Hillsborough residents are in the midst of considering a change in our form of government from the current 5-member Township Committee.
Presently, the voters elect the committee members and then – at the January reorganization meeting - the members “vote” on which one of them will be the next Mayor and the next Deputy Mayor. Within minutes of this “vote” engraved nameplates with the names and new positions on them magically appear on the podium. [It has been suggested that they have a tiny little engraver hidden in the back room.]
As it is obvious that the designated mayor will be a member of the committee’s majority party, it can make for some interesting committee-appointed mayors. For example, there is the distinct possibility that our next mayor will be a person who has resided in Hillsborough something like three years and has had no discernible previous political experience simply because this person is a member of the majority and the others have already taken their turn.
Well, to return to the possible change in Hillsborough’s government…
After a lot of partisan fighting [which I don’t have the time or patience to cover here] the voters chose five people as members of a Charter Study Commission to analyze the forms of government available to Hillsborough, including our present form, and make a recommendation to the voters about our future form of government – keeping what we already have or a new form. We will then vote yes or no on their recommendation.
[Now that I think about that statement, if they recommend no change what happens? A vote of confidence? A vote that we have noted their recommendation? Hmmm.]
Although there may not be anything intrinsically wrong with our current form of government, I can’t believe that the same way we ran a bunch of farms over two hundred years ago can be an effective way to successfully govern a suburban bedroom town of 38,000 residents.
The current form may be good enough, but there may be a better or a best still waiting to be discovered and implemented.
##
It turned out that many confused residents already thought they were directly voting for Mayor and have said they would like to vote for Mayor. If nothing else, we can only hope that Hillsborough’s citizens become more educated about their government.
It would be great to have an anthropologist study this entire Hillsborough Charter Study Commission experience and publish a book.
Recently someone suggested putting all the involved politicians and their followers into the Dr. Phil House and letting them fight it out with Dr. Phil attempting to moderate. That suggestion has a certain amount of charm.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Corzine's Support (?) Staff
Following New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s motor vehicle accident last week, the list of his injuries included a compound fracture of his left leg. The national media noted that our last three governors have suffered broken legs.
Now, these injuries didn’t have anything to do with The Sopranos despite what residents of the other 49 states may think. It probably doesn’t have to do with our superfund sites or something in the NJ water affecting their bones. If memory serves me, Whitman broke her leg skiing, McGreevey fell down a sand dune, and Corzine had his car accident. [Those are our stories here in NJ and we’re sticking by them!]
The day after Corzine had his accident, while he was unconscious and in the midst of multiple surgeries for a long list of serious injuries, I was amazed to see his spokesperson at a news conference say that the Governor would be back at work in a week. The media was amazed to hear that assessment. Doctors were amazed although at least one was kind enough to point out that the spokesperson did not have a medical degree.
A week later Corzine was still basically unconscious and not breathing on his own, but the next day (this past Friday) he was finally coming back into consciousness. Over the weekend he was able to respond to questions by nodding his head, soooo….
His staff (remember them? The guys that are supposed to be on his side?) now claimed that he would be able to work from his bed shortly wherever that bed would be – the hospital, the governor’s mansion, his apartment in Hoboken.
Everyone was amazed again – press, doctors, etc. Now that he is conscious, I wonder if Corzine was also astonished to hear that he is all better and just about able to go back to work.
Let me just remind you again in case you forgot. These guys are on his staff. They are on his side.
##
Richard Codey is our acting Governor again, the first time being when McGreevey retired. I actually learned how to do a write-in vote during our last gubernatorial election, so I could vote for him. One of Codey’s first reactions to becoming Acting Governor again was that he couldn’t go out in the morning in his pajamas to get his newspaper.
You gotta love New Jersey!
##
Please notice that I didn’t say anything about the Governor not wearing his seatbelt or his driver speeding 91 mph with the emergency lights on when there was no emergency. I just wanted you to notice that I didn’t point that out.
Now, these injuries didn’t have anything to do with The Sopranos despite what residents of the other 49 states may think. It probably doesn’t have to do with our superfund sites or something in the NJ water affecting their bones. If memory serves me, Whitman broke her leg skiing, McGreevey fell down a sand dune, and Corzine had his car accident. [Those are our stories here in NJ and we’re sticking by them!]
