A presentation for Woodbridge active older adults
Learn steps Middlesex county is taking in the area of energy efficiency and transportation. Freeholder James Polos and Caroline Ehrlich, Chief of Staff for Mayor John McCormac, will be speaking on going green and building a sustainable Woodbridge. Learn ways to save money and about county rebates you may be eligible for.

Friday, November 13th, 2009
Time: 11AM -12pm
Place: The YMCA at the Woodbridge Community Center
Coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be served
Call Lois Griffin at (732) 596-4053 to RSVP today.

Please click here for more information.

How can access to trails and open spaces be improved? How can Metuchen be more green and sustainable? Is there interest in community gardens & sustainable agriculture? What sort of pedestrian and bike trails are needed in Metuchen?

Help answer these questions by shaping Metuchen’s vision for the Middlesex Greenway.

OPEN HOUSE MEETING
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Metuchen Senior Citizen’s Center
15 Center Street • Metuchen

Come discuss improvements and design possibilities for the proposed Greenway extension with the Environmental Commission, planners and ecologists.

Help brainstorm ideas on:
- Pedestrian and Bike Connections
- Open Space Design
- Sustainable Stormwater Management
- Community Gardens
- Sustainable Agriculture

This Sunday at 6 p.m., the Metuchen-Edison area Interfaith Clergy Association will show a film at the Centenary United Methodist Church that will serve as a unique opportunity for local Christians, Jews, and Muslims to begin a conversation with each other.

The film is called Footsteps: A Journey in Faith and is the story of 12 senior religous leaders of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Unitarian faiths who make a trip together to Israel and Palestine. Pizza and salad will be served, and a discussion will follow the film. The evening, which will end by 8:30 p.m., is free for all participants, although those planning to attend are asked to RSVP by today’s end.

Israel is one of the most fought over places in human history, says the film’s director, Dennis Mahoney. Read the full story

Local Link is a recurring series by The Central New Jersey Guide which profiles notable people in the local community.
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Turn to the business section of Sunday’s edition of the New York Times, and you just might see the published work of a local resident.

“I do one cartoon every other week for the Times, and there is no typical day,” said cartoon illustrator Chris Reed, who lives just over the Metuchen border in Edison with his wife and three children. He works out of his home as an independent freelancer.

Reed’s cartoons appear regularly in a New York Times column called Career Couch, which he describes as an “Ann Landers advice column for the business world.” He says he enjoys his work with the Times because it allows him to be creative.

“My clients include the New York Times, Scholastic, BusinessWeek, McGraw-Hill, and many others,” he said. “I am at my desk most of my day or at my computer doing artwork. For a New York Times assignment, I will first draw the picture before scanning it into the computer as an image file. I then alter it there, add a black and white tone, and then email it directly to the paper’s art director. But it usually all starts with a drawing on a piece of paper.” Read the full story

There has been progress in solving the problem of cloudy water in the borough’s pool from this past summer, officials say.

“This week before our regular pool commission meeting, we had a meeting at the pool to discuss and evaluate the filtration issues that we had during the summer,” councilman Peter Cammarano said at the Borough Council’s Oct. 5 meeting. “The meeting included the mayor, our business administrator, our public works director, the manufacturer of the filter, the installer of the filter, the aquatics services company that provides ongoing maintenance, as well as pool management and some others. It was a very good meeting because what we were able to do was bring together all of the parties and try to pinpoint the issues and problems.”

The pool was closed on at least two separate days this year due to the problem, although there were more closures in the summer of 2008. In the off-season between the two summers, more than $100,000 was spent on the pool’s filter system in an effort to fix the problem.

Although he did not go into detail, Cammarano said that they had found two issues with the pool. Read the full story

As early as next year, Metuchen could stand to lose $166,000 in tax revenue, borough officials say. The money represents revenue from the Business Personal Property Tax (BPPT), which up to now has been paid each year by telecom company Verizon to the borough.

“Most of you are probably aware that there have been some concerns about the potential of loss of the Business Personal Property Tax from Verizon,” said Business Administrator William Boerth at the Oct. 5 Borough Council meeting. “There is a potential the borough may lose this money, which amounts to $166,000, though we don’t know this yet. Obviously, that would impact us considerably. It is fairly technical, and I don’t understand it all, but I have met with a representative from Verizon to be brought up to date in terms of what is happening and what the potential could be for the borough.”

Verizon plans to soon notify fifty to sixty municipalities around New Jersey that the company will not pay them this tax in 2010, which is an increase from five municipalities that Verizon stopped paying in 2008. By the end of 2010, Verizon plans to stop paying these fees to up to 150 municipalities for the following year.

