Questions on jobs training funding persist

The grant in question began much larger and included the purchase of a van.

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs desperately wants to put the imbroglio of the payments to The Incubator for a Federal Stimulus-program funded jobs training program behind it.

After resident Alan Goldstein persisted, the Robinson-Briggs administration finally acknowledged that he was right and that the vendor, The Incubator, was not authorized to receive the funds.

Last night, the Council approved a revised plan which would pay The Incubator out of CDBG funds.

Several of the jobs program participants addressed their concerns to the Council that the program was highly effective and was being unfairly punished. While all spoke movingly, some told of the confidence and skills they had been given through the program that led them to jobs they would never have believed they could hold.

Council President Annie McWilliams was at pains to point out, once they all had spoken, that the matter before the Council was not terminating the program (the program had actually been considered finished at the end of September), but was considering how to pay The Incubator for the services it had rendered.

While everyone believes The Incubator acted in good faith in making its application, I am not completely satisfied with the Robinson-Briggs administration's explanation that the mess is all the state's fault for not having told the committee which selected The Incubator (which included newly appointed Administration/Finance Director Al Restaino and Purchasing Agent David Spaulding) of the requirement.

Forgotten altogether now is the proposal for the purchase of a van that was in the original grant application.

But here's what is really sticking in my craw: This grant became urgent this past summer (see here) because the Robinson-Briggs administration had FAILED TO EXECUTE IT LAST YEAR, withdrawing a resolution which called for Plainfield Action Services to execute the grant, and the work needed to be done BY THE END OF THIS SEPTEMBER, and payment settled by the end of the current year.

As I pointed out last year (see here), the Plainfield Action Services board had forced a meeting with then City Administrator Marc Dashield to try and find out what had happened to about $97,000 of the grant which he could not account for and why PAS was not being allowed to go forward with executing the grant.

So, why didn't the Robinson-Briggs administration let PAS execute the grant? Was it because the administration knew that PAS was not on a state-approved list of jobs trainers? Or was it for some other reason?

In the haste to get past this bitter and embarrassing episode, the Robinson-Briggs administration wanted to go no further than to see that The Incubator was paid for work performed.

Council President McWilliams put newly confirmed Administration/Finance Director Al Restaino on notice that there better not be another instance such as this.

Paying for services rendered is all well and good; not getting to the bottom of the matter, not so.

---

• Plainfield Today --
• 10/28/2009:  "Somethin' funny with the (PAS) Stimulus money"
• 7/19/2010:  "'Incubator' contract renews questions"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Could real cost of Tepper's basement top $1.6 million?

Asm Jerry Green joined state and local officials in toasting
the Tepper's redevelopment project.

Mystery swirls endlessly around Plainfield's Tepper's basement renovation project, not least what the total cost is going to be.

After the Robinson-Briggs administration was able to frustrate the Council's intention for a public tour of the premises during its 'retreat' in the closing days of June (see my post here), the Courier's intrepid beat reporter, Mark Spivey, was able to get into the Horizons building in an effort to inform the paper's readers of just what the city got for its $460,000 'plain vanilla box' (see story here).

But now, I'm wondering what the total is the Robinson-Briggs administration is prepared to sink into this evidently bottomless pit.

The administration has a resolution (R291-10) on tonight's Council agenda to submit an application to the state's UEZ grantors requesting $800,000 in project funding to implement 'Phase III' of the city's proposed closed circuit surveillance system for the downtown business district. (Quick quiz: How much was spent on Phases I and II and when?)

City has already applied for $345,000 for the CCTV project.

In the meantime, we are still waiting to hear on the Robinson-Briggs administration's request for $345,000 in ARRA (President Obama's Stimulus program) funding for 'the rehabilitation of vacant and unfinished space to establish a CCTV monitoring center...'

(Note that the space in question -- the Tepper's basement -- had had $460,000 in federal monies spent on it by this time, but was still being described by the Robinson-Briggs administration as 'unfinished'.)

