Residents Discuss SID Plan to Revitalize Downtown by DONALD PEZ1 JR
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W&TFIELD MEP.'OHIAL LIBRARY WESTFIEt.D, .. ,V .."-:;:JEY Dastardly Devils /jBfc Everybody's a big wheel See this week's Westfield's football ^ ''^Hk in this organization Automotive Guide team guns to 2-0 start for Auto Show details See page A-9 ^A9r See this week's WGOfcondl Inside this issue Volume 2, Number 41 Ihe^festfield Record Thursday, October 10,1991 A Forbes Newspaper 15 cents Residents discuss SID plan to revitalize downtown By DONALD PEZ1 JR. The SID generates funds through an as- the state. lack of funding. ing, stating it has created "a new layer of RECORD STAFF WRITER sessment on local businesses on top of the Henry said many of the objectives of an Meryl Layton, who was one of the mini-government" with assessments that About 60 residents, local business own- existing property taxes, which is used to SID are similar to those of shopping malls, founding trustees of the SID in Cranford, "go on ad infinitum." ers and officials attended a panel discus- suit the downtown needs. In Englewood, which he said are doing a lot of things conceded that many business people in Henry countered by reiterating that a sion last week in the Municipal Building, over 50 percent of the funds raised are right," he said. town were skeptical at first. Many resi- governing body can vote against continu- used towards promotions, while nothing is to learn how a Special Improvement Dis- Among them are effective management, dents were also against the idea of an SID ing the program each year and that Cran- trict (SID) could help revitalize the central spent on maintenance. In Cranford, when it was first considered six years ago. ford is the only town that assesses resi- streetscapes, lighting and benches were uniform policies (which guarantee built-in business district quality control) and controlled advertising She pointed out that in the last five years, dents. some of the first things purchased with sales of downtown buildings have been Henry said that word of the SID must Unlike the Main Street revitalization SID money. marketing and displays. program, which the town held a public above their assessed valuation. now be spread to other business owners, to "In downtowns, there is a proud tradi- see if a consensus on the subject can be meeting on this summer, the SID is de- According to Henry, the assessments in tion of independence, but no general con- Layton said among the programs im- scribed as a funding mechanism for such a existing SIDs range from 1 percent of as- reached. From that point, the Town Coun- trol," he said. "An SID creates an organiza- plemented in Cranford through SID fund- cil can then consider its adoption. program. The town is still considering par- sessed value in Cranford to 11 percent in tion with a sure stream of revenue." ing were a sign and facade program which ticipation in Main Street Red Bank. In Trenton, the 4.5 percent as- Opinions from the audience ranged sessment generate an annual budget of Peter Barronio, the director of the Main offered low interest loans for businesses from enthusiastic support to a belief that Patrick Henry of the Atlantic Group, an about $370,000. Cranford is the only SID Street program in Englewood, said the interested in improving their facades the district is not needed in town. Joseph independent consultant firm that has that also assesses residents. community has successfully married the along the board's guidelines and a parking Specter, part of the family that owns The helped implement SIDs statewide, pro- revitalization concepts of that program study that led to the creation of 175 ad- Leader Store, said there was a need for vided background on the subject The budget of an SID, which is drawn with the dollars of an SID. ditional spaces through reconfiguration. some sort of revitalization downtown. up by a board of directors, is voted on each Also implemented were promotions such Henry said that in the 1980s, state legis- With many downtowns, there are busi- "We're here because we know that noth- year by the town's governing body. nesses that do not get involved in revital- as the upcoming Italian Fest, downtown lation enabling towns to start SIDs led to publications, and a recruitment committee ing stays the same," he said. "They either projects like the Trenton Commons. Other "It can be shut down any year," Henry ization efforts, he said. The SID "makes go forward or backward." said of an SID, "Each year, it has to justify sure that everyone is in the same ball that aggressively tries to convince busi- such districts in the state include En- nesses to come to Cranford. Robert Newell, vice-president of the glewood, Red Bank, Ctanford, Trenton, itself." game together," he said. Chamber of Commerce, said