The tax is substantial, with Verizon paying municipalities around the state a total of $47 million in 2007. Read the full story

Two retirements, two promotions, and two newly-hired. That sums up the most recent changes to the make-up of the Metuchen Police Department.

Before a packed council chambers, all six officers were honored at the Oct. 5 Borough Council meeting. Sgt. Ted Ayotte and Sgt. Steven Wilczynski are each retiring after 25 years of service, while detectives J.P. Therrien and James Connolly were each promoted to sergeant.

The two newly hired officers are Richard Westover, whose father of the same name is a retired Edison police sergeant, and James Keane IV, son of the current police chief. Read the full story

“I grew up in Metuchen, and I started using drugs when I was 13,” said Kate, who only identified herself by her first name. “I couldn’t function without drugs. I had to use drugs every day before school, and then in school I would use again so I didn’t get sick. I didn’t have friends, and I had no self-respect and no self-esteem. But I didn’t realize there was something wrong until I turned 16. I was failing out of school, and I was asked to get treatment or leave Metuchen High School. I signed a piece of paper and went to rehab, which requested a twelve-step fellowship.”

These were words spoken by Kate, now 20 years old, who was one of the speakers at Metuchen’s first annual Recovery Month Celebration, held at Borough Hall on Sept. 29. The evening, organized by the Metuchen Municipal Alliance, was comprised of a panel discussion of speakers including drug and alcohol experts, local leaders, and several former addicts now in recovery. Approximately 65 members of the public were in attendance.

National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month is an annual observance that takes place each September. The purpose is to highlight the benefits of substance abuse treatment and spread the message that recovery from substance abuse addiction is possible. Read the full story

With an advertising campaign that will include a $5,000 job posting in the New York Times, Metuchen will soon begin publicity efforts for its search for a new high school principal.

Beginning in November, Metuchen will put job postings for the position in newspapers including the New York Times and the Star-Ledger and will advertise the position at colleges and universities in both New York and New Jersey, said schools superintendent Terri Sinatra at last week’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting.

“We are looking at doing the advertisement in November,” Sinatra said. “We will list the specific qualifications [we want], and put in a description of the community and the high school. We have identified a number of associations, an educational newsletter, the New York Times, the Star-Ledger, certain online websites, and Columbia University [Teacher's College] (wiki) where I have a networking system. Then we are looking for December to be the collection of the information on candidates, though we could extend that deadline.” Read the full story

“I personally have no desire to see Metuchen merge with Edison,” said councilman Justin Manley at the Sept. 21 Borough Council meeting. “Consolidation in any form gets the hair on my back up. I don’t want anything to do with it, and I’m ready for a fight. It is the purpose of the cap and we know it. Given that we often appear to be a public target of consolidation by the state, I am fearful that we have to do more sooner.”

The “more” that Manley was suggesting is the formation of a finance sub-committee, under the Borough Council, that would be composed of three councilmen and the mayor. It would meet monthly over the year to brainstorm and discuss ideas and issues relating to the borough’s finances. The committee would have an advisory role only with no regulatory or oversight function over any borough department or official but would give borough officials a regular opportunity to discuss the borough’s finances year-round and not just during budget adoption time. Read the full story

If the jitney bus service ends, could pedicabs serve as an at least partial alternative for Metuchen? After all, you’ll find them in Manhattan, San Francisco, and the Atlantic City boardwalk.

Don’t laugh… they could very well be coming to the borough soon.

“A couple of residents approached me, saying they are intending to form a limited liability corporation,” said councilman William Waldron at the Sept. 21 Borough Council meeting. “They intend to operate pedicabs in and around town. You see them a lot in Central Park, and they are a lot like a rickshaw with a bicycle in front. Their intent is to transport people to and from the train station, maybe around town on a Saturday afternoon, and maybe even from [Hailey's Harp and Pub] after hours.” Read the full story

UPDATE: This application has been carried to the Planning Board’s Dec. 3rd meeting. This was announced at the board’s September 17 meeting, and there will be no further notice given.
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Update as of Sept. 3, 2009: The board had carried the application to its Sept. 17 meeting, but on Sept. 2 the application’s attorney Thomas Sharlow requested in a letter that the Planning Board wait until at least October to continue discussion.

Discussion on the application for a three story building with 16 rental apartment units and first floor commercial space on the corner of Hillside Avenue and Inn Place will continue at a Sept. 17 Planning Board meeting.

The application proposes 22 parking spaces for the building though Metuchen’s ordinance requires 50 spaces. As a result, they require a waiver from the board to bypass the parking requirement.

However, at its Aug. 20 meeting, the Planning Board cited the need for the applicant to present expert testimony on the parking issue before deciding whether to grant the waiver.

