WATER USE A PROBLEM IN OAKLAND

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Monday, May 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A05

Borough officials urged residents not to sprinkle lawns or wash cars following a virtual water-use binge that brought reserves to dangerously low levels.
Although water levels had climbed to nearly 75 percent capacity by 6 p.m. Sunday, the advisory will remain in effect until further notice, said N. David Fagerland, public works director. On Saturday, reserves were about 30 percent of capacity.
Apparently, a significant number of the borough’s 4,025 water customers were watering lawns and washing cars Saturday, depleting the borough’s five tanks.
“Basically, the wells could not keep up with the demand,” Fagerland said. “The people were using the water before it gets to the tanks, before the tanks got filled.”
Public works officials and police, responding to complaints of low-water pressure from residents, went around neighborhoods with loudspeakers and bullhorns Saturday and Sunday, warning residents to resist the urge to water their lawns.

Keywords: OAKLAND; WATER; SUPPLY

YOUTH PULLED FROM RIVER DIES

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, May 26, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A09

A 13-year-old boy pulled from the Hudson River after being submerged for nearly an hour died before dawn Saturday, a Jersey City Medical Center spokeswoman said.
Frank Williams of Jersey City had been swimming with friends in the river, at the foot of Sixth Street near Grundy Park, when he slipped from sight, said city police Lt. Robert Taino.
The friends stopped Police Officer Jack Bennett about 4 p.m. Friday, and told him their friend had disappeared while swimming, Taino said. Bennett called for a rescue team, then flagged down a passing boat, and they began searching for the boy. New York harbor police assisted Jersey City officers in pulling the boy from the river.
Williams was admitted to Jersey City Medical Center in critical condition about 6 p.m. Friday. He was placed on a respirator but died during the night, the hospital spokeswoman said.

Keywords: JERSEY CITY; YOUTH; RIVER; SWIMMING; ACCIDENT; DEATH

POLICE CHIEF JOHN J. AGAR, 60

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, May 25, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS (OBIT) | Page A08

If you cut John J. Agar, township police chief for the past four years, he would bleed blue, a friend said Friday.
That’s how much of a policeman he was, said the friend, Little Ferry Police Chief Donald Fleming. Mr. Agar died about noon Thursday at Englewood Hospital. He was 60.
Diagnosed eight years ago with leukemia, Mr. Agar’s condition worsened in the past year. He died three hours before he was to receive a career achievement award from the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association.
“We worked over the course of the years on many, many cases together,” Fleming said. “Even as police chief he was very active, going on drug raids. He made sure his community was safe. He was there when you needed him. He’s going to be missed. An asset to every community around.”
Mr. Agar lived on Agar Place, where his grandfather, John, set down roots at the turn of the century. Mr. Agar was a lifelong resident of the township and served 34 years in the Police Department.
He served with the Marines during the Korean War.
Mr. Agar joined the police force in 1957 after working several years with the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department.
Mr. Agar is survived by his wife, Eileen; two sons, David and Eugene; two daughters, Sharon Agar and Gail Reich; a brother, Charles, and five grandchildren.
Visiting will be Sunday and Monday from 3 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Trinka-Faustini Funeral Home in Little Ferry. A service by the Police Chiefs Association will begin at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the funeral home, followed by a Mass at 9:30 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Church in Hackensack. Burial will be at George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus. Donations to the Leukemia Society of America, Maplewood, would be appreciated.

Keywords: SOUTH HACKENSACK; POLICE; JOHN AGAR

TROOPERS BEING TRAINED TO DISPATCH; THEY’D REPLACE LAID-OFF CIVILIANS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

