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BACK IN THE DAY - 06/01/2008
Speed, supermarket strikes and cemeteries
NORTH JERSEY – Here’s a look at what was published in Suburban Trends around the end of May over the years.
1998 – Big letdown
It was the end of the series “Seinfeld.” The infamously overhyped final episode had our cartoonist mad. He drew a picture of a single chimp at a typewriter.
Don’t be fuelish
In 1974, the federal government enacted the National Maximum Speed Law, making 55 miles per hour the fastest you could legally drive on any road in the nation. This was done in response to the 1970s oil crisis. In 1995, the law was repealed and the states were again allowed to set their own speed limits.
In 1998, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman approved letting the speed limit be raised to 65 miles per hour on some stretches of highway in the state for an 18-month trial period. Congresswoman Marge Roukema opposed increasing the speed limit on I-287 in our area, and asked for the support of local officials. She didn’t get it.
In Oakland, by a vote of 4-2, the Borough Council decided not to endorse Roukema’s plea to keep the speed limit at 55 mph on I-287 through their area.
First female cops
Wanaque officials swore in the first two women police officers in the borough's history.
At a Wanaque council meeting, borough residents Kathleen Stymacks and Jean Hoffmann were welcomed and congratulated by police and the borough council.
Both of the applicants had some related experience with police work.
Hoffmann was formerly an investigator for Passaic County Social Services.
Initially working in the field, her department was recently switched to office duty and she decided to join the police force.
“She was anxious to get back into the field,” said Wanaque Police Lieutenant William Sullivan.
Stymacks had a closer association with the Wanaque P.D., working as its dispatcher for 11 years.
Regardless of past experience, each applicant had to undergo a long hiring process to be considered for employment by the police department.
First, Stymacks and Hoffmann had to perform well on the Civil Service Exam.
When they received a passing grade, the duo then had to undergo a physical exam, which was described by Sullivan as “pretty stressful.”
The physical exam is followed by a rigorous psychological exam at an Oakland facility where applicants undergo both written and oral tests.
If the applicant passes these stages, it is followed by two interviews.
The first is with Sullivan and Wanaque Police Chief Jack Reno. The second is with Reno, Sullivan and a panel of eight to 10 police officers.
At this second meeting, the applicant is bombarded with a number of “situational questions.”
“There are no right or wrong answers,” noted Sullivan. “The questions are open ended.”
And the whole time the potential officer is answering these questions, he or (in this case) she must stand at attention. The applicant is also being recorded on video.
“To date,” noted Sullivan with a laugh, “no (applicant) has asked for a copy of the tape.”
After this screening process, the police finally decide who to hire.
Despite their appointment, Stymacks and Hoffmann still had a long way to go before becoming full-fledged police officers.
The first major hurdle was the police academy.
“It is 18 weeks of hell” noted Sullivan. “Very similar to a military boot camp, academy recruits live on the base and undergo a grueling regimen of physical training in combination with an intensive education. The academy covers all the ins and outs of police procedure.”
“Basically they break you down and then build you back up,” said Sullivan.
When Stymacks and Hoffmann finished their training, they had to ride with a training officer in the Wanaque P.D. for a month.
Then came a one-year probationary period where the new rookie could be fired for any reason. Until the year is over, the new officer could not become a member of the police union.
Then, and only then, would the new female officers have fulfilled their training.
Wanaque Mayor Warren Hagstrom is one of many who were optimistic about the new appointments.
“I'm sure they are going to do a terrific job,” he said. Hoffmann and Stymacks were scheduled to begin their training at the police academy on May 26.
1993 – Supermarket strike
The effects of an ongoing labor dispute between union workers and four supermarket chains hit the local area at the Grand Union in Ringwood and the Pathmark and Shop Rite in Wayne.
Officials of the Local 1262 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said 58 stores had been striking for 12 days. The union denounced Shop Rite, Pathmark, Food Town and Grand Union who locked out workers at 70 other stores, including the Grand Union in Ringwood and the Pathmark in Wayne.
The union decided to strike because of a disagreement with Shop Rite management over the issue of increased health care insurance copayments and deductibles. The benefits were fully funded by the company.
At the Wayne Shop Rite, the regular workers remained on strike, but “temporary workers” took their place and the store remained opened.
A union spokesperson said that the Wayne Shop Rite was losing business and closing earlier because of the strike. He also said that A&P supermarkets, which had already reached an agreement with the striking union workers, had a 33 percent increase in sales in one week because of the strike.
