Grassroots Groundswell

Closed now. What will happen next? Borough Hall Annex? Youth Center? School for Adult English as a Second Language? Library? Affordable senior housing? Medical or professional offices? Charter school? Razed for single-family home construction?

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.

[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.]

I’ve noticed over the last few weeks that the Circuit City expected in the former Staples building in the K-Mart Plaza on Route 22 has been boarded up. The members of the Economic Development Committee (more…)

To figure out the costs v. the benefits of open space preservation at the Villa Maria (and open space preservation may become more of a possibility if the next credit bubbles to burst include construction loans to real estate developers) here’s the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions Worksheet.

Here are the questions, most of which can be answered with the documents in the Document Library, with some rough starting estimates.

a) How many households are there in North Plainfield? 7,393, as of the 2000 Census. But that number may be screwed up. For example, National Association of Home Builders says North Plainfield, in 2000, had 3,357 “owner occupied units” with an average value of $154,044.

b) How many students are currently in the North Plainfield public schools? 3226, as of 2005-2006 school year.

c) Number of students school system can accommodate before new facilities are needed? ANJEC recommends asking School Board.

d) How many students are generated by each housing unit? ANJEC recommends School Board or Planning Board as source of information. For example for townhouses, ANJEC rule of thumb is 0.3 per unit. So for the condo proposal of 225 units, assuming the age restriction is overturned due to soft real estate sales, it would be 67.5 students for the proposed development.

e) Cost per student: $13,841, as per 2008-2009 NP School Budget adopted in April 2008, (section 1, page 11)

f) New Facility Cost:

g) Average Cost of Municipal Services Per Household: $12,029,168 (property tax portion of Borough revenue, see proposed 2008-2009 Municipal Budget, Section 1, page 5, Column 3) divided by 7,393 (number of households) = $1,627.

Check my math - I don’t know if that’s accurate as for “substract non-property tax revenues from total outlay…”

h) Average Market Value of New Housing Unit: ANJEC recommends using other recent new unit sales, developer or real estate estimates. McNerney proposed selling the condos at $325-$375,000 per unit. Realistic? Probably not.

i) Effective municipal assessment rate: 2.526 (for 2007, according to NJ Department of Treasury statistics.) Unless the right figure is the Somerset County Equalization Rate of 43.25%

j) Municipal Tax Rate (5.520 (for 2007, according to NJ Department of Treasury statistics)

METHOD

Educational Outlay =

(d) 0.3 [students per housing unit] times (e) $13,841 [cost per student] = $4,152.30

PLUS

(f) [new facility cost per unit] times (d) [students per housing unit] =

TOTAL = __________________

PLUS

(g) $1,627 [cost of municipal services per household]

COST GRAND TOTAL (per unit) = ______________

Municipal Tax Revenue per Unit =

(h) $350,000 [average market value] times (i) 2.526 [effective assessment rate] times (j) 5.520 [municipal tax rate]

REVENUE GRAND TOTAL (per unit) =

DIFFERENCE = _____________________

Math is hard.

Help!

Interesting Article by Danny Schecter of Mediachannel.org

Think twice before dismissing it as a baseless conspiracy theory, and measure the analysis against the dollar and cents facts confronting you at the gas station and the grocery store. To be clear, I’m not posting it to trash Republicans. I find the theory extremely plausible, and I’m well aware that it all happened on the Democrats’ Congressional “watch” with a blind-eye from the corporate (and bipartisan) media.

It’ll be left to ordinary people in local communities to resist corporate financial control as best they can, and pick up the economic pieces by relying on each other, not on higher levels of government.

Behind the Rise in Prices: A Plan to Torpedo the Dollar
This Is What Happened to Our Land, Not “NoamChomskyLand.”

Who do you think was one of the Bush Administration’s key players on the economy?

If you say Paulson or Bernanke, you might be half right. But there’s another no-name lurking around in the background who tends to be doing the wrong thing at every key moment in the covert history of he Bush (or should we day “Bush League”) Republic.

