Mailbag

Dear Editor,

I think it is a bit unfair to pick at the DPW staff for the so-called "mess" they leave after leaf pickup. First of all, as you know, the staff was hit with budgetary layoffs. Secondly, they are picking up the leaves, and pretty much on schedule. Finally, their job for now is to pick up the leaves, not sweep the gutters. I am assuming that in late December, after the leaves have been removed, they will come back around to sweep the gutters.

If you are so concerned about left over leaves in your gutter, I suggest that you either wait until the gutter sweeper comes around, or get out there and clean the front of your house yourself.

Sincerely,

Frank Deale

HI! We have two small kids and we call the leaf-sucking trucks the
"Snuffle-leaf-agus."
Never hurts to laugh!

Kristen Ryan
South Orange

In response to Osborne's threat of re-zoning Tuscan (and I see it as a threat to silence parental complaints, btw) I would like to see him asked to address- on record- the exact number of variances being granted and the issue of non-residents in Tuscan and our school system in general.

It seems to me that as a town we care more about yearly registration and photo IDs for our $250 a year pool than our overcrowded, budget-starved schools.

Dear Editor: I am from Seattle and last month I was visiting my daughter and her husband on Midland Blvd. One day I saw the garbage truck appear on the block, and when I looked out the window ten minutes later the truck had hardly moved. So, I started watching and to my surprise the garbage crew were going behind houses and back by garages to retrieve cans and haul them to the truck. When they got to the neighbors house I went out to talk to them. I said in our area people have to put their garbage cans out on the curb and in Seattle they would have been done with the block already. He told me that the way they do it in Maplewood is not the way its done in all New Jersey towns, its just the way the town council negotiated the contract with the garbage company. Well, I would suggest that Maplewoodians could get a lot cheaper garbage service by looking at the current inefficient system. And why don't you guys have standardized yard waste and recycle bins on wheels? Sincerely, Ken Oswald

Joe,

I have been a Maplewoodian reader from the beginning, but as of today
I am no longer going to read your website and I have stopped following
you on Twitter. You may not care, but in case you do, I'll tell you
why.

You asked your readers to financially support the Boy Scouts. The Boy
Scouts openly discriminate against gay people. It is part of their
policy. They have the right to do that as a private organization, but
I will not support them nor do I choose to "hang out" (either in
person or online) with folks who think that this is an OK thing to do.

Some Maplewood Boy Scout supporters say that the national organization
is discriminatory but the local organization is not. This is not a
factual statement. By being part of the national organization, the
local organization agrees to uphold the national policies and they are
financially supporting the national organization.

I believe that Maplewood is an inclusive community, and I will support
all Maplewood organizations that believe in our wonderful diversity.

Vickie Selleck

Hi Joe I agree with you on this one. If you are talking about space for 100 kids plus needing a buildings person present that might be a little different. Just think about who is imposing these fees on us. That's right the people we elected. And guess what they are all Democrats doing it to us. Also, in The Star-Ledger the other day there was a story about Newark hiring 64 police recruits. The Mayor Cory Booker gave them a pep talk about how Newark laid off other workers he stated how police officers are the only ones being hired then he said we even raised the fee for birth certificates. Now that really hit a nerve having been born in Newark and having lived there for 25 plus years before moving to Maplewood. I went up on the NEWARK website. And there it was $25 for a birth certificate. Now your talking about a poor city. How does anyone in their right mind raise the price of a birth certificate to poor people to $25? Well, Booker did. But, worse who did he learn these rip them off fee tricks from? Our great Gov. Corzine. The state took over issuing Jersey City birth certificates and raise the fee from $6 to $25. The state also raised the fees on state issued death certificates etc. Democrats play games with people through fees. They'd like you to they are doing things to help us. One hand patting us on the back the other hand picking our wallets. But we never learn because we don't fight back. Best Regards, Bill Steinbrunn