The day after Corzine had his accident, while he was unconscious and in the midst of multiple surgeries for a long list of serious injuries, I was amazed to see his spokesperson at a news conference say that the Governor would be back at work in a week. The media was amazed to hear that assessment. Doctors were amazed although at least one was kind enough to point out that the spokesperson did not have a medical degree.
A week later Corzine was still basically unconscious and not breathing on his own, but the next day (this past Friday) he was finally coming back into consciousness. Over the weekend he was able to respond to questions by nodding his head, soooo….
His staff (remember them? The guys that are supposed to be on his side?) now claimed that he would be able to work from his bed shortly wherever that bed would be – the hospital, the governor’s mansion, his apartment in Hoboken.
Everyone was amazed again – press, doctors, etc. Now that he is conscious, I wonder if Corzine was also astonished to hear that he is all better and just about able to go back to work.
Let me just remind you again in case you forgot. These guys are on his staff. They are on his side.
##
Richard Codey is our acting Governor again, the first time being when McGreevey retired. I actually learned how to do a write-in vote during our last gubernatorial election, so I could vote for him. One of Codey’s first reactions to becoming Acting Governor again was that he couldn’t go out in the morning in his pajamas to get his newspaper.
You gotta love New Jersey!
##
Please notice that I didn’t say anything about the Governor not wearing his seatbelt or his driver speeding 91 mph with the emergency lights on when there was no emergency. I just wanted you to notice that I didn’t point that out.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
The DIY TV Painting Miracle
Although I find shows such as Mission Organization, Clean Sweep, Flip This House, and Designed to Sell fascinating, I am confused by the amount of work they manage to do in (usually) two days.
Let’s take something simple: painting interior walls. The perpetrators of these shows pick out paint, do minimal preparation, apply the paint under less than desirable conditions, and all seem to be working with homeowners who have never touched a paintbrush. In one or two days they finish a perfect job.
At our homestead, picking out the color can take a few weeks.
First there are the trips to all the major paint dealers in the Hillsborough area, comparing such items as price, coupons, coverage, and warranties, and possibly narrowing it to at least one manufacturer and/or store.
Then we each pick out a color, but it’s never the same one. We finally settle on the color and start the struggle over the exact hue and, then, how many gallons we need to buy.
The paint cans and the home maintenance books always warn us about the thorough preparation that must be done before the first brush touches the wall: taking off all the switch plates, taking down the pictures and anything else hanging on the walls and filling the nail holes, and patching any damage or nail pops. On television they seem to just blithely paint over everything on the walls including the old wallpaper.
We carefully read the instructions on the cans regarding temperature and humidity. On TV they paint in all conditions and as for waiting for any amount of time between coats (if they even put on a second coat) – hah!
And what is with them painting in one room while the floor guys are sanding in the next room? And who the heck are all these people who have never painted a wall?
And yet, inexplicably, when they complete the job it’s perfect. At our house that’s the time when we discover that the finished color isn’t exactly what we wanted after all and have to decide how long we can live with it.
##
Some real-life painting hints: Read the instructions on the can before you drip paint all over them. The older you get the smaller they print the instructions on the can. Vacuum the cobwebs off the walls before you start [Not that we have any cobwebs at our house, someone else told me that hint. Honest.]. No matter how thoroughly you clean the brushes they will never be the same next time you paint (which will be several years down the road), so don’t buy really expensive ones, just throw them out when you are done.
Let’s take something simple: painting interior walls. The perpetrators of these shows pick out paint, do minimal preparation, apply the paint under less than desirable conditions, and all seem to be working with homeowners who have never touched a paintbrush. In one or two days they finish a perfect job.
At our homestead, picking out the color can take a few weeks.
First there are the trips to all the major paint dealers in the Hillsborough area, comparing such items as price, coupons, coverage, and warranties, and possibly narrowing it to at least one manufacturer and/or store.
Then we each pick out a color, but it’s never the same one. We finally settle on the color and start the struggle over the exact hue and, then, how many gallons we need to buy.
The paint cans and the home maintenance books always warn us about the thorough preparation that must be done before the first brush touches the wall: taking off all the switch plates, taking down the pictures and anything else hanging on the walls and filling the nail holes, and patching any damage or nail pops. On television they seem to just blithely paint over everything on the walls including the old wallpaper.
We carefully read the instructions on the cans regarding temperature and humidity. On TV they paint in all conditions and as for waiting for any amount of time between coats (if they even put on a second coat) – hah!