These three grants alone total more than $1.6 million. Would that be enough to make a publicly presentable basement?

The Council needs to insist that it gets to make a thorough inspection of the Tepper's basement -- and the media should be invited to tag along.

As for the cancelled tour from the Council's retreat, the Courier reports (story here) --

...[t]he council ... continues to await a tour of the space that was requested months ago. Robinson-Briggs said the tour was scheduled to take place during the council's recent retreat, but it was postponed because several council members were not in attendance...

But the Mayor misremembers.

There were, after all, members of the public present at the Council's 'retreat' when Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson explained there would be no tour.

Williamson did quite a bit of tapdancing in denying the tour -- beginning with asserting that [Public Works Superintendent] John Louise needed time to 'make it presentable', and then suggesting that 'the landlord may have reasons -- of safety -- why the general public can't be allowed in', and only lastly offering that since there were only three councilors present (McWilliams, Mapp and Carter) that it would be better to postpone the tour. (Quotes are from my notes taken that day.)

Who is 'the landlord'?

The space has been dedicated to the city in perpetuity, so is the city not the landlord?

Secondly, the 'safety' issue needs to be cleared up. What safety issue?

The building has 75 apartments, mostly occupied, and must have a certificate of occupancy -- meaning that it must be safe and habitable. Additionally, the fire department is responsible for assuring that fire codes are met.

Presuming these are all current, what possible safety conditions could there be with simply taking a stroll through the 'plain vanilla' basement?

---

• Plainfield Today:  "Council's 'retreat' today includes Tepper's basement tour"
  
• Courier:  "Tepper's basement: $460,000 renovation didn't finish the job"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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'Incubator' contract renews question of missing $97,000

Original Community Services grant was awarded for $267,000
(or $267,909?), per screenshot from August 2009 ARRA update.

Missing from the Robinson-Briggs administration's resolution (R298-10) to the Council tonight is any mention of the approximately $97,000 from this grant that it could not account for when pressed by the Plainfield Action Services (PAS) board last October (see my full post here) --

...[i]f you check the secret City web pages on the Stimulus (see here), you will see on Page 5 a 'Community Development Block Grant' for an unspecified amount on which the City was 'awaiting agency guidance'. Was that the grant in question? Could be, but since the City has never updated those web pages, you would be taking a shot in the dark ...

Maybe we'll have better luck checking the ARRA update posted by the Robinson-Briggs administration in early August (see here, in PDF). If you check slide 6 of the 9-slide show, you will find an item entitled 'Community Services Block Grant', which at $267,000 is the closest in any city documentation to the actual grant in question. The City does not list its purpose, only that it was a formula-based grant, and has been awarded. I'm guessing that this is the grant in question."

The original ARRA (President Obama's 'Stimulus' program) grant was for $267,909 for a jobs-training program.

Plainfield's City Council has before it a resolution to award a contract for nearly $185,000 tonight to 'The Incubator' for job training (including the acquisition of a $70,000 van).

This is presumably the rump of the PAS grant which Robinson-Briggs withdrew last fall after questions about the unaccounted-for $97,000 were raised publicly.

So here we are, nine months later, and the Robinson-Briggs administration is now proposing to outsource the execution of this grant. (I won't mention that whoever was out of work then, has most likely been out of work for the intervening nine months, hopefully not waiting for a sign of the Mayor's sense of urgency.)

Questions the Council may want to consider before any decision is made include --

• What became of the approximately $97,000 from the original grant unaccounted for?
  
  
• On what basis is this contract being given out? Was there an open public bidding process?
  
  
• What about that pesky $70,000 van? Will the City have title to it? Who will drive it? Who will pay the driver? What will happen to the van once the program's funding runs out?
  
  
• When the grant runs out, will the program fold, or will the City be asked to take it on permanently?

More financial mumbo-jumbo from the Robinson-Briggs administration?

