Owners, officials anxiously await demolition from Elm Street fire in January

By Kevin Coughlin

The fire  happened in January.

In May, town officials described the Elm Street structures as in  “imminent danger of collapse,”  and authorized a $75,000 emergency expenditure to knock them down.

So why are the burned-out remains of Del’s Novelty and the B.W. Clifford’s candy and tobacco shop still standing?

Everyone is blaming a utility pole.

“It’s frustrating,” said Phil Del Giudice, owner of Del’s Novelty.  He and the owners of Clifford’s had hired a demolition company to level the storefronts in July, he said, but at the last minute they were informed that a utility pole would have to be relocated first.

Two months later, Jersey Central Power & Light says it’s finally negotiated a deal with property owners behind the buildings for permission to relocate the pole, which services customers adjacent to the fire-damaged buildings. Details of the deal were not disclosed.

The pole is scheduled to be moved on Sept. 29, 2015, weather-permitting, according to Mayor Tim Dougherty’s office.

Dougherty, who expressed concerns at a council meeting this month that a Nor’easter could topple the charred storefronts, said he’s hopeful the demolition will happen over the next few weeks.

“There’s a lot of red tape and paperwork. It’s very frustrating,” the Mayor said, referring to the utility pole.

He said police have done a good job of keeping people away from the damaged site, which is encircled with barriers and plastic fencing.

Video: Nightmare on Elm Street

ALL A FAÇADE

Del’s began in 1949 as a butcher shop and grocery store, run by Phil Del Giudice’s father and uncle; later it evolved into a party supply business and novelty purveyor. Generations of Morristown kids bought their kazoos and whoopee cushions there.

B.W. Clifford’s, a wholesale candy and tobacco supplier, opened next door around the same time, and has been in Lila Bernstein’s family all along.

Del Giudice and Bernstein both said they are eager to put the awful night of Jan. 30-31, 2015, behind them, and to explore redevelopment possibilities.

Initially, Bernstein sought to postpone demolition until authorities determined what caused the blaze; it was a long wait.

This month, a spokesman for the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office told MorristownGreen.com the cause has been listed as “undetermined,” with “no indications the fire was intentionally set.”

Del Giudice said he would like to rebuild, although Del’s Novelty is not likely to return. He said he would consider trying to approximate the original façade.

“Definitely,” he said. “I wouldn’t have a problem with that.”

The Morristown Historic Preservation Commission had lobbied to save the façade from the wrecking ball.  Although Del’s and Clifford’s have an Elm Street postal address, they fronted a diagonal lane called Blachley Place that harkened to a bygone era. Their façades…

“…are not flimsy modern construction, but instead the over-engineered built-to-last products of real craftsmanship. They tell us about the quality of earlier Morristown life. Even if the insides are gutted, we should not lose those façades,” the commission wrote in a memo to the town.

“Blachley Place, with its late 19th-century style, its human scale, and its mix of residential and retail use, were close enough to original condition to be a teaching example of the Town’s development history,” the memo continued.

“Drivers used the little street daily, few ever thinking it might be the next teardown site… Let’s, for once, respect the character of our heritage. Let’s keep Blachley Place with us and let’s keep its appearance original.”

Demolition costs will be shouldered by Del Giudice, Bernstein and their insurance companies, they said. The town’s appropriation only was intended as an emergency measure of last resort, Mayor Dougherty said.

RESTAURANT ON HOLD

Del Giudice and Bernstein aren’t the only ones whose futures have been placed on hold. David Bernat is anxious to open The Town Bar & Kitchen in the former Sebastian’s steak house, next door to Del’s, but he figures that’s too risky prior to demolition.

Miraculously, the restaurant sustained minimal damage from the fire. But Bernat, who also is a partner in Cambridge Wines, said he wants to make sure the demolition has no ripple effect before he proceeds with major renovations.

In the months after the fire, the public donated $80,000 to help tenants displaced by the fire, according to the town Administrator at the time, Michael Rogers. About $27,000 of that had been disbursed by early summer, he said.

Money from that fund also assisted tenants displaced by a house fire on Pine Street in July, Rogers said.

The cause of that fire, which took one life, still is under investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office said.

MORE ABOUT THE ‘NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET’ FIRE