FOSH, VWB garage sales tomorrow

FOSH's Garage Sale is a major Plainfield event.

Looks like the weather gods will favor Plainfield's huge garage sale day tomorrow.

With over a hundred homes and thousands of attendees, the FOSH (Friends of Sleepy Hollow) garage sale is the grandaddy of them all. Cleverly marketed by FOSH over the years with lots of paid publicity, and with all the paperwork centralized to make it easier for homeowner participation, the event draws the largest crowd of visitors to Plainfield of any annual event except the July 4th Parade.

The success of the FOSH garage sale has led others to hitch their wagon to 'the star'.

The Van Wyck Brooks Historic District will host a district-wide garage sale, same hours as FOSH tomorrow as will a multi-family sale on Watchung Avenue in support of homeless animals.

Several nonprofits use the sales to raise funds for their worthy causes, and you may want to consider starting your day's shopping at one of the following --

• FOSH: The Plainfield Symphony will benefit from sales at 900 Charlotte Road
• FOSH: The Plainfield Humane Society benefits from sales at 1443 Evergreen Avenue
• VWB: The Van Wyck Brooks Historic District benefits from sales at 935 Madison Avenue
• Homeless Animal Lifeline: This nonprofit benefits from sales at 1326 Watchung Avenue

The sales run from 9 AM - 4 PM (2PM for the Homeless Animal Lifeline), and maps for the locations of the FOSH and VWB participants are available at each location.

[A special note on the VWB: This group has won a significant battle against expansion of the Abbott Nursing Home in its district, which leaves it facing legal bills once again, since the nursing home owners have appealed the decision. Proceeds will help greatly to preserve the district's character and integrity.]

You know what to do...

Shop! Like Plainfield depended on it!

And you can even find FREE stuff!

---

-- Dan Damon

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Council candidates McWilliams and Mapp host porch party Saturday

Plainfield landmark The Antique Castle is candidates' headquarters.

Democratic City Council candidates Annie McWilliams and Adrian Mapp will launch their campaign headquarters on Saturday with an open house and porch party from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

The public is invited to stop by to visit with the candidates and other supporters and get a peek at the campaign headquarters in the historic mansion that anchors the corner of Park Avenue and West 9th Street, just behind the Plainfield Public Library.

Light refreshments will be served and yard signs will be available for pickup.

Come out and meet the candidates who are bringing NEW IDEAS and NEW ENERGY to Plainfield politics.

These are definitely NOT your business-as-usual candidates!

See you tomorrow!

Annie McWilliams and Adrian Mapp,
definitely not business-as-usual candidates.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield mayor tacks into more trouble?

Replacement for Roberto Clemente Playground,
under construction earlier this year.

After Plainfielders learned yesterday that the Robinson-Briggs administration couldn't get a simple press release out ahead of time about the Statewide Double Dutch contest of May 3, today's Ledger brings us news -- via a press release -- that the Mayor will be cutting a ribbon at the refurbished Madison Avenue playground. 11:00 AM, TODAY. (See more here.)

Interesting coincidence that word was gotten out AHEAD OF TIME this time around.

In sailboating, they call it tacking -- veering from one direction to another to make way against a headwind.

The city's press release indicates renovations include, besides recreational equipment, landscaping and new sidewalks and curbs, AN EXPANDED PARKING LOT.

The playgournd project was originally promised by the McWilliams administration as part of an agreement with the state over the Park-Madison redevelopment project, in which the former 'Roberto Clemente Playground' was lost to the new County parking deck.

As part of an agreement (sealed by a resolution of the City Council) between the City and the State, a playground area was to be constructed on the block bounded by Madison and Central Avenues to replace the lost one -- AND PARKING THERE WAS TO BE REDUCED TO HELP OFFSET THE LOSS OF OPEN SPACE by the Park-Madison County office building project.

The City set aside parking for a projected condo project,
which is as yet unrealized.

So, now we have the City touting the EXPANSION OF PARKING, which would probably be in violation of the agreement the City signed with the State and the ROSI, or state inventory of open space in the community.

Not to mention that -- in an increasingly Hispanic neighborhood -- all mention of Hispanic sports hero Roberto Clemente, who had been honored by the earlier playground, is dropped. Why is that?

Veering from one direction to another hardly seems to be moving the Robinson-Briggs administration forward.

Is it tacking, or perhaps 'tackying'?

