Friday, March 19, 2010
The district will now adopt its tentative budget on Monday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. at district headquarters.
The Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education has postponed the adoption of its tentative budget until Monday evening to give board members three days to adjust it in light of the district's significant loss in state aid."This was a surprise," Board President Trip Whitehouse said Thursday of the state's $3.8 million aid reduction to the district. "We don't have time to whine or complain. We've just got to come up with a plan."Since the district found out Wednesday afternoon that it would be losing $3.8 million from the state, Scotch Plains-Fanwood has been scrambling to restructure its plans for adopting the budget before the state's March 31 deadline.Members of the finance committee and district officials have been corresponding about the …
40.655562
-74.384975
Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education
2280 Evergreen Ave, Scotch Plains
/articles/school-board-delays-budget-adoption-due-to-state-aid-news-calls-time-crunch-astounding-moronic
13094
/locations/318689
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The state releases the specifics on aid cuts to municipalities Thursday afternoon.
The state Department of Community Affairs announced Thursday afternoon that Scotch Plains and Fanwood will each lose several hundred thousand dollars in state aid this year. Scotch Plains is slated to lose over $600,000. Fanwood's will drop nearly $200,000. These reductions are relatively close to what the municipalities had been expecting. Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool said on Tuesday that the township was anticipating a 15 to 20 percent drop in state aid. The actual drop, from $2,854,052 last year to $2,227,587 this year, is 21.95 percent. The aid this year will include $244,821 in consolidated municipal property tax relief and $1,982,766 in total energy tax receipts. Fanwood's aid has decreased from $949,450 last year to $755,288 …
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool says this and next year won't be easy for the township.
Scotch Plains is expecting a 15 to 20 percent decrease in aid from the state this year, Mayor Nancy Malool said Tuesday. Following Gov. Chris Christie's budget speech earlier that day, the mayor said she anticipates Scotch Plains losing at least $100,000 from the state for 2010. The township will know the exact amount by the end of the week. "This will not be an easy year," Malool said. "The changes the governor is asking the legislature to make will not make next year an easy year, either." The latter comment refers to the governor's proposal to decrease the annual cap for property tax increases from 4 percent to 2.5 percent. Malool said the lower cap "will be tough to meet," but noted that the governor has given municipalities the tools …
An additional county budget meeting will be held on March 24.
GOVERNMENT|2 days ago
A third date has been added to the open public hearing dates in March for the review of Union County's 2010 Executive Budget. The additional date is March 24, beginning at 5 p.m. and concluding at about 7:15 p.m. The two previously announced dates are March 18 and March 25. Both of these hearings will begin at 4 p.m. and conclude by 7 p.m. Freeholder agenda-setting meetings will be held after the March 18 and March 25 meetings. All three budget hearings will be held in the freeholder meeting room on the sixth floor of the County Administration Building, at 10 Elizabethtown Plaza in Elizabeth. "We will continue to explore cost savings and reductions in the budget line by line," Freeholder Fiscal Committee Chairman Alexander Mirabella said…
The resignations were sent to consultant David Biagini on Tuesday.
Half of Scotch Plains Management Corp.'s board of directors resigned on Tuesday, just days after the business improvement group approved its 2010 budget. SPMC's consultant, David Biagini of FirsTEAManagement, told the Scotch Plains Council Tuesday night that he received e-mails from board members throughout the day stating that they no longer wanted to serve. Those members include President Jim Watson of EKA Associates; Tom Britt of Stage House Restaurant; Tom Cusmano of Park Avenue Printing; Treasurer Ted Schiller of Schiller & Pittenger; and Dr. Frank DiLollo. Jeff Kowalczyk of Connections Personnel stepped down from his role as vice chairman, but not from the board entirely. The decision was also made that Ken Marke of Bowcraft …
Monday, March 15, 2010
A q&a with the two library directors.