His name is Jim Wilkinson. He helped organize the GOP protest/obstruction of the Miami election recount in 2000. He was the White House’s key media spinner at the Doha Coalition Media Center. A reporter from Texas said he used techniques first perfected by Stalin. He was an architect of the Republican convention in New York in 2004. He was later dispatched to keep an eye on and act as ‘dissembler in chief’ for Condi Rice.

But at a crucial moment in the history of the western world, Mr. “I work in the shadows” Wilkinson became chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the Goldman Sachs Embed in the Cabinet.

Operative Wilkinson was then given the assignment of monitoring the world’s financial markets in a secret operation modeled no doubt on the great intelligence plan that produced the Iraq War.

His qualifications for this historic role?

See above.

As Mike Whitney reported at the end of October in 2006 — a day before Halloween — the US was then engineering the drop in the dollar to “improve competitiveness” — ie subsidize US exports in a flawed attempt to reduce the growing balance of trade gap. The result was summed up in the headline: “The U.S. Dollar is kaput. Confidence in the currency is eroding by the day.”

Whitney saw then what our media has still yet to report or understand. Was it a “trick or treat?” Read on:

“The financial crisis that we now face was created by design. It is intended to destroy the labor movement, crush the middle class, quash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, reduce our foreign debt by 50 or 60%, force a restructuring of America’s debt, privatize all public assets and resources, and create a new regime of austerity measures which will divert more wealth to the banking and corporate establishment.”

This was months before the subprime meltdown in August 2007, or the more recent hike in food prices and oil prices. Their plan, blessed by business and the banks, was implemented step by step. The consequence was intended.

News, as we know, passes by so fast, and unless a story is repeated ad-nauseum, no one remembers it or looks for the context and background of breaking developments.

Whitney quoted Richard Daughty from “his prescient article, The Phase of Impact” the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Dept have already manned the battle-stations.

Here’s an excerpt: “Mr. Paulson, the Secretary of the Treasury, is, by virtue of his ascension to the throne, now the head of the shadowy President’s Working Group of Financial Markets (which was created by Presidential Order 12631) and he is insisting that they meet more often, namely every 6 weeks!

This whole Working Group thing was originally set up as a fallback, ad-hoc, if-then defense to deal with possible economic emergencies, but now they are routinely meeting every 6 weeks. He has even ordered Jim Wilkinson, his chief of staff, to ‘oversee the creation of a Treasury Command Center to track markets world-wide and serve as an operations base in a crisis’! (Wall Street Journal) World-wide!!

The American government is moving to take control of the world-wide economy as the result of an anticipated crisis? Yikes!”

Now let’s fast-forward to the present, well after this widely foreseen crisis erupted. As oil prices climb, the public is angry. And who do they mostly blame? The oil companies and the oil producing states, of course. They have no clue that this crisis was the consequence of decisions made by the Bush Administration to devalue the dollar with its “crisis manager” Jim Wilkinson playing a central role.

Political writer Jerry Policoff questioned the “politicized polls” on who is responsible for the oil hikes. He noted that most people and pollsters don’t realize that the fall of the dollar precipitated all of this.

I asked him if he thought this squeeze had been orchestrated.

His response:

“I don’t think there is any doubt about that, and the Saudis said as much when Bush asked them to rev up production to bring down the price. Their reaction was pretty much that the U.S. should stop undermining the value of its own dollar before asking other countries to take a financial hit on oil.”

And sure enough, once again, as AP reported, last Friday, President Bush “failed to win the help he sought from Saudi Arabia to relieve skyrocketing American gas prices.”

The President’s own bombast was also faulted for driving oil prices higher, as Bill Scher noted, “Bush’s saber-rattling with Iran raises concerns of war and more disruption of oil supplies, which prompts speculators to raise prices.”

