Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The following letter to the editor was submitted by Union County.
OPINION|2 days ago
As a lifelong resident of Union County, I look forward to the day when our 21 municipalities can plan for the future instead of being thwarted at every turn by the bureaucracy known as COAH. COAH – the Council on Affordable Housing - was created by state law in 1985. It's been a disaster ever since. COAH has blocked development of all kinds and run roughshod over vital community issues such as environmental quality and open space preservation. County government has an up-close close view of the problem because we administer state and federal grants that create new housing and restore blighted properties. That in turn creates new business opportunities and jobs throughout Union County. For the past 25 years COAH has slowed the process down …
Friday, March 5, 2010
Fanwood mom Deirdre Coolidge reflects on the impact each passing year of a child's life has on a parent.
It's that time of year again. My eldest child is preparing to celebrate a new year of life, and with that the birthday tornado is hitting, complete with morphing wish lists, alternating party destinations, changing guest lists (mostly ever expanding), and the generalized insanity that has become inherent to the modern day children's birthday party. We've explored the gamut of different party locations, but last week after many weeks of discussion I was ecstatic that we had settled on having a small party at home with a few of my son's closest friends. We are now in a new week, edging up very close to the actual occasion, and now another round of revisions. The celebration will be moved to an off-site venue, run over fifteen dollars a head…
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Fanwood's council discussed the issue at their most recent meeting.
OPINION|Thursday, March 4
Editor's Note: Fanwood Councilman Robert Manduca submitted this letter in response to a recent article on the council's discussion on Earth Hour, the global event that encourages people to collectively dim their lights for an hour. Fanwood is considering a resolution to promote the event. I love the job the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Patch does reporting on events in and around our town. However, I don't think your reporter has clearly conveyed the issues or substance of the conversation that took place at Tuesday's council meeting. For the record, the proposed resolution stated the town should fight climate change by turning off our lights for an hour. Really, our town's energy use for an hour is going to affect the weather? We do no service …
SP-F High Senior Mike Demmel shares his opinion on changes to the program.
Over the past few years, the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education has proposed several reforms to the Foreign Language program in the schools. Most notably they have moved to reduce the number of classes in the German program while also beginning the process of phasing in a new language, which could very well be Mandarin Chinese. I think the latter is a great idea. The addition of a new language that is completely different from the others already offered would be a great pick-me-up in a school environment that hasn't had any real curriculum additions in a long while. Nowadays we only hear about classes being cut rather than new ones being added. And, unfortunately, some must be cut in order to make way for this new generation of …
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Are we really paying more taxes than we used to?
Editor's Note: This opinion piece was written for the Maplewood Patch site, but we share it here today because it may be of interest to some readers. Here in New Jersey it has become conventional wisdom that we are grossly overtaxed—that tax cuts are the only cure for the slew of evils besetting us.After having watched my own property tax bills more than double since I moved to Maplewood in 1997, it was a sentiment I found hard to gainsay. I did wonder though, if my taxes are so high, why does there seem to be no money available to pay for anything?Our schools and municipalities, after all, have been retrenching and cutting back on programs almost continuously during my entire 13-year tenure in the state, despite vertiginous (some might …
Monday, March 1, 2010
Fanwood mom Deirdre Coolidge shares her thoughts on trying to improve children's nutrition.
The reality of feeding one's kids these days is that it's a tricky course navigating between shrinking grocery budgets, trying to provide healthy food options, and tiptoeing around the nutritional landmines that are typically part of the kid food world. While I am quite interested in good health and nutrition, am an avid food label reader, and was raised in a house that was devoid of things with crumply wrappers, soda, and "fake food" as my Mom would call it, my kids have tried some of the more nutritionally questionable items available to children today. Do I make those items the basis of their diet? Absolutely not. Do I feel I could always be doing a better job of improving their what's available to them? Most definitely. There are …
Sunday, February 28, 2010
A look back at the past week's news and events.
Undoubtedly, the big news this week was the winter snow storm that slammed our area once again. Schools shut down for the third day this year, giving local children another long weekend to have fun. We brought you full coverage of the storm and lots of other news this past week. Here's a look back. On Monday, we informed you how the SP-F school district is bracing for budget cuts. We also brought you a story about the end of the high school bowling team's season. On Tuesday, we told you about a Scotch Plains artist who was commissioned for a New Jersey Symphony Orchestra fundraiser. We also brought you coverage of the high school ice hockey's game against Johnson Regional and photos of the demolition of the Livingston-Wilbur property in …
Saturday, February 27, 2010
A view from a Patch intern's home in Fanwood.
OPINION|Saturday, February 27
Patch intern and Scotch Plains-Fanwood High freshman MaryEllen Cagnassola submitted this photo of her younger sister, Michelle, and friend, Sarah Gorman, in the snow near their home in Fanwood on Friday. She also shared her thoughts on the storm in these words: "Old Man Winter has waved his icy wand over Scotch Plains-Fanwood once again. The latest blast of snow resulted in a half day of school this Thursday, using the final snow-day of the year on Friday. These mounds of plowed snow reside on the street corners, towering at about four and a half feet. With any luck, this will be winter's last surprise and spring will soon emerge from hiding."
A reflection on our recent winter weather.
I'd just begun to see the ground of my backyard when Friday's storm swept over and covered it all with snow again. Just when you hope the worst is over, Mother Nature has a way of surprising you, I guess. As some of you know, I'm not a native New Jerseyan. I grew up in the South, where even the hint of snow closes down schools. Less than an inch of precipitation has its way of paralyzing the entire community. I'm pretty accustomed to winter weather by now, but I'm still not perfect at handling it. I'm wary of my ability to drive on slushy roads and my shoveling skills are severely lacking. It always takes at least an hour, I always end up sore and I always go inside swearing that I'll never do it again. Of course I had to roll my eyes when…
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The following is the opinion of Union County Freeholder Chairman Daniel Sullivan.
GOVERNMENT|Thursday, February 25
We all know that America has a problem with aging infrastructure. That's not only a national shame, it's an international embarrassment. America is the land of opportunity and we should be striding boldly into the future, not scraping our knees while other nations race ahead with high speed rail lines, great broadband service, and new sources of clean energy. Those of us who advocate for mass transit were pleased that after all too many years of neglect the situation is starting to turn around, and it's happening right here in New Jersey. Earlier this month senators Lautenberg and Menendez announced that President Obama's budget includes $200 million toward construction of a second Hudson River rail tunnel to Manhattan, on top of funds …
This forum is limited to 3500 characters. In an effort to live within that I used the term taint not as a pejorative but as short hand for data problems. NASA has been a collectors of what you refer to as raw data used in climate change research. By NASA’s figures there was a 1% increase in temperature over the past century with a 20% margin of error. Warmest year being 1998. Does that really … more ›