Hi Joe Letter to the Editor NO TO POLICE LAY OFFS It's time we say NO TO POLICE LAYOFFS. Our hard working brave police officers must not be laid off.
Police officers should never be laid off and the police department
should always be at maximum man power. Crime in many parts of this country is on the rise. We are hearing about and
reading about the crimes being committed in our own town and surrounding area.
The POLICE BLOTTER in the NEWS-RECORD and the MAPLEWOODIAN.COM every week reports on the crimes and criminal activity in Maplewood and South Orange.
The town will spend millions on Springfield Ave. and DeHart Park, but will
neglect public safety. Why millions of dollars on grass and red bricks and
no money to keep the 3 police officers on duty working to protect us.
Are these projects so much more important than PUBLIC SAFETY?
Apparently the township committee thinks so. How much will keeping the 3 police officers cost us tax payers? Not much I'm
sure compared to what crime victims go through in just the trauma alone from
being robbed, assaulted or injured or having their homes burglarized or cars broken into
or stolen without even considering the monetary aspect of losses or possible
medical expenses. How much less spent on grass and red bricks to keep the 3 police officers.
Let the township spend less on the grass and red bricks and more on
public safety. It's the Township Committees responsibility to find the funds to keep the police officers on duty. Public Safety must be made the top priority by the Township Committee.
It's unconscionable to lay off police officers and place the public in more jeopardy
from crime than we already are and spend millions on grass and red bricks.
It's time for us citizens to support our police officers. It's time for us citizens
to tell the Township Committee "NO WE DO NOT WANT THE POLICE
OFFICERS LAID OFF". We can stop it, but we have to work together and speak up. Bill Steinbrunn

Joe,
>
>
> Appreciated your last blog about sewer taxes. Who is listening and
> how do we get listened to by people who can really make changes? In
> Brooklyn we paid sewer charges to the water company on a quarterly
> basis so that wasn't included in our property taxes either. However,
> Broooklyn property taxes were 2200 a year!
>
>
> Although we're newbies to the town there's lots of anger and
> resentment out there towards the township and state for the heavy
> levies. So really this quaintness and community Maplewood raves about
> comes with a heavy price tag. Graft and usury are also words that come
> to mind.
>
>
> Best,
>
>
> Brian Mecca

Dear Joe I totally agree with you. There were comments about the SEWER TAX on MOL. Someone posted that down in Cape May the tax is $460. Also, stated was that the curb and 18 inches out into the street is the home owners responsibility. Nice!!

I have been told that in some towns the water company bills the sewer fee monthly at a set rate, which would be much higher than the $175 per year. Well, all I can say is that nothing will change until people stand on their hind legs and fight back. Too many times people have stated "What can you do? You can't fight City Hall" Well, with that attitude what do you expect? City Hall will keep doing whatever it wants to the citizens.

Also, regarding the increase in the ambulance fee I have written Mr. De Luca and I am still waiting for answers. One question on this is why are we not provided EMS service by MONOC, St Barnabas or UMDNJ which are professional EMS providers. To me the firefighters should just fight fires. Our fire department is already short handed which jeopardizes public safety.

Joe, we the people have the power, but we lack the guts to use it. We can stop the politicians any time we want to. All we have to do is stand together and tell them NO and tell them what we want them to do for us. Finally, a few years back Maplewood was voted one of the best places to live. And I still read it frequently from posters on MOL "What a wonderful place to live." Well, it must be if so many are willing to pay the outrageous taxes and have their tax money spent at the will and whim of the town government.

We need a real change here in Maplewood. I firmly believe you could bring the much

This is the second set of playgrounds on this site to be built in
age-appropriate manner, although the first set (built about 10 years ago)
were not specifically signed that way.

By the way, what about this makes you think that making some play units
smaller, for smaller kids, could be anything but a good idea? Or that it is
unusual? It is in fact the standard for all playgrounds nowadays. This is
what I miss about real journalism: research. Fact checking. Knowledgeable
reporting.

Best,

Max Weisenfeld

Dear Joe: It is my belief that the governing bodies of Maplewood & South Orange are looking in the wrong places to reduce their budgets, they should be examining closely the Board of Education budget . In the case of Maplewood, 52% of the budget represents costs of the Board of Education budget.. For example, in that budget, over $500,000 is for the cost of busing. In that connection, why are students in the Jefferson School area being bused to Marshal School with Marshal students bused from their school.. I suggest that the governing bodies of the two towns get together and have an audit conducted of the school budget; perhaps a committee of professional residents could be appointed for that purpose or look for the State to provide such assistance.

