Grassroots Groundswell

By Heather DeGeorge, North Plainfield resident and former Council member

There is only one Council representative to the Planning Board allowed, but one is enough to convey the message. It was traditionally Frank Righetti but I don’t know who it might be now–Skip Stabile did it for a while.

We briefly considered Villa Maria for school space and it’s a good BUILDING for it, but in terms of keeping the kids close to fields, etc. it wasn’t such a great idea due to the cost of excavating the land for fields (plus the destruction it would cause to the trees, etc.). So you could do it, but at a much greater cost and a MUCH greater impact environmentally. If nothing else, it needs to be leveled out and that alone would destroy a good number of the trees.

The Master Plan was updated around 2003-2005 (I started with it and I believe they finished it when I left due to complicated pregnancy). I’m not sure they touched the section citing school expansion because I don’t remember it coming up–but maybe it was updated after I left. If they didn’t touch it, then it would still note the need.

It has always been an issue trying to keep the kids from having to cross roads to get to fields (for practice, playing and events). The thought came up once to acquire the Ballas property on Greenbrook Rd. and it came up again that it would leave the kids (and adults) having to cross a busy street.

It’s a tough thing to accommodate.

by Greg Hatala

I wrote a letter to the mayor, police chief and council president a while back about the driving anarchy around the schools at pick-up times.

Council President Stabile responded to me and agreed that the situation is pretty bad each and every day.

Chief Parenti eventually emailed me back, and while he seemed to agree there was a problem, didn’t give me too much confidence that it was seen as anything more problematic than any other traffic situation.

There was a brief … and I mean brief … period where police were more visible and made a few more stops; then, things reverted to what they’d always been.

These are our CHILDREN. The complete arrogance of the drivers in this area is a disaster waiting to happen.

Today (June 9), I watched a car throw a ‘K’ turn and back directly into a parked car. This would have been right in front of a policeman, except there wasn’t one in his usual position on the corner. Then, the car took off down a side street, and completely blew a stop sign, nearly colliding with two cars on that street.

I don’t accept the information I’ve been presented. Contrary to the stats and figures, there does NOT seem to be more enforcement around the schools at dismissal; I don’t care about percentages and annual figures - they’re not there, and they’re not writing tickets.

I don’t believe there is a lack of manpower. I think it’s something else, and I wish to God someone would tell me why our children don’t deserve a half-hour of stern enforcement of traffic laws for their safety each day.

Editor’s Note: A friend told me recently that a young officer told her the officers are held back from doing the competent job performance they’d like to give to their work, by Police Chief William Parenti’s instructions.

Also, sorry this post is up so late (kids are out of school for the summer).

I don’t like to bury things far down the page so quickly, but if there are one or two big stories every day, the openings to put things at the top are very short-lived.

KEEP SCROLLING DOWN!

Dottie Gutenkauf is a Plainfield activist. This is an e-mail alert from her about Muhlenberg Hospital’s closure and other health care issues.

HOT FLASH: We’ve received information that Solaris is announcing “clinical changes” to take place within the next two weeks. As of today “there will no longer be resident coverage to the Critical Care Units or to respond to emergencies elsewhere in the hospital.”

There’s more: after June 27 there will be no more Colon/Rectal procedures or consults available to members of the medical staff as the physicians are relocating to JFK; and “labor and delivery patients will no longer be admitted to the Maternity Unit at Muhlenberg” as of June 30. “Other medical/surgical specialties…will experience changes to service, coverage and consults over the next several weeks.”

AND THIS IS BEING SENT TO MUHLENBERG STAFF EVEN BEFORE THE STATE HEALTH PLANNING BOARD “CONSIDERATION” OF SOLARIS’ APPLICATION TO CLOSE THE MEDICAL CENTER!

DON’T FORGET THE STATE HEALTH PLANNING BOARD meeting/hearing on Thursday–June 26–to decide on their recommendation to Commissioner Heather Howard on Solaris’ application to close Muhlenberg; 9:30 am to 2 pm at the National Conference Center auditorium at the Holiday Inn in East Windsor.