---

• Ledger: "Reopening set for playground"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield mayor stumbles in Double Dutch

Plainfielders may be momentarily amused to read in today's Courier (print edition only, sorry!) that Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs hosted the Statewide Double Dutch contest. Nearly two weeks ago!

The amusement may fade quickly when they learn that her public relations staff -- for which the annual tab is what? $200,000 now? -- managed to get neither an advance story nor a picture story in Plainfield's paper-of-record.

How can that be, you ask? Good question.

Thirty-three teams participated in the event, which took place on May 3 -- nearly two weeks ago. According to the Courier, the 16 teams given first-place honors will go on to the world finals in North Carolina.

Personally, I would have found a picture story compelling. I'm sure the parents and team members who participated would have been thrilled.

Even Mayor Robinson-Briggs might have been thrilled for the photo-op.

Did it take THAT long for her crack staff to write up the event? If so, who dropped the ball?

Or, metaphorically more appropriately, who got tangled in the ropes?

---

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield Councilor Davis' DWI trial postponed -- again [updated].

Ward 3 Councilor Don Davis.

[NOTE: This post updated after a conversation with Don Davis. See end of story.]

Three weeks to the day before Ward 3 voters are set to decide whether he should get another four years as Councilor, Don Davis' potentially embarrassing DWI trial was postponed yet again. A conviction no doubt would have been influential in determining the outcome of his candidacy. Davis is being challenged by former City Councilor and Union Country Freeholder Adrian Mapp.

The charges stem from an incident on the evening of March 28, 2007.

Davis has retained an attorney from the firm of Wilentz, Spitzer -- one of New Jersey's most politically juiced AND most expensive law firms. That fact alone has raised speculation that Davis' bills are being covered by other political players who may have an interest in seeing the Ward 3 seat held by a member of the Democratic party organization controlled by Assemblyman Jerry Green.

Proving the adage that 'you get what you pay for', one of the counts against Davis -- refusing a Breathalyzer test -- was dropped by Scotch Plains municipal court judge Antonio Inacio on March 12.

At issue were allegations that the defense did not receive all the information requested of the Plainfield Police. Plainfield's then-police chief, Edward Santiago, insisted that everything requested had been faxed to the Scotch Plains prosecutor. The matter has never been publicly settled.

As the Courier reports in today's edition (see here), no reason was ascertainable for the postponement as the prosecutor claimed not to know the reason and Davis' defense did not respond to a request for an explanation.

The trial, if it actually takes place, is scheduled for June 18, two weeks and one day after the fateful day of judgment by the voters.

UPDATE: 12:50 PM -- Just got off the phone from a long conversation with Councilor Don Davis, who advised that he, in fact, is paying his legal bills himself. I'm happy to pass that along.

---

• Courier: "Councilman's drunken driving case postponed to late June"

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield tree politics: Rotten to the core?

A large 'city' tree fell on Kensington Avenue last week.





Dead 'city' tree at Watchung and Carleton Avenues.

Are Plainfield's tree politics rotten to the core?

First, you are probably asking 'tree politics'?

With the recent fall of a huge street tree on Kensington Avenue across the roadway, taking down lines and leaving the neighborhood without power, it became a matter deserving attention.

And then, when I was taking pictures of the signs made by the owner of 1101 Watchung Avenue in support of Muhlenberg, I noticed a dead street tree leaning perilously into the roadway.

As we all know, nothing in Plainfield is ever as simple as it first seems.

The launch of Plainfield's participation in the state's 'Ten City Tree Program' a few years ago was greeted warmly by the community as well as tree enthusiasts.

Saplings were gotten and planted in various locations around town as street repairs were done, and curbs and street trees were replaced.

Ceremonies were held at City Hall as specimen trees were planted.

Youngsters gathered at a city-owned lot in the First Ward which was to become the city's own tree 'nursery'.

And then came the harder part.

One of the goals of the state program is that each community should assess their street trees (also called 'city' trees, because they are planted between the sidewalk and the roadway on property that is considered 'public' and the responsibility for these trees' upkeep belongs to the city) and prepare an inventory for maintenance and replacement by identifying those that are dead, those that are dying, those in need of trimming and other attention, and those that are fine.

And this is where the wicket is sticky.

Closeup of dead street tree at Watchung and Carleton.

Seems the Administration of Mayor Robinson-Briggs does not want to do an inventory. Because, the argument goes, this would make the City liable if a dead tree fell on someone or something before the City got it attended to.

