Barclays Golf Tournament will disrupt local traffic until Aug. 31

The Plainfield Country Club is Ground Zero for the next week
owing to the Barclays Tournament.

 

Time for some traffic problems in Plainfield?

You betcha! But it will have nothing to do with Gov. Chris Christie or his minions.

Instead, it will be golf -- namely the Barclays Tournament which is slated to begin at the Plainfield Country Club on Monday and run through the following Monday, August 31.

Event planners are expecting 15-25,000 visitors per day. Ticketed attendees will park at a distance in designated parking areas and be shuttled to the Woodland Avenue club. (During the 2011 event, Muhlenberg lots were used as a parking location; I haven't got details for this year.)

But those who drive through that general area will want to make other plans. Note the following 6 AM -10 PM restrictions --

• WOODLAND AVENUE will be closed southbound between Sprague Avenue and Oak Tree Road;
  
  
• MAPLE AVENUE will be closed between Woodland and Park Avenues;
  
  
• OLD RARITAN ROAD will be closed from Woodland to Inman Avenue.

Besides these closures, you can expect extra traffic and long lines on Park Avenue, Inman Avenue and Raritan Road.

The STOP sign at Raritan Road and Inman Avenue will be a nightmare.

If you are accustomed to using any of these roads frequently, make alternate plans.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Signs of the Times: Mystery Road Activity

The already "No Parking" side of the street gets a
reinforcing sign.

 

The above sign warning of "No Parking" appeared on trees along along Plainfield's West Seventh Street Thursday afternoon, posted by the Union County Police (West 7th is a county road).

Odd thing is the signs were posted on the south side of the street, which is already a "No Parking" zone between Grant Avenue and Irving Place. But no signs were placed on the other side of the street, where residents of a large apartment complex regularly park on the street.

What was the County going to do with only one side of the street

We'll probably never know. Friday came and went with no activity --I am guessing County crews were busy with cleaning up in the East End and Scotch Plains from Thursday's flash flood.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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South Avenue project wins final site plan approval

Representatives of South Avenue developer (facing camera) answer questions
Thursday. Board members (backs to camera, L to R)
are Siddeeq El-Amin, Ken Robertson and Sean McKenna.

Despite Olddoc's challenge to dissenting Plainfield City Council members to come out and ask their questions at Thursday's Planning Board meeting, the only Councilor present was Cory Storch, who sits on the Planning Board.

The room was full and several residents asked questions about the project. As always, there were worries about the sufficiency of parking. But also on the list were concerns about ADA-compliant apartments and the sewer hookups.

Planning Board chair Ron Scott Bey answered them one by one. Tenants would have a designated number of parking spaces stipulated in their rental contract; offsite (NOT on-street) accommodations for excess vehicles would be the tenant's responsibility.

Representatives from JMF, the developers, reassured resident Nancy Piwowar that ADA conditions would be met, and further that all units were capable of being converted to accessible units.

The chair noted that the investigation into the sewer hookup question was ongoing, and that the matter would come before the Planning Board once an agreement was reached. Everyone agrees the sewer system will be in need of upgrading to meet the extra burden. The responsibility for that will fall on the developers once costs are worked out.

With few questions from Planning Board members, a roll call vote of the five members present who were eligible to vote on the proposal (out of 7, two were not present), the final site plan approval was unanimous.

Now, the ball is back in the Council's court.

Saying they were "left out of the loop" in the deelopment of the PILOT agreement, the Council blocked the project at last Monday's business meeting.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for the developer to close on the purchase of the eleven properties to assemble the site, and the financing for the project. (It should be noted this is the first large project in my memory where the developer is NOT seeing state subsidies.)

I smiled when the chairperson said of the parking issue, "Maybe they [the tenants] will have to do like they do in Montclair or other places and rent a garage space."

Being compared positively to Montclair?

It's been a long time since that has happened. Ah, progress!

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Concertgoers undaunted; East Front Street flooded

Overcast skies and a damp setting did not daunt
Thursday concertgoers.