Buses are being chartered–for information call Steven Hatcher (908-731-1518), Plainfield chapter chair of the People’s Organization for Progress, which has led the struggle to save Muhlenberg.

Yesterday, the POP/Save Muhlenberg Coalition’s “Community Watch” got a great reception from the public and was covered (with photos) by the Courier News.

PHOTOS

COURIER NEWS EDITORIAL

John Gostel’s letter

You’ll have to buy the paper to see Nancy Piwowar’s full-page ad on page 8 of the local section–it’s terrific! Thank you, Nancy, on behalf of all of us.

And here’s the Star-Ledger’s story on the DHSS staff recommendations:

Star Ledger Story

You can read Dr. Harold Yood’s comments on the recommendations at http://dpotpourri.blogspot.com/.

The entire package is posted on the web here.

IN THE LEGISLATURE: On Wednesday, I attended the Assembly Budget Committee meeting and testified on our Muhlenberg crisis in the context of the proposed state budget’s drastic cuts in hospital and health care funding. Also testifying on issues of hospital distress resulting from cuts in “charity care” funding were representatives of other hospitals and nursing homes, as well as the head of the NJ Hospital Association and other hospital representatives, who are well aware of our situation in Plainfield and the surrounding area and its potential impact.

Two relevant stories appeared on page 11 of the June 12th Star-Ledger. Here are the headlines: “U.S. life expectancy climbs past 78 years” and “Underweight newborn rate spikes in U.S.”

I cited both stories in my testimony on Wednesday–they bolster our case for the need for adequate and available health care for our most vulnerable patients.

My husband, Joe Gutenkauf, joined me on Thursday for another session of that Committee, and we both testified on A-2809, which establishes a process for special grants to hospitals in fiscal distress that have a chance of recovery. (The proposed budget includes $44 million for this Hospital Stabilization Fund; there is a $35 million federal match.)

Our position in a nutshell: it places too much power in the hands of the Commissioner of Health & Senior Services with little accountability and no fiscal, legal, or legislative oversight. Acknowledging the good intentions motivating the legislation, I pointed out the usual destination of the road paved with good intentions, and said that if this bill had been passed last year Muhlenberg and the Plainfield area would not be in our current position.

Joe cited the DHSS staff’s recommendations to the State Health Planning Board and Commissioner Howard’s earlier statement to the Senate Budget Committee, saying they reminded him of the trial in “Alice in Wonderland” — “sentence first, verdict afterwards.”

We were both impressed with Assembly Budget Committee chair Louis Greenwald, and we appreciated the positive feedback from him and a number of other committee members including Joe Cryan, Nellie Pou, Gary Schaer, and Joan Quigley, who is getting a copy of the Kean/United Way study and will share it with the committee. Assemblyman Cryan, while voting to release the budget bill from committee, expressed his concern that budget cuts would hit Union County hospitals hard, and added, “I really have a problem with this budget…We’ve got a lot of work to do before Monday.”

MORE ON THE BUDGET: Budget comes to screeching halt, says the Star-Ledger: A $32.9 billion state budget that imposes no new taxes but cuts homestead rebates and aid to towns and hospitals stalled in the Senate Budget Committee last night after it had cleared its counterpart in the Assembly.

The Assembly panel approved the spending plan by a party-line vote of 7-4, with all of the Republicans voting against it. It recessed about 7:30 p.m. and is scheduled to reconvene this afternoon, as is the State Senate Budget & Appropriations. Both houses expected to vote on the final version of the budget Monday, but today’s extraordinary committee sessions may interfere with those plans–and both houses have scheduled meetings for next Monday and next Thursday.

For the Star Ledger story, click here.

HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION: Health care coverage for all is moving in the Legislature–one step at a time: New Jersey took another step toward providing universal health care as both the Senate and Assembly budget committees approved a bill yesterday that mandates all children have coverage and permits 20,000 middle-class parents to participate in a low-cost state program.

The cornerstone of the plan is the expansion of FamilyCare, which already provides some 200,000 children and working-poor parents with HMO-style health care. The budget that is expected to go into effect July 1 includes $8.9 million for this effort.