Never mind that, by the state's reasoning, preparing the inventory and adopting a plan of action and beginning to execute it would be prima facie evidence of the City's good intent.

So here we are. With perhaps hundreds (who knows?) of dead trees lining both sides of Plainfield's 120 miles of roadway, and many more in need of attention.

What is to be done?

Well, if the Administration doesn't feel the need to get going, it doesn't mean residents can't pitch in.

Documenting tree conditions with photographs and sending copies of same along with a REGISTERED letter detailing the location, date and condition of the tree(s) in question puts the Administration legally on notice, I am told.

Then, if the Administration does NOTHING, they will indeed be liable.

Is there a better way to get something going?

---

-- Dan Damon

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Did you get this in the mail?

My inbox and the 'comments' section on Plainfield Today are flooded constantly with messages from people who are unhappy with the direction -- or should I say LACK of direction -- in which Plainfield appears to be going.

People who are frustrated over the many little idiocies of this Administration and its failure to mount any effective communications about the City or what is going on in it.

People who feel that the majority of the Council has totally abandoned its role of being a critical partner of the Administration and has become instead a tame pussycat, a rubberstamp, and more than willing to cede Plainfield's best interests to those who have paid and now want to play -- at our expense.

Thousands of Plainfielders no doubt received the Mother's Day greeting (pictured above) from Democratic City Council candidates Annie McWilliams and Adrian Mapp.

And that mailing presents you with an opportunity to do something about the things that have frustrated you about this Administration.

The mailing signifies the public launch of their campaigns.

As I have noted before, I am supporting them and have even taken on the chore of being Annie's treasurer. (I say 'chore' advisedly, as I am not a natural-born bookkeeper.)

Now is the time to rally friends and neighbors to support the candidacies of Annie and Adrian -- who will bring NEW IDEAS, NEW ENERGY and a NEW SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY TO YOU THE VOTERS when they are elected to the City Council.

I am happy to support them and believe they can do more to help RECOVER PLAINFIELD'S MOMENTUM AND PRIDE than all the posts I can ever write or all the comments you, dear readers, can ever make.

Let's put our shoulders to the wheel for REAL CHANGE!

For the good of Plainfield.

Would you put up a yard sign? Can you volunteer to make calls or walk with the candidates? Is money just ready to leap from your checkbook?

Drop me an email (just click HERE) and I will forward it to the campaign crew.

You'll be happy you did.

And so will Plainfield.

---

-- Dan Damon

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A Muhlenberg Mother's Day

While Plainfielders of all sorts celebrated Mother's Day with their moms, wives and families, I thought of how special yesterday was for one Muhlenberg employee, the grandmother of my godson.

It was the last Mother's Day she will ever spend as an employee of Muhlenberg, which she has faithfully served for many years as an unskilled hourly employee.

She does not drive and relies on public transportation to go everywhere she needs to. She has no real portable skillset and will find it very difficult to make even the modest income she does at Muhlenberg. She is disadvantaged by being too old to appeal to potential employers and too young to qualify for Social Security. She is an important source of income for her extended family, some of whom -- including my godson -- live with her. She worries about how she will make ends meet -- food, rent, and insurance.

She is a modest person with a strong religious faith and she does not complain, but her situation will be difficult if not untenable once the hospital closes.

And she is just one of how many more that we are unaware of?

What will become of them?

---

-- Dan Damon

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Abbott School audits: Plainfield skates away

Plainfielders will be interested in a big story the Ledger ran yesterday about financial audits of the Abbott District schools. (I held off 'til today, since I KNEW everyone was spending quality time with moms on Mother's Day...right?)

The audits covered the 2004 - 2006 school years, meaning the data is already from TWO TO FOUR YEARS OLD.

The Ledger's subhead points to a finding that 29% of expenditures -- as judged by the auditors -- were 'not reasonable'.

Digging into the story, we do find some REAL problems -- a couple of them, such as Pleasantville and Asbury Park involving probable criminal activity. Irvington and East Orange had large sums expended which were not covered by appropriate documentation or seemed excessive.

I do think it is fair to question some of the expenditures, even though some school administrators complained that the auditors didn't understand the 'school environment'. One question the story does NOT address is whether the Abbott districts are being held to a different standard from non-Abbott schools. That, presumably, would only be answered by a complete audit of ALL the school districts in the state -- not very likely, by my lights, and way too expensive to boot.