---

• Plainfield Today: "Somethin' funny with the (PAS) Stimulus money"
• Plainfield.com --
• "Plainfield's Stimulus Applications"
  
• "Federal Stimulus update 8/3/2009" (PDF)
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Drake House steps up to accessibility issue

The old stoop is being replaced with a spacious porch
and accessibility ramp.

As we all know, in Plainfield nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Take the capital improvements at the Drake House, the city-owned historic house and museum.

Stopping by to snap some pix of the lilacs blooming in the dooryard, I got a chance for a closeup peek at the new porch and ADA-compliant accessibility ramp being installed along the front of the house.

Visitors will no longer have to queue up on a tiny, postage-stamp sized stoop to get in the front door when popular exhibits open. Nor will those with special accessibility needs have to figure out how they're going to get in the museum -- the gently sloping ramp will address that issue (however, there will still be those daunting stairs to the second-floor gallery).

The porch renovations are part of a long-term capital improvements program, the gathering of funds for which began under during Jean Mattson's term as president of the Historical Society. Prior work done included updates to the heating system and installation of unobtrusive air conditioning as well as electrical upgrades.

Here is a good view of the ADA-compliant ramp.

Chatting up a board member at a party the other evening, I learned that the Historical Society, which manages and operates the Drake House Museum under a lease from the city, is looking for monies to match the $52,000 'Preserve Union County' grant received from the Freeholders as part of Union County's Open Space Trust Fund.

That match was a condition of the original grant made last fall, but no one is quite sure how the Historical Society got the grant without the match being in place, as is usually required by grantors.

April's agenda-setting session of the City Council had an item for a presentation/discussion on the Drake House, but no one from the Historical Society appeared, so there was no discussion.

From a query to a Council member, I learned that there are discussions ongoing about whether and how to fund the matching amount, but they are not yet resolved.

At the same time, I learned that the city's long-term lease with the Historical Society to operate the Drake House has expired, and will be the subject of a review -- with an eye to possible revisions to update it -- over the coming months.

All this because I stopped by on a sunny afternoon to take a snapshot.

That's life in Plainfield.

A snapshot of the lilacs that started it all.
(That is not a helicopter, it is a bee -- as caught by my cellphone camera.)

A bright red sign alerts passersby to
Plainfield's Drake House Museum.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Somethin' funny with the (PAS) Stimulus money

You'd think with the mayoral election less than a week away, Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs would not want another how-does-she-handle-the-city's-finances matter on her plate.

Yet, here we are.

I got rumbles yesterday that the Plainfield Action Services (PAS) board had forced a meeting with City Administrator Marc Dashield to get to the bottom of what has happened to approximately $93,000 of a $267,909 grant to the agency for a jobs-training program.

At the end of the day, Dashield was not able to tell the Board members exactly where the money has gone.

A little background, first on the agency, then on the grant.

Plainfield Action Services (PAS) is the successor of the original 1960s-era War on Poverty agency that came into existence under President Lyndon B. Johnson as part of his 'Great Society' initiatives.

Those old enough to remember will recall that this was the first time in history that poor and minority people were actually going to have a chance for a direct say in how Federal money was going to be spent to improve their neighborhoods and their lives.

It was a period of intense community engagement, and the interest was reflected in balancing how the boards of the local agencies would be constructed, so as to ensure all stakeholders seats at the table. This meant large -- sometimes even huge -- boards, composed of community representatives as well as elected officials and members from nonprofits and social agencies.

(ASIDE: My SECOND job after college was funded through LBJ's anti-poverty agency, the Office of Economic Opportunity, or OEO, training welfare recipients to organize their own neighborhoods to participate in an agency like PAS; along with my friend Bill T., who later despaired of working within 'the establishment' and became head of the local Black Panther chapter.)

These boards exercised oversight over the agency's activities and expenditure of funds, while the municipality involved often became (as in Plainfield's case) the fiscal agent, since there was mistrust about how careful residents would be with the expenditure of monies.