The state police on Thursday began training 29 officers in dispatching in the wake of notices sent to 123 of the agency’s 127 civilian dispatchers that they would be laid off next month.
The two-day instruction of senior troopers and sergeants at Fort Dix ensures that the agency will have trained people operating its criminal-justice information system should the layoffs go through, said Capt. Thomas Gallagher, a state police spokesman.
The dispatchers union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the state’s Public Employment Relations Commission, and has asked the state Department of Personnel for an affirmative-action review because the dispatchers are predominantly women and minorities, the union’s president said.
Dominick Critelli, who heads the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents the dispatchers, also questioned the wisdom of laying off dispatchers who earn between $18,000 and $25,000 a year and replacing them with officers who earn about $45,000.
Public safety would suffer because fewer troopers would be enforcing the law; at the same time, the state won’t see the expected $3.3 million savings from the layoffs, Critelli said.
“I can’t see cutting services in the area that they are cutting because there is nothing gained economically,” he said. “What you are talking about is a loss in services for basically the same dollar amounts if these people lost their jobs and go on to collect unemployment and receive some type of social assistance.”
Gallagher said public safety would not suffer because the people being trained to do the job work in the offices. They would just have to assume the additional responsibility of operating the dispatching system, he said.
The $3.3 million savings expected from laying off the dispatchers should bring to $7.2 million the amount saved by state police labor cuts this fiscal year and in next year’s budget.
Earlier this year, the state police cut $1.1 million from this year’s budget by laying off 32 inspectors from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Bureau, Gallagher said.
The savings from the dispatcher layoffs, plus $2.8 million expected from the laying off of 160 security guards in state buildings, would be applied to next year’s budget, he added.
Civilians have been working as dispatchers since the state created the position in 1970 as a way to put more troopers on the road.

Keywords: POLICE; NEW JERSEY; INFORMATION; EMPLOYMENT

COPS READY TO BUCKLE DOWN ON ANYONE NOT BUCKLING UP

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star Four Star B Two Star | NEWS | Page B04

Operation Domino, the six-month driver-education program that sponsors said helped reduce automobile accidents in Bergen County by about 1,300 last year, worked so well it is getting a second chance this year beginning today.
“Buckle Up and Drive Defensively” will be the theme of Operation Domino Revisited, said John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Office of Highway Safety.
Bergen County’s 70 police departments will concentrate on enforcing the state seat-belt law, he said. “Every death [on the county’s roadways] is a defeat,” Pescatore said. “When you go to an accident and you see that 17-year-old thrown from the car because he was not wearing a seat belt, when you go to an accident and you see a child thrown through with windshield because she was not in a child-restraint seat, they bring your defeats right before you.”
Last year’s effort a pilot program to see if enforcement, coupled with community awareness and cooperation, would effectively reduce the number of accidents in the county focused on a specific violation each month.
Some of the violations focused on were speeding, tailgating, not coming to a full stop at a stop sign, and failure to signal when changing lanes.
The program was so successful that the county was able to see a 10 percent compliance jump from 45 percent to 55 percent, 5 percent above the state average with the seat belt law, Pescatore said.
Motorists should be more careful this year, Pescatore said, because the slow economy has added more cars to state highways during a season of already high travel. More families than in years past will be planning shorter but more frequent trips to state’s shores and resort areas, he said.
As a result, Bergen County will work with Atlantic County on another pilot program Operation Leapfrog, a series of public service announcements asking residents of the two counties to buckle up, watch their speed, obey the rules of the road, and not drink and drive.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; POLICE; MOTOR VEHICLE; SAFETY; EQUIPMENT; VIOLATION

FT. LEE MAN INJURED BY CAR HIT AT ROADSIDE PHONE BOOTH

By Michael O. Allen and Caroline Hendrie, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, May 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