The only citation of Plainfield in the story concerns spending $504 for 144 students to spend time at a skating rink. The story cites it as a 'private rental'. But if you do the math, it comes down to $2.50 per person. What's unreasonable about that? What's unreasonable about a field trip to a skating rink?

I find the district's explanation somewhat harder to swallow, that it was --

a "meaningful and consistent learning experience," citing New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for mathematics 4.1: "Students will have to judge speed, radius of the ring," explained the district."

Did the students turn in papers, or was there a quiz on the math?

---

• Ledger: "Audits reveal waste in Abbott spending"

-- Dan Damon

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Summer Youth Program Directory: Your Info Being Sought

Youngsters enjoy spray pool at Cedar Brook Park.

Plainfield youngsters will get an extra boost for summer programs if Tiffany Wilson of the Union County Prosecutor's Office and her friends have their way.

Tiffany and a crew from other Plainfield service agencies are putting together a Directory of Summer Programs for Youth.

To participate, any organization offering a summer program for young people -- from one-day activities to two-week Bible camps to full-length summer programs -- is invited to help build the Directory that agency personnel can use to make referrals to the programs.

Each program is asked to supply fifty (50) copies of their summer program flyer/brochure and any application form needed. These items should be 3-hole punched and can be dropped off with Stacey Reh at the YMCA, 518 Watchung Avenue, by Friday, May 16th.

For further information, contact Tiffany Wilson at (908) 226-0124 or 791-7130 or by email to twilson@ucnj.org.

As Tiffany says, this is truly a win-win for all concerned.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Gannett hunkers down with Courier News 'buyouts'

Plainfielders won't read it in today's Courier or Ledger, but Gannett, the Courier's parent company, yesterday made a buyout offer to 160 employees at its newpapers statewide. (Read the AP story here.)

As well as the Courier News, other papers affected are the Home News Tribune, the Asbury Park Press and the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill.

Like other newspaper chains, Gannett has suffered declining ad sales and is trying to learn how to make its Internet presence generate more income.

I had reported earlier on rumors that the Courier and the Home News would merge and give up their print editions. Turned out not exactly so: they DID merge their websites, which went live couple of weeks ago, but still have separate print editions. Though if you check them carefully, a great deal of the material is recycled from one to another, and there is an awful lot of AP filler where once stories were actually written by reporters on the ground.

What suffers most here is local news. Notwithstanding that the administration of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs seems constitutionally incapable of getting out even ONE press release a week, there is a dearth of information about Plainfield and Plainfield activities. Part of this, of course, is that volunteer-driven local organizations often do not think about publicizing their activities until the very last minute (this is an old, old, old problem).

What worries me about the buyout is that it is aimed at the more senior -- and experienced -- employees (who must have 15 years in to be eligible) and will deprive the Courier and the others of that institutional memory which guarantees that the papers are actually able to keep their fingers on the real pulse of the communities they cover.

Rough times all the way around.

---

Newsday: "Gannett offers buyouts to 160 NJ workers"

-- Dan Damon

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Green, McGee: Hopes of Muhlenberg rescue 'grossly misrepresented'

Solaris CEO John McGee has moved to tamp down hopes of a rescue of Plainfield's Muhlenberg hospital through the good offices of the Somerset Medical Center.

In an email that was broadcast on Wednesday, McGee said that he had spoken with both Assemblyman Green and Somerset MC's CEO Ken Bateman and that both had assured him the Courier story (see here) on Bateman's interest in helping was 'grossly misrepresented'.

McGee further cited a retraction issued by Bateman over the article --

Somerset Medical Center has made no announcement to purchase Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center. At the request of State Assemblyman Jerry Green, the center agreed to talk with interested parties to explore partnerships. The headline in Saturday’s Courier News was unclear on this.

The message from James Street appears clear -- All hope abandon ye who enter here.

---

-- Dan Damon

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The Mayor and the Muhlenberg Mess

Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs asked the state at Tuesday's hearing to keep Muhlenberg open.

It was a great performance, but it made me wonder why she was so late to the party.

The truth appears to be that she never took her responsibilities toward Muhlenberg seriously until the specter of shutting the hospital came to haunt her.

Why do I say that?

Plainfield's mayor becomes an ex-officio member of the Muhlenberg board upon being sworn into office. Except for the 2007 Annual Meeting, I am told Mayor Robinson-Briggs has not attended a single board meeting.