How ironic in hindsight.

As for the grant Dashield can't explain, don't feel bad if it doesn't jog your memory.

It is meant to fund a job-training program with a start- and end-point, and included a line item for purchase of a van to transport the 'trained' workers to 'warehouses' where they would be employed.

It was never made explicit in any of the ARRA (Stimulus Plan) smoke-and-mirrors presentations by the Robinson-Briggs administration.

If you check the secret City web pages on the Stimulus (see here), you will see on Page 5 a 'Community Development Block Grant' for an unspecified amount on which the City was 'awaiting agency guidance'. Was that the grant in question? Could be, but since the City has never updated those web pages, you would be taking a shot in the dark.

(ANOTHER ASIDE: Would it be mean of me, while we're looking at these pages, to point out that on Page 2 of the Stimulus subsite, you will see a figure for road work for Somerset Street [never commenced], but NOT for Geraud Avenue [never listed, but undertaken as a Stimulus project, see here]? OK, I will NOT be mean.)

Maybe we'll have better luck checking the ARRA update posted by the Robinson-Briggs administration in early August (see here, in PDF). If you check slide 6 of the 9-slide show, you will find an item entitled 'Community Services Block Grant', which at $267,000 is the closest in any city documentation to the actual grant in question. The City does not list its purpose, only that it was a formula-based grant, and has been awarded. I'm guessing that this is the grant in question.

Who is to run the jobs-training program, PAS or another agency, or ... a 'consultant' picked in the slippery 'fair and open' manner so beloved by the Robinson-Briggs administration? Where are the monies kept and who monitors how they are spent?

Unfortunately, the PAS Board has not gotten straight answers to these questions.

Are the funds just missing? Misspent?

If checks were cut, to whom? For what services? Based on what vouchers? And, if contracts were involved, where are the necessary Council resolutions?

The PAS Board should be commended for having the guts to ask for answers to these and other questions.

Let's hope they get them.

Sooner rather than later.

---

• City of Plainfield: "Plainfield's Stimulus Tracking Web Pages"
• Plainfield Today --
• "Plainfield Stimulus money reaches dead end"
• "Plainfield Stimulus $$$ update: Still hokey after all these months"

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield Stimulus $$$ update: Still hokey after all these months

Surfing Plainfield's official website (see here) is always such an adventure. It reminds me of Christopher Columbus, who discovered America while looking for a way to 'the Indies'.

While looking for something else, I stumbled on what purports to be an update on Plainfield's quest for monies from President Obama's stimulus (ARRA) program (see here).

I say 'purports' because the discrepancies start right off with the opening page, which says figures are as of July 21, 2009. Really?

Highlights indicate web page 'date' versus real date created. Click to enlarge.

Looking at the PDF document's secret hiding place shows it was created on Monday, August 3, at 5:44 PM, a far cry from July 21 (two weeks, to be exact).

The web posting appears to be created from a PowerPoint presentation whose slides show various breakdowns of grants applied for (or not, if they are simply distributions by formula), and amounts awarded (or not).

Does the update include the $2.5 million for affordable housing on the PNC parking lot the city has proposed (see my post here)? You will be hard-pressed to figure it out, as dollar amounts don't align.

Alas, it also does not align well with the city's well-hidden 'Stimulus Tracking' subsite (which you can find here), and you will get a headache trying to match the update numbers with the original figures -- starting with the total amounts: $11.162 million on the original web pages, as against $20.762 million in the update document.

What?! We've asked for more than $10.5 million more since April and you never heard about it? You must have been dozing. Or maybe you blinked. Or maybe no one told you.

In any event, there is one number that may explain the update's timing and the date of its posting on the city's website.

That would be a ZERO. On slide three.

It's the ZERO as in the amount received against the $937,552.87 requested for the COPS grant.

Could this update have anything to do with the questions raised in the blogosphere by Olddoc and others about why Plainfield was not among the New Jersey communities to receive a COPS grant?