An out-of-control car careered off Sylvan Avenue in Englewood Cliffs on Saturday and smashed into a telephone booth, severely injuring a 49-year-old Fort Lee man.
Kazuo Matsumoto of 8 Buckingham Road was listed in critical condition at University Hospital in Newark, where he was rushed by helicopter after the 12:10 p.m. accident.
The driver, Nathan Andors, 73, of 2200 N. Central Road, Fort Lee, suffered a minor cut to the forehead and was treated at Englewood Hospital and released, police said.
No charges had been filed in connection with the accident as of Saturday evening, said Lt. William Gallagher of the Englewood Cliffs police.
One bystander, who declined to be identified, said that Matsumoto was knocked about 25 feet in the air when the car struck him and that his glasses and shoes flew in different directions.
Andors car, southbound on Sylvan Avenue, uprooted the telephone booth, which was in front of a bus stop about 20 feet from the corner of Bayview Avenue. The car also knocked down a traffic control box, exposing electrical wires, and came to rest with its front end buried in a Public Service Electric and Gas Co. utility pole.
Gallagher said Matsumoto was talking on the phone with a member of his family when the accident occurred.
A University Hospital spokeswoman said that Matsumoto underwent surgery Saturday afternoon and that he was in critical condition when he left the operating room at about 6:30 p.m. Family members visited Saturday evening, said Dorothy Crews, assistant director of nursing.
In a ride that took less than five minutes, Matsumoto was taken to the hospital in the state-owned Northstar emergency medical evacuation helicopter. University Hospital is the only North Jersey medical facility classified as a Level I trauma center, equipped to handle the most serious cases, said John Nichols, a hospital flight medic who treated Matsumoto.
Nichols said the helicopter and its crew were in Somerset for a training seminar when they were summoned at 12:26 p.m. to the accident scene. The helicopter landed on the hospital’s roof at 12:56 p.m.
The Northstar helicopter has been used with increasing frequency in Bergen County recently, but it is still not common for the helicopter to be summoned to the area, Nichols said.
The accident disrupted traffic in both directions on Sylvan Avenue, which is Route 9W.
For about four hours, southbound traffic was diverted onto Route 9W north through the parking lot of the executive offices of the Prentice-Hall publishing company. Northbound traffic was also diverted.
Both northbound lanes were reopened about 3:40 p.m., and one southbound lane was reopened at 4 p.m. The remaining southbound lane was barricaded until about 4:45 p.m. to allow workers to repair electrical wires.

Keywords: FORT LEE; MOTOR VEHICLE; TELEPHONE; ACCIDENT; ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS; VICTIM; KAZUO MATSUMOTO, NATHAN ANDORS

OFFICER COMMITS SUICIDE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 17, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star Two Star | NEWS | Page B03

The body of a 25-year-old township police officer who was distraught over the dissolution of his marriage was discovered at his Grand Avenue apartment on Wednesday, police said.
Albert C. Cabrera who was named the township’s outstanding police officer of the year in 1988, his first year on the job was found by a fellow officer who had volunteered to look in on him when he did not show up for his shift Wednesday, Lt. Timothy Kelly said.
Officer Robert Conlon found Cabrera in the bedroom formerly used by his 10-month-old daughter. Cabrera had a gunshot wound to the head and a gun in his hand. Investigators placed the time of death at about 10 p.m. Monday, Kelly said.
“Our investigation concluded that it was definitely a self-inflicted wound,” Kelly said.
Cabrera was depressed about his separation from his wife and daughter, Kelly said. The wife obtained a restraining order from a Jersey City Family Court judge on April 19 to keep him away from her and the child. She had been living with her mother in Jersey City since the separation, Kelly said.
He said he did not know why Cabrera’s wife had sought the restraining order.
The depression did not show in Cabrera’s work, Kelly said.
“The department is in complete shock,” Kelly said. “He was a very personable young man. He was an excellent police officer, a very conscientious patrolman.”

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; POLICE; SUICIDE

MAN AND FIREFIGHTER INJURED IN BLAZE

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Wednesday, May 15, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

An 82-year-old man and a borough firefighter remained hospitalized Tuesday after a fire that heavily damaged a single-family home.
Although police said Justin D. Mahon of 4 Rutgers Terrace suffered a heart attack, a spokeswoman at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood could not confirm the report. Mahon was listed in stable condition.
Fair Lawn firefighter Joseph Jasinski, who was overcome by smoke during the Monday evening blaze, was in stable condition at the hospital, Fair Lawn Fire Chief John Mamo said. Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion at the hospital and released. Three others were treat at the scene for heat exhaustion.
Mahon was unconscious in the kitchen when firefighters reached him, Mamo said. Mahon’s wife and daughter were not home when the fire broke out.
“He was apparently trying to make his way out of the house and was overcome by the heat,” Mamo said.
Mahon had no pulse when they found him, but was revived by two firefighters, said Mamo. About 50 firefighters fought the blaze, which appeared to be accidental, and had it under control in about 15 minutes, he said. It started in the family room and spread quickly through the house, causing heat and smoke damage.

