NEWS from the
TOWNSHIP OF IRVINGTON

"It is the goal of this administration to investigate and implement any initiative that will improve life in Irvington, and to do so with all due care, commitment and concern."
MAYOR WAYNE SMITH

The Township of Irvington celebrated Women’s History Month by honoring three residents—a police officer, a real estate developer, and a community activist and union representative during the municipal council meeting held on March 27, 2007.

Monique D. Smith, a 7-year member of the Irvington Police Department, achieved a perfect score of 300 in qualifying as a firearms instructor, a position she held from 2003 to 2005. During this time, she was also a narcotics investigator for the Essex Anti-Crime Partnership. In 2004, her first year as a detective, Smith helped solve all assigned homicides. Smith has served as a first lieutenant in the U. S. Army and was deployed to the war in Afghanistan, where she commanded a 49-soldier unit, safely guiding it to a combat zone without loss of personnel or equipment.

Smith has been a member of the NJ National Guard since 1994, holding the positions of administrative specialist, platoon officer, executive officer and commander.

She holds an associate’s degree from Essex County College, was a student at
Rutgers University and has attended numerous police training courses.

Her numerous commendations include: designation as the Township of Irvington Officer of the Year in 2002, recipient of a Meritorious Wartime Service Medal in 2007, and honoree of the NJ 200 Club with the Valor Award in 2003.

Adenah Bayoh, an executive with PNC Bank, has built a real estate portfolio of 14 properties in Irvington, Linden and Maplewood, NJ; and in South Carolina. In 2002, Ms. Bayoh acquired an abandoned property on lower Springfield Avenue and converted it to Homeland Mortgage Company; the firm now employs 7 persons.

The long-standing Kless Diner on upper Springfield Avenue will be converted by Ms. Bayoh into a franchise of IHOP in a $1.7 million project; she purchased the property in 2004.

In addition, Bayoh is in the process of acquiring the abandoned 2-story building at the corner of Clinton and Stuyvesant avenues; she plans to revive it as a trendy housing and retail establishment.

Carolyn V. Jenkins’s record of community service includes her tenure as: a current commissioner of the Irvington Housing Authority and former chairperson of the Irvington Rent Leveling Board. Jenkins began her professional career in 1970 at Clara Maass Medical Center. Following her election as a delegate for District 1199J, she joined the union staff in 1986 as an organizer. She was later appointed acting VP of the hospital division, elected first VP in 1998 and re-elected in 2002. As an executive, Jenkins’s responsibilities included negotiating contracts and presenting grievances and arbitrations. Jenkins completed her labor studies at the Rutgers Labor Education Center and the Women’s Summer Labor Institution at Penn State University.

She is the chairperson of the Aberdeen Solomon David Memorial Scholarship Fund, a trustee of the District 1199J pension, benefit and training funds, a member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the NJ Advisory Board of the United Negro College Fund.

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