Plainfield's accounting for the Stimulus Money, still hokey after all these months.

Just can't get that Simon & Garfunkel track out of my mind.

Would I be convicted by a jury of my peers?

---

• City of Plainfield
• "Economic Stimulus Funding Update" (PDF)
• "Plainfield's Stimulus Tracking Web Pages"

-- Dan Damon

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Jerry's unprovoked attack on Gallon a head-scratcher

Schools Superintendent Dr. Steve Gallon	Assemblyman Jerry Green

Plainfielders are wondering if Assemblyman Jerry Green is losing it.

His unprovoked attack yesterday on Plainfield Schools Superintendent Steve Gallon has folks scratching their heads in bemusement (see story here).

Under a headline screaming 'Plainfield BOE loses $400,000', Jerry lets off the following rant --

I was notified today that the Plainfield School District had to send back $400,000 in State aid. No one in the district has called my office to share this information with me. This is not the first time that the City of Plainfield had to send money back to Trenton because of a lack of communication with my office. I want to share with you how embarrassing this is to the City...

Two points need to be made --

1. Dr. Gallon has a perfectly reasonable explanation (see below); and
   
   
2. Jerry needs to be careful talking about returning money -- his mayoral puppet Sharon Robinson-Briggs almost lost $460,000 secured by Sen. Frank Lautenberg except for a campaign waged by Plainfield Today to make sure it was saved (in posts from August 2006 to June 2007, the last just days before the grant was set to expire). Her most recent escapade in tardiness was the flap around the East 6th Street playground, where she was in danger of losing an $85,000 grant which had already been TWICE EXTENDED (read more here), and came to the Council in full panic mode.

So much for embarrassing the City by returning unused monies.

But Jerry goes on to suggest that all could have been fixed with a phone call to him. Jerry, the fixer. Hmmm...

Schools' superintendent Steve Gallon sees the situation somewhat differently.

Here is Dr. Gallon's detailed response, in an email to BOE Board President Bridget Rivers which she shared with me --

Truth has no special time or place. Its time is right now and right here. Always!

With respect to speculations, rumors, and innuendos, fair, transparent, and courageous leadership require a degree of due diligence and fact finding. This administrator has remained open and responsive to inquiries and questions and concerns raised by those who may have raised them in a decent and orderly manner.

I remain somewhat intrigued by the unnecessary and useless fodder and too often factual inaccuracies espoused by a few that inherently divide us and bears no positive fruit to the people or children of Plainfield. Nonetheless, we must remain undaunted in our efforts to work together, speak truth to power, and engage in those positive “bodies of work” that will ultimately help improve our community, quality of life, and possibilities for our children.

With that said, as it relates to the inquiry about the District’s “loss” of $400,000.00, it is imperative that I provide an accurate response to this matter. I do appreciate your contacting me and inquiring about this matter from a legally responsible and accountable source such as this administrator. Please know, that I had not been contacted by anyone else to provide accurate information regarding this matter and remain grateful for the respect and courtesies that you have demonstrated. The following represents the factual context of this matter:

* Members of the Board of Education may not legally initiate a purchase and/or expenditure of said funds
* The initiation of District funds is a part of the “day-to-day” operations of schools and District offices
* A total of $418,000.00 was returned to state by the District
* Fund Balances are not uncommon in not only school Districts, but organizations---this is what is often referred to as “surplus”
* Often, grant funds such as Title I and even the recent awards received by several of our schools, arrive late in the year making it imprudent for a school or office to spend tens of thousands of dollars in a few months, which amounts to “haste making waste”. In such a case, the District or school would “carryover” those funds for timely planning and prudent purchasing
* There are specific guidelines for the “rollover” of funds. Those guidelines were adhered to. There was no “mismanagement” of any funds
* These funds were accumulated over a three year period ending June 30, 2008 (05/06; 06/07; 07/08)
* Theses funds were a combination of specifically earmarked grant sources
* There were 29 line item in this funding structure with balances that ranged from $360.00-$52,855.00
* Each line item delineates a specific purpose (i.e., field trips, supplies, staff)
* Some of these line items were at school sites which were charged with there management
* These grant funds could not be used for the purchase of textbooks, school lunches, etc.
* The grant period covered a two-year period ending in June, 07.
* If the funds allocated are not able to be expended in accordance with the predetermined guidelines, they must be returned
* A District can not “exceed” the amount of the grant funds

