Freak Snowstorm Creates Halloween Havoc in UC UCWA Files Suit
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L r A WONDERFUL LIFE Margaret Thompson, 91, released - i her memoirs in a book called 'From One' to Ninety-One: A Life.' Bea Smith has the whole story inside. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2011 LOCALSOURCE.COM VOL.94 NO. 44 50 CENTS Page 21 UCWA files suit against Alliance By Cheryl Hchl and fully intends to hold the Staff Writer UCA's feet to the fire to obtain The Union County Watchdog records she believes will shed light Association has filed a lawsuit on the political connection this against the taxpayer funded Union organization has to the county. County Alliance for violating the The UCA has close political Open Public Records Act. ties to the Democratic county The OPRA law requires most stronghold, receiving close to 100 entities to report how government percent of its funding from taxpay- money is being spent. For non- ers dollars. profit companies, though, funds The UCA was the subject of a generated through taxpayer's series of investigative articles by pockets can be spent completely in LocalSource in August that uncov- the dark. ered numerous alleged impropri- Organizations like UCA, classi- eties in the non-profits tax returns. fied as a 501-C4 independent non- These inconsistencies in cash profit organization, also allows flow, as well as the fact the county them to lobby. Unlike other public pumped hundreds of thousands of entities, organizations classified as a dollars into the UCA every year non-profit are not required through gave rise to considerable concern Photo By Dave Vanl>eventer OPRA to provide financial or budg- by the UCWA. In Rahway, Plainfield Avenue was blocked near Madison Avenue by a downed tree et information to members of the LocalSource's investigation in the wake of the unseasonably early snowstorm. public, or press, that request it. into the UCA revealed the only But Renna believes that consistent project President because the UCA is so tightly con- Michael Murray has worked on in nected financially to the county recent years was the bi-annual Freak snowstorm creates Democratic stronghold, they tabloid-sized newspaper, Union should have to abide by OPRA County Directions. This newspa- laws. per focuses specifically on what Halloween havoc in UC Renna filed the lawsuit Oct. 20 See LAWSUIT, Page 7 By Paul Greulich their leaves, making them espe- county roads were passable, but Staff Writer cially vulnerable to the weight of many smaller local roads A rare October snowstorm the wet, heavy snow, which fell remained blocked. Mayoral candidate in caused widespread damage in six inches deep across most of the Summit Mayor Jordan Glatt New Jersey and surrounding states county. The need to combine tree reported Tuesday afternoon that Elizabeth says politics last weekend, leaving tens of thou- removal work with electrical the City had 7,500 Jersey Central sands of homes without power as repairs complicated and slowed Power and Light customers still of Tuesday. Many towns can- recovery efforts. without power, including himself. played part in firing celled school and postponed trick- Vaniska said the municipalities In contradiction to Vaniska's state- By Cheryl Hehl or-treating until Friday. that suffered most appeared to be ment, Glatt reported county roads Staff Writer. "In many respects I think this in the Northern part of the county, such as Mountain Avenue and ELIZABETH — Oscar Acacio never thought when he decided to was worse than Hurricane Irene," particularly elevated, wooded Summit Avenue were still impas- run for mayor of Elizabeth next year against Chris Bollwage it would Union County Police Chief Dan areas such as Berkeley Heights sible on Tuesday afternoon. interfere with the job he just started in Irvington. But he thinks it did. Vaniska said. "Essentially Satur- and Summit. The Watchung "Until people see it, they don't Just six days after assuming the position of Acting Director of day was a mess. The roadways Reservation was also completely really believe it," Glatt said of the Neighborhood Services on Oct. 3, which oversees the divisions of pub- were terrible — in most cases closed down. damage. lic works, inspections, health, environmental control and nursing as impassable." "It was truly amazing we didn't Two people were reported seri- well as engineering and building construction, he was let go for what The high occurrence of falling suffer any fatalities as far as I ously injured by falling tree he believes were "political reasons." tree limbs was widely attributed to know," Vaniska said. branches in Summit. Several Acacio said he informed Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith just days the fact that many trees still wore By Monday Vaniska said all See POWERLESS, Page 14 See MAYORAL, Page 4 UMltUll"MWMllMtIllll\"\l""ll\tI1MUl\"l"M"1Ut LIKE US & wwaan FOLLOW US HI3B t-d facebook.com/UCLocalsource 4S00 96.44 twitter.com/UCLocalsource - NlmiwKtMJiii— I— PAGE 2 — THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011 LOCALSOURCE.COM UNION COUNTY LOCALSOURCE 1 1 3 /2% SALES TAX • SAVE • 3/2% SALES TAX • SAVE • 3/2% SALES TAX • SAVE • 3 /2% SALES TAX JACOBSON DISTRIBUTING Floor Model Clearance Sale 25% OFF arked Price On All Floor Models. 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ACCEPTED _ %M fd. in Elizabeth Stores ONLY 1 3/2% SALES TAX • SAVE • 314% SALE$ TAX • SAVE • 3 /z% SALES TAX • SAVE • 3/2% SALES TAX UNION COUNTY LOCALSOURCE LbCALSbUfiCE.COM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011 — PAGE 3 More schools in UC join inter-district program State says parents will have the power 'to make best educational choices for their children' By Paul Greulich "We don't need to expand it farther than Staff Writer Last year, Kenilworth received $240,000 in additional Union County," Hershey explained. "It just More Union County schools are free to makes things simple for the students and the open their doors to out-of-district students funding for the 20 out of district students it educated. parents." following an expansion of the state's Inter- Those funds, excepting about $20,000 for additional Springfield has been participating in (he district Choice Program. The program is supplies like textbooks, represents an 'economic bonus' program since its inception through the Day- intended to offer students increased opportu- ton Collegiate Academy, an accelerated pro- nity in their educational choices by allowing gram within the high school. However, them to transfer to other schools. State In Kenilworth, most students taking have in their operating budget. Springfield only accepts ninth grade stu- money is diverted accordingly. advantage of the program are accepted as Linden School Superintendent Rocco dents. The program has been active for several incoming seventh graders. The district also Tomazic said the choice program is some- Jonathan Dayton High School Principal years, but last year Gov. Chris Christie accepts special needs students if they have a thing he would be interested in discussing Elizabeth Cresci could not be reached for comment. District Superintendent Michael approved an expansion of the program that program that can meet their needs. Hershey with the Board of Education, but the dis- Davino did not return repeated calls for com- allowed all school districts to apply to par- said last year both valedictorian and saluto- trict's facilities are already at capacity. ticipate. Approval is based on an applying ment. rian of the Kenilworth High School's gradu- "It's capacity driven," Tomazic said. district's capacity to meet the law and the "Obviously it's an excellent program for ating class came to the district through the "Usually the districts who agree to be choice kind of program they will offer. According parents and students who feel their students Interdistrict Choice Program. districts are under capacity in one way or to a press release from the State Department should be in a different school environment," "For us il has been both an economic another. We're really right at capacity." of Education, this fall, 3,126 new seats are Hershey said. benefit as well as an academic and social being offered by a total of 71 school dis- Any student is eligible to enroll in the Acting Education Commissioner Chris benefit," Hershey said of the program. tricts. Interdistrict Choice Program, regardless of Cerf said the program aiso allows districts to Hershey said he expects to see more whether or not their home district is partici- In Union County, Springfield, Kenil- maximize enrollment and more efficiently schools applying for the program in 2012- worth and Winfield Park are already partici- pating.