Zero Percent Tax Increase, Voter ID Laws, and Bar Robbed at Gunpoint Top Headlines This Week

The township council voted on Monday to scrap  originally proposed earlier in the year. The new budget comes in at $70.4 million, which is about $2.7 million under the state cap. 

Mayor Robert Parisi said there will be no layoffs included in the budget, . However, there will be a reduction in overall staff through attrition. The number of full-time employees is expected to drop from 320 to 294. This budget also reduces township spending to 2008 levels. 

Assemblywomen Mila Jasey (D-Essex) and Grace Spencer (D-Essex), Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex), and Congressional candidate  joined New Jersey Citizen Action at the Renna House this week to speak against a proposed voter ID law in New Jersey and those already in place around the country. 

Two men entered , at 45 Freeman St., between 12:30 and 12:45 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 11, and robbed the tavern’s register of approximately $400 in cash. 

Local resident Diane Allen prepares herself to donate a kidney on Tuesday to someone she has never met. 

The surgery will be done at nearby St. Barnabas Medical Center, whose Living Donor Institute is one of the top centers in the country. 

Allen's donation will go a long way, because she is one of four other donors in a chain that will allow five people to receive kidneys. 

Scott Carpel, owner of the West Orange Car Wash, located at 87 Main St., hosted a fundraiser Saturday to raise money for the family of Jacques Nelson, who was .