Jay Church, the chairman of Montclair’s Parking Advisory Committee, said his committee is continuing to work on the ongoing issue of overnight parking. Church said the landlords of multifamily houses in particular have complained to the committee about Montclair’s township-wide ban on overnight parking except on certain streets, where it is allowed on a permit-only basis.

On the other side of the debate is the Montclair Fire Department, which has concerns that, if the ban were universally lifted, then ambulances and fire trucks responding to emergencies could have trouble maneuvering down streets.

Last year, the advisory committee had recommended that the council allow overnight parking in an isolated portion of the 3rd Ward with a substantial number of multifamily houses and apartments, as a test run. But the previous council told the committee it wanted to determine the test zone by first polling constituents. However, the trial was never done.

Church told the Township Council this past Tuesday that the committee had come up with a "very detailed plan" to resolve overnight parking issues, and it "could be resurrected.

"It’s a viable plan and I think it could come back," he said, adding that he would like to see some action taken in the next six months.

Clary Anderson Arena’s new operator

David Herron and former At-Large Councilman Ted Mattox accused the council during its meeting of violating state contracting laws when hiring United Skates of America Inc. to take over operations at Clary Anderson Arena.

Herron said that the company, when it submitted its proposal, did not have a state Business Registration Certificate. On documents submitted to municipal officials, executives of Montclair Skating LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of United Skates, a national company, indicated that their certificate was "to be applied for," but the company by law should have already had the certificate upon submission of its proposal, Herron claimed.

Township Attorney Alan Trembulak said Herron was wrong: "Business Registration Forms are not required to be submitted prior to the award of a contract pursuant to a request for proposals."

Mattox, who served on the previous council, said that he found no federal tax identification on file for Montclair Skating, either, another omission that should have prevented the company from landing the arena contract.

Mattox also repeated a claim, which he has been making for weeks, that Trembulak violated the municipal Code of Ethics by participating in the contract-granting-process with United Skates. Bill Irving, who has a managerial position with the company, is Trembulak’s wife’s son-in-law.

"My relationship to Bill Irving was fully disclosed to the council and public during the last council meeting, and the council was obviously aware of this before the contract was awarded to United Skates," Trembulak stated.

State law requires that individuals with conflicts of interest avoid participating in the proposal-evaluation process. Trembulak told The Times he was not on the three-member committee that reviewed the proposals and he was on vacation during the last week of August, when the evaluation was done. He said his only involvement in the whole process was in reviewing the request for proposals before the job was even advertised to potential contractors.

Township Manager Joseph Hartnett said the new operator has made repairs to the arena and the facility has been running well so far. Hartnett said he has not received any complaints from the public, adding that the arena is in better shape than it has been in years.

Wellmont Theater

Hartnett said officials have had two meetings, including one earlier this week, with representatives of Montclair Entertainment LLC, the company that is handling concert promotion for the Wellmont Theater. The building had been a movie theater before that triplex closed and was purchased by The Rosen Group, a large real-estate company that decided to transform it into a live-performance venue.

Hartnett said the new use would be exciting but it also posed "a challenge for all of us to deal with the hundreds, if not thousands, of people descending on our community." The new owners are reviewing all possible parking options and talking to every property owner in Montclair Center who has parking spaces to try to work out arrangements. They hope to have all the necessary parking lined up no later than two weeks before the first show, scheduled for Oct. 27. It will feature the Counting Crows.