Fanwood Council 9/7/2002

Traffic concerns from town residents continued to dominate public debate at the Westfield Council meeting Tuesday night. Unlike the last meeting on May 7, when the Rahway Avenue traffic calming project was the main item, the debate this time focused on issues affecting South Chestnut Street.

Several residents expressed concern with increased traffic and with the closing of the street during baseball season,fearing traffic is being diverted to other local streets.

“You just move the traffic problems to other streets” said Rob Swadosh also noting that “South Chestnut has become quite a bit more dangerous since Shop Rite opened”. The South Chestnut area is referred to by town officials as the Shop Rite grid because of the supermarket which opened in Garwood last November.
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“It’s becoming clear that any changes we make have to be comprehensive for the Shop Rite grid”, said Council Member Rafael Betancourt.

According to Town Engineer Ken Marsh, the South Chestnut traffic calming project will begin after the work on Rahway Avenue is completed.

Marsh said the Rahway Avenue calming project was nearing completion but any conclusions about its success would take time.
“You can’t look at the project until elevated crosswalks and speed tables are completed on Rahway Avenue “, said Marsh.

“I ask you to be patient. We are going to get there “, added Betancourt, who also noted that the speed limit on Mountain Avenue in Westfield had been reduced to 25 from 35 MPH.

Several residents objected to the noise caused by new rumblestrips placed on many streets in order to slow down cars. Resident Liz Loland asked why more four way stop corners couldn’t be added.

Currently the town only has one four-way stop at the corners of Lennox and Elmer. “If we had our druthers we would have more four way stop signs”, said McDermott.
“The Department of Transportation (DOT) makes it very difficult for you to
have them. You need to justify it with a large number of reported accidents”.


“Without traffic discussion this meeting would have ended at 8:30 “, quipped Board Member Carl Salisbury said at the conclusion of the meeting at 9:30.
“It is an important issue to many of our residents”.

An ordinance creating fire zones and lanes allowing fire trucks to get to fires quicker was passed.

“We had some problems getting our fire trucks parked near buildings” said Fire Chief John Castellano.

The meeting got off to a rousing start as eleven members of the award
winning Westfield Volunteer Rescue Squad dressed in uniform, received a citation from Mayor McDermott. Captain Miki Urso accepted the award for the squad which was named the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Volunteer Service of the Year by, the State of New Jersey's Department of Health and Senior Services. Many members attended the EMS awards dinner, which was held on May 20,2002.

Urso invited township residentas to visit the Rescue Squad at their open house on Memorial Day between 11:30 and 3:30 at their headquarters on Waterston Street. The parade is slated to start at 9 am on Monday.

This weekend also marks the 26th Westfield Cup Soccer tournament. The Recreation Department also announced that Westfield Memorial Pool will open as scheduled on June 8 with renovations scheduled to be ready by the second week of July, a month ahead of schedule. Enhancements will include a 50 meter olympic size pool and a children’s area.

Westfield Council 9/3/2002

With the first day of school beckoning the next morning and everyone recovering from the unofficial end of summer, brevity appeared to be the order of the night as the Westfield Council met Tuesday night.

“We have to finish by 9:30 “ was heard more than a few times as the 8 PM meeting started but a full agenda pushed the end back an hour.

“We didn’t do too bad. Committees hadn’t met in 6 weeks, so there were a lot of resolutions to discuss”, said Mayor Greg McDermott.

Among the most important issues was the renewal of Westfield’s contract with the Joint Insurance Fund (JIF) which provides a large group of similar municipalities with much more affordable insurance that can be obtained in the consumer market. Town JIF representative Jim Gruba and Risk Management Consultant Ray Vaughn answered questions and presented documentation about the benefits of the plan.

“This has been one of the most volatile years in the history of insurance", said Vaughn noting the confluence of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and the corporate scandals which have sent stock prices tumbling.

“This was very important for the town to be able to renew this policy”, said McDermott.
“JIF saves us a lot of money”.

The Traffic Parking and Transportation (TPT) Committee chaired by Rafael J. Betancourt awarded a contract to fix the area around the Shop Rite grid to Wilbur Smith after proposals from three companies including RBA which had revamped the Rahway Avenue area.

“It will be good to have another company doing this project because we will be able to draw comparisons with RBA” , said Betancourt.

McDermott was very pleased with the work done thus far.
“Our department of public works did a great job this summer of getting projects done when traffic was light, “ said McDermott.



The Laws and Rules Committee chaired by Carl A. Salisbury brought forward four resolutions including an ordinance which would prohibit Westfield from entering into contracts with companies that had made political contributions of $400 to a candidate, $500 to a political party or $2500 aggregate.

“We are not even sure that this is a problem in Westfield “, admitted Salisbury.
“This body will not tolerate even the slightest appearance of impropriety”.

The most significant development from the Building and Town Property committee was the addition of a cellular antenna in the North Avenue Bell Tower. Totally financed by Verizon Wireless Communications, the antenna will help to eliminate several cellular dead zones in numerous parts of Westfield.
A request by Xocalatz Café to distribute free coffee at the train station for two weeks was scaled back to one day.

“We would be hurting the companies that sell coffee near the train station”, said McDermott.
“One day is more legitimate”.