I have scheduled a meeting next week with Senator Joe Vitale, the sponsor of this bill. For the Star-Ledger story, click here.

I suspect that both houses of the Legislature may be wrapping up the budget next Thursday–at the same time as the State Health Planning Board meeting–if they are unable to finish on Monday (which seems unlikely at the moment).

AGAIN - DON’T FORGET THE STATE HEALTH PLANNING BOARD meeting/hearing on Thursday–June 26–to decide on their recommendation to Commissioner Heather Howard on Solaris’ application to close Muhlenberg; 9:30 am to 2 pm at the National Conference Center auditorium at the Holiday Inn in East Windsor.

Buses are being chartered–for information call Steven Hatcher (908-731-1518), Plainfield chapter chair of the People’s Organization for Progress, which has led the struggle to save Muhlenberg.

Area physicians are being contacted by Save Muhlenberg Coalition activists Nancy Piwowar and Gayle Jones, and are being urged to attend and be heard.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS: Take the NJ Turnpike to Exit 8 and go right after the toll on Route 33 East toward Freehold/Twin Rivers. Turn left at the first stop light (Woodside Avenue); turn right on Monmouth Street–the hotel is at 399 Monmouth Street.

New York Times archived article from July 18, 1999. (Emphasis added to flood and trichloroethylene-related sections).

AFTER two years of legal wrangling, the fate of 78 vacant acres along Route 22 in Watchung where the Lockheed Electronics complex once stood has been decided.

Later this month, work is expected to start on filling the site and 12 adjacent acres with a 750,000-square-foot shopping center, the largest commercial development in the Somerset County borough in nearly four decades.

In June, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided not to hear the case against the planned $90-million center, known as Watchung Square.

The decision ended the lawsuit filed by neighboring North Plainfield and two residents — one from Watchung, the other from North Plainfield — and cleared the way for the project to proceed.

Watchung Square will be a ”power center,” which the International Council of Shopping Centers in Manhattan defines as an open-air retail strip with 250,000 square feet of space or more and three or more large specialty stores.

The project, which is nearly fully leased, will have 17 stores, including a 125,000-square-foot Target department store, a 124,000-square-foot Home Depot, a 66,000-square-foot supermarket and a 10,000-square-foot Model’s sporting goods store. There will also be a 16-screen Regal movie complex, said Sal A. Davino, who is managing partner of Watchung Square L.L.C., the entity created to develop the project.

Mr. Davino, a longtime shopping center developer who also heads Fidelity Land Development of Chatham, said Watchung Square would be completed in 18 months, nearly seven years after he got involved with the project.

The start of a center this size indicates the faith of the developer in the strength of the retail market in the state in general and in Somerset County in particular. But the time it took to get the project to this point also shows that the development climate is becoming more complex as the supply of land to develop dwindles and community concerns rise.

Those concerns range from providing adequate drainage and controlling traffic to preserving the quality of life of residents in the community as well as in neighboring communities — all of which were issues in the Watchung project.

Mr. Davino said he had stayed the course through the litigation as well as a two-and-a-half-year approval process because of the site’s location, on a major retail corridor in a county with strong demographics. Some 213,500 people with an average household income of $68,927 live within a five-mile radius of the center, he said.

”Sure, there is a lot of retail along the corridor,” Mr. Davino said. But in between the cluster of stores in Union Township and the enclosed Bridgewater Commons Mall in Bridgewater ”there are no power centers,” he said.

ACCORDING to the International Council of Shopping Centers, power centers and retail shopping strips are the dominant form of retail being constructed today. Such centers continue to grow nationally, albeit not has rapidly as they had in past, with 54 power centers built in 1998, compared with 81 built in 1997. Last year, however, only 11 enclosed regional malls were built, according to data from the council and the National Research Bureau, a publisher of shopping-center data based in Chicago.

