Trees, Trees, and More Trees

The main part of the conference meeting on October 10^th was to finalize the Tree Ordinance – which the Council has been working on since the Spring and which the Livingston Environmental Committee and the Planning Board have been working on for years.  The primary goal of the ordinance was to keep people from clear-cutting their property – as had happened in recent history on two properties in the town.   The hardest thing to do in the ordinance was to walk the fine line between intruding on how citizens managed their own private property and the Town’s desire to maintain the trees.  I was particularly happy with not being mandated to report every tree cut down that did not require a permit; the LEC will be tracking those trees where people voluntarily report it.

In keeping with the ‘green’ theme of that meeting, the Planning Board proposed an ordinance for Alternative Small Energy Systems that was approved by the Council and introduced at the October 17^th meeting.  The ordinance defines what and how alternative energy systems (i.e., windmills, solar panels) can be implemented in the Town.  So, don’t look for wind farms anywhere in town; they are prohibited by the ordinance!  And, do start looking for utility mounted solar panels – PSE&G will begin to install them in Livingston shortly.  The units will be 3’ x 5’ and will be 15’ above the ground.

Parette Somjen was awarded the contract without competitive bid to provide Architectural & Engineering services for the Monmouth Court Elevator construction.  I was the only one who argued against proceeding with a non-competitive bid and I had major issues with the proposed contract that Parette had provided.  I was assured that substantial due diligence had been done on Parette for previous bids.  I then expressed my concerns regarding the contract language that had been provided by Parette and was assured that the Town Counsel would be addressing those and that we typically utilized the ‘Town’ contracts and not the vendor’s.

The final item of concern regarding the environment was the issue of contaminated groundwater at Okner Field.  While this does not impact our drinking water (due to scrubbers at the affected wells close by), it must still be remediated.  The first step dictated by the DEP was to have Livingston hire a Licensed Site Remediation Professional to begin site investigation.  I am praying that this won’t turn into a soil remediation nightmare as occurred at the Town Hall site.  Stay tuned…

At the October 17^th meeting, we continued a conversation regarding both signage and garage sales that I had raised on the 10^th, based on a complaint that I had received from a Livingston resident about the biweekly garage sales taking place on her block.  I requested two action items from the Town Council:  a) to put in a public service announcement into the West Essex Tribune reminding people of the signage ordinance and that ALL signs must be out of the public right of way (i.e., the first 10 feet off the street) and b) to look at what other towns have in the way of controlling garage sales and see whether we want to adopt an ordinance limiting the number of garage sales an individual can hold a year.  In addition to the increased traffic and noise a garage sale brings to a street, we also want to avoid the situation of people running these as businesses out of their homes.

Believe me – I am not in favor of another ordinance.  We have a great many ordinances on the books that are imperfectly enforced.  Many of the ordinances are enforced only when a complaint is registered.  So – in the interest of maintaining good neighbor relations and keeping governmental interference to a minimum, your comments and suggestions as to how this issue might be controlled would be very welcome.

There were a number of presentations at the 10/17 meeting – and it is always terrific to be part of a group saluting a team of children who, as their coach said, ‘lived up to their potential.’  Congratulations to the 11 Year Old America Little League Williamsport team!  The Livingston Municipal Alliance Committee Chair was on hand for the proclamation of Red Ribbon Week – which is celebrated nationally from 10/22-10/29 – to bring greater awareness and support of drug free lifestyles.  And, we had a presentation from Cycle for Survival that is having a Livingston based event.  I’m not sure if Steve Santola, who announced that he has reached out to others to form a team of former mayors, is aware that his team would exclude the two newest members of the current Town Council.  Maybe he thinks Republicans don’t cycle?

Last but not least, the Community Outreach Committee – which started its life as the Asian Outreach Committee – was finally approved by the Council and adopted on 10/17/2011.  The citizens who originally proposed the committee were extremely disappointed that it took the Council this long to move this along and enthusiasm is somewhat dampened.  The other Councilmen objected to the original mission statement as they found it ‘not inclusive.’  Much of the hold up was trying to get the rewrite of the mission statement done (volunteered by Gary Schneiderman) so it would be more encompassing and not just geared to the Asian community.  I am looking forward to getting this off the ground.  There was one addition to the committee listing that I found very puzzling as that person had no involvement at all with the creation of the concept, the drafting of the original mission statement, and/or the original group that presented it and there were other individuals that had expressed an interest in joining.  However, I look forward to everyones contribution.

PAY TO PLAY - AGAIN (with a nod to the Livingston Patch for the great title)

Field usage fees have once again reared its ugly head.  Although the various organizations which are the big users of these fields have been polled regarding usage fees, and have had numerous discussions regarding the potential for fees, and theoretically have bought into the need for these fees – now there is apparently ‘push back’ on the actual implementation of field usage fees.  Given the need to implement these fees to help defray the growing cost of field maintenance and the negative response being received from the organizations impacted, there will be a meeting called of the ‘stakeholders’ in the fields (e.g., Livingston baseball, softball, football leagues, Township groups – Cerbo, Temple softball, etc.) to further discuss this issue. 

Also up on the 9/26 agenda was the review of the Vision 20/20 survey to be disseminated to the town.  Vision 20/20 is a town-appointed committee whose purpose “is to create a vision for the Township of Livingston that will improve the quality of life for the community, its residents, and businesses.”  I’m all for quality of life; I am obviously a Livingston resident as well.  However, given costs are rising, and we are trying to hold taxes down, rather than asking what more we should be doing for the Township, why not see what services might be cut back or charged a fee to use?  This, in fact, was the very sentiment raised to me by a member of the Vision 20/20 committee.  As the most basic Township expenses are rising (e.g., wages, benefits), and given an incredibly robust service offering we currently have, we have to realize that, while it is good to plan for the future, we may not be able to accommodate new services (or even maintain old ones) in the short term.  I do applaud the work that the committee has done and look forward with interest to the results from the survey.

Finally, I read with great interest the Zoning Board of Adjustment Annual Report for 2010.  The report provided a summary of the variances for residential lots and use variances requested.  It also made a recommendation regarding reviewing the accessory structure (e.g., garages, pool houses) provision – which engendered some lively discussion about 4 car garages.

The regular meeting gave me a sense of real satisfaction – we were giving citations honoring the 6 Essex County Senior Citizens Juried Art Show winners who were Livingston residents (the most winners from one township at this show) as well as the 2011 10-year-old National Little League Williamsport Team.  The art show winners shared with us information about their winning pieces or their art in general and the kids were just great!  I don’t remember the last time I saw so many ‘paparazzi’ in the room.

The rest was primarily housekeeping – including two change orders for road reconstruction/ resurfacing that were due to the increase in the cost of asphalt and passing a legislative appropriation in order to get $450,000 in funding from a Green Acres matching grant.