Lawn signs throughout the neighborhood helped
drive attendance.

Undaunted by glowering skies, about a hundred Plainfield concert devotees turned out for the free summer concert at Plainwood Square Park Wednesday evening. (Producer Pat Fields had told me about 4:00 PM the decision was a "go", though it appears the County website got its wires crossed.)

Meanwhile, just blocks away, East Front Street, Terrill Road and the adjacent area of Scotch Plains and Route 22 were swamped by flash flooding.

Realtor and Plainfield booster Robert K. Graham (known as "Mr. Plainfield") did the honors as emcee for the concert, including navigating a tie between the two Plainfield Idol contestants when the audience applause failed (twice) to budge beyond loving both performances.

David Rutherford was also at the concert and posted his pix online (see here).

Meanwhile, using North Avenue as a shortcut to get to the concert, I had been struck by the amount of traffic feeding in from all the cross streets and culminating in a gigantic backup at the Leland Avenue stop sign near the Netherwood Post Office.

It became obvious as I left the concert and decided to head north to Front Street for a look-see. East Front Street was flooded from Leland Avenue well toward Berckman Street.

TAPinto Plainfield, as well as the Ledger and the Courier, had photographers out taking pictures of the flooding -- of which the most dramatic are of Plainfield DPW workers (is that John Louise?) rescuing a Reeve Terravce woman in the bucket of a John Deere front-end loader (see below).

John Louise and crew rescue a woman
on Reeve Terrace.
(Image from Star-Ledger, see here.)

 

See the photographic coverage here --

• TAP: "Flash flood warning issued" -- with Tweeted pix.
• Ledger --
• "Plainfield swamped with flooding" -- includes DPW rescue pix.
  
• "Flash flood drenches Scotch Plains, Plainfield, closes 22"
• "Flash flooding shuts down Route 22"
• Courier:  "Heavy rain floods Plainfield, Scotch Plains"

Readers should note a flash flood warning has been issued for this afternoon also.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Disco highlights tonight's free concert at Plainwood Square

 

Plainfield will rock to a disco vibe with tonight's free concert at Plainwood Square Park.

Headliner GQ will be performing his disco hits "Disco Nights" and "I Do Love You".

Guest performers include Kevin Owens, formerly with Luther VanDross and Larry "Ice" Winfree, formerly with Millie Jackson, who grace the stage with Ray, Goodman & Brown; Tony "Showtime" Riley and Wade Elliott, formerly with Blue Magic.

The evening is rounded off with New Jersey's own Richard Reiter Swing Band.

An added bonus is the 2015 Plainfield Idol Competition, which precedes the min concert.

Funding has been provided by the Union County Board of Chosen Feeholders and the Plainfield Cultural & Heritage Commission, with additional support from McDonalds, Burger King/Odyssey Foods, Coury's Auto Body and Pillar College.

Bring lawnchairs or a blanket. The concert gets under way at 6:00 PM sharp. Rain date is tomorrow (Thursday). For more information, contact producer Pat Fields at (908) 369-1152.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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South Avenue PILOT: Is Council wedging itself between rock and hard place?

JMF executive Kevin Codey makes the original presentation
on the South Avenue project at a Plainwood Square Merchants
meeting in summer 2014.

Has the Plainfield City Council wedged itself between a rock and a hard place?

In playing chicken with the 212-unit South Avenue proposal, they risk blowing up the largest -- and only truly "luxury" -- project to come Plainfield's way in the thirty-three years I have been observing things.

On the other hand, if they step in and take a hand in shaping (or reshaping) the proposed PILOT agreement, they risk showing themselves as inept and rank amateurs.

In the old days it would have been simple. Those whose votes were needed would simply have named their price, the envelopes of cash would be distributed and the project would move along.

But we live in different times -- not that the moral fibre of some of today's elected representatives is any better, but more because with the wizardry of miniaturization it is so much easier for them to get caught in compromising conversations (or even video of taking the envelopes of cash!).

