Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Township Committee crafted the draft 2010 budget based on an assumption of a 10 percent cut.
Maplewood will receive $471,646 less in state aid in 2010 than it did in 2009, according to numbers released by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. The 20.45% reduction will force the Township Committee to "open up" the budget planning process that they had thought was wrapped up, said Mayor Vic DeLuca. Last year, Maplewood received a total of $2,306,339 in state aid. The 2010 number is $1,834,693. The Township had built its draft 2010 budget based on an assumption of a 10% reduction in state aid. The news comes as the Township is still reeling from last night's news of the 80.9% reduction in state aid for the South Orange Maplewood School District. The mayor was still processing the information after a candidates debate for …
Maplewood and South Orange declare Census Competition. Completely unrelated (or not?), officials of the two towns will battle in a foul shooting contest.
Things are heating up between Maplewood and South Orange. Perhaps it's been all this talk of mergers and which town will be lead agency on potential joint library, police, fire, recreation and other services (It has already been decided that Maplewood will lead and house the new joint municipal court, planned for January 1, 2011 operation.) Who knows. But yesterday Doug Newman, President of the Township of South Orange Village, and Vic DeLuca, Mayor of Maplewood, announced "a friendly competition" to promote increased participation in the 2010 Census. As the joint press release read: "The competition encourages all residents to promptly complete and mail back their 2010 Census forms, now arriving by mail, to achieve the highest percentage …
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Major discussions centered on the discharge of firearms in the Township and denying the Community Garden use of the lot behind Town Hall.
The Maplewood Community Garden may break ground this spring. It just won't be in the lot behind Town Hall. After several neighbors came forward to oppose the choice of location for the Community Garden—which has parcelled out about two dozen lots to members of the community to hoe and sow organically this spring—Town Engineer Bob Bratt took another look at the area and decided that it would be best to improve drainage before moving forward with any building or planting project. Township Administrator Joseph Manning took responsibility for the late change in plans and apologized to the Township Committee and to those planning and participating in the Community Garden. Township Committee members voiced their support for the Garden but voted …
Monday, March 15, 2010
The discussion item "discharge of firearms" appears on the agenda for the March 16 Maplewood Township Committee agenda.
Take a glance at the agenda for the March 16 Maplewood Township Committee meeting and you'll notice an item that's a bit unusual. "Discharge of firearms" is listed under discussion items (Agenda Item #10, Discussion Item #2). Patch reached out to members of the Township Committee to find out what it's all about. This from Mayor Vic DeLuca: "The Township received an inquiry from a resident about constructing a shooting range in his home. Our ordinances are silent about this so we will be discussing whether or not an ordinance should be adopted that prohibits shooting of a gun anywhere in town, except at the police station range. If there is sentiment to have an ordinance, our attorney will be instructed to prepare one. We have a couple of …
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Maplewood Township Committee member will end his elected service on December 31, 2010.
After one three-year term in office, Lester Lewis-Powder will end his elected service to the Township of Maplewood. Maplewood Democratic Nominating Committee Chair Wayne Sullivan posted Lewis-Powder's decision on maplewoodonline this morning at 8:33 a.m. and confirmed with Patch at 9:56 a.m. "Yes, I can confirm that Lester has decided not to run again," said Sullivan via email. "I just got an email from him last night that I opened this morning. I have since passed on the word to others in the Maplewood Democratic Committee." Sullivan said he will let Lewis-Powder speak for himself to cite any reasons for choosing not to run again. Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca issued this statement related to Lewis-Powder's decision: "I supported Lester …
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Assemblyman John McKeon of the 27th District expects budget cuts to be "deep and profound at all levels."
Officials across the state are waiting with bated breath for Gov. Chris Christie's March 16 budget announcement, when the scope of cuts will be clearer. Based on a recent conversation with the governor, Assemblyman John McKeon says he's anticipating a "doomsday budget." "I would imagine the cuts are going to be deep and profound on all levels," he said. The South Orange-Maplewood school district lost $2.2 million in current-year state aid when the governor froze $475 million in funding to districts based on their surplus to help close a $2.2 billion budget gap. McKeon noted that forcing districts to drawn down their surplus will be injurious to their bond rating and ultimately impact taxpayers. McKeon also believes that existing funding …
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Art Christensen makes a proposal. He hasn't heard back from Township Counsel yet.
In a comment to the Township Committee on March 2, Art Christensen, proprietor of Les Saisons Bed & Breakfast and manager of the Maplewood Concierge, made a proposal related to the embattled Woman's Club. As documented in Patch and elsewhere, the Township is currently challenging the not-for-profit status of the Woman's Club property in Essex County Tax Court. Township Counsel Roger Desiderio had instigated the action based upon for-profit activities that take place at the building on 60 Woodland Road in Maplewood Village. Christensen approached the Township Committee during the first public commentary section of the public meeting to suggest the Township form an ad hoc committee to "work on solutions" related the Woman's Club's situation…
Monday, March 8, 2010
TC members don't want to proceed with project until they have definitive evidence of need.
Update: Library director Jane Kennedy has contacted Patch wanting us to clarify that the library buildings come under the purview of the Department of Public Works. Any requests for a roof replacement for the main library building made by Kennedy first went through the Town Engineer and DPW. Kennedy stated that she would never "ask for any building repair without the proper documentation for my request." Kennedy provided a history of library roof repair issues and requests to Patch dating back to 2005 which showed the original roof repair request was for $63,000. At the March 2 meeting of the Maplewood Township Committee, the Committee members agreed to have Township staff seek a new evaluation and estimate for repairs to the roof of the …
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The author is chair of the Maplewood Democratic Nomination Committee and, as such, is seeking to give notice to the general population that the committee is looking for persons interested in being a candidate for the Township Committee.
During regular Maplewood Township Committee meetings at town hall there are always two segments of time in the agenda when anyone may step forward and speak publicly about whatever they wish. The current mayor makes the announcement from the dais when those times have arrived. Several seconds may then elapse and unless there is a particularly controversial issue at hand the mayor's next remark is usually, "Seeing no one...."This also seems to be true in response to the latest invitations for any registered Maplewood Democrat to step forward should they be interested in running for the one of five seats on the Township Committee that is up for reelection challenge in the June primary. The seat is presently occupied by Lester Lewis-Powder. …
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Township is asking the U.S. Post Office to vacate its sorting operations in the Village by March 19, 2012.
At the Township Committee meeting on March 2, Mayor Vic DeLuca queried Township Attorney Roger Desiderio on the status of a memorandum related to the lease expirations on the property and the building housing U.S. Post Office operations in Maplewood Village. Desiderio confirmed that he was finalizing the memo to U.S. Post Office representatives to advise them that "time is runing out" on their lease. Although the exact end date of the leases [there are two separate leases: one in which the Town leases the property to the Finkel family and one in which the Finkel family leases the building to the Post Office] is November 9, 2013, the Township will be asking the Post Office to vacate the location by March 19, 2012—the 55th anniversary of the…
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