It is my belief that the governing bodies of Maplewood & South Orange are looking in the wrong places to reduce their budgets, they should be examining closely the Board of Education budget . In the case of Maplewood, 52% of the budget represents costs of the Board of Education budget.. For example, in that budget, over $500,000 is for the cost of busing. In that connection, why are students in the Jefferson School area being bused to Marshal School with Marshal students bused from their school.. I suggest that the governing bodies of the two towns get together and have an audit conducted of the school budget; perhaps a committee of professional residents could be appointed for that purpose or look for the State to provide such assistance.

: It was interesting to note the magnanimous gesture of the superintendent of schools donating his salary increase of $6000 plus to a worthy organization. It would have been more interesting if he turned down the raise as it would have saved the taxpayers the $6.000 plus tax dollars However if he took that route, he could not claim a tax deduction and his base for pension purposes would not have been increased by the amount of the increase. Gene McNany

Congratulations on your Maplewoodian website. It is a helpful addition to raising the level of discourse in our community.
One thing that would really help to keep the Maplewood debate on firefighter and police layoffs informed would be to independently substantiate the claim made by the Maplewood Professional Firefighter Association President that layoffs will lower firefighter staffing to "levels that are not recognized by any standard" (see article below). In a perfect journalistic world, before publishing this you would have sought information on firefighting staffing standards from at least two informed experts that were not shills to one side or the other. I realize you have limited resources and I assume you have a day job and do this in your "spare time" (and I am still grateful for your work on the Maplewoodian). Nevertheless, even though we have many new sources of local "news" in our area, all of them don't seem of have the resources to provide the journalism necessary to truly "inform" this debate and others; instead we are left with reporting of self-interested claims and counter-claims and postings of very provocative opinions by residents; On this important issue and others, too often there is no journalistic follow-up of independent sources to evaluate the claims and provide evidence that can be trusted or at least evaluated. The entire community would greatly profit by a journalist who spent a few hours investigating firefighter and police staffing in the context of our community. Unfortunately I don't expect to see this from the Maplewoodian, Maplewood Online, Patch, NY Times Local, the News Record, or the Star Ledger, but many of us would be grateful if someone did. Instead critical decisions will likely be made on unsubstantiated claims and counter claims.
Sincerely,
David Landry

We are appalled at the misinformation being disseminated to the public by the office of the Essex County Executive responsible for slaughtering the South Mountain deer. As the Executive is fully aware of, there is a humane alternative that has been used and has proven to be successful that would be suitable for any over population that might be occurring. This would preclude guns, bullets and blood in areas that are accessible to residents, particularly children. The bloodbath that is occurring is a disgrace. Not only is it inhumane but very costly to the residents of Essex County at a time when people are losing their houses and unemployment statistics are climbing daily. This is just a power play on the part of the Executive to show that he will decide what is wrong and right for our citizens regardless of the wishes of the people. More than 2000 voting citizens in this area signed a petition opposing this brutality, but he has totally disregarded the wishes of the public. His personal goal is to eliminate every remaining deer living in the reservation. As residents of West Orange who's children were raised in a community where regard for inhumanity to our wildlife was not tolerated, we are outraged by the carnage that is going on. It is time our citizens rose up and said "Enough!" NO MORE DEER HUNTING! Yours truly, PHYLLIS GUTMAN

Editor
Maplewoodian

Dear Editor:

Essex County Executive DiVincenzo once again is spinning misinformation to
the public by skewing the deer population statistics by including the dead
fetuses of pregnant South Mountain deer.

DiVincenzo earned the nickname, "Bloody Joe," by proudly posing in front of
the scaffolding used to hang deer dead deer to be eviscerated last year in a
photograph printed in the West Orange Chronicle. Now he is taking the
fetuses cut from the hanging dead pregnant deer and adding them to his South
Mountain dead deer statistics this year and last.
The facts are that most fetuses are naturally aborted by deer due to lack of
nutrition and only a few come to full-term. Wildlife Biology 101 only uses
only actual deer numbers - dead or alive - never fetuses in statistics.
This is just the latest in on-going misinformation from false statements to
the public by DiVincenzo.

