Assemblyman Gary Schaer seems to have done well in his first major test as a newly-elected state legislator. Last week, a news report about the embattled School Construction Corporation’s plan to build a new school in Passaic next to a theater that regularly shows pornographic movies and an apparently shady hotel that is allegedly frequented by drug dealers and prostitutes. Schaer was quick to challenge the SCC, and after the Assembly’s voting session, he met with SCC officials in Trenton. Within fifteen minutes, SCC officials admitted their apparent blunder, blaming it on a lack of communicaton between local officials and the SCC. Schaer got plenty of media attention — more than most freshman — with radio and TV appearances and some kind words from Herald News columnist Alfred Doblin. At a meeting between SCC and Passaic officials and Schaer yesterday morning, a tentative plan to renovate the theater and use it for the city’s performing arts students was agreed to.