This means that the Mayor did not get the benefit of learning first-hand about the deteriorating situation regarding charity care reimbursement. It also means she did not make an effort to find out what the City could do to be proactive about the increasingly dire situation. Finally, it means she was absent when there was a possibility of using the skills of persuasion to get Solaris to consider other options than the road taken.

And this is the person Assemblyman Jerry Green demanded should replace the current Muhlenberg board president?

Was Mayor Robinson-Briggs derelict in her duties toward the residents -- and voters -- of Plainfield?

You tell me.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Health Center medical director terminated

Longtime Neighborhood Health Services Corporation (formerly Plainfield Health Center) medical director Susan Walsh, MD, has been abruptly let go, I learned at the Muhlenberg hearing at PHS on Tuesday evening.

Sources confirm that Walsh was -- literally -- given her walking papers recently. Hand-delivered by a senior staff member, her last day will be June 30.

(And no, I did not learn any of this from Dr. Walsh, who I am told was barred from speaking of the matter until after the Center's impending annual Gala -- guess they didn't want to dampen the festive atmosphere.)

Given all the turmoil surrounding the proposed closure of Muhlenberg by its parent, Solaris Health System, one has to question the wisdom of shedding the Center's medical director when sensitive negotiations must be under way with how to adjust to the new arrangements necessary for care of the Health Center's patients.

Top of the list is likely to be what to do with the annual 700+ births among Health Center clientele.

We were told at the Muhlenberg hearing that JFK will be turning away 90% of these patients. Where will they go? How will it be handled? Who is in charge?

The move comes behind persistent rumors that the Neighborhood Health Services Corporation is in dire financial straits.

The departure of the highly-respected medical director cannot bode well for the willingness of the remaining medical staff to stay on board when the Center's future seems so uncertain to many.

Thinking to check the nonprofit's 990s (the annual filing required by the IRS), I was surprised to find that the last filing was for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2006 -- and that the filing was 10 months late, not received by the IRS until 4/2/2007.

Not a very reassuring track record, but it probably explains why FY2007, which ended last June 30, is not available online.

Who will be the Center's new medical director? Or will it try to function without one?

One more issue Plainfielders do NOT need.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Muhlenberg Kabuki

Kabuki was on my mind as the state's Health Advisory Commission conducted its public hearing into closing Plainfield's 131-year old Muhlenberg hospital at the PHS auditorium Tuesday evening. (For the Courier and Ledger reportage, see links at the end of this post.)

The audience which packed the room -- more than 1,000 attendees, I'm estimating -- were impassioned, angry, defiant, persuasive and occasionally funny (one Mr. Smith spelt his name ever-so-slowly for the court stenographer: S. M. I. T. H.) in their 3-minute presentations, which were strictly limited by the hearing's rulemeisters.

The hearing panel -- short of a quorum, as pointed out by BOE member Martin C.O.X. -- sat mostly stone-faced throughout the proceedings. And that is what first put me in mind of kabuki.

Kabuki is the highly stylized form of Japanese theater in which actors are made up in masks representing their characters, playing out scripts that are centuries old in a set number of acts and which often contain battle scenes such as we witnessed last evening. In one famous play, the death of the main character causes calamities to befall the capital city.

So, Plainfield witnessed its own Kabuki last evening --

• Plainfield elected officials, who never paid attention to the developing crisis until it was too late, put on their crocodile tears and thunderously declaimed their 'opposition' to the closing;
• others -- particularly Mayor Allen of North Plainfield and Council President Bencivenga of South Plainfield -- were compelling in both their passion and their citation of facts;
• the audience, crying out against injustice and cruel fate; and
• the state panel, standing in for the traditional Lord High Executioner.

All in all, a complete drama, though in American -- not Japanese -- guise.

Some astonishing things were expressed and learned from last evening's speakers, among them --

• there are 800 children with severe asthma in the Plainfield area, who will face life-threatening delays in getting hospital attention during an attack;
• 90% of pregnant clients of Neighborhood Health Services (formerly PHC) will not be allowed to deliver at JFK;
• minutes crucial to the survival of heart attack and stroke victims will be lost in being transported to another hospital and may lead to the death or permanent impairment of the victims.

Among the hundreds of attendees I recognized, there were a good number of off-duty cops, firefighters and other city workers -- many of them holding the ubiquitous POP 'Save Muhlenberg' placards.

