Trustees Approve $18K for South Orange-Maplewood Nonprofit

By a 4-2 vote, the South Orange Village Board of Trustees passed a resolution Monday to release $18,000 already budgeted for the nonprofit South Orange / Maplewood Community Coalition on Race, The Alternative Press reported.

Trustee Sheena Collum proposed allocating only $12,000 of the budgeted amount, but the board voted that idea down, 4-3, with a tie broken by President Alex Torpey's "no" vote, the article said. Collum and Howard Levison, who said he opposed any funding to the group, were the members who voted against the resolution.

CCR President Fred Profeta Jr. said the group needed the entire $18,000 to fund new community relations and marketing efforts and to sponsor an international festival, the article said. Profeta also floated the idea of one day striking a shared services agreement between the township and CCR, according to the article.

The South Orange / Maplewood Community Coalition on Race is a volunteer-run effort "committed to building a unique, suburban community that is free of racial segregation in housing patterns and community involvement" ... and "achieving and sustaining the benefits of a thriving, racially integrated and truly inclusive" Maplewood and South Orange, according to its website.