'Plainfield whorehouse' post climbs toward 6,000

Pageviews of 'whorehouse' post, as of 9/11/14.

Happened to glance at Plainfield Today's readership statistics today and notice that the 'whorehouse' post (see here) from last week is approaching 6,000 views -- even surpassing interest in posts on Jerry Green, now my second largest draw.

The post garnered only one really critical comment, which came via IM to my cellphone and has since, unfortunately, vanished into the ether.

As I recall, the reader questioned my use of the term 'whorehouse', noting the 'cultural differences' between sex worker preferences for venue, and a general lack of polish to the post.

I chose the term carefully, trying for a little shock value without the use of either wimpy Bowdlerizing terms (such as house of ill repute) or vulgarisms (such as cathouse). I was also aware of a popular Broadway show of a few years ago with the term in its title.

Noting the differences in preferred venues of sex workers was simply reporting what a cop had told me years ago. The whole post, as I said, was a riff on Olddoc's 'potpourri' style -- to stitch together several small items in one larger post. The only theme was sex work.

As to polish, it wasn't intended to be a 'heavy' piece like  on Muhlenberg or economic development. In comedy they call it a 'throwaway'.

Top five sources of traffic.

One interesting thing about the stats is that Blogger lets its authors see not only how much traffic a post gets, but also the sources. In the case of the 'whorehouse' post, it is quite revealing.

The two most used 'referring sites' by far are identified with an 'm.facebook.com' -- meaning folks who access their web pages from their smartphone Facebook app. And the fifth of the top five is those who access their information from Facebook on their laptop or desktop machine. Social media rules!

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield's 9/11 observance Thursday morning

Many homes and public buildings mark the day with flag displays.

Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp will lead a brief 'Day of Remembrance' ceremony Thursday morning, marking the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that caused over 3,000 deaths and destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City as well as damaging the Pentagon. Another plane was lost over Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overcome the terrorists.

Mayor Mapp is inviting residents to gather on City Hall steps at 8:30 AM. The ceremony will begin with the ringing of bells of Grace Episcopal and Crescent Avenue Presbyterian churches at 8:45 AM, the time of the first impact.

Included will be the presentation of colors by the Plainfield Police Division Color Guard, a musical selection by the PAAAS Choir and remarks by Mayor Mapp and other elected officials and dignitaries. The Rev. Dr. Gerald Lamont Thomas, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church will offer both the invocation and the benediction.

Parking is available on the street.

NOTE: If there are any residents of Plainfield who were involved in the disaster recovery efforts at Ground Zero, be aware that the Workmen's Compensation registry that has been set up for such individuals will be closing shortly per news reports. It is important to get on this registry to be covered in case of future 9/11-related health issues. Those who fail to register will lose out on possible future benefits should they develop health-related symptoms at some point in the future.

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Residency waiver, East 2nd Street are flash points at Council meeting

What's a Council meeting without some D-R-A-M-A?

A residency waiver for Plainfield Health Officer Denise Proctor and the question of funds for the East 2nd Street revitalization provided flash points at Monday's City Council business meeting.

When the Council moved the Proctor waiver to the agenda at last week's meeting, it seemed clear that the concerns of a majority of councilors had been satisfied and the waiver was going to be granted. Councilor Taylor had announced her intention to vote 'No' (see my post here) and Councilor Reid was -- well, he was Councilor Reid, using his loud 'No' vote for dramatic effect, if nothing else.

What was odd was why Mayor Adrian Mapp took the bait and responded to Councilor Taylor's rant -- before the vote was taken -- thus giving her a chance to demagogue a little more on the matter.

Audibly muttering and mumbling while Mayor Mapp was speaking, Taylor launched into a tirade when he was done that included a veiled threat of a recall. Taylor evidently keeps two sets of books: Everyone is supposed to be quiet and respectful when she speaks, but she is free to mutter into the mike and shake her head when she disagrees with what is being said. Bully behavior, reminiscent of Chris Christie, and totally unbecoming.

