Politics & Government

The Week in Union County: Post Irene, Towns Work to Return to Normalcy

Hurricane Irene left many homes damaged, flooded and without power. Read on to see how each municipality fared, what frustrated them and how they are working on getting back to normal.

Clark-Garwood

It was the week of Irene.

As the hurricane, hit we reported on some of the wildest flooding Clark has ever seen: and the Garden State Parkway near the Clark exit became We also reported on the As the town recovered from downed trees, flooded basements and power outages,

The Center Street underpass also flooded, though is now clear, although closed to traffic as pre-Irene construction in the area continues.

Baptista and a friend posted on Facebook that they were "running in the hurricane" at midnight, and the next day friends reported the two missing. An exact cause of death is still unknown.

 

Find out what's happening in New Providence-Berkeley Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

Summit

Find out what's happening in New Providence-Berkeley Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Schools Superintendent Nathan Parker gave his welcome speech to new staff for the new school year on Thursday. Parker said that the district added 35 new teachers, 14 classroom aids, four custodians, two behaviorists, two instructional facilitators, one nurse, one guidance counselor and one new administrator to the school system.   

Parker said he has planned three strategic initiatives for the coming year that will focus on encouraging and supporting students.  The first, he said, is culturally responsive teaching. Each school is expected to develop a plan to increase culturally responsiveness. The second, is to increase student achievement among Hispanic students. 

“The goal is to eliminate discrepancies on state mandated tests, grades and college acceptances,” when compared to non-Hispanic whites, Parker said. Parker said that program has a lot riding on it: the district received a $100,000 donation from a community member to ensure implementation, he said.  

 

In Irene-related news, elected officials frustrated by a lack of responsiveness, planning and communication by Jersey Central Power & Light after Hurricane Irene gathered at Summit City Hall on Friday to seek answers on why so many residents in their towns and districts remained without power.

Summit Mayor Jordan Glatt, New Providence Mayor J. Brooke Hern, Millburn Mayor Sandra Haimoff, Chatham Councilman William O’Connor, Warren Township councilman Vic Sordillo, and others, joined Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, Assemblywoman Nancy Monoz and State Senator Tom Kean in challenging JCP&L CEO Donald Lynch by conference call. 

After the approximately 30-minute call, Mayor Glatt offered this succinct summation of the conversation with Lynch. 

“The word is clueless,” said Glatt, who organized the meeting.

Bramnick said it still appeared that the utility was overwhelmed. “The information we got was broad-based information,” Bramnick said. “We did ask them how many trucks in which areas and we did learn that Millburn had 13 crews there, but (with the other towns) we couldn’t get that response.”

 

Springfield

Springfield was hit early and often by Hurricane Irene, with water rising to historic heights and forcing dozens of residents to leave their homes in boats captained by . Springfield residents shared more than 70 photographs with their neighbors in  gallery. Residents of Alvin Terrace, Marion Avenue and Warner Avenue were hit hardest by the flash flooding from the storm. Marion Avenue residents sounded off against the official response in this . We checked in with clean-up efforts on Alvin Terrace .

Meanwhile, a substantial number of residents were  as of Friday night. On the bright side, Saturday saw the first of several special , so roads are more cleared and clean than they've been since July. 

 

New Providence

Hurricane Irene early Sunday morning, damaging cars, homes and , flooding parts of the borough, and causing trees, power lines and poles to fall. While numerous streets flooded during Irene, some areas remained closed several days following the storm. affected most borough homes at one time or another. still , and many in the Murray Hill section of the borough . Mayor J. Brooke Hern said he has been in contact with JCP&L on a daily basis since the storm to get power restored to all residents. He also said he to repair several areas of the borough.

Practice for the New Providence Varsity Football team is in full swing and the team is ready to attempt another run for a state title following last season's 21-8 win over Lincoln in the game. That win sent into retirement with a storybook ending, capping off the 11-1 season. This season, under new head coach Art Cattano, the Pioneers are a talented and seasoned bunch, with several returning starters, who are ready for the challenge of another long season. The team's opening game will be against Dayton on Sept. 9 . Our features footage from recent practices and scrimmages, as well as interviews with the captains and Coach Cattano.

 

Cranford

Cranford man William Parisio, 23, was early this morning by a Union County Grand Jury in the March 13 of his girlfriend, 22-year-old Pamela Schmidt. Following the homicide, it was rumored that Parisio had been under the influence of - a drug that has since become illegal through Pamela's Law - at the time of the murder. Toxicology reports, however, prove otherwise.

The Cranford Township Committee and public safety officials held an emergency meeting Thursday night to discuss flood relief efforts. The Township Committee authorized an emergency budget appropriation of $961,401 to help pay for flood-related expenses. The governing body will also make it easier for homeowners to begin making repairs to their flood-damaged homes through a resolution that will waive the fees for building, electrical, plumbing, fire, mechanical and zoning permits.

About , armed with maps and 35-page brochures, took to the streets on foot to deliver information packets to the victims . The "Flood Relief Information" packets - about 4,000 of them - contained tips on what to do with debris, how to deal with flooding and the effects of flooding, where the displaced families can go for shelter and to shower as well as important phone numbers and information from township officials about how the problem is being handled.

 

Scotch Plains-Fanwood

N.J. Sailor's Knot for Happy Couple: An earthquake, a hurricane and an upcoming military deployment couldn't stop a Navy man and his wife from marrying at Fanwood's Borough Hall on Tuesday. For the story, click here.

 

Shackamaxon Plan May Add Condos: The eventual owners of Shackamaxon Golf and Country Club will be permitted to build up to 60 age-restricted luxury condos on a 12-acre parcel at the center of the property, according to a preliminary settlement reached by Shackamaxon, New Jersey Golf Group, the Township of Scotch Plains and the Scotch Plains Planning Board.  In exchange for the deal, the club's owner – almost assuredly New Jersey Golf – must pay the township $475,000 for the deal on the club, which reportedly owes millions of dollars to Valley National Bank. Read on here.

 

Westfield

Hurricane Irene knocked power out for Westfield businesses and residents for nearly four days in some areas. Click here to see what the business community had to say. Despite the dark, the lack of power didn’t keep . Drs. Stanley and Scott Gersch kept their patients schedules and worked by candlelight so the kids could start school with a fresh smile.

to unload a truck full of supplies from the national Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort Inc., out of Nashville. Nearly $80,000 in supplies from water to infant care items to food and cleaning supplies were sent to help victims of Irene. About 50 volunteers assisted in parceling out and loading items up for Union County towns hardest hit by the hurricane.

 

Berkeley Heights-Mountainside

The Berkeley Heights Board of Education provided an update on a key New Jersey Department of Education mandated program that calls for each school in a district to produce and execute its own development plan in addition to a district-wide plan on Thursday night.

The 2010-2011 mandate departs from previous iterations of the guidance, that called for implementing a single, district-wide development plan.

Guidance documents indicated that “each plan would be limited to the student and faculty population of an individual building to define student achievement,” explained Assistant Superintendent Patricia Qualshie. “The next step was to define what that school’s students needed to accomplish to be considered successful and what the teachers needed to do for the students to become successful.”

To read the entire story, click here.


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