Assemblyman Jerry Green -- who created a ruckus at Monday's City Council meeting by shouting within earshot of all at Councilor Cory Storch outside the Council chamber's (slightly ajar) door: "I've got things under control!" -- was present, as well as Councilor Storch, who was speaking out as a health care professional.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs lugged her four binders of letters of support to the podium when her turn came to speak, rather like a pathetic show-and-tell. Where was she at the beginning of her term, when she could have made a difference? (And then I had to hear her almost literally swipe my laundry list of issues and suggestions in her remarks -- so now I'm her speech writer, too?). She too, disingenuously, thundered out against the closing.

I expect the hearing panel will do what is sought of them and soon enough issue the much-desired execution order.

And so the play will end.

And then the calamities will begin.

---

Read the media reports here--

• Courier: "1,200 attend hearing to keep Muhlenberg open"
• Ledger: "Hearing on closing of hospital is packed"

-- Dan Damon

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Muhlenberg closing impacts County's emergency preparedness

Plainfielders have understandably been so preoccupied with what Muhlenberg's impending closure means to THEM and the impact the dispersal of its patient population will have on surrounding hospitals that they may have overlooked the problems the closure presents for Union County.

Pat Quatrocchi, of the Countywatchers blog has taken a look at the role the Freeholders have played in Solaris' closure plans and the impact closing Muhlenberg will have on Union County's emergency preparedness. (Read more here.)

In a word, you better pray we never have a large-scale disaster or terrorist attack impacting Plainfield; we can now basically kiss our butts goodbye.

Don't forget to thank all the players.

---

Countywatchers: "How will hospital closing affect Union County preparedness?"

-- Dan Damon

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Assembly huffs and puffs over hospital woes

What are Plainfielders to make of an Assembly committee's huffing and puffing over hospitals' ills yesterday?

As far as Muhlenberg is concerned, not much I'm afraid.

The proposed bills would --

• Require training of hospital board trustees;
• Require hospitals to hold at least one annual public meeting to discuss community concerns;
• Prohibit charging uninsured patients more than 15% of the Medicare rate.

The second item -- on annual meetings -- is sponsored by Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green.

You will look in vain for anything that will help save Muhlenberg.

Where were these people when the troubles began?

---

• "Lawmakers look at ways to save hospitals" -- Courier | Ledger |

-- Dan Damon

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Muhlenberg hearing tomorrow is crucial

The state's hearing on Solaris' application to close Plainfield's Muhlenberg hospital is tomorrow -- Tuesday -- evening, 6 PM to 8 PM at Plainfield High School. It is important to have a good turnout, in spite of the fact (as olddoc points out here) that the hearing is PURPOSELY scheduled for normal peoples' dinner hour. Parking is available in both the Stelle and Kenyon Avenue parking lots as well as on the street.

See Dottie Gutenkauf's update and information on registering to speak (or submit written comments) here: "Muhlenberg update from Dottie Gutenkauf".

One good idea that has been put forward by the 'Buy Muhlenberg' group is that Muhlenberg's license be kept active, in reserve for a possible sale.

Meanwhile, the word is that Solaris has refused to schedule ANY activities for Muhlenberg after June 15, and that in-patients will be relocated to other facilities as of that date.

Solaris is doing everything in its power to ensure that a rescue does NOT take place.

---

-- Dan Damon

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AOL users of Plainfield, you have nothing to lose but your misery

Emailing to hundreds of AOL users every day, there used to be relatively few problems with delivery of the CLIPS emails.

Occasionally, one would bounce back because the user's mailbox was full.

But in recent months, AOL has more and more frequently been taken over by its evil email twin.

In the past week or two, I have had to resend AOL emails to many readers a second time, which seemed to work OK.

Friday, however, we entered a brave new AOL world -- nearly one third of all AOL readers' emails bounced. Upon resending them (chore!), they bounced again.

Then I started to check out the messages given by AOL as an explanation for the bounce. All said either 'Mailbox not found' or 'Null' (meaning AOL it could not interpret the transmission).

Frustrating for me, and maybe for you -- but of course you won't even realize it was sent and bounced.

Worse for you has to be the worry that OTHER AND MORE IMPORTANT EMAILS TO YOUR AOL ACCOUNT ARE BEING REJECTED BY AOL.

What to do?

Some have added webmail at sites like Yahoo!, Google or Hotmail.

Another hassle, but it might serve you better if AOL is not.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Muhlenberg much in the news today

Local businesses will be heavily impacted by job losses.