The New Jersey Office of Grants Management has specific guidelines and provisions for the “carry-over” of grant funds. In general, they posit that “carryover funds may be reallocated to budget categories other than those specified on the original application, providing that the funds are expended on approved activities in accordance with program guidelines.” For example, if the initial goals and objectives reflected in the grant application are not fully attainable or are adjusted, such can result in a “carryover.” The worst mistake for a District to do is to use funds outside of the scope of what they were allocated for. This would constitute mismanagement. Although I was not here at the time, this was not the case.

Finally, my position in no way minimizes the need for the District to use any and all available resources for our students. I have taken appropriate steps since my arrival that include but are not limited to requiring annual expenditure plans, monthly reviews of funds balances, centralized plan development and implementation, and ongoing monitoring.

I hope that this has served to clarify this matter. As always, please feel to contact us for further questions and/or clarification.

Respectfully,
Steve Gallon III, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools

Will there be more Jerry meltdowns as the campaign season unfolds?

Stay tuned.

---

• Jerry Green's Page, 4/8/20009: "Plainfield BOE loses $400,000"
• Plainfield Today:
• 8/23/2006: "Lautenberg money called to Robinson-Briggs' attention in transition memo"
• 5/21/2007: "Will city have to give $460,000 back to Feds?"
• 6/26/2007: "Lautenberg grant deadline looms"
• 1/26/2009: "Questions for Mayor on Bryant Playground grants"

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield's Neighborhood Health Center gets new funds

Plainfield's Neighborhood Health Center will get $435,677 in fresh funding announced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg for New Jersey community-based health centers through the Economic Recovery Act.

The new funds are to be used to renovate facilities or offer primary care to more New Jersey families, according to a press release issued Tueday evening.

For more details, see Sen. Lautenberg's website here.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Stimulus money for Plainfield, other Police Departments

Here are figures for Stimulus Plan money available to Plainfield's Police Division as well as the rest of Union County and other nearby towns. These monies are made available through Department of Justice grants.

Stimulus Money to Local Police
TOWNS	AMOUNT
UNION COUNTY
Elizabeth	$576,849
Hillside	$66,676
Linden	$82,531
Plainfield	$341,635
Rahway	$53,645
Roselle	$53,645
Roselle Park	$13,248
Scotch Plains	$15,203
Union Twp.	$101,209
Westfield	$11,077
OTHER AREA TOWNS
North Plainfield	$36,053
Edison	$163,108
Piscataway	$47,564
South Plainfield	$21,502

Data: "Bureau of Justice Assistance"

---

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield Health Center grant: More here than meets the eye?

News that Plainfield's Neighborhood Health Center was getting the largest grant of 16 awarded yesterday by the state's Division of Health and Senior Services began ciculating by email shortly before 1:00 PM.

According to the state's press release, the $644,000 to Plainfield's NHC is --

to ensure access to a medically underserved population affected by the closing of their community hospital

Note that the name of the hospital is unspecified. Such nice people.

NHC CEO Rudine Smith is quoted in the Courier story saying the Center will --

...use the funding announced yesterday to add two physicians and a certified nurse midwife to its staff, Smith said, as well as upgrade its electronic health records system to improve efficiency...

Longtime readers of Plainfield Today will recall previous stories that have focused on the Center's deteriorating fiscal situation (see here).