The Council's complaints to have been "left out of the loop", "disrespected" and needing to be "spoon fed", seem hollow given how much public attention and discussion have been drawn to this project. (Councilor Taylor's complaints are amsuing, as she was at the original project presentation last summer.) Add to this a little class animosity from Council President Rivers in stating the project must be aimed at "yuppies" (even the term betrays being a little out of touch).

It all reminds me of the Republicans reacting to President Obama's long and tough negotiations to deliver the Iran nuclear restrictions deal, only to have the Republicans complain they were "left out of the loop" and "disrespected". (Senators have more sense than to state publicly that they need to be "spoon fed" for fear the voters will think them stupid.)

"Time," as Deputy City Administrator for Economic Development Carlos Sanzhez told the Council, "is of the essence".

The contracts for purchase of the eleven properties making up the development parcel will expire if the deal does not move forward. If they expire, the Council will be the ones left with egg on their face for having singlehandedly destroyed the largest residential proposal on the books and the beneficial impact it would have on Plainfield's future.

Maybe it's time for the Mapp administration to put the shoe on the other foot. Maybe it's time to call the Council's bluff and ask Council President Rivers to appoint a committee of three to come back to the September meeting with a finished and agreed PILOT proposal. (Diane Toliver, as chair of the Finance Committee, is a natural choice, as is Gloria Taylor, who has made no secret of wanting to exercise functions of the exective branch. Plus one other.)

This would put the Council in the position of having to be a part of the solution and not just a part of the problem. It could be a boon, or it could expose them as gasbags not up to the challenge.

But all this may be moot beside other players and other considerations.

Sen. Ray Lesniak's recent announcement that he is running for governor is already beginning to put new spins on things.

He will be very desirous of having Union County Democrats in lockstep behind his candidacy. That will mean pressure on Union County Dem chair Jerry Green to help deliver the goods.

And the uneasy relationship between Sheriff Joe Cryan and Lesniak will be tested over Cryan's closeness to another potential candidate, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop.

And then there is the Codey connection.

There are whispers that Essex County Senator and former governor Dick Codey may be considering a run at the governor's office.

Does the fact that Codey's son Kevin is affiliated with JMF, the developer, mean that people behind the yellow curtain are putting the kibosh on this project?

Maybe we should just go back to simple bribery and get on with it.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Is Council dealing from the bottom of the deck?

A card sharp prepares to deal a card known to the dealer,
but unknown to the audience, from the bottom of the deck.

When the Plainfield City Council has hiccups over business it has previously considered, one has to wonder just what is going on.

Last Monday's agenda-setting session had two such items: a proposal for the long-discussed and long-planned-for South Avenue redevelopment project, and a salary ordinance that would pave the way for a telecommunications employee training program.

What happened to lead the Council to balk at moving these items forward? We may never know for sure, but folks can be forgiven for the suspicion that some members of Council are dealing from the bottom of the deck.

Sidebar: BOTTOM DEALING

Dealing from the bottom of the deck is a card sharp's way of controlling the deck and misleading spectators by dealing a known card from the bottom of the deck by sleight of hand, making it appear as if it was drawn at random from the top of the deck.

You can view a tutorial on all types of bottom dealing by magician Xavier Perret on YouTube here.

Council President Rivers alluded to a 'conflict' during the discussion of the salary ordinance regarding the telecommunications trainees (MC 2015-22), but she did not explicitly state the nature of the conflict. Nor did Councilor Taylor in her lengthy remarks.

What they did do, both of them, was to insinuate that something untoward was taking place. Taylor, in particular referred over and over to "inequities", "glaring inequities" and the "perception of inequities'.

For those not in the loop, it may have seemed mystifying. But for those who understand the nature of the conflict -- that Council President Rivers has a close family member who failed to "make the cut" on a police aide Civil Service exam -- the question became: What is the Council up to?

Bear in mind a few facts about Civil Service --

• It is designed to insure at least  little bit of fairness in how employees are hired;
  
  
• Civil Service exams are not all that difficult -- they are meant to rank test-takers, not exclude them;
  
  
• The rule that a hiring decision is to be made from the top three scorers has long been agreed upon as fair;
  
  
• As the tests are administered by the NJ Civil Service Commission, they are open to residents across the state -- no mystery there.
  