With the clock ticking down on Solaris' plan to close Plainfield's Muhlenberg hospital, the media are busy covering steps in the process -- the state's public hearing is next -- as well as the views of those affected by the closure and other observers.

In Sunday's Courier you can find --

• Public Hearing: "State hearing at PHS set for Tuesday"
• State Board: "State rarely rejects hospital applications to close"
• Editorial, CN: "Community needs help from Solaris"
• OpEd: "Need to better diagnose what's killing hospitals" -- By Edison resident Louise Riscalla.

Much tsouris for Plainfield and the surrounding communities. Much heartburn for Assemblyman Green as he faces the consequences of not fighting early enough, hard enough.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Sign Justice for Crescent Area Neighbors

Sign justice for C.A.N.

Plainfield's Crescent area residents have noticed the elected officials' sign aggrandizement that has reached their neighborhood. And they are not happy about it.

While Mayors and Councils have always been mentioned on signs for city construction projects, some serious sign aggrandizement has been going on the last couple of years.

When ground was broken on the new Senior Center complex, pols were prominently mentioned, but did not overwhelm the rendering of the project -- which was the point of the sign, after all. And Mayor Robinson-Briggs got equal type size with UCIA chairman Charlotte DeFilippo, as you can see below.

Then there are the new signs at the city's parks and playgrounds, where Mayor Robinson-Briggs' name appears, if somewhat more discreetly than the name of the park or playground. The example from Milt Campbell field gives you an idea.

I won't touch on how unusual it is for the Mayor's name to appear on a PERMANENT sign, except to point out that this is AN ENTIRELY NEW WRINKLE, reminiscent of ideas of personal importance shared by everyone from the ancient Pharaohs to such modern figures as Stalin and Saddam.

But then there was the demolition in the 500-block of South Avenue, funded by a state bond issue. The Mayor's name took a sudden leap in significance, as you can see below. And remains framing the vacant (are there toxic substances like asbestos in that pile of dirt?) to this day.

Recently, things reached a new height -- literally -- with the plunking of the sign in the middle of the Park Avenue peninsula.

You should understand the project is the brainchild of the Crescent Avenue Neighbors and, in particular, of Maria Pellum. They are righteously indignant about having been left out of any credit for the project.

Oh, and did I mention that they are VOTERS?

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-- Dan Damon

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Green urges Somerset MC to save Muhlenberg

Will Somerset save Muhlenberg?

With his political fortunes skidding into the ditch, Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green is making last-minute moves designed to give the appearance of resisting the closure of Muhlenberg RMC by Solaris Health System.

In a page-one story in today's Courier, Somerset MC CEO Ken Bateman reveals that Green had approached him about partnering with 'an investor organization' to keep Muhlenberg open as an acute-care facility. (See more here.)

Is this a real change of heart on Green's part or just a smokescreen to cover his failure to fight for keeping Muhlenberg open?

Several of the points in the Bateman story seem to indicate that opponents of the closing have scored some points --

1. Number one, just even talking about NOT closing Muhlenberg down -- the topic has been pooh-poohed by Green since his infamous task force announcement.
   
   
2. Keeping Muhlenberg's license active -- this idea comes out of the 'Save Muhlenberg' campaign.
   
   
3. Forcing Solaris to provide the most recent annual financial statement to the city.

This last point is probably a bit of smoke-and-mirrors as it is conditioned on legislation Green proposes to introduce in the Legislature. His batting average with legislative initiatives of this sort is, shall we say, not exactly Major League.

At last Wednesday's meeting with elected officials arranged by Olive Lynch of the 'Buy Muhlenberg' campaign -- to which Assemblyman Green and Mayor Robinson-Briggs were invited, but which they did not attend -- participants learned some of the OTHER REASONS that area hospitals might not be exactly thrilled with Muhlenberg's closure.

The impact the closing of Union Hospital has had on Overlook Hospital in Summit is most illuminating for what lays in store for JFK and Somerset, as well as Overlook, in the light of a Muhlenberg closing.

Overlook, attendees were told, is desperately struggling to cope with the additional demands for regular beds, intensive care and ER beds to accommodate those spilling in from the Union Hospital closing. They are additionally being faced with a deluge of pediatric cases overflowing from Newark. All of this is stressing staff and physical facilities. No one has even measured the negative impact of increased -- and unremitted -- charity care.