While I have no recent news on that front, a quick check for the Center's latest 990 (required of nonprofits to be filed with the IRS annually, and available online), finds that the most recent filing showing up online is that for 2005, filed in April, 2007 (see PDF file here).

It would sure be helpful to have more current information on the Center's fiscal status, including sources of funding and salaries being paid.

---

• Plainfield Today: "Stories featuring the Plainfield Health Center"
  
• Courier: "$5M in grants funds increased access to health centers"
• Guidestar: "Neighborhood Health Center, Plainfield"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield could use red-light cams, too

Recent accident at 7th & Central.

Plainfielders may well wonder where the line forms for the new red-light cameras the State is funding to monitor traffic intersections (see story here).

There are many intersections around town where I have seen accidents, but Seventh Street seems particularly prone -- especially at Central Avenue (as in the photo above) and Plainfield Avenue.

Since Seventh Street is also County Route 601, one would hope that City officials have asked Union County for consideration at some point.

Wouldn't one?

---

• Courier: "State project gives towns cams to monitor red lights"

-- Dan Damon

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Corzine blowing smoke Plainfield's way?

Roadwork on Kenyon Avenue, November 2005.

Plainfielders may well wonder what's up with the Governor's press machine, which was in overdrive in putting out the word about the most recent round of DOT grants.

'Corzine: Massive road projects will put people to work', the Bergen Record trumpeted yesterday, reporting on the Gov's Friday press conference in Metuchen.

That's a good thing. So I paid attention. Maybe a little too much attention.

$78.75 million. 372 towns.

Do the math. That's about $213,000 per town. Now anyone who's been paying attention knows that paves darn little, and puts a few people to work for not very long.

Not to mention that the workers most likely won't be from the communities in which the money is spent, but from the communities in which the contractors draw their pool of laborers.

The final touch came when looking up the governor's list (see here), where we learn Plainfield got a grant of $239,161 for work on South Second Street.

Which, if memory serves me, Mayor Robinson-Briggs celebrated the completion of months ago (see the City's press release here).

While we are truly facing hard times, and Corzine is on the right track in insisting that putting people to work on infrastructure projects is going to be key in getting us out of the hole we're in, blowing smoke is no way to begin.

Facing an election in 2009, Corzine has to do better than this to maximize his chances.

---

• Courier: "Corzine announces $78.75M in transportation grants"
• Record: "Corzine: Massive road projects will put people to work"
• Office of the Governor: "DOT Grants List"

-- Dan Damon

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Arts grants: Union County awards

Following up on the announcement of arts grants earlier this week, here are all the grants made to organizations in Union County.

Note that the Plainfield Symphony and other Plainfield organizations get their grants through the county's Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs.

NJ State Council on the Arts FY2009 Grants Union County
ORGANIZATION	PURPOSE	AMOUNT
Arts Guild of Rahway	General operating support	$9,006
Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company	General operating support	$42,440
Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company	Arts ed initiative	$9,790
Kean U./Premiere Stages	General operating support	$21,186
Music for All Seasons	General operating support	$37,127
NJ Intergenerational Orchestra	Arts Project support	$6,300
NJ Youth Symphony	General operating support	$38,768
NJ Youth Symphony	Projects serving artists	$17,080
Union County College	General operating support	$8,659
Union County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs	Local arts programs	$144,728
Union County Performing Arts Center	General operating support	$39,186
Visual Arts Center of NJ	Building arts participation	$25,000
Visual Arts Center of NJ	General operating support	$89,928
Westfield Symphony Orchestra	General operating support	$39,242
Westfield Young Artists Coop Theatre	General operating support	$43,560

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-- Dan Damon

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Library to be honored by state agency this morning

Published in the Courier News, Tuesday, November 27, 2007

City library honored by Humanities Council

By BRANDON LAUSCH
STAFF WRITER

PLAINFIELD -- The New Jersey Council for the Humanities is set to present a bundle of 36 books to the Plainfield Public Library in recognition of the facility's programming, growing collection of diversity studies material and wide selection of local history texts.

