire engine at the Camuso Holiday Display this Saturday, December 23. The event, which was supposed to be held on Saturday, December 9, but was cancelled due to inclement weather, begins at 6:30 p.m. Santa and his elves will be in the Gazebo to greet children and pose for photos.

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SEWER BASIN REPLACEMENT: “Dump No Waste” and “Drains to Waterway” are engraved in the new basin covers that Essex County is installing along South Livingston Avenue. The replacement covers are part of the County’s regular resurfacing project. This kind of work is done, said county information director Anthony Puglisi, “when we identify things that need to be upgraded to current standards.”

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FOXY NEIGHBOR: A Billingsley Drive resident, Mark Maloney, took this photo of a fox he observed on his property. There have been several reported sightings of foxes in Livingston recently. According to wildlife officials, foxes are generally harmless. Nevertheless, residents should avoid approaching or feeding them, and keep children and pets away from the wild canids.

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The Livingston Township Council, at its meeting on Monday evening, memorialized a resolution to urge Congress to protect the future deductibility of federal deductions for state and local taxes (SALT). The SALT deduction allows taxpayers who itemized deductions on their federal income taxes to deduct state and local income, sales, and property taxes.

At press time, the GOP tax reform bill, which includes the changes to the SALT provision, was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House was scheduled to vote again on the bill on Wednesday according to Senate procedure.

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A pedestrian, who had only been identified as a “Hispanic male” at press time, was struck and killed by a van on South Orange Avenue at 1:05 a.m. Wednesday morning, December 20.

According to police officials, the victim was hit by a 2004 white Ford E250 van, which was traveling west on South Orange Avenue, approximately 750 feet west of the intersection with JFK Parkway. He was pronounced dead at the scene, at 1:25 a.m., by a doctor from Newark Beth Israel Hospital. The van is registered to the Newark Morning Ledger.

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Dozens of residents showed up at the Township Council meeting on Monday, December 18, to hear a presentation by Good Energy. The consulting company was hired by the township to explore the possibility of using an energy aggregation program in Livingston.

Good Energy managing partner Charles de Casteja and account manager Gary Swantner presented an overview of the energy aggregation concept and answered questions posed by members of the audience.

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Things have been very busy for the volunteers at the Livingston Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Livingston resident Jeff Friedman. The organization runs the seasonal Livingston Coat Drive and a year ’round toiletries drive for the homeless.
To date, since the Coat Drive began in October, Friedman – known around town as “the Coat Guy” – has collected and delivered more than 1,000 coats. He has recently recruited several additional volunteers with SUVs and pick-up trucks to help handle the results of Livingston’s generosity.
Coats, along with “goodie bags” of toiletries, are driven by volunteers to Newark and East Orange to various distribution partners. In addition, many items are given out personally by volunteers to soup kitchen clients, etc.

Livingston’s first snowfall of the 2017 winter season on Saturday, December 9, brought with it a little more than four inches of snow, but less than two inches accumulated on the roadway, said Department of Public Works (DPW) superintendent Mike Anello.

Anello noted that the biggest challenge for the DPW was changing over its trucks from leaf collection mode to snow removal mode.

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