After a presentation by the Muslim-Christian group CURE (Creating Universal Righteous Establishments) asking for city support for a youth center, Councilor Reid invited Rev. Paul Dean, spokesperson for the East 2nd Street Revitalization, to say a few words again this week.

Responding to Dean's presentation gave an opportunity for Council President Bridget Rivers to press once again about the $1.2M allegedly set aside from UEZ funds for the revitalization project.

Director of Administration & Finance Ron West reiterated that the Mapp administration is still sorting out the financial records of the UEZ program and reminded the Council that it had rescinded UEZ commitments in 2013. To this latter point, Councilor Rivers responded, 'I wanted to hear you say that. If the Council rescinded it, the Council can restore it'.

Rivers also repeatedly mentioned that South Avenue had been repaved twice in ten years, and why shouldn't Second Street get its due?

Somehow, the fact that East 2nd Street WAS resurfaced within the last ten years failed to be mentioned by anyone. Odd, since if memory serves me correctly, Councilor Reid complained bitterly about the quality of that work.

As for South Avenue, the discussion overlooked the fact that the first road work there was done (more than ten years ago) in a rush to avoid losing a $600,000 DOT grant expressly for South Avenue that went back to the administration of Mayor Mark Fury. It wasn't UEZ money and it was a use-it-or-lose-it moment.

While Dean had only a few supporters with him this time, the neighborhood does have legitimate issues and the City should be doing something. It's a perfect opportunity for the Mapp administration to show it is listening and responding to stakeholders after years of neglect and foot-dragging by former mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

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Appropriate??!!

Work under way in the North Avenue Historic District includes
the buildings above.

Plainfield's North Avenue Historic District is seeing a lot of work to its buildings currently, as the photo above shows.

I was, however, jolted by one doorway in the above photo. Is this 'appropriate'?

That is the term used by the Historic Preservation Commission in reviewing and approving plans to alter the exterior of Plainfield buildings designated as historic, as these buildings are.

But the door with the fake fanlight has no counterpart in history to my knowledge -- except maybe being historic 1980s vintage.

Knowing that one property owner has been before the Commission multiple times for months now over porch spindles, I am intrigued at how this door passed muster.

In any event, the overall work being done is exciting and heartening. I hope that Jan and Henry Johnson read this and feel a sense of fulfillment that all their effort to get the block designated all those years ago is finally paying off. Too bad Bill Hetfield didn't live to see the day -- he would appreciate it, too.

Except for the door.

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Health officer's residency waiver on Council agenda

Councilor Gloria Taylor has declared her intention to vote 'No'
on the Health Officer's residency waiver.

Plainfield City Council meets at 8:00 PM Monday and will take up a residency waiver for Acting Health Officer Denise Proctor.

In her short tenure (she was hired in mid-May), Proctor has addressed two public health issues that had been festering for years under the failed 'leadership' of former Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs -- the timely inspection of Plainfield's 325 food-service locations, and ensuring the public pools where our kids swim meet the state's health and safety standards (see my post on Robinson-Briggs' failure here).

A report by the Courier's Sergio Bichao (see here) found that only a fraction of sites had been inspected on a timely basis. Sites that had gone without inspection included school cafeterias, soup kitchens and a nursing home. Crown Fried Chicken on East Front Street was last inspected in 2009. And on top of that, many records for 2012 were missing altogether.

It was found by the city's new Superintendent of Parks & Recreation, Veronica Taylor, that there was no record the prior administration ever had the required Health Inspector's review and certification of the public pools. One pool -- Hannah Atkins -- was found to be defective in regard to a safety regulation and its opening in danger of being delayed until the problem could be corrected.

Despite the fact of such exemplary service in such a short time, Councilor Gloria Taylor has signaled that she will cast a 'No' vote when the waiver comes up.

The irony -- which evidently escapes the retired school administrator -- is that by her own logic, she should have moved to Paterson, in whose school district she was employed for many years. All her arguments about why hirees should move to Plainfield are just as legitimate when applied to her employment in Paterson. Yet she never for one minute resided in that city.