  
• Unmentioned by Rivers and Taylor is the fact that veterans get an automatic boost in their standings -- is that an "inequity"?
  
  
• There are even NJ Civil Service test prep websites (see here, for example) to coach and help.

So, what is the nature of the "inequities" Taylor and Rivers complained about?

Were any of the Civil Services rules and procedures violated? If so, please specify which ones.

Maybe we need to look at this problem from the other side. Should the City perhaps be more careful of recruiting people who actually have a chance of scoring high on the Civil Service exam?

But perhaps that would violate FEFFAF*.

Seems to me that Civil Service is there to put the teeniest brake on gaming the system.

The question to Councilors Rivers and Taylor is: What do you propose instead?

Opting out of the Civil Service system? A lot of employees would view that as a direct threat to their job security. Does the Council really want to go there?

Disregarding the Civil Service requirement to pick one of the top three and go ahead and appoint Councilor Rivers' family member permanently? And risk and lawsuit and the possibility of a settlement out of the public purse -- plus legal expenses?

Meanwhile, the heart of the matter is that Public Safety Director Carl Riley is trying his damnedest to recruit some civilian workers to be able to put more cops on the street (as opposed to filling these desk assignments that could be handled by civilians).

The Council is being no help to getting that done. Why not spend a little time brainstorming some ways to recruit capable bilingual civilian candidates?

And stop dealing from the bottom of the deck.

City Council meets tonight, 8 PM at the Council Chambers /Courthouse, Watchung Avenue at East 4th Street.

*FEFFAF: Full Employment For Family And Friends, an old New Jersey public employment custom.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hundreds throng annual Mapp barbecue

Faye Clark, one of the Mapp administration's
harshest critics, enjoys a plate of food on the mayor.

Hundreds of guests thronged the annual community barbecue hosted by Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp and First Lady Amelia Mapp at their West 8th Street home on Saturday.

Cars were parked on both sides of 8th Street from Field Avenue to Hubbard School, leaving some folks to hoof it quite a ways to the event.

Residents from across the city mingled, ate barbecued chicken, ribs and corn on the cob. Rum punch flowed at the bar, and quite a number of folks danced in an open area of the driveway.

Wards 1 and 4 candidate Barry Goode was circulating in the crowd, as were Councilors Cory Storch, Rebecca Williams and Tracey Brown.

A number of prominent local Republicans were there, too, as well as some of Mayor Mapp's harshest critics -- digging into large platefuls of food.

When I remarked on the makeup of the crowd, including the detractors, the Mayor said, "When I say 'one Plainfield, one future', I mean it. And when we say this is a community barbecue, we mean that too."

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Trump trumps Fox News

The Donald KO's Fox's Kelly? (Image, Salon.com.)

Plainfielders following the Republican primary contest may be interested in the backroom maneuvering between The Donald and Fox News.

New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman reported that, after sharp questioning by Fox's Megyn Kelly at the GOP debate, Trump told Fox News bigwig Roger Ailes that he would be boycotting Fox (see story here).

Shutting off the tap. No appearances, no invites to press conferences.

Sherman says that put a real squeeze on Fox, where they have been deluged with anti-Kelly email from their subscriber base.

Ailes was faced with taking Kelly's back and further alienating Fox's audience, or coming to terms with Trump.

Guess who won?

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Kelly announced on air that she was taking a 10-day break.

Scheduled in advance, says the Fox spin machine (see here). But Salon (see here) begs to differ, saying it was "unplanned".

In any event, it appears the Trump tail is wagging the Fox News dog (see here).

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Mayor Mapp's community BBQ is Saturday, everyone is welcome

Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp and First Lady Amelia will host their 8th annual community barbecue Saturday (August 15). The event is free and the public is warmly welcome.

As Mayor Mapp has notes, summer is a time for relaxing with friends and neighbors and enjoying food and company in the out of doors. These annual barbecues have become a Plainfield summer tradition.