Mr. Davino contracted to buy the 78-acre site in 1994 from Lockheed Electronics, a subsidiary of what is now Lockheed Martin, which closed its old complex four years earlier and worked with Watchung officials to have the site rezoned from industrial to highway commercial use, including retail. After that, Lockheed razed the complex and cleaned the site, which contained levels of trichloroethylene, a cleaning solvent, to accommodate the shopping center.

Designed by Patrick Marchetta of Lynhurst, the center will comprise six low-rise buildings scattered at the edges of the sloping site, with parking for 3,300 cars in front of the stores and at the site’s core.

It was approved by the borough’s planning board in 1997.

Anthony F. Addario, the Mayor of Watchung, said he supported the project because ”its retail use fits like a glove” on the borough’s half-mile stretch of Route 22, where stores predominate. He said it would generate ”tax revenue that will exceed the municipal services required to accommodate the shopping center.” Estimates are that it will generate $1 million in new tax revenue a year, helping ”to keep a lid on property taxes,” he added.

Some residents of Watchung opposed the center, as did residents and local officials in North Plainfield, who were concerned that so large a project would substantially increase traffic and create water runoff problems. Others also wanted the project scaled back and the movie theaters excluded.

While conceding that there would be more traffic, Mayor Addario noted that the developer, to gain his approvals, agreed to environmental, design and traffic concessions. They range from carving out two retention basins so that the runoff would be less than it would be if the property were left undeveloped to making $5 million in off-site road improvements, among them the widening of a stretch of Route 22 to six lanes from four.

Mr. Davino said he had also acquired the 12 additional acres from Lockheed to relocate the movie theater to the southwest corner of the site, farther away from residences. He added that six acres in the northwest corner of the site, where the movie theater had originally been situated, has been donated to the borough.

The concessions did not satisfy all objectors and after the project was granted its approvals North Plainfield and the two residents sued. They contended that, among other things, Watchung had acted in an arbitrary manner in granting the approvals.

Janice Allen, the Mayor of North Plainfield, said the key issues for her community were traffic and drainage problems. The latter is of particular concern since North Plainfield lies in a flood zone, she said. ”We pursued any and all legal means,” she added, arguing that North Plainfield would be hurt by the project, but receive none of the benefits it will generate. Now, she said, her concerns are focused on the issue of groundwater contamination.

THOUGH the soil on the Lockheed site has been cleaned, contaminants have filtered into the groundwater below and are migrating off site, affecting the groundwater in North Plainfield. But Mr. Davino said — and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection confirmed — that Lockheed is putting in more monitoring wells to identify the source of the contamination, and once located, has agreed to install a pump and treatment station.

”Regardless of the process the developer can move ahead with developing the site,” said Loretta O’Donnell, a department spokeswoman.

Mr. Davino said that the years of negotiation and litigation had added to the cost of the project, which increased from $75 million to $90 million. The cost included the acquisition of the additional land. He said he would close on both parcels this month. It also required the ‘’shifting around of some of the financing” to build the project, which he said is coming from his own equity and bank loans.

But with construction soon to start, Mr. Davino sees a silver lining. ”The retail market is that much stronger,” he said, noting that the majority of his tenants remained with the project.

The retail vacancy rate along the 21-mile Route 22 corridor from Union to Somerville is 5.2 percent, down from 7.3 percent a year ago, according to Brunelli & Company, a retail brokerage in Old Bridge. Rents range from $12 to $25 a square foot. ”The demand is for power centers,” said Richard J. Brunelli, the firm’s president, ”and it is coming from big-box retailers, which continue to drive the market.”

He said that in addition to Watchung Square, three other power centers — two in Bridgewater, one in Somerville, together totaling nearly 2 million square feet — are under way or planned in Somerset County. While the county’s population is growing and new retailers, including Best Buys, an electronics chain based in Eden Prairie, Minn., continue to enter the New Jersey market, the last center built will have trouble leasing, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Davino said the sign on the Watchung site that for the last five years has announced the arrival of the retail center will finally be coming down. Instead, he said, ”There will be buildings going up on the site.”

An account of comments made about Villa Maria development during the June 9 Council meeting.

Developer Robert McNerney’s application will be on the Planning Board’s June 25 agenda, 7 p.m. at Vermeule.

