Plainfielders had the option of four meetings concerning items of interest to the general community last night. And a book signing at the Library.
When I first moved to town nearly a quarter century ago, such a thing was next to unthinkable -- life seemed to move at a much more leisurely pace, and townwatchers were able to go on successive evenings to City Council, School Board and various community issues meetings and cultural activities with nary a conflict.
No longer.
Interim Schools Superintendent Peter Carter drew the largest crowd last night, with his forum on the NJQSAC state evaluation of the Plainfield District. An amiable presenter, with a bagful of anecdotes, a healthy sense of humor and a lack of false modesty, Carter gave something of a pep talk before opening the floor to questions.
I like the way he drew others -- including Eric Jones, new president of the PEA, the teachers' union -- into helping answer questions. Other public figures could well take note of this tactic.
A reader asked that I take special note of the number of community -- meaning non-staff and non-parent -- attendees. I must say that of the 50 or so attendees,it did seem that the number seemed on the low side, perhaps ten or so -- if I count the bloggers, all three of whom were present.
I left before Mr. Carter got into the QSAC portion of the 90-minute meeting, but you can read reports from both Bernice (here) and the Courier's new Plainfield beat reporter Brandon Lausch (here).
Wanting to check out the other meetings, I drove by the East Front Street church -- see my correction notice on the church's name here -- to find the organizers gathering by their cars about 8:20 as they prepared to leave (fair enough -- they started at 6:30).
Going on to the Latin American Coalition's (LAC) workshop for daylaborers and contractors, I found their office and conference room bulging with about 20 attendees, some spilling into the street. I also found Star-Ledger reporter Alexi Friedman, who was attending both daylaborer events. He said he had learned some useful information at the earlier meeting. Since it was close to deadline, I gathered he would not be filing a story for today's papers. Look for something soon.
By the time I left the LAC meeting to check out the Planning Board session, it was nearly 9 PM. There were a modest number of cars in the lot, so I continued on to the Library, where I thought I might catch a glimpse of the crowd from the book signing hosted there last evening.
But I was late -- it was shortly after nine and the place was locked up tight.
Was it better years ago when there wasn't all this activity going on at the same time?
That was another Plainfield. This one's definitely on the move.
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