Tents fill the back yard of their home so that people can visit in the shade. There is alwyas plenty of food and beverages. After dark, there is usually dancing with a Caribbean beat. The event provides a perfect setting for catching up with old friends and making new ones.

Mayor Mapp does ask, though, that we remember even in summertime, some of our neighbors go hungry.

So, as has been done each year, guests are invited to bring canned goods or nonperishable food items which will then be donated to a local food bank. Councilor Williams suggests also that toiletries and feminine products are needed (see here).

The Barbecue gets under way at 4:00 PM and runs well into the evening. The Mapp's home, St. George's Manor, is at 535 West 8th Street.

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Medevac yes, shooting no

State Police medevac helicopter lands at
Milt Campbell Field Wednesday evening.
(Photo courtesy Christian Estevez.)

 

Plainfield Today reader Chris Estevez forwarded the above photo early Wednesday evening of a state police medevac helicopter landing at Milt Campbell Field.

I was told later that an ambulance had called for the helicopter and delivered the victim of an accident -- not a shooting -- to the field.

The ambulance can be seen in the far left of the photo on the field.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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PACHA Ecuador celebration, SID Summer Concert Thursday

A celebration of Ecuador's independence is one of two events Thursday.

 

Plainfielders have two treats Thursday evening.

PACHA, the advisory commission on Hispanic affairs, will recognize Ecuador's Independence Day with a celebration and a special resolution. The festivities will take place from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in City Hall Library. before PACHA's regular monthly meeting.

There will be food and entertainment as well as the presentation of the resolution. The event is free and the public is warmly invited. Parking at and entry at the rear of City Hall.

Also from 6:00 - 8:00 PM, the SID Summer Concert Series continues at Plainwood Square Park with a jazz presentation by the Millgate Brass Quintet. These outdoor concerts are a Plainfield favorite. Bring along a lawn chair. At the same time, there will be a car, truck and bike show in the Fine Fare parking lot across the street.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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City Council balks, a little

A Council discussion puts me in mind of Churchill,
quids and quos.

With a box score of 33:3, Plainfield's City Council moved forward the bulk of items on the Mapp administration's agenda to next week's business session.

Even juicing several law firms to the tune of $100,000 didn't raise a peep from the fiscal watchdogs.

But there were three bumps in the road --

• A proposal by the administration to cure problems in emergency dispatch with a trainee program;
  
  
• The proposal for a Motor Pool Manager (once again); and
  
  
• A 30-year tax abatement (PILOT) for the proposed South Avenue development.

The most stir was caused by the PILOT matter, which put me in mind of a famous and very funny story starring Sir Winston Churchill.

Churchill, the wartime prime minister of Great Britain whose mother was an American, was at a dinner party that included Lady Astor, the first woman member of the House of Commons.

Astor, an American born in near poverty in Danville, Virginia, had married her way into English nobility. She and Churchill were both acerbic wits and often traded barbs.

At this dinner party, Sir Winston and Lady Astor got into a discussion of adultery, and Sir Winston is supposed to have asked her if she would commit adultery for a sum of £500,000 (many millions of dollars in today's terms).

When Astor replied in the affirmative, Sir Winston asked her, "Well then, would you commit adultery for five quid?" (A quid is British slang for £1, or about $8 in today's currency.)

Lady Astor replied, "Sir Winston! What kind of a woman do you think I am?"

To which Sir Winston said sweetly, "We have already settled that question, madam. Now we are quibbling over price."

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Total traffic srew-up downtown today

Beware: Road work on West 2nd Street
is affecting Madison Avenue and downtown traffic patterns.

Plainfielders and those passing through the downtown on the way to other destinations will have to navigate a screw-up today.

Milling and paving work has begun on Second Street between Central Avenue and Park Avenue. If this is part of the city's road improvements plan, it could use more and better coordination.

It if is part of PSEG's "make good" for the damage they have done to the streets  and sidewalks with the power substation upgrade, someone should be looking over their shoulder.