A further fact makes one wonder whether Councilor Taylor is just plain cruel and mean-spirited: She lives tax-free in a nice home and neighborhood on a comfy pension (fairly earned) and knows full well that requiring an employee to sell an existing home in this disadvantageous market to buy and move eight miles to Plainfield is over-the-top.

Former city administrator Norton Bonaparte did move his family to Plainfield from South Jersey when he came. Former Police Director Martin Hellwig never did -- continuing to live in Lake Hopatcong long after taking the Plainfield job under Robinson-Briggs and then commuting from Staten Island after questions arose concerning allegations that he and his wife, a foreign national, never lived together after wedding.

This is the second time Proctor's residency waiver is being put forward, this time after Council conducted a legally dubious 'interview' in executive session. The fact that Council President Bridget Rivers has moved it to the agenda seems to indicate that Proctor's waiver will be approved, despite Councilor Taylor's opposition.

City Council meets at 8:00 PM in the newly refurbished Council Chamber/Courthouse at Watchung Avenue and East 4th Street.

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14th Annual Hispanic Heritage Festival this weekend

Two dancers in costume.

 

Plainfield's 14th annual Hispanic Heritage Festival is being held this weekend on North Avenue between Park and Watchung Avenues.

Running from 10:30 AM to 8:30 PM on both Saturday and Sunday, the free event includes rides for youngsters, ethnic foods and music. Performers include Pedro Manual y su Orquestra Sensacional, El Potrillo Veliz, and Norberto Chavez in addition to a DJ.

The event, which for severl years was held in the parking lot of United National Bank draws large crowds to enjoy the music, offerings by vendors and food from local restaurants.

It is a program of the Latin American Coalition, a longstanding Plainfield service organization. For more information, contact Flor Gonzalez at LAC, (908) 753-7155 or visit their website at www.njlac.org/.

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Plainfield whorehouse potpourri

The Plainfield NJT Station, conveniently located between
two whorehouses? (Image from Google Maps.)

Parking in the City Hall lot for Thursday night's Plainfield Planning Board, I was startled by a 20-something Black woman who approached my car saying, 'Lookin' for something, honey?'

A hooker working the City Hall parking lot? Seems she was hanging out with a group of young men on the steps of the house across from the lot's entrance. I have heard complaints about this particular house recently.

The incident gave me the idea of doing a riff on Olddoc and offering a whorehouse 'potpourri'.

Years ago, when I was working for the City, we had a big bust of a whorehouse in the West End. Mayor McWilliams was adamant that we shut it down -- it had been busted on several occasions and reopened as soon as the hookers were sprung on bail. On his insistence, the bust was staged to include fire, code and health inspectors and the absentee property owner was hit with a list of summonses for violations and the house boarded up. That particular property was a whorehouse no more.

At the time, one of the cops explained to me that there were 'cultural differences' between Black and Latino hookers. The Black sex workers, he said, preferred to work solo on the streets, picking up johns as they drove by. Latino sex workers, he said, preferred to work in whorehouses.

That has seemed to be true over the years. Even a casual observer can see Black hookers working West Front Street.

From what I hear, the whorehouses have taken a lesson in economic development and have moved into the downtown Transit Village area.

When I posted recently a photo of a truck emblazoned 'American Stell Doors' (see here), a reader wrote to let me know that a whorehouse on North Avenue had a 'stell door'.

This particular bordello is nearby the La Bamba bar and I am told the customers are taken through a regular apartment to a back section of the building which serves as the whorehouse -- the 'stell' door making it harder for the cops to bust the joint and the rear location offering an escape to the NJT station platform. Well thought out, no?

A more stunning example seems to be over on Watchung Avenue.

I am told that a seemingly vacant store between the ice cream shop and the Texas Weiner is functioning as a bordello. Seems the customers are solicited at one of the restaurants across the street and taken over to the storefront, where someone inside the building raises the metal gate to let them in. Very enterprising.

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Planning Board discusses Muhlenberg study, Elmwood Gardens plan tonight

Aerial view of the Muhlenberg campus from the Heyer & Gruel study.