DiVincenzo tries to justify the virtual extermination of South Mountain's
deer this year - 83 this year and 213 last year according to documents from
NJDFW "harvest reports" filled out by hunters. He calls this slaughter,
"successful," by donating the lead-poisoned venison to "Foodbank of NJ" -
ignoring articles in scientific journals and even on NJDFW web site that due
to danger of lead-poisoning pregnant women and children under six should not
eat meat from animals killed by lead shotgun shells.

Photographs this February in South Mountain show a heavy blood trail in the
snow on a path of a wounded deer leading back to a tree where the blood
trail began with the deer apparently being shot by one of DiVincenzo's
"marksmen" - within sight of the Millburn train station and library - next
to six crumpled beer cans. This site 200 feet from the baited can site where
"marksmen" are supposed to be sitting in tree stands - safe and successful ?

Why doesn't DiVincenzo tell the public about the scientific facts he was
given at a meeting October, 2007 from the GonaCon representative how
nonlethal, effective GonaCon immunocontraceptive can safely reduce deer
populations? Why does he only talk about a field trip taken 8 years ago to
Fire Island on HSUS' use of PZP? Misstatements of facts had to be corrected
by the director of HSUS in a letter printed last March, 2008. Why does he
use misinformation on deer car accidents to try to justify his slaughter of
South Mountain's deer when NJDFW stated deer car accidents were "minimal" on
South Mountain roads and not a reason for his CBDM permit this year or last?
Strieter-Lite reflectors have been preventing 9 out of 10 deer accidents on
roads surrounding South Mountain Reservation for the past decade.

Yet DiVincenzo continues his ongoing twisting of facts to justify his
virtual extermination of South Mountain's deer - extending into Eagle Rock
and Hilltop next year - with the blood of South Mountain's innocent deer on
his hands - like Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's play crying - "Out, damned
spot! out, I say!"

Carol Rivielle,

Joe I love your site. I am a bit surprised at your fury over the end of "property tax relief". Are you really surprised that they are removing rebates? They have been using high taxes (income and sales) to give us the phony benefit of "property tax relief" for over 30 years now.

Recently, Corzine raised the sales tax by 16% to give property tax relief, but now it's gone. This is the same pattern since they stupidly imposed income taxes in the 1970s. If I remember correctly, New Jersey's constitution requires 100% of the revenue collected from the state's income tax be used for "property tax relief."

Where is our relief? Our property tax relief is in crummy schools in the Abbot District. Tax rates have gone from 2% for income under $20k and 2.5% for income over that amount to a system where rates start at 1.4% of income for income up to $20k, 1.75% for income between $20- and $50k, 2.45% for income between $50k and $70k, 3.5% for income between $70k and $80k, 5.525% for income between $80k and $150k, 6.37% for income between $150k and $500k, and 8.97% for "millionaires" earning over $500k.

Wouldn't it be much cheaper to end rebates and "property tax relief", lower the sales tax back to 6%, get rid of the state income tax, and just let us keep our money. That's tax relief New Jerseyans deserve. Stop taking our money just to "give it" back to us. It's ours and if you didn't take it, we wouldn't need the relief.

I note that you are still running the story of window dressings in the closed stores on SA, but, don't you think the story and the window dressings are getting a bit old?

In fact, I would think that Winter scenes that have a strong Christmas theme in them, still up on windows in the middle of February is a story in its self.

What do you think? Time for Easter, No?

Later,
George Berkeley

You know... I always wondered about those quaint scenes in books and movies where the neighbors bring over home-baked cookies and introduce themselves after you move in.

I never bought into the whole "Welcome Wagon" thing but cookies seemed much more plausible.

My wife and I just moved to Maplewood from Mendham, N.J. and so far, two batches of cookies with some nice chats by the door while I played nervously with the tool I was holding when the doorbell rang.

It seems that you've started something new and, as time permits, I'll weigh in on issues that I care about or just make observations about life in general. I'll send them to you for publication at far below my usual line-rate.

Dear Editor:

After reading that you were a professional journalist I was
disappointed with your coverage of what you referred to as the deer
kill in the SMR. Your gratuitous use of quotes around trained marksmen
along with the picture of Bambie (I hope you got permission) represent
a slanted point of view typical of the print press who generate more
ink regarding animal rights issues than they do on all the genocides
going on throughout the world.