Coming back from an errand in North Plainfield, I decided to use Madison Avenue to get from Front Street to Seventh. Suddenly, between Front and Second, there was a logjam.

A police officer at Second Street had stopped traffic for the milling machine to proceed on Second Street. Turning off Madison into the county parking lot to shortcut to Second and Park turned out to be fruitless, as a patrol car blocked the driveway exit onto Second Street.

So, it was turn around, go back to Madison Avenue and wait. Finally cars were let through a few at a time.

To double-check I went back around on Central Avenue. By this time, the traffic shunted from Second and Central was piled up at West Front Street, and the traffic planning to turn onto Madison southbound was backed up on West Front from Madison to Central. Gmarly.

?he only way to the southern side of the railroad tracks was to go over to Watchung Avenue, the next north/south roadway that is open.

Meanwhile, further down Second Street, between Union County College and Roosevelt Avenue, the road is blocked -- for sidewalk and curb construction at the moment.

After the mauling the street and its substructure took from PSEG during the digs and construction as part of the substation feeder system, it seems to this amateur's eye that just milling and paving is letting the utility company off too lightly.

On the bright side, perhaps these unexpected (and unannounced) closures herald the beginning of the end of the large scale downtown PSEG project.

I admire the use of the Nixle alert service which surrounding towns take advantage of in posting traffic disruption notices on a daily basis. Plainfield also has Nixle, but seems not to have discovered its usefulness.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Kissin' Cousins: Poison Ivy

Leaves of three, let it be . . .
Poison ivy is a common source of contact dermatitis.

Immature "berries", which turn deep red or purple
when ripe, are actually drupes, containing one seed.

 

 

Probably most Plainfielders are familiar with poison ivy, a vine or shrub that causes intense allergic skin reactions in most people upon contact. Learn more about poison ivy here.

While common throughout North America, poison ivy prefers "edge" settings -- where woods meet pasture land, for example -- or along roadways.

In highly urbanized settings like Plainfield, it is likely to pop up along fence lines and shrubs at the edges of gardens. Its seeds are spread by birds, who feast on the berries and are not bothered by urushiol, the substance so bothersome to humans.

So, would you be surprised to know there are actually two kissin' cousins of poison ivy with which you are probably very familiar and which you may actually eat on a more or less regular basis?

MANGOES

Immature Mango fruits and flopwers.

A Mango cup open, exposing its drupe.

Mangoes, once considered somewhat exotic in supermarkets are now commonplace (more here).

An enormously important commercial fruit originating in Asia, mangoes are the national fruit of India. Over the centuries they spread to suitable tropical areas in South Asia and Africa, coming finally to the New World, where they are grown throughout the Caribbean as well as <Mexico and Brazil.

Like other members of the Anacardiaciae, mangoes are drupes, with a hard-shelled seed encased in a fleshy fruit.

Also, like other members of this family, some individuals can get contact dermatitis from the leaves, stems, bark and skins of the fruit.

If you've never tried mango, you can find small packages of freshly cut up mango at Supremo supermarket in the apple and grape aisle. Kept on ice, they are an inexpensive, tasty and healthy snack.

CASHEWS

Cashew Apples, with drupes.

The drupes each contain a single "nut",
which must be roasted to destroy the toxins
that can cause contact dermatitis.

The result, a tasty and nutritious snack.

Another kissin' cousin of poison ivy is the cashew (more here). It is also a commercially valuable product, only in this case we in North America are most familiar with its drupe, which we refer to as the cashew "nut" (though it is really a seed).

In Latin America, however, the fleshy cashew "apple" is used to prepare a highly popular sweet drink. Cashew apples are thin-skinned and do not travel well, so don't expect to see them in you supermarket soon.

As with other anacards, cashews in their raw form can cause contact dermatitis. The oils at the root of the problem are destroyed by roasting the cashew drupes, each of which contains just one "nut".

So, the next time you enjoy a handful of cashews or some mango slices, give a nod to their kissin' cousin, your old friend poison ivy.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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