Plainfield's Planning Board is set to discuss a synopsis of the Council-commissioned study of the Muhlenberg Hospital campus and its future uses as well as review a draft of the Housing Authority's plans for the now-shuttered Elmwood Gardens project.

The Muhlenberg study, conducted for the Council by planners Heyer & Gruel Associates made a preliminary presentation to the community on August 14 to a packed house at the PHS cafeteria (see my report here). That preliminary presentation is available at the city's website (see here). The final report was expected to be delivered to the City by the end of August. Tonight's discussion involves a SYNOPSIS of the study and future steps. If you plan to attend, there should be a review copy for the public at the meeting.

Also slated is a review of the Housing Authority's draft plan for the Elmwood Gardens site. The project is now vacant -- two years after it was originally scheduled to be closed -- and surrounded by a shiny (and costly) new chain link fence. The fencing suggests no plans for demolition are imminent, and I hear rumors that HAP is still trying to put the money together to proceed. This will be a further opportunity for the public to learn of plans and pacing for this important project.

The agenda includes at least one possibly contentious and time-consuming item (the Danny Buoy restaurant on Terrill Road) before getting to the 'new business' section of the meeting -- where the Muhlenberg and HAP items are placed.

The Plainfield Planning Board meets in City Hall Library, beginning at 7:00 PM tonight. Parking is available in the lot at the rear of City Hall.

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Another Robinson-Briggs mess hits the fan -- East 2nd Street

The East 2nd Street Commercial District runs from Johnston to Leland Avenues.

Though you would never know it from the tone of the discussion at Tuesday's Plainfield City Council agenda-setting session, the Council and Mapp administration are being faced with cleaning up yet another mess left behind by former mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

Residents and business owners concerned with revitalization of East 2nd Street's business district between Johnston and Leland Avenues showed up in force to press their case for Urban Enterprise Zone funding to begin fighting the area's blighted conditions.

After a spirited presentation by the Rev. Paul Dean of Visions of God Church, who acted as spokesperson for the group, each of the six Councilors present weighed in (Councilor Brown was absent) -- some more than once, and some at exhausting length.

Though all were supportive -- some exuberantly so -- Councilor Storch was cautious, suggesting that while $1.2 million being discussed seemed like a large sum, it really wouldn't go very far and the success of such a large-scale revitalization would depend on outside investment. And where would that come from?

The revitalization proposal emanates from a design charrette conducted in 2012 by Rutgers professor (and Plainfield resident) Dr. Roland Anglin and a group of students who took up the various facets of issues and possible solutions for problems with the East 2nd Street Commercial District. The resulting study can be viewed online here.

The area gives evidence of once being a bustling neighborhood shopping district that fell on hard times -- as so many in other communities also did -- when the rise of Route 22 strip malls offered wider selections, more convenient parking and pricing with which neighborhood merchants could not compete.

I personally remember how hard Sherry Ryan struggled to make her excellent dance studio prosper there. She had a great building and ample parking, but found that parents were afraid to send their children to classes because of fears of the neighborhood. Eventually she had to give up.

But I can also remember the district being disheveled all the way back to the time when Councilor Taylor's husband was mayor. No administration did anything until the Urban Enterprise Zone was extended under the late mayor Al McWilliams to include the East 2nd Street corridor and West Front Street to the Mack property. Near the end of McWilliams' second term, the Planning Board also designated the locale for redevelopment** [See correction below -- DD].

And there things sat for four more years under mayor Robinson-Briggs, until neighborhood pressure got her administration to file a plan with the UEZ in December 2010 to use more than $1 million for streetscape improvements similar to those undertaken in the Central Business District with UEZ funds a few years earlier. That request got tangled up in the demise of the Urban Enterprise Zone program under pressure from Gov. Chris Christie, with the funds being wound down through local control.

It came out in the course of the back-and-forth with the Council that Rev. Dean had already set up an appointment to discuss the matter this coming Thursday with representatives of the Administration.

Director of Finance & Administration Ron West explained that he is still in the process of sorting out the bookkeeping with regard to UEZ funds (another Robinson-Briggs mess to clean up!) and the city couldn't even say with any exactitude just how much money there is in the UEZ kitty.