And all this is even before the first patient from Muhlenberg shows up.

I am told by people in the know that Solaris is quaking in its boots and hoping against hope that the vast bulk of the Muhlenberg patient load will NOT END UP ON ITS DOORSTEP. Good luck, folks!

In addition, Clem Fiorentino, writing in today's Courier story, outlines services Solaris (JFK) is NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO PROVIDE --

• Cover 600 annual BIRTHS to mostly Neighborhood Health Service Center (PHC) clients;
  
  
• In-patient MENTAL HEALTH services (not a high profit margin here);
  
  
• Sixteen VOLUNTARY BEDS;
  
  
• Intensive PEDIATRIC OUT-PATIENT SERVICES.

Kind of reminds me of the complaints by Muhlenberg supporters that JFK has always been interested mostly in skimming the cream.

Will all this last-minute legerdemain pull the rabbit out of the hat?

Those who think so should go out and rent the movie 'The Illusionist'.

For which the tagline is 'Nothing is what it seems'.

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Courier: "Somerville MC might look at partnership to save Muhlenberg"

-- Dan Damon

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Green, Robinson-Briggs failed to take up earlier option to save Muhlenberg

May Day! May Day! May Day!

As the clock runs down on closing Plainfield's Muhlenberg hospital, activity by supporters is bringing to light previously unknown opportunities for local elected officials to save the hospital. Opportunities it appears they ignored.

At an informational meeting for elected officials of neighboring communities comprising Muhlenberg's primary market area, Council members from Scotch Plains, Westfield and North Plainfield peppered the meeting's moderator, Olive Lynch, with questions about the timing of the proposed closing, the health and economic impacts of the closure, and about the idea of establishing a 'hospital authority' by a number of the towns to take over and continue Muhlenberg's operations.

Attendees were given an eye-opening presentation on Solaris' moves over the years of profitable operations out of Muhlenberg to JFK -- radiology, pathology, and ob-gyn. Plans to move cardiac rehab to JFK were stymied by massive opposition from Muhlenberg's cardiac rehab user community. In addition, it was reported Solaris has sold off its dialysis unit (the property subdivision was previously reported here) and, most recently, its cardiac catheterization lab.

As one participant said, "Basically, what we have here is a non-profit entity behaving like a corporate raider."

Lynch, founder of the 'Buy Muhlenberg' effort, introduced the idea of forming a 'hospital authority' in the way that Hoboken was able to do to save its St. Mary's Hospital. She reported on conversations with Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Hudson) on how legislation was crafted that saved St. Mary's.

In today's Courier, a front-page story by Clem Fiorentino on last night's meeting (I couldn't find it online) quotes Quigley as saying there are differences and similarities between Plainfield and Hoboken, the chief of which is that the religious order that operated St. Mary's was willing to grant time for the proposal to be crafted and legislation passed.

Solaris clearly will NOT contemplate such a delay in its closure plans.

But more revealing is that Quigley says she met several months ago with Assemblyman Jerry Green, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, Scotch Plains Mayor Marty Marks and Solaris CEO John McGee, and discussed the possibility of a 'municipal consortium' taking over Muhlenberg.

While McGee's attempt to weasel out of acknowledging the substance of the meeting is transparent, the REAL NEWS here is that I cannot recall Assemblyman Green or Mayor Robinson-Briggs bringing this option before the City Council or the community in a timely fashion.

Note that SEVERAL MONTHS WOULD HAVE MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD, if the Assemblyman and the Mayor were REALLY interested in saving Muhlenberg.

Instead, Assemblyman Green was busily enabling Solaris' plan for the closure by assembling his task force to execute same. (The Courier's March 7 story is archived here.)

You will search in vain through Mayor Robinson-Briggs' lengthy March 6, 2008 OpEd in the Courier (in which she took time to start by blasting the Courier for not honoring her as the 'queen bee' in all things Plainfield) to find any mention of setting up a consortium to rescue the hospital. (Her Honor's 'Status Dire But Hopeful' piece is archived here.)

Unless Assemblyman Green and Mayor Robinson-Briggs are willing to publicly accuse Assemblywoman Quigley of being a liar, they need to 'fess up and explain why they did not take up this opportunity to save Muhlenberg while there was still time.

Otherwise, if Muhlenberg closes because of their chicanery, they will be forever known as 'Jerry and Sharon, the couple who closed Muhlenberg'.

Perfect together.

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-- Dan Damon

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