A day later, Treasury Secretary Paulson was asked what he was going to do to strengthen the dollar. He waffled — claiming a “strong dollar” is important but then changing the subject to “market fundamentals” in a speech to pump up CONfidence. (The first three letters of that word gave the real mission away.) He avoided a straight answer with a flurry of “uh, uh, uh,” halting phrases and contradictory assertions. The speech was characterized as “optimistically pessimistic.”

Ah so, so maybe there’s more to this than meets the eye and the wallet. In Europe the press is already blaming the banks for their role in the continuing economic collapse.

On May 13th, the President of Germany, Horst Kohler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund lashed out at bankers, calling them, get this, MONSTERS.

It takes one to know one.

In a page one story in the Financial Times, he said global financial markets have become a “monster” that must be “put back in place” for their “massive destruction of assets.” He called for tougher and more efficient regulation.

This is the strongest criticism of bankers by a European leader since 2005 when German Vice-Chancellor Franz Muntefering attacked Hedge Funds as “SWARMS OF LOCUSTS” whose profit maximization strategies…”posed a danger to democracy.”

No one was listening then. Is anyone listening now?

Crises just don’t happen out of the blue unless there is a natural disaster, and even they are made worse by a deranged military junta like the one in Burma, inadequate preparations, and flawed building standards thanks to corruption.

When I was in China visiting the Three Gorges Dam, for example, I was told about a major revolt in the National People’s Assembly against the dam because it was in a known earthquake zone. The leadership then imposed its will. So far, the big Dam is safe, but 400 others aren’t. 50,000 people are not alive either.

There is a financial quake still underway today with its own shocks and aftershocks. Will anyone in our media look at the precipitating role played by the bankers and the Busheviks including our old friend/fiend Jim Wilkinson?

You can almost predict that wherever he shows up, there’s gonna be a disaster.

And you can also predict that the mainstream press will be looking the other way, more than happy to attack any critics suspected of telling the truth or living in what the all knowing New York Times columnist David Brooks so cleverly sneers at as “Noamchomskyland.”

Ha! Ha!

Tell that to the cashier the next time you pay too much for a loaf of bread.

I just discovered this comment on an August 2007 post

I’m not sure when it was put up there, but I’m reposting it here now, because it’s exactly the kind of comprehensive account of official Borough activity that we need. I think it must have been posted at one of the previous Blogger blogs (later transferred here), before we moved to WordPress with the comment approval system, or I would have seen it when it was originally posted.

Response to Katherine Watt’s BLOG regarding a Natural (Environmental) Resource Inventory for the Borough of North Plainfield,

August 28, 2007

Dear Katherine and Readers,

I decided that your comments on my response to your Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request regarding the Borough’s environment deserves a more complete answer.

My wife and I moved into North Plainfield in 1974, one year after the devastating 1973 flood, and three years after I went to work for the USEPA. I had begun working in Water Quality Management Planning for Region 2 shortly after October 1972, when the Amended Water Pollution Control Act was passed. Almost immediately I was drafted to be on the Brunson (now Vermeule) Commission, and within two or three years I joined the Environmental Commission. I have been on the Environmental Commission for nearly 30 years, a lot of the time as Chair, since no one else wanted the job.

In April of 1974, immediately upon moving to North Plainfield, we attended a US Army Corps of Engineers public meeting on the Green Brook Flood Control Plan, and we were instrumental in supporting Version 4A, which was approved but not implemented. In fact, the portion of the plan affecting North Plainfield was never funded. I reviewed the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project, which included a listing of the environmental resources in the Borough. Shortly thereafter I reviewed the Middlesex County Planning Board’s Water Quality Management Plan (208 Plan) for the Lower Raritan Watershed, which dealt with the hydrology and water quality of the Green Brook and Stony Brook basins. The Plan also discussed the natural resources of the watershed. This was approved by the USEPA in 1977, and continues to be updated piecemeal as part of the Raritan Basin Watershed Alliance planning effort. North Plainfield has little involvement with the RBWA, because our issues have focused on flooding and storm water management, rather than water quality, and the down-basin community has its own problems. Nevertheless we have kept in touch via the Internet, and we have the environmental resources information developed under the initial plan.