An objective observer might have cried 'Dirty politics!' at the way the matter was broached at a Council meeting before even meeting with the Mapp administration, but that seems to be the temper of the times.

When City Administrator Rick Smiley told Councilor Taylor that the Thursday meeting was preliminary and was planned to involve staff and neighborhood representatives only, she protested, assuming her most schoolmarmish threatening tone.

Perhaps she'll have him write on the board 'I shall never contradict Councilor Taylor' five hundred times, and then stay after class to clean up the blackboards?

**CORRECTION: The East 2nd Street Commercial District has NOT been designated in need of redevelopment. My memory played a trick on me. My last assignment in the early months of mayor Robinson-Briggs' first term was to photograph separately all of the properties in several redevelopment plans. The East 2nd Street locale was included in the assignment though it was not then and is not now in a redevelopment plan. -- DD, 9/3/14.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Do property tax adjustments signal trouble?

Uh-oh!

Tonight's Plainfield City Council agenda-setting session includes two troubling items headed 'tax adjustments due to county board judgments'.

Two hundred and fifty-nine (259) properties are involved, totaling more than $418,000. Close to $6,000 is being refunded as overpayments on these properties (in addition to $42,600 in other overpayments in two separate resolutions).

Nearly every business meeting has a small amount in refunds for property owners who overpay (sometimes the mortgage holders make these duplicate payments). This is customary.

It is also not unusual for a few 'adjustments' to be made each year as some property owners appeal their assessments.

However, I cannot recall an instance as large as this year's adjustments except for the successful appeal on the former Macy's/Bamberger's building -- and that was nearly twenty years ago.

Unless and until the housing market rebounds, it seems likely we will see a continuing stream of appeals and judgments in the property owners' favor.

What does that portend for the city's budgets?

Only time will tell, but it is not a rosy forecast.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Labor Day memories

Gateway to a once-a-year world of excitement.

As a kid in the early 1950s, Labor Day meant two things: Summer vacation was over and we'd be back at the grind of school -- and the Chautauqua County Fair would fill the end of summer with farmer pride and midway razzle-dazzle.

The fairgrounds was jammed with a carnival midway with rides and games offering kewpie dolls and cheap glassware as prizes.

The barns were full of the horses, cattle and pigs raised by 4-H members during the past year. Exhibit halls were filled with the canned fruits and vegetables, cakes, pies and jams and jellies of farm wives vying for prize ribbons.

The front corner of the fairgrounds near Central Avenue was filled with the latest display of John Deere, Allis-Chalmers and Ford tractors and farm equipment, each in their distinctive colors. This was designed to entice passersby, who could glimpse the display but would have to pay to enter and inspect the 'toys' more closely.

There would be competitive tractor pulls. The men would have a try at tugs of war with enormous hemp ropes. A perennial favorite was the egg toss, where couples would lightly toss an egg underhand to each other, backing up a step at a time before each toss -- often enough the girl would end up throwing the egg overhand with great force to her beau, much to everyone's amusement.

But the most exciting part to me always was the Joie Chitwood Hell Drivers stunt show.

Here's a YouTube vid of a 1952 show, same as I would have witnessed. By the way, Chitwood, a famed race car driver of the 1930s and 40s was the first to wear a safety belt.

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Sad state of sympathy cards

Heaven help us!

 

The death of a friend's parent led to a trip to Norman's Hallmark in Fanwood to buy a sympathy card, and to chagrin over what's become of them.

I've been buying cards for special occasions at this shop for over thirty years -- since before it was even Irma's Bag. The shop has changed over the years, with less space devoted to giftwrap and more to tchotchkes. On this trip, I even noticed a mannequin offering clothing items.

The Hallmark greeting cards section has become enormous, even as Americans are mailing fewer items each year. And Hallmark, with an exquisitely tuned ear for marketing, has created several smaller distinctive lines offering edgy alternatives to the more traditional offerings.

