community news from Livingston

LINE WORK: Hillside Avenue was closed between Belmont Drive and Manor Road on Friday, January 15 so that sewer and water lines could be connected to a new house on the west side of Hillside Avenue. Crew members are shown here working on the sewer connection, the white pipe about 13 feet below the road. Jerry Siskind Photo

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Livingston and Essex County officials, along with employees of Saint Barnabas Medical Center, addressed township residents’ questions, comments, and concerns regarding the COVID-19 vaccination process and the ongoing pandemic during an online panel discussion last Thursday, January 14. The forum may still be viewed on the Livingston Township, NJ Facebook page. The morning after it first posted, it had accumulated more than 2,700 views.

Panelists for the forum included Dr. Lincoln Miller, section chief of infectious disease at RWJBarnabas Health and Saint Barnabas Medical Center; Essex County health officer Maya Lordo; Livingston health officer Lou Anello, Livingston health educator Jessica Kelly, Livingston nursing supervisor Melissa Kimmel; Margie Heller, vice president of community health and strategic global partnerships at RWJBarnabas Health; Essex County officials, including commissioner Pat Sebold; and Mayor Shawn Klein and members of the Township Council.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing academic institutions across the country to send students home, many spring sports seasons came to an abrupt end. For the first time in many years, spring studentathletes found themselves displaced from their sports and their teammates for the foreseeable future.

For Muhlenberg sophomore women’s lacrosse player Emily Gaffney of Livingston, a spring season without lacrosse was not an option.

She discovered ReLax Collections, a nonprofit foundedby William Dadouris, a men’s lacrosse player and 2020 graduate of Moravian College. Dadouris founded ReLax Collections as a high school student in 2014, and has since collected over $1,500,000 worth of new and used lacrosse equipment to support over 35 teams across the United States and in 16 other countries as they “grow the game.”

A DAY ON: Members of the Township Council and the Livingston Committee for Diversity and Inclusion collected donations, including food, school supplies, cleaning supplies, and more in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Day of Service is meant to be “a day on, not a day off.”

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Ruth Namer died on January 8, 2021 at the age of 96.

She was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 24, 1924. In 1985, she moved to Coconut Creek, Florida, and lived at Wynmoore. She moved to Livingston five years ago to be with her family.

Ruth was the beloved wife of the late Isaac Namer; loving mother to Jeffrey and Brandi Namer and Helene and Lenny Kesselman; adoring Nana of Martin Kesselman, Jennifer and Joe Godsy, Amanda and Joe Ballance; and loving Great-Nana to Ellie and Brayden Kesselman, Bryce and Brielle Ballance, and Whitney and Talia Godsy.

She will be forever in our hearts and memories.

Herbert Allen Overbaugh, 87, of Livingston, passed away on Thursday, January 14, 2021.

Born in Newark, Herbert resided in Livingston for the past 40 years. He was a graduate of Irvington High School, Class of 1952, and later enlisted and served proudly in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1957. After his honorable discharge, he was employed by the Bergen County Department ofHealth, where he worked as a Health Officer, until his retirement in 1998.

Herbert was predeceased by his beloved wife, Agnes. He is survived by his loving sons, Christopher (Sue) and David, as well as his sister Nancy Klinghoffer, and his nephews, William and Daniel Shumsky.

Due to COVID-19, all services were private, with a possible memorial service to be held in the future. Arrangements have been entrusted to Quinn-Hopping Funeral Home, Livingston.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to charity of your choice.

We also wish to remind residents that the world is not their trash can, specifically when it comes to discarded masks and gloves. The amount of PPE we have seen on the ground in the past year is disgusting and disheartening. We cannot imagine that so many residents would carelessly throw these items to the ground, for someone else to clean or simply remain as litter for years. As neighbors of ShopRite, we see it firsthand every day, and as the months have gone on, the masks and gloves have continued to be discarded pretty much everywhere but in the garbage.

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Last Thursday, Livingston Township officials hosted a vaccine forum, an online discussion that allowed residents to ask questions about the vaccination process. It was informative and conducted efficiently. Credit is due to all who spoke during the more than hour-long panel for answering many of the queries that concerned residents had about the COVID-19 vaccines, and the pandemic at large. In a time where misinformation about vaccines is running rampant, having our community leaders directly answer questions is a terrific way to combat distrust and confusion.

Livingston Philanthropies, Inc. (LPI) founder and director Jeff Friedman has noted that the non-profit organization’s “Personal Shopping/Shipping for the Homeless” initiative is continuing to thrive.
As an example, he notes that, after learning about the “Personal Shopping/Shipping for the Homeless” program, Robert Waldron, operations manager at Gilbane Building Company in Newark, decided to get involved.
“I know of LPI, as I lived in Living-ston for my entire life before moving to Roseland a few years ago,” Waldron said. “So every week I read the LPI articles in the West Essex Tribune.”
Waldron recounted, “The company I work for has been in Newark for about a year and half, and earlier this year we did something directly with St. John’s Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry in Newark (a long-time LPI distribution partner). When a few of us sat down a couple of weeks ago to review what we would do next, I suggested LPI.” 

As of Wednesday morning, January 13, the Livingston Health Department has reported that a total of 1,288 Livingston residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the first case was recorded in mid-March. 82 of those residents have died as a result of the virus. Compared to the same time last week, there are 76 new cases, with no additional deaths. In the past month, there have been 274 cases.

More than 219,000 New Jersey residents have received their first vaccination dose, while more than 24,000 of those individuals have received their second dose as of Wednesday morning.

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