During public comment, Fred Jones brought up developer Robert McNerney’s plan to apply for permits to build 55 single-family homes at the site, pointing out that the three main scenarios for the parcel in recent years have been 225 age-restricted condominiums, 55 single-family homes, and a park in the wooded portion of the parcel nearest to Stony Brook combined with a handful of large, half-acre or one-acre single family lots along Interhaven and Grove.

Mr. Jones noted that the market value of the property is now a matter of public record, since McNerney bought the property in late March for $3.93 million (far below the estimated value of tens of millions thrown around previously).

He said there’s an opportunity for the Borough to intervene by coming up with a proposal to preserve the wooded area as a public park for Borough residents (pointing out that there are many Borough residents who live in apartment complexes north of Route 22, where there are no parks) and either permit McNerney to build large-lot homes, or take the property through eminent domain and then sell large lots to individual builders.

Mr. Jones offered to work with Council members to help them network with county and state funding sources. He advocated adoption of a small municipal open space tax (to make the Borough eligible for open space funding). And he advocated the Shade Tree Commission ordinance as a means to protect the woodlands from destruction, emphasizing that the Council members’ purported concern about loss of Mayor and Council authority to Shade Tree Commission members is misplaced, since all commission decisions would be appeal-able to the Mayor.

“If you’re worried about loss of control, just read the ordinance,” Mr. Jones said. “I’m sure you [Council members] don’t want 55 houses…We have time, but it’s not on our side. I’d like to recommend that we move on this.”

Bill Campbell of Green Brook agreed with Mr. Jones, noting that former Green Brook Mayor Pat Walsh, who attended Planning Board hearings last summer to object to the ARC development plan, is now a Somerset County Freeholder with new contacts and resources she could leverage on North Plainfield’s behalf.

Mentioning the Supreme Court’s recent rulings in favor of eminent domain for public purposes, Mr. Campbell emphasized “You can do it. You have the right to do it.”

Mr. Campbell also pointed out that, if single-family homes on average house one child each, McNerney’s proposed development would add 55 children to the public school system. Estimating $10,000 per child, [it's actually $13,841for 2008-2009] he said that would add up to at least $550,000 per year [actually at least $761,255] in added school budget costs for Borough taxpayers.

Mr. Campbell contrasted that with the likely smaller annual principal and interest payments taxpayers would incur on a $4 million loan to purchase and preserve the wooded portion of the parcel and permit a handful of large-lot homes along Interhaven and Grove. [Such a loan would also eventually be paid off, unlike school costs, which are an ongoing public obligation.]

“So it does seem that the cost of money is lower than the cost of schooling those children,” Mr. Campbell said.

Barbara Habeeb (prior to her appointment to the Council, which was among the last items on the agenda) agreed with Mr. Jones and Mr. Campbell, adding that she’s done “a gazillion research” on possible ways to save Villa Maria and concluding: “I think that this is something that we can do together, as at team.”

[Ms. Habeeb later observed that the Borough currently does not need to provide additional affordable housing as per the Council on Affordable Housing's Third Round Rules, although we are obliged to rehabilitate existing low-income housing. Ms. Habeeb is currently seeking a copy of the settlement that ended the Villa Maria nuns' 2003 COAH lawsuit.]

At the June 9 Council meeting, Margaret Mary Jones (a past and perhaps current member of the Somerset County Planning Board) noted that new COAH requirements will kick in IF the Borough permits new home construction, pointing out that COAH rules require one new affordable housing unit for every five market-rate homes built. In other words, if the developer builds 55 new homes, the Borough must see that 11 new affordable homes get built somewhere in the Borough, at Villa Maria or, if the developer refuses, elsewhere in the Borough.

“The burden will be upon the town to build those houses,” Mrs. Jones said.

Council members did not comment on the issue.