In the interim, in about 1975, the Middlesex County Sewerage Authority proposed to construct a sewer interceptor through the Borough along the Stony Brook and Green Brook stream corridor. Two of the current commissioners, Mabel “Skip” Hansen and I, were on the local review board for this project. We reviewed the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this project and were instrumental in getting our environment protected during construction. I have a copy of the EIS.

During this time two students from North Plainfield High conducted environmental surveys of the Green Brook and Stony Brook. Both Janice Hoagland (now with NJDEP) and Josh Levine, who has moved back to town as an adult family man, documented the healthy nature of the aquatic invertebrates in our clean waters.

The Borough and the Environmental Commission have taken an active role with the Green Brook Flood Commission. In addition to reviewing the early EIS, and supporting the recommended plan, the Borough has provided representatives to the Commission itself. Also, Mayor Allen appointed me to be a member of the Upper Basin Task Force, which was established to develop solutions to the flooding on the Green Brook upstream of the confluence of the Stony Brook (near Clinton Avenue in Greenbrook Park). Since flooding has been continually identified as the major environmental issue in North Plainfield, these activities are all part of the Environmental Commission’s contribution to protecting the Borough’s environment.

As far as land use protection, two of our members, Skip Hansen and I, were on the Cross-Acceptance Committee for North Plainfield in 1990. Under this process, all County natural resource areas were mapped with our input and endorsement. We made certain the Vermeule Arts Center and Cemetery property and other public areas and stream corridors (wetlands) were included as natural or cultural resources. Private property, such as Villa Maria and other estate settings (Holy Cross churchyard, for example) were not identified as resource areas as part of the plan. We were also involved in the storm water management element of the plan, since this is one of our priorities within the Lower Raritan Basin Planning effort referenced above. Pursuant to the Office of Management and Budget Municipal Distress Index, North Plainfield was designated a distressed urban area under the original Cross-Acceptance Plan established by the State and supported by Somerset County. This designation was partly driven by the age of our “housing stock.” Of course, we are proud of our older homes and have pledged to preserve them as an historic district. One of our successes in the Cross-Acceptance process was our challenge to this method of tier categorization for our fully-developed community.

Back in the 1970’s and early 80’s (under previous administrations), the Environmental Commission, unsuccessfully attempted to accomplish several missions ahead of their time. We proposed an ordinance to have Environmental Impact Statements prepared for major projects in town [Defeated]; we proposed a Shade Tree Ordinance [Defeated]; we proposed a Paper Recycling Program [Defeated]. We also participated in the storm water management and environmental protection aspects of the revision to the Borough’s Master Plan, which was not finalized for many years (and might not be yet). It was during this time, after the Municipal Land Use Law (1975) was passed, that we sought grants to prepare a Natural Resource Inventory, usually referred to now as an Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI). As you may be aware that this is a non-biased advisory of the natural resources in a community, and it makes no recommendations as to land use, and has no regulatory impact. Information as to what constitutes an ERI is available at http://www.anjec.org. The small matching-funds grant was not enough to get beyond the first stages of the project, and as noted in our response to the freedom of information request, the entire written portion of the document was lost in a computer crash.

Our commissioners were active in the 1970’s. Commissioner Tess Eakin (of The Village Sweep) conducted composting demonstrations throughout the schools in North Plainfield. And in the 1980’s and 90’s, I gave demonstrations on emergency response and household chemical safety in the schools and at career days.

In the late 90’s and into the 21st century, the Environmental Commission adopted the pond in Green Acres Park as storm water management project. Several Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, plus the North Plainfield High School environmental club (HOPE) conducted service projects in the Park under the guidance of the Environmental Commission. Responsibility for the Park now resides with the Recreation Commission.