But in sympathy cards, I prefer a very simple and straightforward card with plenty of space for me to write a personal note.

To my surprise, though there were over a hundred cards to choose from, there wasn't a single simple card. Everything was awash in pastel swoops and bunches of flowers. And the insides were filled with overlong treacly sentiments.

Since Hallmark wouldn't offer all this stuff if it weren't making money by doing so, the question came to my mind whether we substitute this stuff for a real expression of our sympathy and connection to those who have suffered a loss because we are just too busy, afraid to look the inevitable in the eye, or because we don't know how to express ourselves any more.

Or perhaps all three?

In any event, it's a sad state for sympathy cards.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Exhibit of Detwiller Collection drawings opens at Library

The Plainfield Public Library, one of a handful of modernist buildings in the city,
houses an outstanding collection of local architectural drawings.

The Plainfield Public Library is mounting an exhibition from its Detwiller Collection of architectural drawings in honor of New Jersey's 350th anniversary.

Plainfield architect Charles H. Detwiller, Jr., is credited with rescuing thousands of architectural drawings that were being disposed of by the City by dumping from an upper floor window at City Hall into a dumpster in the parking lot.

The collection of over 16,000 items representing over 500 architects documents over a century of residential and commercial architecture in the Plainfield area. Its record of the architectural history of a suburban community is unique in the United States.

Among its outstanding items of interest are drawings of the Fire Headquarters on Central Avenue designed by architect George Ernest Robinson in 1925 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The exhibit culls 70 pieces from thirty-five sets of drawings by 24 architects. It is displayed on walls and in display cases on both levels of the Library.

Preservation of these aging documents began in 1998. The conservation and digitizing of the collection is still ongoing. This work is entirely supported through grant funding and volunteer efforts. Local funders  include the Plainfield Foundation and the Friends of the Plainfield Public Library.

The exhibit opens September 2 and runs through October during regular library hours. For more information on the Detwiller Collection, contact Sarah Hull, head of the Local History Department at (908) 757-1111 x136.

To arrange group visits, call (908) 757-1111 x129. The Plainfield Public Library is at Park Avenue and West 8th Street and is an accessible facility. Parking is available in the 8th and 9th Street lots.


NOTE: This post has been changed to correct information about George Ernest Robinson contained in the original press release.

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Mayor Mapp vetoes HAP ordinance

Mayor Mapp has vetoed the 'land grab' ordinance
that would convey Public Parking Lot 9
to the Housing Authority of Plainfield.

Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp forwarded his veto of the so-called HAP ordinance (MC 2014-16) Thursday morning to Council President Bridget Rivers and members of the governing body by hand and electronically to their email accounts. I have posted a copy of the document online (see here) and embedded it below for your reference.

The veto lists sixteen objections, several of which appear to be fatal to the ordinance, presented in descending order of importance.

Here are some of the main points --

1. The statute cited in the proposed ordinance to justify the transfer (NJSA 40A: 12-20) is either misunderstood or purposely misconstrued by the person(s) who drafted the ordinance and does not convey the authority put forward by the ordinance's assertion;
   
   
2. The terms and conditions of the sale are not fully set forth -- including the question of soil contamination and remediation which had been in the back of my mind;
   
   
3. One of the properties listed in the ordinance (318-20 West Front) is actually across the street from the proposed property to be transferred and is not even owned by the City -- this is was completely missed by the Council majority in the rush to pass the ordinance;
   
   
4. The one lot that could be transferred (the vacant lot at Madison Avenue and West 2nd Street) is in a redevelopment plan and must be conveyed for the purposes specifically outlined in that plan -- conditions not spelled out in the proposed ordinance; and
   
   
5. The ordinance does not set forth a finding that the lots are not needed for a public use.

Further, the matter of the qualifications of the Housing Authority of Plainfield and its Community Development Corporation are addressed in several other points.

Besides unanswered questions about the experience, ability or financial wherewithal of these entities to perform as set forth, the failure of HAP Executive Director Randy Wood to submit resolutions by both his Board of Commissioners and the CDC's board authorizing the transfer is also noted.