And what is with them painting in one room while the floor guys are sanding in the next room? And who the heck are all these people who have never painted a wall?
And yet, inexplicably, when they complete the job it’s perfect. At our house that’s the time when we discover that the finished color isn’t exactly what we wanted after all and have to decide how long we can live with it.
##
Some real-life painting hints: Read the instructions on the can before you drip paint all over them. The older you get the smaller they print the instructions on the can. Vacuum the cobwebs off the walls before you start [Not that we have any cobwebs at our house, someone else told me that hint. Honest.]. No matter how thoroughly you clean the brushes they will never be the same next time you paint (which will be several years down the road), so don’t buy really expensive ones, just throw them out when you are done.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
When It Rains, the Water has to Go Somewhere
Did the rain and the subsequent flooding this week get your attention?
Good. I’m now going to give you a lesson about impervious coverage. No, no – don’t you turn away! Pay attention!
Hillsborough residents – especially those of us who remember Hurricane Floyd – should worry about the increase in impervious coverage in our town.
Attend a Board of Adjustment meeting and listen to an application for an impervious coverage variance. It always seems like such a little thing and the individual applicants often seem annoyed that they even have to be there for such a minor item.
Just to clarify “impervious coverage” to the uninitiated (after all, I’ve noticed how empty those BOA meetings usually are), it’s when you put something over the dirt that will prevent or substantially reduce the natural percolation of water. Breaking it down further, people put down/construct something that stops rain from draining into the earth where it falls.
Okay, that still doesn’t do it for me. Let’s say a homeowner puts in a cement sidewalk 5-feet wide and 20-feet long. They have just installed 100-square-feet of impervious surface. The rain that would have soaked into that 100-square-feet has to go somewhere. The more impervious surface installed, the more water runoff has to be accounted for.
[I’ve done my best. Try Google or go to Wikipedia under Impervious Surface or talk to an engineer who does this type of work. On second thought, forget the engineer; you’ll only get more confused]
To continue, each building lot has a percentage of its surface that may by ordinance be covered by impervious surfaces – usually, for single-family home residential areas, around 15% to 20%, depending on the zoning laws, use laws, lawsuits, and laws I don’t even know about.
With the number of square feet covered by their home, driveway, sidewalk, and, maybe, a small patio, most homeowners max out on their allowable impervious coverage. That’s when they appear before the BOA for a variance to build that sunroom or the tiny little walkway around the pool.
The majority get their variance, although sometimes they have to scale back their projects. They are often irritated: It’s only a small amount and a man’s home is his castle and why did they bother to ask permission they should have just gone ahead with their project and not even asked and it’s a stupid law anyhow.
Okay, now that you have gotten that out of your system, think about the anxiety you may have felt this week watching the rain fall.
Think again.
##
Attend a Planning Board meeting sometime when a developer is arguing for an upward change in the amount of allowed coverage in their large subdivisions (just a little bit – maybe 5%) or smaller lots with closer, larger houses. Remember this week’s flooding.
Good. I’m now going to give you a lesson about impervious coverage. No, no – don’t you turn away! Pay attention!
Hillsborough residents – especially those of us who remember Hurricane Floyd – should worry about the increase in impervious coverage in our town.
Attend a Board of Adjustment meeting and listen to an application for an impervious coverage variance. It always seems like such a little thing and the individual applicants often seem annoyed that they even have to be there for such a minor item.
Just to clarify “impervious coverage” to the uninitiated (after all, I’ve noticed how empty those BOA meetings usually are), it’s when you put something over the dirt that will prevent or substantially reduce the natural percolation of water. Breaking it down further, people put down/construct something that stops rain from draining into the earth where it falls.
Okay, that still doesn’t do it for me. Let’s say a homeowner puts in a cement sidewalk 5-feet wide and 20-feet long. They have just installed 100-square-feet of impervious surface. The rain that would have soaked into that 100-square-feet has to go somewhere. The more impervious surface installed, the more water runoff has to be accounted for.
[I’ve done my best. Try Google or go to Wikipedia under Impervious Surface or talk to an engineer who does this type of work. On second thought, forget the engineer; you’ll only get more confused]
To continue, each building lot has a percentage of its surface that may by ordinance be covered by impervious surfaces – usually, for single-family home residential areas, around 15% to 20%, depending on the zoning laws, use laws, lawsuits, and laws I don’t even know about.
