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”.
“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”.
posted by David Lazarus at 5:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home