Got questions about the joint library proposal? Those working on the project hope to answer them in the second public forum that's been scheduled for April 7. Feasibility consultants Shelly Ross and Joe Duff made their case for the project during a forum at the Scotch Plains library on February 11. Residents and community leaders filled the room at that time to hear more about the project and to raise concerns about the cost, the extent of the construction and its overall impact on downtown Scotch Plains. At the next forum, the Shared Planning and Advisory Committee will continue the conversation. Locals have been talking at great length in recent weeks about the pros and cons of merging the two towns' libraries and possibly creating one …
40.642712
-74.38539
Fanwood Memorial Library
14 Tillotson Rd, Fanwood
/articles/joint-library-project-answers-to-some-of-your-questions
13113
/locations/307535
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The council is waiting to hear from the governor on March 16 to see how much help they can expect from the state.
Fanwood's Administration and Finance Committee has been meeting with department heads in recent weeks to try and tighten their budgets a little more for 2010.Council Liaison Anthony Parenti reported at Tuesday's meeting that the committee has met four times so far, and most recently invited the budget's two largest shareholders — police and public works — to the table to go over their budgets "line by line.""We found some duplicates with the police and public works and working together were able to save a substantial amount of money and not reduce services at all," Parenti said.Because their were so successful with that effort, Parenti said a memo has been sent to the other department heads asking them to help reduce their budgets to the …
40.643014
-74.387826
Fanwood Borough Hall
75 N Martine Ave, Fanwood
/articles/fanwood-officials-work-to-hone-2010-budget
11132
/locations/304771
Two hearings will be held prior to the introduction of the final budget in April.
GOVERNMENT|Wednesday, March 10
Union County's Board of Chosen Freeholders will hold its first public hearing on the 2010 Executive Budget next Thursday. The hearing, which will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Freeholder's Meeting Room in Elizabeth, is the first of two opportunities for the public to voice their opinions on the budget. "We will continue to explore cost savings and reductions in the budget line by line," Freeholder Fiscal Comittee Chairman Al Mirabella said in a news release. "During this tough time, we're going to have to continue to make sacrifices as many of our residents are doing." The Freeholders will hold a second budget hearing from 4 to 7 p.m. on March 25. Following the March 18 budget hearing, there is a Freeholder agenda setting meeting …
40.662042
-74.216731
10 Elizabethtown Plz, Elizabeth, NJ
/articles/union-county-budget-hearings-begin-next-week
/locations/304663
Mayor Colleen Mahr said Tuesday she was insulted by claims that she had an agenda for promoting Earth Hour.
Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr read a proclamation Tuesday encouraging borough residents to dim their lights for an hour on March 27, but not without first addressing recent claims that the Environmental Commission had ulterior motives for presenting Earth Hour to the council. At last week's council meeting, Commissioner Kalpana Krishna Kumar urged the council to promote Earth Hour, which is an international effort sponsored by the World Wildlife Foundation to raise awareness about climate change. Republican Councilman Robert Manduca took issue at the time with the way the proclamation was potentially "politicizing science" and with how the language implied that climate change is man-made. He further expressed his concerns in a letter to Patch…
40.643014
-74.387826
Fanwood Borough Hall
75 N Martine Ave, Fanwood
/articles/fanwoods-earth-hour-debate-gets-heated
11132
/locations/304389
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Residents in the area are concerned about the visual impact such an installation would have.
Cell phone towers aren't new to Scotch Plains, but a recently proposed one is causing a bit of a stir among area residents and officials. T-Mobile has submitted an application to the township to build a 125-foot monopole on the edge of the historic Hillside Cemetery property. Unlike most of the current cell phone towers in town, which were built off existing structures, this would be a new facility from the ground up. T-Mobile says that it couldn't find a structure on the southwestern side of town that met its height requirements. "A new facility is the only viable option left for T-Mobile to provide reliable seamless coverage to end users in this area," a report to the township states. The Scotch Plains Board of Adjustments heard briefly …
40.605559
-74.395269
Hillside Cemetery
1401 Woodland Ave, Plainfield, NJ
/articles/cell-phone-tower-in-hillside-cemetery
12908
/locations/303524
Very helpful and relevant article... We are really hosed now... More Layoffs ? more ›