I hope that now that as you are now the arbiter of editorial dictates
of your own publication you will take care in the future to separate
news from opinion.

I would also suggest that you facilitate a conversation with your
readership that is more engaging than letters to the editor. While
content was the key in traditional publishing, on the net the
conversation is the medium.

Dan Shelffo

Joe – I don’t think your proposal for non-partisan elections is going to change the reality of politics in Maplewood. In the fourteen years I’ve lived here, I have not seen much evidence that the state and county Democratic machines, to the extent they exist, have unduly influenced local politics. Certainly, at times, the county party has thrown its support behind one candidate or another but I’ve seen precious little evidence that the support determined the outcome.

The town is small enough and isolated enough from county politics that a well-organized grass roots campaign can succeed. Vic DeLuca, for instance, ran an insurgent comeback campaign on his own three years ago. Fred Profeta and his then slate-mate Ian Grodman defeated the incumbent party-line candidates seven years ago. I also disagree with your suggestion that a partisan system shuts anyone out. Nothing is stopping the Republicans from fielding appealing candidates and mounting a serious campaign.

They just have not done so recently. Also, there is the well-know example of Profeta switching from Republican to Independent to Democrat and eventually becoming mayor. Now, concededly, not many folks in town have the ambition and resources, financial or organizational, that Profeta has but, hey, that’s politics. Switching to a non-partisan model is not going to make running for office any easier or cheaper. Just look at our neighbor to the north, South Orange. Its hotly contested Board of Trustee elections typically involve slates that operate like temporary mini-political parties. The campaigns have all the accoutrements of a partisan election, just at a different time of year and without the formal support from any party. Nor are non-partisan elections going to remove any of the bickering or vitriol.

Again, just look at South Orange. The last campaign which ousted the long-time incumbents was, if anything, more over the top in the invective department than anything I’ve seen here in Maplewood. And, Board of Trustees meetings, which sometimes seem to be on the edge of descending into food fights, make most Township Committee meetings look like tea parties. Also, having personally run two non-partisan school board campaigns, I can tell you that non-partisan elections involve a lot more than just gathering signatures and paying a small fee. They involve lots of organization, time and money, just as much as any partisan election.

But, without the ready-made party apparatus, this is an organization that has to be built anew every election, lest it become a localized variant of a political party. This, it seems to me, is just as much, if not more, of an impediment to running for local office as the party organization. Indeed, our last two non-partisan school board elections have been uncontested. At the end of the day, what you are complaining about is politics.

Joe: Stay in there. You are obviously a professional journalist and bring a much needed media approach to this community. I would like to see you dig into the problems facing Maplewood and the Board of Education. The budget practices of the Board of Education are chasing people out of this community.

Gene McNany.

Joe,

Negotiation would be so much better than lobbing rockets. If he asked
you to do something different, you might have complied with his wishes.

Mr. Ross -- is that Dave or Jamie? -- ought to look ahead in time to
when he's not king of the online scene in Maplewood. In many arenas,
competition is good not just for the market but also for the
competitors, because it increases the size of the market! You and the
Rosses should hold out your hands to each other.

Tom Reingold

I would just like to say I enjoy your new site.I get all the information I need without all the personal commentary that distorts every issue on Maplewood online.Your efforts are very admirable.

Thank you.

Tim Littleton

Keep up the good work and information about Maplewood.

Anonymous

Hi Joe;

May I say that I totally am enjoying your website!
The newspaper is useless and MOL is too slanted to be taken seriously.

Thoughtful, informative and well written- a breath of fresh air!

I live in Maplewood– have no children in school but found this interesting if you might want to mention it

http://www.somef.org/what/late_funding09.html- it seems like a worthy cause and has no publicity

I have bookmarked your site !

Regards

Laura Davis
Fleming Terrace

Hi Joe,

Great idea, love the site! I'm a loyal visitor to MOL.com and your site will be added to my daily web surfing.

One site you might want to check out for enhancements is www.hoboken411.com. When I lived in Hoboken, I used this website for feedback, and also to see where crimes were happening. They have this great feature that super-imposes crimes on a google map. You can hover over the marker to read what happened. This would be hugely valuable to the community, especially since the police blotter is only updated every two weeks at best.

Best of luck to you!

Lory