The Borough Council last night adopted the following resolution:

WHEREAS, the Council of the Borough of North Plainfield IS dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Borough; and
WHEREAS, careful maintenance of buildings (commercial and residential) and their respective grounds, including, but not limited to, prompt disposal of trash and garbage are essential elements in achieving this goal; and
WHEREAS, citizens of the Borough increasingly have expressed concern over evidence of poor property maintenance and/or excessive accumulations of trash and garbage; and
WHEREAS, although the Council regularly receives reports of large numbers of violations and repeated summonses for the same property, remediation does not appear to be occurring in some cases; and
WHEREAS, the longstanding nature of property management violations have led Borough residents to feel that not enough is being done to preserve the appearance of neighborhoods and thus the quality of life in the Borough; and
WHEREAS, the result is an apparent disconnect between the ordinances governing these issues and enforcement which provides for remediation ofthe problems;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Borough Council of the Borough of North Plainfield, County of Somerset, State of New Jersey that it shall commence to undertake a study of the state of property maintenance in the Borough, both regarding ordinances and enforcement, in order to ensure more rapid and effective remediation of violations.

Mooooost intriguing.

I asked a couple of follow-up questions, and learned that no particular Council member or members are responsible for initiating this “study,” and there’s no particular deadline for when the study must be finished and brought back to the Council for action.

Of course, we’re coming up on July, a scant four months from Election Day in November, and property maintenance is a hot, hot issue around town; if that’s what the resolution is all about, it’s fluff that brings patronizing contempt for citizen concerns to a new low for these guys. (Successful voter pandering requires plausible sincerity.)

Council President Stabile elaborated, slightly, by saying he “imagined” that the Council would ask Code Enforcement Officer James Rodino and perhaps other responsible people, to come and provide information and records to the Council about enforcement.

When I raised the question of whether the Council has the necessary four votes to compel Rodino’s appearance and testimony, Skip flatly remarked:

“You are assuming an adversarial relationship where none exists.”

Let’s parse that, shall we?

In the past, Council members have reported that they’ve had great difficulty getting information out of Mr. Rodino and other Borough employees, because under the municipal charter, the “strong” mayor (Mayor Allen for the last 12 years) must give permission for Borough employees to speak to Borough Council members, and she has declined to give that permission, thus shielding her hires from accountability to the Council.

That suggests an adversarial relationship, which, under the charter, would require the Council to override the Mayor’s shielding actions with a 4-3 majority to compel document production and public testimony.

And that analysis fits with residents’ experiences obtaining comprehensive, timely data on enforcement measures undertaken by Mr. Rodino and his department, including:

• the partial data provided last summer in response to an OPRA (data on convictions and fines assessed and collected were requested but not provided);
• Frank D’Amore and Jack Fowler’s laborious hand-reviews of Municipal Court records;
• Frank D’Amore’s time-consuming, yet successful citizen prosecutions of property maintenance violations after Borough inaction; and
• numerous individual complaints filed and requests for updates on the status of investigation and enforcement efforts, regularly unanswered by Mr. Rodino or the Council members.

On the other hand…

If, as Mr. Stabile suggests, he and other Democratic Council members currently enjoy and have always enjoyed free and easy access and influence over Mr. Rodino, Mr. Rodino’s records and Mr. Rodino’s job performance, then, as Frank D’Amore exclaimed during the next public comment period:

“Where have you guys been for the last 12 years?”

As Mr. D’Amore explained, there’s no mystery to how enforcement can and should be done - no “study” necessary. And there’s also no mystery as to who is responsible for not using those thoroughly adequate enforcement tools: it’s Jim Rodino, presumably at Mayor Allen’s direction. Mr. Rodino has failed to perform his duties competently, and must be replaced.

Is the Council-Rodino relationship adversarial?

Or is it amicable?

Logic trap for Mr. Stabile.

[Corrections and clarifications welcome, especially from Dr. Allen]

Dr. Harry Allen, Chair of the Environmental Commission, gave a presentation to the Council last night regarding trichloroethylene contamination caused by industrial processes at the former Lockheed Martin site (where Watchung Square Mall now stands).

TCE is present in the groundwater under Watchung Square Shopping Mall, North Drive, Crystal Ridge condos, Ray’s Sports Shop, Crab Brook, Regency Village condos, and as far west as the Villa Maria parcel.