The Commission has also battled the big boys over pollution and land use management. In the mid 70’s, we studied the environmental impacts of the Timber Ridge development on the Watchung Mountain at Deer Path. I appeared before the Greenbrook Planning Board to address the potential of increased flooding and polluted runoff from this development. Of course, we were defeated. We also debated the environmental impact of the conversion of the Lockheed Electronics hazardous waste site into the Watchung Square Mall, on flooding and pollution coming into North Plainfield.

You may notice that the Mall is there anyway, but also that there is a carbon treatment unit at North Drive intercepting a plume of contaminated ground water coming from the site. We continue to monitor this cleanup project, which is being overseen by the NJDEP, and try to keep the State on track. I could go on about a litany of environmental questions and issues we dealt with in a case by case basis. I should point out that although the Borough does not have a “stand alone” ERI or NRI; it has used most of the same elements available through the advisory support of the Commission.

As a volunteer advisory body with no authority, the Environmental Commission did a lot over the years, but there is little tangible evidence to show for it. Not only are we as a Commission constrained, but the Borough as well as the state and federal government are constrained by legislative mandate and by the Constitution from interfering with private property rights and private behavior. The Environmental Commission cannot tell people what to do. If someone wants to destroy their little piece of the environment, we cannot stop them, at least not in America.

As you can probably discern from this mini-history of the North Plainfield Environmental Commission, there are individuals and groups within the Borough who have been contributing their time and talents for the betterment of the community for many, many years. Rather than tearing the town down or criticizing others, they are “workin’ for the kingdom,” so to speak. The Commission meets on the last Wednesday of each month I Borough Hall at 7:30 PM. Drop in and chat in person.

Harry L. Allen, Ph.D.
Chair
North Plainfield Environmental Commission

Olive Lynch of Plainfield has put together a business model to allow citizens to raise money themselves to buy Muhlenberg Hospital and run it as a community-owned and operated hospital.

Here’s the link to the Buy Muhlenberg blog, and here’s the initial proposal:

Background:

Given the non-responsiveness of both local and state government officials and Solaris’ inability, mismanagement of funds, manipulation of financials, or lack of desire to keep the 131-old facility open; Buy Muhlenberg will provide the citizens, businesses, churches and other organizations of the surrounding adversely-impacted communities (Plainfield, Scotch Plains, Fanwood, Dunellen, Green Brook, South Plainfield, North Plainfield, Westfield, Mountainside) the mechanism to form a community-owned corporation, to raise funds to purchase and manage the hospital, so citizens of these communities will not be denied critical, timely, and readily-available acute care services.

The idea has been whole-hearted endorsed and embraced by Peoples Organization for Progress (POP) and the surrounding clergy, who object to the Muhlenberg closure. Olive Lynch proposed the idea at the April 14 meeting of POP at the duCret School of Art.

Since Monday, the POP, citizens and community leaders we have spoken to, unanimously support the concept of citizens raising money and buying Muhlenberg hospital. An investment bank, Raymond James & Associates, has expressed interest in working with BUY MUHLENBERG, as well as several other financial institutions contacted.

Buy Muhlenberg will be officially launched at the Prayer Vigil, Saturday, April 19, at Muhlenberg. This is an opportunity for citizens of Plainfield and all surrounding townships to KEEP MUHLENBERG HOSPITAL. If we buy the hospital, no one can take it away from us. We can direct the type of care, operations and goals of the hospital — not a big business non-profit corporation.

BUY MUHLENBERG is actively working with the doctors and nurses of Muhlenberg, to develop a team to manage a community-owned hospital; as well as develping a team of professionals on the legal and financial side.

Shares in BUY MUHLENBERG are affordable — $20/a share. A share entities you to 1 vote. Everyone can own a piece of their community hospital and have a voice.