anyone inter- Elizabeth, Someryille, Bayonne, Freehold He estimated that by 1992, there would Henry commented the weakness of the One Cranford resident who was not ested in getting involved in setting up an and New Brunswick. be at least 20 such districts operating in Main Street program has always been its happy with the SID appeared at the meet- SID in town should contact the chamber. County plans tests for Westfield Resident carves tribute site contaminated with gasoline to Mt. Rushmore sculptor By JOAN LOWELL SMITH Aptly titled "Rushmore," Esrig's screen- By DONALD P12Z1 JR. has handled its investigation into the con- though the site houses three heating oil play opens in Georgia in 1924 with Borglum tamination and is "aware of the magni- underground storage tanks. According to RECORD STAFF WRITER RECORD STAFF WRfTER i clinging to the side of a sheer granite wall, tude" of the problem. the Ferris and Perricone report, it does not carving a half-mils wide relief on Stone About five years ago, Mark Esrig glanced appear those tanks are not responsible for Mountain depicting pivotal events of the Civil Union County will conduct more tests In that meeting, it was agreed the coun- through a biography his wife Tern had the contamination. War. Esrig describes the sculptor as a on the county complex at 300 North Ave., ty will drill more test holes on-site, to see brought home for their 6-year-old daughter, "walking contradiction whose artistic sell in the hope it will help determine the if the source of the problem can be found. If further testing on-site does not iden- Lydia, on the life of Gutzon Borglum, creator somehow managed to transcend his human source of gasoline contamination. Contamination was first discovered on tify a source, Woliansky said that off-site of Mount Rushmore. Borglum's life so capti- foibles." the site in 1988, when two gasoline tanks drilling has not been ruled out Woliansky vated Esrig, he plunged into research to According to Peggy Woliansky of the discovered to be leaking were removed said the contamination may be coming A member of the KKK in the '20s, Bor- county Office of Public Information, Depu- unravel the intriguing contrasts of the man from the complex grounds. The con- from an off-site tank, but that under- responsible for the world's largest sculpture. glum vehemently turned against the Man's ty County Manager Harold Gibson met tamination seeped into ground water, flow- ground storage tanks from a previous principles, or tack thereof, when they offered with representatives of the Department of ing under New Jersey Transit tracks and business may be covered up by a new him a bribe on the Stone Mountain project. Environmental Protection (DEP) and PMK A frequently published poet with a doc- down the Garwood Brook to the Rahway structure. If old tanks are covered by a torate in literary criticism from Ohio Uni- He was so enraged at his bigoted benefac- Ferris and Perricone Inc. on Oct 2. PMK River. new business "there may be no way of tors that he destroyed his plaster molds and Ferris and Perricone did a study on under- vantty, the Westfield writer has devoted It was discovered in August that the site knowing if that's where the contamination every spare moment over the past five years attempted to deface his work In progress to ground storage tanks on county property, is coming from," according to Woliansky. vent his spleen. which they released to the Board of Cho- still contained high levels of con- when he wasn't teaching other people how sen Freeholders in September. tamination, though it was not known if it The complex houses the Mosquito Con- to write, to completing his first screenplay. Later in life his closest friend became his was a new problem or residue from the trol Department and County Police and Before the final script was completed in black driver, Charlie Johnson. Not unlike Woliansky said the DEP expressed satis- 1988 leaks. serves as a service garage for county ve- September, agents on both coasts already "Driving Miss Daisy," Johnson drove Bor- faction with the manner that the county No gas tanks remain on the property, hicles. had producers dickering for the screenplay glum everywhere, often to the movies where while waiting for the final script. Esrig now they sat together as any friends might do. Westfield's planning scores has to weigh the offers. (Please turn to page A-3) high on independent national survey By DONALD PIZZI JR. ics of the study. In that conversation he The study is based on employee produc- RECORD STAFF WRITER learned that not only was the town ranked tivity, revenue diversity, controlled spend- in the top 10 percent but it was also in the ing, use of aid, and controlling debt Westfield has finished first in the state top three percent nationwide and first of all New Jersey municipalities studied.