The library is one of only five in the state to receive the council's full 2007 collection, which consists of recent nonfiction humanities works either written by New Jersey authors or written about state-related topics.

The council chose Newsweek columnist and Montclair resident Jonathan Alter's 'The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope' as its featured work.

The other award-winning libraries are Gloucester City Library, the Library Company of Burlington, Middletown Township Public Library and West Orange Public Library.

"This is clearly a library that's energetic and accomplishing a great deal with -- as we know -- limited resources, because that's simply the case with libraries," Jane Brailove Rutkoff, the council's executive director, said of the Plainfield Public Library. Rutkoff is scheduled to present the book collection to library directors and city officials at an 11 a.m. gathering at the library.

Library Director Joseph Dr Rold said in the 13 years he's worked at the facility, staff members never applied for the award. But this year, as the library's diversity studies collection continues to build, Da Rold said the time was right to pen a nomination letter.

"Despite the other fine aspects of our library, the book collection remains a proud cornerstone of our institution," Da Rold wrote in his award application. "Plainfield Public Library has been the research library of choice for students and writers in this are of Central Jersey. Our collection of New Jersey materials has great historical depth, and our local history collection is the largest in Union County."

Da Rold said the library has pushed for a more diverse selection of material -- which has grown to include about 500 items -- to reflect the range of people it serves. That means emphasizing works by gay, black and Hispanic authors, among others, Da Rold said.

Adding the council's books to the library's shelves will save the cash-strapped facility money and allow it to offer mor scholarly texts to is patrons, Da Rold said. Texts in the council's 2007 collection include, 'Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Later Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond,' and 'Oliver Wendell Holmes in Paris: Medicine, Theology, and the Autocrat.'

"Funds are tight these days, and they're obviously well-considered books," Da Rold said.

Transcribed from print edition by DD; there is no online story.

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Grants: Library 1, City 0

The Plainfield Public Library was awarded a $21,000 grant by the NJ Historical Commission yesterday. Grants from the agency help fund operating expenses of organization's promoting the study and conservation of New Jersey history and artifacts.

The Plainfield Library's local history collection is among the most extensive in the state, and an invaluable resource for those researching the history of Plainfield and the surrounding communities.

The Union County Division of Cultural & Heritage Affairs received $101,000 in the same round. Plainfield resident Barbara Fuller has taken up the reins of the agency after long-time director Susan Coen retired last year.

On another front, the Department of Community Affairs announced the award of $17.8M in grants for taxpayer relief to 70 communities, down from 106 last year.

Plainfield is not on yesterday's awards list.

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• Ledger: "Historic organizations receive state aid"
• Ledger: "State distributes $17.8M in special aid to towns"
  
• Courier: "State DCA grants aid to 7 Central Jersey towns"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Music for All Seasons gets arts grant

Music for All Seasons, a Scotch Plains-based nonprofit whose mission is to bring world-class musical performances to nontraditional audiences, was awarded a $42,190 grant by the NJ State Council on the Arts in its most recent round announced on Tuesday.

Founded by Plainfielder Brian Dallow and his wife, the author and pianist Rena Fruchter, MFAS has for years brought musical performances to audiences ranging from children in hospitals to nursing home and prison audiences. Their longtime friend Dudley Moore was an avid supporter and proselytizer for the organization and its mission.

Kudos to Brian and Rena!

Other Union County recipients of NJ Council on the Arts grants --
Union County College	$9,840
UC Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs	$185,268
Kean University / Premiere Stages	$24,075
Union County Arts Center	$44,530
Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company (2 grants)	$59,227
Westfield Symphony Orchestra	$44,593
Westfield Young Artists Theatre	$49,500

For information about the New Jersey Council on the Arts, visit its website here.

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More --

• MFAS: "Music For All Seasons"
  
• NJCA website: "NJ Council on the Arts"
• Ledger: "Council increases funds for arts groups"

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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