“It seems as though the board is seeking more testimony as justification for granting a waiver for the parking,” Sharlow said at the meeting. “We will come back again with the additional expert testimony to support testimony for the setback and parking. The tenants targeted for this building are commuters and rail-riders, reducing the need for parking for the residential component of the building. We are confident that given the unique project we propose here, the close proximity to the train station, and the past approvals that have been granted to residential development in the downtown area, this application proposes adequate parking.” Read the full story

UPDATE: At the Sept. 21 Metuchen Borough Council meeting, Mayor Thomas Vahalla offered the following thought: “Bill [Boerth] and I met with the Metuchen Taxi and Limousine Company. They are interested in working with us to formulate a way for them to charge for the route or running their own route. It was a very positive meeting. We met with one of their operations managers and one of their owners. They said they have two 16-passenger vans that they can use, and we gave them the ridership numbers. We will work with them to develop fliers or some type of notification so that people can give their names and sign up, and they will work out what the costs will be. We may be able to substitute our bus with their private company transporting people, which I think is a great thing.”
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As of the Sept. 8 Metuchen Borough Council meeting, Mayor Thomas Vahalla said that Middlesex County would be unable to run the bus as part of a regionalized bus service route.

“Our discussion of last time was that we would run the bus until the end of the year,” Vahalla said. “I have reached out to Keep Middlesex Moving and they have no capacity for running the bus. The president, Bill Neary, referred me to… the county. The county said ‘We would love to have the bus, but you continue to pay for the driver and maintenance and all the charges,’ which gets us back to square one. So if we run it, we should run it ourselves.”
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With one councilman referring to the free Metuchen jitney bus as a “failed program,” at its Aug. 17 meeting the borough council rejected NJ Transit’s preliminary offer for a new jitney bus to provide service to and from the Metuchen train station for the next seven years.

However, the current jitney bus will remain in service through at least the end of this year.

NJ Transit has asked the borough if it will be interested in receiving a new bus in exchange for agreeing to a seven-year commitment to use it. The borough, however, would have to pay for the maintenance of the bus and for its driver.

As reasons for their objection to the program, members of the council cited the nearly $48,000 annual cost of the bus and the bus’s history of frequent maintenance problems.

“Personally, I think it is a failed program and that it has failed for us in a number of ways,” said councilman Richard Dyas, referring to the current jitney bus. “I would absolutely put them off and say we are not taking it as of now. We will discuss it again in October after we speak to Keep Middlesex Moving. But I think it is a failed program and it should not go forward. We should not accept this bus under these conditions.”

Read the full story

With approximaely 40 people in attendance, on Sept. 15 a Superintendent’s Forum was held at the high school to allow members of the community a chance to offer their thoughts on the qualities they would like to see in the next Metuchen High School Principal. The selection process will go on over the course of this year, and a new principal is expected to be in place by July 1, 2010.

The Metuchen Board of Education (BOE) will next discuss the selection process at its Sept. 22 meeting at 8 p.m. at the high school. The current Acting Principal of MHS is Bruce Peragallo.

“I hope you will take time to help me and other members of the Board of Education to identify the qualifications that are so critical to what we want to see here at Metuchen High School,” said schools superintendent Terri Sinatra at the forum.

“What I hope to do as a result of the information we get from this evening and from other members of the community, staff, and students is to develop what we call a job model,” she said. “While the job description is a very specific listing of duties, the job model is what we want as our vision for the next principal. We will use that to develop a flier advertising the position.” Read the full story

On Sept. 14 at the Metuchen High School library, Acting Principal Bruce Peragallo identified a number of his specific goals for the 2009-10 school year.

He also took a minute to note the school’s dress code policy by confirming that as of that day, not a single student had been forced home due to violation of the dress code, despite rumors to the contrary.

“We have not sent anyone home due to the dress code,” Peragallo said. “We will, however, literally redress some kids during the day if need be if we feel that what they are wearing is inappropriate, as we do keep some clothes for that purpose. We are trying to create the behavior that says students understand this is a workplace.”

Peragallo also assured parents that sweatpants are allowed, as long as they are pulled up and the same pair is not worn for physical education classes or athletic training.

“We don’t want kids who are going to sleep in sweatpants coming to school in them, going to physical education or practice in them, and then sleeping in them. Some may then even return to school the next day in the same pair in an extreme example. We want clothes to be in good taste, washed and so on and so forth.”
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Standardization of Lesson Plans. I think it was when I first came to the high school that one of the things that surprised me was a lack of standardization in our lesson plan. I have since created a template that all our teachers use for our lesson plans, which I then also receive a copy of. As a result, there is now a level of accountability to the supervisors and also to me. That has gone very well, and most of our teachers have embraced a standardized lesson plan format. Read the full story