N.J. apartment complex evacuated after rock slide from Ida will be demolished – NJ.com

An apartment complex in West Orange where 45 families were abruptly evacuated this week due to a rock slide from Hurricane Ida will be demolished, the property owner’s lawyer said Thursday during a community meeting.

The lawyer, Steven Eisenstein, handed evacuees checks for returned security deposits, October’s rent and an extra $1,250 per unit to help cover relocation costs.

Eisenstein said his client’s conclusion that the Ron Jolyn Apartments on Northfield Avenue would have to be razed was based on recommendations from three engineering firms.

“It’s not that he has any choice,” Eisenstein said, referring to owner John Jakimowicz, who was not at the meeting.

The Ron Jolyn Apartments, a red brick garden apartment complex, was evacuated late Monday by West Orange first responders and township officials, also based on the recommendation of engineers.

It was hours after a township employee opened an email that had been sent Friday night warning that a steep, rocky slope behind the apartments was unstable and could result in property damage and “possible loss of life.”

Mayor Robert Parisi hosted Thursday’s meeting at the Wilshire Grand Hotel, where some of the evacuees with families were put up at the township’s expense. As several evacuee children played on a hotel putting green, Parisi promised adults gathered in an outdoor courtyard that the township would go on paying for their accommodations while they sought new permanent housing.

“We’re going to be here until each one of you is set up,” said Parisi, though when pressed he declined to say for how long. “I can tell you we’re not abandoning you.”

In addition to the Wilshire, evacuees had also been put up and the Courtyard by Marriott hotel. But Parisi said they would all be moved Saturday to yet another local hotel, The Cambria.

Evacuees used the meeting to vent their anger and frustration with the evacuation, which took place between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. Monday night and Tuesday morning, with no warning to tenants, who were given little time to collect what few belongings they could carry. And Parisi took responsibility for it.

“It was done poorly, I admit that,” Parisi said.

“Poorly?” tenant David Rodriguez responded. “It was unprofessional.”

At the meeting, evacuees were given contact information for the Ron Jolyn superintendent, a list of local apartments for rent, and information about a food pantry and relocation services provided by the Ebenezer Baptist Church in neighboring Orange.

Essex County loaned its mobile coronavirus testing truck to the effort, for residents who might need proof of a negative COVID-19 test if applying for a new apartment.

The crowd of 100-plus people included evacuees, local clergy and educators, and various officials of the township, Essex County, and the federal government.

A team from the Federal Emergency Management Agency set up shop in the hotel lobby to take applications for relocation and other assistance from the evacuees. The residents may be eligible for FEMA help with Essex County’s declaration as a federal disaster area in Hurricane Ida’s wake.

Ida had triggered a rock slide at the base of the rocky slope down to the Ron Jolyn Apartments, damaging several parked cars and the apartment complex itself. The damage prompted an insurance adjuster for the property owner to have an analysis of the slope’s stability done by the engineering firm Langan.

Langan’s analysis found that “the slope located behind the Apartment Complex is not stable and there is a high risk of a further failure, which would likely result in significant property damage and possible loss of life,” and recommended that the complex be evacuated immediately.

Although residents said firefighters who conducted the evacuation were professional and considerate, they said it was a chaotic, even frightening ordeal that roused some from them from their beds and sent them all on an odyssey that was still far from over on Thursday, when the realization they would not be moving back was heartbreaking.

“Nobody wants to leave their home,” said Ken O’Connor, a 71-year-old retired PSE&G worker who had lived in his Ron Jolyn apartment for 32 years. “It’s like leaving family.”

For O’Connor and others, the evacuation was a far greater disturbance than the storm that prompted it. O’Connor was attending the meeting in a wheelchair and breathing through the portable respirator that offsets his bronchitis and other breathing ailments.

O’Connor, who is single and lived by himself at Ron Jolyn, said he had to rely on a firefighter to drive him and his breathing apparatus to the Courtyard by Marriott hotel. Later, O’Connor got a ride back to the apartment complex to pick up his car, which he drove to Thursday’s meeting at the Wilshire Grand Hotel.

“It was shocking,” O’Connor said. “It was like having a fire and somebody coming up to your door and knocking, banging on it, and ringing your door bell. ‘Are you in there? Get up. Open up.’ It was around 11, 11:30 or so. I was in bed, going off to sleep.”

By contrast, O’Connor said he would have slept through the storm had a neighbor not called to let him know what was happening.

Some evacuees grumbled that they should be able to move back at their own risk. Several were dissatisfied with the limited time they had been given so far to collect their belongings. They all rejected a waiver presented by Eisenstein that would have granted them access to the property, but bound them to pick up all their things in 10 days and free the owner from any liability while they were on the premises.

Eisenstein said he could not provide a timetable for the apartment complex’s demolition.

One of the residents, Christopher Banks, who has worked in real estate investment, admonished his neighbors not to sign anything, and to hold off on depositing the checks from their landlord’s lawyer until talking to a lawyer of their own.

“Not everybody is a sophisticated real estate person,” said Banks.

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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com