Dr. Allen, Mayor Janice Allen and perhaps other Borough officials participated in a May 15 meeting with NJ Department of Environmental Protection officials to discuss progress to date on the 40-year remediation effort which has now been officially underway for 2.5 years, and to review the latest groundwater sampling data from 2007, summarized in a March 2008 report written (I think) by TRC Companies, Inc.

TRC is the contractor hired by Lockheed Martin to perform the environmental cleanup (link here - TRC Companies Inc.,) The company installed several monitoring wells to track the dissipation of the TCE throughout the area groundwater supplies, and installed one ground water recovery system (pumping station) in July 2003, at the intersection of North Drive and Route 22.

Information about trichloroethylene, known as TCE, is here, including TCE’s link to kidney cancer. The 1998 film A Civil Action dramatized the real-life experiences of the residents of Woburn, MA, battling corporate contamination of their groundwater with TCE.

Copies of Dr. Allen’s complete report are probably available upon request to Borough Clerk Gloria Pflueger. If anyone obtains a copy that way, or by calling Dr. Allen direct, please provide a copy to Grassroots Groundswell to make it easier for your fellow NP residents to access the information contained in the report.

Dr. Allen said the contamination - down to a depth of 200 feet - was first discovered in 1993, when an “industrial site recovery” effort began. Contaminated soil was removed and a “vapor recovery” effort conducted to vacuum off the TCE gases at the site.

The Environmental Commission got involved in the late 1990s, Dr. Allen said, to monitor the TRC company’s monitoring of the water quality. The Borough did not want to “go broke going after Lockheed-Martin,” by trying to establish and enforce liability against the “big guns” of a large corporation with deep pockets.

Instead, the Environmental Commission entered into a “friend of the state” arrangement, to partner with the DEP in jointly monitoring Lockheed-Martin’s remedial activities, and has taken an “amicable” stance toward Lockheed Martin, rather than an “adversarial” stance.

Dr. Allen said that in New Jersey, all groundwater is classified as “drinking water supplies” unless the state grants a waiver due to factors such as toxic contamination.

The state is considering granting one of those classification exemptions to the North Plainfield groundwater supplies contaminated by the TCE plume.

The latest data show that there has not been a significant reduction in TCE contamination levels over the last few years, and the size of the plume as of 2007 was larger than the plume size projected by statistical models.

The report presented last night apparently contained plume maps showing the size of the plume in 2003 and the size of the plume in 2007.

Again, anyone who obtains a copy of that report or any of the related reports reviewed at the May 15 DEP meeting or submitted to the DEP by North Plainfield officials, is strongly encouraged to send copies here for others to read.

Dr. Allen said he sent a written review of the situation to the DEP and expected to hear DEP objections to his negative findings, but got no response from the DEP, causing him to assume that the state officials agree with his negative assessments.

[Editor's Note: Interesting lesson there for those of us frustrated by non-responses from Borough officials regarding negative assessments of other Borough conditions.]

Dr. Allen said other upcoming measures may include:

• overlaying new sampling data with the electronic tax maps, to get a more up-to-date plume map;
• having the DEP sample all unsealed wells in the area, since only a small portion of area wells have been sampled;
• having the DEP re-evaluate the remedies being used, to see if there are additional measures that could be taken to clean up the contamination faster;
• having the DEP measure and analyze “vapor intrusion,” or the off-gassing of TCE into North Plainfield homes and businesses above the contaminated groundwater; and
• having the DEP step up measures to force Lockheed Martin to comply with environmental clean-up requirements.

Dr. Allen said the topic comes up for discussion at just about every Environmental Commission meeting.

The next EC meeting will be Wednesday, June 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Vermeule Community Center, so readers interested in more information about this issues are strongly encouraged to attend that meeting.

Gary Lewis, member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, said the Zoning Board back in 2003 originally required monthly public reports to Mayor and Council, when the Zoning Board approved installation of a pumping station building for the groundwater sampling, located at the northeast corner of North Drive and Route 22. The pumping station is to pump ground water up, filter it to remove contaminants, and then pump it back into Crab Brook where Crab Brook flows under Route 22.

