January 2, 1996

Crew Quickly Making a Mark

Anthony Esposito, 88 years old and about 5 feet tall, spent 11 days in September guarding a statue of San Gennaro. His was a station of a certain responsibility during the Little Italy street festival that is held annually to honor the community's patron saint. Now, more than three months after the festival, Mr. Esposito would like to be paid the $1,100 he was promised. He indicates his feelings not with the spoken word, but with the ancient gesture that signals money -- the dry rub of forefinger against thumb.

Fire marshals arrested a paroled drug offender yesterday who the authorities say accidentally caused a fire in an abandoned house in Jamaica, Queens, that claimed the life of a firefighter. Prosecutors charged the man, Edwin Smith, 36, with second-degree murder, saying he fled the scene of last Sunday's fire and made a "conscious decision" not to help arriving firefighters determine whether people remained inside. Law enforcement officers said Mr. Smith is a drug addict who had been living illegally in the basement of the house, where the fire broke out.

LAST year presented the vision. Is this one about to produce the reality? As Congressional Republicans move into their second year in power, their campaign to hack away at mounds of Government regulations is likely to have its first tangible impact on business -- from Wall Street to Hollywood, from silicon to steel.

People are regaining their confidence in the Police Department," Murray L. Palent, a Township Councilman, said last week. For months after a judge ruled in July that Robert Spina, the police chief, had abused his wife, many township residents wanted him replaced. That did not happen until Mr. Spina was indicted by an Essex County grand jury in November on charges of wife-beating, perjury and giving an improper warning to a drug suspect. Now, Mr. Palent said, things are back to normal, and the new acting chief, Jack Cavanaugh, is thought to be doing a good job. TERRY PRISTIN