With the number of square feet covered by their home, driveway, sidewalk, and, maybe, a small patio, most homeowners max out on their allowable impervious coverage. That’s when they appear before the BOA for a variance to build that sunroom or the tiny little walkway around the pool.
The majority get their variance, although sometimes they have to scale back their projects. They are often irritated: It’s only a small amount and a man’s home is his castle and why did they bother to ask permission they should have just gone ahead with their project and not even asked and it’s a stupid law anyhow.
Okay, now that you have gotten that out of your system, think about the anxiety you may have felt this week watching the rain fall.
Think again.
##
Attend a Planning Board meeting sometime when a developer is arguing for an upward change in the amount of allowed coverage in their large subdivisions (just a little bit – maybe 5%) or smaller lots with closer, larger houses. Remember this week’s flooding.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
The Littlest Leaguers
I don’t like organized sports and I really don’t like organized sports for children. Unfortunately I had to attend last Saturday’s Hillsborough Little League opening day.
Following the formal ceremonies the teams started their games. I wandered from field to field watching the older kids – the ones swaggering with attitude. Parents gave serious pep talks to reluctant players, yawning kids told their friends where else they would rather be, and earnest adult coaches encouraged their teams and discussed strategy
Just about what I expected.
But then a lady pointed to a far field and said I should be sure to see the littlest kids. That’s where I found baseball as a game.
Groups of kids still sporting their baby teeth wore team t-shirts that hung to their knees and baseball hats that flopped over their faces. Players held bats almost as tall as they were. Coaches tried valiantly to get them to sit still in their batting order, but by the time the coach got from one end of the bench to the other, the kids at the beginning had already popped up. Players (and I use the term loosely) wandered happily around the field while the adults encouraged them in the right direction. Home plate coaches drew little lines in the sand to show the batters where to stand.
They were having a good time and had no clue what the score was. That’s where I finally ran into baseball in its purest form. I might return to that field some day, but only to watch the littlest players, not the organization.
It doesn’t seem to take long for these little kids having fun to grow into serious contenders and then it’s no fun to watch. Or, I imagine, to play.
Following the formal ceremonies the teams started their games. I wandered from field to field watching the older kids – the ones swaggering with attitude. Parents gave serious pep talks to reluctant players, yawning kids told their friends where else they would rather be, and earnest adult coaches encouraged their teams and discussed strategy
Just about what I expected.
But then a lady pointed to a far field and said I should be sure to see the littlest kids. That’s where I found baseball as a game.
Groups of kids still sporting their baby teeth wore team t-shirts that hung to their knees and baseball hats that flopped over their faces. Players held bats almost as tall as they were. Coaches tried valiantly to get them to sit still in their batting order, but by the time the coach got from one end of the bench to the other, the kids at the beginning had already popped up. Players (and I use the term loosely) wandered happily around the field while the adults encouraged them in the right direction. Home plate coaches drew little lines in the sand to show the batters where to stand.
They were having a good time and had no clue what the score was. That’s where I finally ran into baseball in its purest form. I might return to that field some day, but only to watch the littlest players, not the organization.
It doesn’t seem to take long for these little kids having fun to grow into serious contenders and then it’s no fun to watch. Or, I imagine, to play.
Monday, April 16, 2007
BOE Election Skirmishes
The latest skirmish in the school budget wars involves the local Boards of Education sending extra school election reminders only to the parents of children enrolled in the schools and the suggestion that voters should vote for Board of Education candidates with children enrolled in the schools.
I was prepared to rail against all this, but then I reconsidered.
For years the schoolchildren have been used as shills for the BOE and the NJEA by carrying home flyers reminding their parents to vote and with the arrival of new technology the schools began using their telephone auto-dialer emergency call systems to remind parents to vote.
Those without children in the public schools were left to their own memory devices and the sample ballot that is mailed out a week or so before the election.
Of course, the polling places are located at the schools and open at 2 p.m. (just about the time school lets out) on one of the few days when the kids are actually in school for the whole day.
BOE votes aren’t held on one of the numerous days when the kids aren’t in school – the days that not only mean the parents have no reason to be near the schools (and the polls), but that they are scrambling to set up child care and, therefore, aren’t kindly disposed towards the schools.
Candidates are using the argument "Vote for me because I have children in the schools."