Below is a short prospectus for BUY MUHLENBERG

Prospectus: Purchase of Shares in Buy Muhlenberg
Community Campaign to Purchase Muhlenberg

Subject Facility:

Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center is a 396-bed acute care facility that provides inpatient and outpatient services in all major medical specialties. Other specialized services include a complete array of cardiac services (including emergency angioplasty), a Bariatric Surgery Center, Vein Center, Lithotripsy Center, Wound Care Center, hemodialysis, home care, hospice and adult medical day care. The Medical Center also shares a collaborative relationship with the Plainfield Health Center, a federally qualified community health center serving the greater Union County area.

Business Reason for Purchase: Solaris Health System, the current non-profit owner-operator of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, has announced its closing. Muhlenberg serves a 250,000 population and is a viable, top-notch health facility.

Given the non-responsiveness of both local and state government officials and Solaris’ inability, mismanagement of funds, manipulation of financials, or lack of desire to keep the 131-old facility open; Buy Muhlenberg will provide the citizens, businesses, churches and other organizations of the surrounding adversely-impacted communities (Plainfield, Scotch Plains, Fanwood, Dunellen, Green Brook, South Plainfield, North Plainfield, Westfield, Mountainside) the mechanism to form a community-owned corporation, to raise funds to purchase and manage the hospital, so citizens of these communities will not be denied critical, timely, and readily-available acute care services.

Stakeholders:

The entity formed to own and administer the hospital will be owned via “shares” in the entity. Every share in the non-profit will entitle the shareholder to a vote in the running and decision-making of the entity and entitle the shareholder to agreed-upon benefits.

Mission:

The mission of the entity is the successful purchase of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center and the successful operation of that facility to provide health care services to the surrounding communities.

Business Model:

Unlike the current non-profit entity with no concern or relationship with the community, the entity running the facility will be owned and directed by the community. Therefore, everyone will have a stake and a voice in how the facility meets the needs of the community. The community recognizes that there is a segment of society that cannot afford health insurance and does not have the means to pay “full price” for health care services. The current models in place do not work and a new system must be implemented to provide services to those who can and cannot pay, without denying service to those who cannot pay and without an undue financial burden to those who can pay.

Readers interested in more historic context for this type of community corporation should check out Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age, by Michael H. Sullivan. Among other things, Sullivan writes about the Green Bay Packers, and why they’re still in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Back in February, the Council awarded a contract for shade tree planting services to Scalora Landscape Services of South Orange, using grant money earned by the Shade Tree Advisory Board and some Borough money as well. 

In recent days, all along Rockview Avenue, and presumably other neighborhoods as well, these little shade trees have appeared! Hooray! Congratulations and well done Shade Tree Advisory Board and  Borough Council!

Cared for properly, within a couple of decades they’ll be spreading shade over the future residents of North Plainfield.

Now we need to get that Shade Tree Commission ordinance introduced and passed, to protect the remaining tall, healthy trees spreading shade over the present day residents of the Borough from falling to the chainsaws…

News from Heather DeGeorge:

I wanted to reach out to the community because we are a new drop off site for the Purple Dragon organic food coop and we have shares available.

Essentially, every two weeks members will receive about two grocery bags full of organic produce. It’s mostly veggies, but some fruit as well–plus the option of special ordering
extras, more fruits, eggs and other items.

Today’s (4/3) delivery included yellow onions, Russet potatoes, carrots, grapefruit, zucchini, McIntosh apples, Ecuadorian bananas, broccoli, kale, Red Leaf lettuce, Bartlett pears, strawberries, and tomatoes.

Each share is $46 per delivery, but there are discounts available if you can help divide up the delivery when it comes or refer people to the group.

If you come to find that a whole share is too much for you, you can split it with someone.

Pickup is in North Plainfield, about a block from the intersection of West End Ave & Greenbrook Road, every other Thursday.

If you are interested, there is just about time to get in before the next delivery on 4/17. If you’re not sure you want to commit, but would like to “try it out”, I’m more than happy to add you to our “sub list”–where a share might be available because a member is away, so you take their place for a delivery.

Contact me with questions, for more info, or to sign up!

Heather DeGeorge
hdegeorge@yahoo.com
908-295-0628