Keywords: FAIR LAWN; HOUSING; FIRE

TERROR, A CRASH, A CHASE, AND ARRESTS 3 TOWNS, 20 CARS, 100 MPH

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, May 15, 1991

The Record (New Jersey)| Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

Two men were captured Tuesday after breaking into an Oradell home, tying up and robbing two women, and leading police on a chase involving about 20 patrol cars through three towns, police said.
Robert J. Davis, 37, of Little Ferry and Gary M. Pereira, 29, of Hackensack had entered a Soldier Hill Road home sometime before 10:30 a.m., tied up the residents, and stole their jewelry, Oradell Detective Sgt. Scott Bonsper said.
The victims, whom Bonsper declined to identify, were not injured. One of them removed the tape the suspects had used to cover her mouth, and then she called police.
Bonsper said he went to the house with other Oradell police officers and interviewed the victims. “I came out of the house to go to my car, and I was flagged down by a witness to an accident that had just happened a block away from the house,” he said.
The descriptions of the people in the car matched the suspects described by the victims, Bonsper said. They apparently had parked in a parking lot at an office building on Kinderkamack Road; when they tried to make a hasty escape, their car collided with another northbound car.
Bonsper said he then radioed area police departments. A Rochelle Park officer saw the car traveling south on Route 17, and a chase began, he said.
“The speed at which the men were traveling, they could not be allowed back on a main thoroughfare,” said Bonsper, who added that the cars drove as fast as 100 mph during the chase. The suspects were going through stop signs and red lights without stopping, he said.
By the time the chase ended at a police roadblock on Pascack Road, at the Paramus-Washington Township line, police from the two communities and from Oradell, Emerson, Rochelle Park, and Westwood had become involved.
Jewelry from the home was found in the car, Bonsper said.
Davis and Pereira were each charged with kidnapping, robbery, theft, and burglary, and their case will be referred to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, Bonsper said. Paramus police are expected to charge Davis and Pereira with resisting arrest, he added. They were being held in the Bergen County Jail on $100,000 bail each.

Keywords: ORADELL; ROBBERY; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; VIOLATION

Caption: 2 COLOR PHOTOS – JOHN DECKER / THE RECORD – Police handcuffing the two suspects in a robbery in Oradell that led to a high-speed car chase through three towns Tuesday.

FORMER RIDGEWOOD MAN IS SLAIN IN VERMONT VICTIM OF FRIEND’S EX-LOVER

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, May 12, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A 26-year-old former Ridgewood resident who moved to Vermont because of his love of skiing and the outdoors was hunted down and killed by the ex-boyfriend of a woman with whom he was friendly, authorities said Saturday.
Jonathan D. Herz, a graduate of Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes, was shot in the head before dawn Thursday outside his house in Johnson, Vt., said Lamoille County Deputy Sheriff Jeff Parry.
Herz was an unlucky bystander in Randy Manosh and Muriel McMahon’s troubled relationship. Authorities said Manosh also killed McMahon’s roommate, Nancy Lowe, who was shot in the head with a .22-caliber revolver while she slept. Manosh later committed suicide, they said.
Parry declined to comment on the relationship between Herz and McMahon, 30.
Authorities gave the following account:
Manosh, 32, went looking for McMahon about 1 a.m. at her Morrisville, Vt., residence and, not finding her, killed Lowe. Upon learning McMahon was with a friend in Johnson, Manosh hitchhiked there.
Manosh tracked McMahon to Herz’s residence, a camp at the end of a logging road, surrounded by pastures and maple trees. In a house filled with family photos and outdoor gear, Herz was killed with a single shot to the head about 1:30 a.m. Manosh dragged the landscaper’s body to the back yard, where he killed Herz’s dog, and then went after his ex-girlfriend, police said.
McMahon ran screaming through the woods to the nearest mobile home and summoned help. Parry said that while officers were interviewing McMahon, Manosh sneaked behind the mobile home and shot her through the kitchen window. He then fatally shot himself.
Manosh, the son of a prominent Vermont developer and nephew of Lamoille County Sheriff Gardner Manosh, had an extensive arrest record, including his fourth for drunken driving the week before the shootings.
McMahon, who was in critical condition from a head wound, had lived with Manosh as recently as November.
Surviving Herz are his father, Peter; his mother, Anne Bean Herz; and two brothers, Mark and Peter.
A family friend reached in Vermont said of Herz, “He was a wonderful boy. He was warm. He was full of life, a good friend, and good helpmate. He was all the things that you want your son to grow up to be.”

Keywords: RIDGEWOOD; MURDER; VERMONT; SHOOTING; JONATHAN D. HERZ

Notes: Bergen page