It’s apparent that local Boards of Education want everyone to foot the bill for the public schools, but they only want the parents of the children attending the schools to vote on the budgets and serve on the board.
One of the founding principles of the United States of America is no taxation without representation, therefore I am going to suggest that only parents vote in the BOE elections, only parents serve on the board, and only parents pay the school taxes.
Sounds fair to me.
##
New to the area? Approximately 67% of your taxes go to the schools. This year's budget in Hillsborough is $100.6 million. School elections are tomorrow.
I was prepared to rail against all this, but then I reconsidered.
For years the schoolchildren have been used as shills for the BOE and the NJEA by carrying home flyers reminding their parents to vote and with the arrival of new technology the schools began using their telephone auto-dialer emergency call systems to remind parents to vote.
Those without children in the public schools were left to their own memory devices and the sample ballot that is mailed out a week or so before the election.
Of course, the polling places are located at the schools and open at 2 p.m. (just about the time school lets out) on one of the few days when the kids are actually in school for the whole day.
BOE votes aren’t held on one of the numerous days when the kids aren’t in school – the days that not only mean the parents have no reason to be near the schools (and the polls), but that they are scrambling to set up child care and, therefore, aren’t kindly disposed towards the schools.
Candidates are using the argument "Vote for me because I have children in the schools."
It’s apparent that local Boards of Education want everyone to foot the bill for the public schools, but they only want the parents of the children attending the schools to vote on the budgets and serve on the board.
One of the founding principles of the United States of America is no taxation without representation, therefore I am going to suggest that only parents vote in the BOE elections, only parents serve on the board, and only parents pay the school taxes.
Sounds fair to me.
##
New to the area? Approximately 67% of your taxes go to the schools. This year's budget in Hillsborough is $100.6 million. School elections are tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The Traffic Signal Population Explosion
Traffic signals seem to be increasing at some type of geometric rate in Hillsborough.
Not that long ago – maybe 10 years - you could get to the Borough of Millstone from Route 206 by heading east on Amwell Road from the Route 514 [Amwell Road]/206 traffic light until you reached the next traffic light - just before you cross the river. Now you leave 206, go through the lights at Pineywoods Drive, Royce Brook Road, Willow Road, Amsterdam Drive, and the Millstone River Road Extension – five additional lights in a three-mile stretch – before you get to Millstone.
The addition of a traffic light can change the whole character of an area. Anyone who has lived along the Willow Road corridor for more than a few years has noticed the increase in car traffic that occurred when the traffic lights at Amwell Road/Willow Road and Hillsborough Road/Willow Road were added. It didn’t take long for the commuters to find this alternate route to the highway.
Last night there was a Township Committee resolution authorizing the payment of annual electrical costs for the operation of a traffic signal at Route 206 and Homestead Road.
This new light will add another usable cross road to the highway from Willow Road. Until the early 1990s Homestead Road was a gravel road lined with a few farms and a small industrial area at the end near 206. I’m not sure what makes this location a candidate for yet another traffic light except for some trucks exiting the industrial area.
###
I was going to provide more information about the Willow Road shortcut for those not familiar with the area, but I changed my mind. Hah.
Not that long ago – maybe 10 years - you could get to the Borough of Millstone from Route 206 by heading east on Amwell Road from the Route 514 [Amwell Road]/206 traffic light until you reached the next traffic light - just before you cross the river. Now you leave 206, go through the lights at Pineywoods Drive, Royce Brook Road, Willow Road, Amsterdam Drive, and the Millstone River Road Extension – five additional lights in a three-mile stretch – before you get to Millstone.
The addition of a traffic light can change the whole character of an area. Anyone who has lived along the Willow Road corridor for more than a few years has noticed the increase in car traffic that occurred when the traffic lights at Amwell Road/Willow Road and Hillsborough Road/Willow Road were added. It didn’t take long for the commuters to find this alternate route to the highway.
Last night there was a Township Committee resolution authorizing the payment of annual electrical costs for the operation of a traffic signal at Route 206 and Homestead Road.
This new light will add another usable cross road to the highway from Willow Road. Until the early 1990s Homestead Road was a gravel road lined with a few farms and a small industrial area at the end near 206. I’m not sure what makes this location a candidate for yet another traffic light except for some trucks exiting the industrial area.
###
I was going to provide more information about the Willow Road shortcut for those not familiar with the area, but I changed my mind. Hah.
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