[Editor's Note: If those monthly reports have been submitted to the Council, it would be good to request copies for posting and review by interested readers.]

Aside from the fact that these vendors have no business going on school property to conduct business, we’ve pointed out the very real possibility of a lawsuit against the school system should one of them back into, run over or otherwise injure a child or adult while on school property.

For years, our notifications have fallen on deaf ears.

Now, with streets as congested as they always are when school lets out, we find not one but two of these ice cream trucks parked right near the intersection in front of the high school selling their wares. I suppose someone’s going to argue that these guys have a “right” to sell their stuff, and I imagine that the Board of Ed is going to view them as yet another group they don’t want to “antagonize.”

All I know is they’re making the traffic worse, and as far as them going on school property during evening sports, you’re all whistling in the dark until someone gets hurt. It’s not like we haven’t been pointing it out since at least 2003.

Good Town Meeting last night - 30 to 35 people in attendance, lots of information flying thick and fast, as usual.

And thank you for the “thank you and good luck” extended to me by the NPCCR members. I think the opportunity to earn the respect of good people is one of the best things about being a free human being; it’s a great honor and privilege to get to do the things I’ve been doing over the past year to earn that respect from North Plainfielders, and I will savor those experiences and friendships - all of them - for the rest of my “firebrand” “Veni-Vidi-Vici” community-organizing life.

Will write up a more detailed account of the meeting later, but the idea that caught my attention most was Frank D’Amore’s plan to submit copies of property maintenance and zoning complaints not only to the bottomless pit of non-enforcement that is Borough Hall, but also to the Borough’s insurance company.

This is pure triangulation genius, enlisting the interest and (hopefully) intervention of another party with a financial investment in the Borough’s wellbeing and competent management, in addition to the taxpaying residents, who are already intensely interested and have been attempting to intervene for decades.

Instead of the seemingly dead-end two-way fight between citizens and borough officials, this maneuver aligns another party with the citizens, cornering the borough officials and putting more pressure on them to enforce.

The insurance company should be interested, because if a fire burns up a family living in an illegal dwelling, and the Borough gets sued for negligent enforcement of health and safety codes, the insurance company will have to pay the settlement along with the taxpayers.

Obviously, it’s always been in the Borough’s best interests to strictly and fairly enforce local laws, and document that strict, fair enforcement, although Allen & Co. have never seen it that way.

But it’s also in the insurance company’s best interest (their bottom line) to ensure that the Borough engages in strict and fair and documented enforcement. The insurance company suits may be able to get the attention of the Mayor and Council better than the residents alone have been able to; providing the insurance company with copies of complaints also eliminates plausible deniability from Borough officials’ list of available defenses.

Readers interested in re-entering the fray - especially readers who have stopped filing property maintenance and overcrowded housing complaints in Borough Hall because nothing ever changes - are strongly encouraged to contact Frank with leads for new complaints, so he can file those complaints and send the copies to the insurance company. Frank’s e-mail is: frankdsr at att.net

Just in from Josh Lambert:

A second public hearing to gain input on the fate of Muhlenberg Hospital is scheduled for Thursday, June 5 from 6 - 8 pm at Plainfield High School, 950 Park Ave, Plainfield, NJ.

The hearing was scheduled in response to the overwhelming turnout at the first hearing and will give residents an additional opportunity to voice their opinions on the proposed closure of Muhlenberg.

The hospital serves the healthcare needs of Plainfield and the surrounding communities. In 2007, the emergency room treated 35,000 patients, and the loss of this hospital would be a blow to public health in the area. Please plan to attend the public hearing to show your support for the continued presence and service level of Muhlenberg Hospital.

Also plan to attend the rally organized by People’s Organization for Progress outside Plainfield High School that will begin at 4:30 pm and immediately preceed the hearing. Public health in the region needs your support.

[Editor's Note: Barbara Habeeb will be speaking at the meeting in support of Muhlenberg Hospital.]