Lastly, the mayor's letter notes there is no indication of who or what entity drafted this ordinance. (The copy that was presented to the Council at its July agenda-setting session looked fishy to me because the document did not contain either an ordinance number -- supplied by the Clerk's office -- or the customary lines for attestation by the Clerk and the Mayor.)

Has the haste of Council President Bridget Rivers and the Council majority to 'railroad' this ordinance -- to use Councilor Storch's term -- led to embarrassing the Council and sending Wood & Co. back to the drawing board?

Though Council President Rivers asserted 'we [the Council] are not going to do anything illegal' at the August second reading and hearing, the question is whether the Council will ignore the ordinance's fatal defects and vote to overturn the veto?

I don't think we've heard the last on the matter just yet.

Below is the full text of Mayor Mapp's veto.

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VETO: Mayor Mapp vetoes HAP ordinance

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Sharon planning recall of Mapp?

The notorious 'Re-elect Sharon' banner hung on City Hall
was doctored to remove 'Re-elect'.

 

Former Plainfield mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has been nearly as visible since losing office as she was during her two terms in City Hall.

She and a tight-knit group of supporters are regular attendees at Council meetings, where she is given extra deferential treatment -- including extra time at the mike while others are not.

Sharon can also be seen at some public events, working the crowd. The recent capper probably was the National Night Out celebration at City Hall, where the stage was taken over by Her Honor and friends, turning it into a sort of 'Sharon Show'.

During the break at last week's Council meeting for an executive session to interview Health Officer Denise Proctor over the residency waiver, someone said to me they had heard Sharon was organizing a recall of Mayor Adrian Mapp.

The scenario would include launching the campaign after the first of the year -- an elected official cannot be recalled until after at least a year in office -- and include Sharon herself as the replacement candidate.

Do I see a movie here?

'Night of the Living Dead in Plainfield'?

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$37,500 check benefits First Tee youth program of Plainfield YMCA and Plainfield Country Club

Through First Tee, Plainfield youngsters learn golf and more
at the Plainfield Country Club's West 9 course on Woodland Avenue.

A youth golf and education program of the Plainfield YMCA and the Plainfield Country Club received a check for $37,500 Saturday at The Barclays golf tournament at the Ridgewood Country Club.

The check was a matching contribution by the PGA, the national golf association, to funds already raised by the local program.

Begun in 2009, the First Tee of Plainfield program was the first private country club in the country to offer the program, which brings urban youngsters to the club's public West 9 course to learn the game of golf and important life skills. The program also includes an element called 'Path to College', which helps encourage participants in the golf program to continue on to college level education.

The check was delivered at Saturday's event to representatives of the program, including Plainfield mayor Adrian Mapp, YMCA Executive Director Ravenell Williams IV and Paul Zoidis, chair of First Tee of Plainfield.

The program is offered to children in grades 4-12 and runs over a 9-week period that includes instruction on and off the golf course in addition to an intensive homework, fitness and healthy living curriculum. 'All aspects of the program are designed to teach core life skills and demonstrate to each participant that there is a ‘Path to College’, which is an underlying principle of The First Tee of Plainfield', said Zoidis.

A Committee of Champions has been formed to help market the program and recruit participants. The Champions Committee includes Bill Caster, PGA Golf Pro at the Plainfield West 9; Steven King, Founder, The Barack Obama Green Charter School; Kelvin Mason; Erica Phillips and Randy Wood, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of Plainfield.

For more information about the program, contact YMCA Executive Director Ravenell Williams IV at (908) 756-6060.

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Happy Birthday, brother Bill

My dad was the 'baby' of his siblings, and some of my cousins
in this photo were nearly his age -- not uncommon when families were larger.

 

My 'little' brother celebrates his birthday today.

I won't tell you how old he is, but living in Arizona all these years has kept him and his wife Barb youthful.

The group photo is of 'the cousins' -- my grandmother Damon's grandchildren (most of them) -- at Christmas 1946. Bill is at bottom left, sitting astride the sofa arm, Dan is beside him on the sofa.

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