“We are depriving the stores of good employees. The stores cannot operate properly,” he said.
Although only union members who worked at Shop Rite were striking, union members who worked at other supermarkets were being locked out.
“It is irresponsible to involve thousands of people. The overall picture is that the chains may be very competitive, but they are banding together to obstruct the union,” said the union spokesperson. “They have turned this into more than a discussion about contracts. They are out to get us first and that's a tragedy.”
A union member who worked for the Grand Union in Ringwood was picketing.
“We were not planning on striking, they just locked us out and now we can't work,” she said.
Another union spokesperson said that the union members were given notices and asked to leave the building.
“The managements are sticking together and are fighting the union,” he said.
In West Milford
West Milford’s “downtown” economy is based around its Shop Rite and the surrounding strip mall, and because of the strike, many of the other stores in the mall were suffering.
Marshall Hill Bar & Liquors, adjacent to Shop Rite, reported at least a 50 percent drop in business with many potential customers even reluctant to enter the parking lot.
Union spokespeople asked that consumers not avoid their local merchants just because of their strike. But they didn’t make it exactly comfortable to be near them.
They handed out letters to people who walked by. The bilingual letters said:
Dear Customer,
We are on strike because our employer is reducing health insurance coverage, eliminating retiree benefits and reducing our pension benefits. Please, for our lives and our future, please do not shop at this supermarket.
The manager of the A&P store in Hewitt said business was booming at six times the regular rate and that he was staying open later. To handle the load, he had hired about 20 new employees, all hired away from Shop Rite, and he said he was still accepting applications.
Meanwhile, the manager at the Shop Rite said the drop in business was “unbelievable.”
“The parking lot has been empty all day,” she said.
1983 – A grave move
A historical family cemetery plot in Ringwood was to be moved to a new location to make way for construction of the Monksville Reservoir.
The cemetery was located in what was formerly the Monksville section of West Milford Township. It could best be described as now being legally in the Stonetown section of Ringwood, bordering West Milford.
The land the cemetery sits on was deeded to the North Jersey Water District Supply Commission (NJDWSC) on Sept. 26, 1928 by the Monks family.
“The property outside the Monks Cemetery was flooded to build the Wanaque Reservoir. They had to move the other cemeteries at that time,” said Dean Noll, the NJDWSC engineer.
Mary Thoreau, a member of the law firm of Minish & Williams, attorneys for the NJDWSC, was handling the arrangements to move the cemetery and enthusiastic about the history of the Monks.
“The Monks were a very well known family before and around the turn of the century,” said she said. “In order to move the cemetery, it is necessary to follow a procedure in the Passaic County Chancery Division. We’re in the process of going before them.”
It was figured that there were 14 dead Monks in the cemetery, but it was hard to tell because most of the tombstones were worn and hard to read. The Monks family came to this country in the 1820s.
“We want to move it and relocate it in the same configuration and fence it in. I imagine they’ll probably want to put something in for historical purposes. We want the move to be as easy and as dignified as possible,” she added.
There were 15 other unknown tombs, for a total of about 30 bodies that had been dead for 100 years that needed to be moved, said Thoreau.
“It’s highly doubtful that there will be any boxes in the ground,” she said.
She sent out letters to suspected descendants asking for more information on the Monks. A private investigator named Jerry Grace was also hired by the law firm to track down information.
“My gut opinion is we'll find some leads from the people we're contacting now. We were given a few names, but I don't know the tie yet. Apparently some of the older people are still in the area,” he said.
Helen Monks Mitnick was a descendant of the original American Monks. She was born on the Beech Farm in Hewitt and moved to Stonetown as a baby.
“My father, Peter Monks, was a caretaker for Mrs. F. Kingsbury Curtis on the dairy farm, He died when I was quite young,” she said. “I've heard stories from other relatives. In my mother's photo album, there are pictures of some of them, including Minnie Mae Monks,” she added.
Minnie Mae Monks was the author of the 1930 book “Windbeam,” that detailed the early history of the area and the Monks family.
Mitnick said once in the 1950s she was curious and snuck into the old family cemetery. She said she also found an abandoned railroad station there that she suspected would also be underwater when the reservoir was completed.
Jacques Cousteau, the famous aquatic explorer, once looked at the ruins of the small town underneath the Monksville Reservoir in a submarine, according to several Internet knowledge bases.
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