Around Sc Municipal Sown boara approves budget hike budget $36.8M plan trimmed is up nearly 4% Increase .pared 4own to By GREG MARX THE CHRONICLE 3.75%, olr$50, torn 6.6% CRANFORD — The Board of Education Monday unanimously By GREG MARX elimination of three new employ- passed a 2002-2003 budget that, THE CHRONICLE ees requested by the Fire if approved by voters April 16, Department and the rejection of will raise property taxes nearly CRANFORD -- The Township a Health Department request for $120 on the average township Committee will introduce a 2002 extended hours for the sanitari- house. budget next month that calls for an. Other personnel cuts include The $36.8 million budget rep- a property-tax increase of about shifting a court employee to part- resents a 3.99 percent increase $50 on the average home, time hours, removing about on the revised budget for the cur- Finance Commissioner Phil $10,000 from the library's salary rent schdoi yJar. Morin said this week. request, and rejecting a summer Batter up! The percentage of the budget intern for the engineering Of the total budget, the board department. Lauren O'Donnell, catcher for plans to raise $32.4 ^million paid through property taxes will the Cranford softball team, through local property taxes. The increase 3.75 percent, Morin While those personnel takes a practice swing before tax increase is 6.7 cents per $100 said. That figure is well down requests were denied, the com- the season opened next of assessed value, or $118.90 on a from the 6.6 percent increase in mittee will add two police officers Thursday. Preview is on Page home assessed at the township the first draft of the budget, but late in the year. Police Chief C-1. average of $176,685. slightly short of the 315 percent Harry Wilde has argued that NICOLE DIMELLA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER goal the committee set in because of pending police retire- The final budget approved February. Candidates' Forum Monday is virtually unchanged ments, the township cai|add new The increase translates to .•officers now without crippling planned April 8 from the most recent proposal, as Sleeping Beauty reported in the March 14 edition about three tax points, or about the budget. One officer will be Juliana Abbaticola, 2-1/2 months old, appears bored with this $50 on a home assessed at the added to the Juvenile Bureau, CRANFORD — The of the Chronicle. Easter Bunny business at Lincoln School in Garwood Saturday. Cranford League of Women township average of $176,000. The biggest factor in the cost (Continued on page A-2) Voters, the College Women's increase, district officials said, is The latest cuts include the Club of Cranfurd "and the the skyrocketing insurance costs Cranford Parent-Teacher that are plaguing nearly every Council will host the annual school district and municipality School Board Candidates' in the state. The district faces 20 Inmates tell students the way it is Forum at 8 p.m. Monday, April percent increases in health and 8, in the UV Room of the property insura|icl^ind a 10 J>er- r rest of his life. Greg, now 22, is in killed her boyfriend — but both enth-grader Natalie Stevens, Cranford Community Center. cent incre^gft in i^Bk % the middle of a .five-year prison stressed how bright c^tures^an "You can try to make your own Candidates Michael Cauli'ield, sentence. be ruined by aven onrt^fe^<<jh^e. decisions. Just try to stay away Michael Plicek, Lois VerhoevK.ri insurance -*"cost#- alone -ityte GARWOOD — "My name is His only opportunities to That idea can be bam to ci-in- from the wrong crowd." and Saul Zucker. increased $615,000. Greg, otherwise • known ds leave prison now are to speak vey to middle-schoolers. "Every "Use your anti-drug, your, The major cost for curriculum Inmate #331678C," the young with Project Pride, telling young kid thinks they're invincible," friends and family," said Bobby Plastic eggs improvements is the hiring of man in the brown state-issue people how easy it is to fall into Amy admitted. Plummer. two new department supervisors, uniform told the middle-school his path with a few wrong choic- "We thought the same thing," "Or play basketball or the hold a prize one for special education and one students in the Lincoln School es. Think before you (use drugs said Jessica. drums," said fellow eighth- for world language. Those depart- or alcohol) — think how it's CRANFORD — Look for the gymnasium Tuesday. "I no longer But the stories the inmates grader Bobby Dunn. ments had previously been over- have a name, I have a number." going to affect you in the future," broughjt, and the fact their Many of the students in the egg sign in the window of par- seen by the English and music he urged the students, fifth-to- ticipating stores and you could Like the other three inmates backgrounds were similar to audience may not have been supervisors, respectively. speaking at Tuesday's "Project eighth-graders from Garwood those of many of the students, faced with those choices yet, wind up richer. and Winfield Park. "You have to helped get the message across. Each of the participating Superintendent Lawrence Pride (Promoting Responsibility but the people who organized Feinsod said special, education in Drug Education)" event, Greg make the right choice the minute "They just seemed like nor- the event know those moments stores has a spring basket with someone hands it to you. You say mal people that made one mis- plastic eggs filled with candy, and world language required had grown up in a good family. are not far off. "We went them except for one which holds a their own supervisors, and it was He had been a solid student, and to realize the decisions they ticket for a Cranford Gift "unfair" to ask current supervi- a successful and dedicated youth "I no longer have a name, I have a number." make at this age are so very, Check. Winners may collect sors to take on responsibilities wrestler. - Greg, very important," said Student their gift checks from the they were not qualified for. "We're Then, in eighth grade, he Assistance Counselor Karen! Cranford Chamber of going to have to focus where it started drinking and smoking Inmate #3316780 Lukacovic, "Middle school is Commerce. The promotion con- belongs," he said. marijuana — "I wanted to be the most important age. By tinues through Saturday. Total spending for supervisor popular. I was just trying to be no to your parents all the time — take," said Kyle Goins, an high school, they've already salaries will increase $100,000 as cool," he said. Soon the using why not say it to your friends?" eighth-grader at Lincoln decided." a result, but Business became dealing, and the mari- Greg's fellow inmate Mike, 20, School. Lukacovic and Capt. Bill; Easter Bunny Administrator Robert Carfagno juana became harder drugs. He shared a similar story — a "No one up there expected Legg of the Garwood Police coming to town said that cost will be partially off- was expelled from school, spent promising young life derailed by they'd be in jail on drug helped bring Project Pride to set because the current supervi- some time in juvenile delinquent drinking and drug use that charges," agreed his classmate Garwood. The program, facili-; CRANFORD — The Easter sors will now be able to take on programs, and became a full- began in eighth grade. The other Erik Keomartin. tated statewide by the Bunny arrives on a fire engine greater teaching responsibilities. time drug dealer. inmates, Jessica and Amy, "It could happen to anybody Department of Corrections and at 10 a.m. Saturday at the The district plans to make one Then one day, after what he shared stories of one bad night — it's just peer pressure," said in Union County by the county Gazebo in Mayor's Park. other new hire, a literacy special- calls a "three-day drug run," he rather than a gradual descent — Matt Rusin. prosecutor's office and the Pictures with the Bunny are ist for the primary grades. Asked accidentally ran over a man he Jessica is serving four years for Peer pressure, the students Save-A-Life-Today program, available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. whether the move indicates had cheated in a drug deal. The assaulting another woman in a admitted, is something they has now appeared at JHTII for $3. shortcomings in current literacy man suffered serious injuries bar fight, Amy is in prison for a know about. To avoid falling and spoken to 40,09 . (Continued on page A-2) and will walk with a limp for the drunken-driving accident that into the same trap, said sev- in Union County. Boro plan revamps promotion procedure By GREGORY SHORO would take place. THE CHHONICLE Officers will be given three months notice before any testing KENILWORTH - The latest is administered, and those who uister fun revision to the personnel ordi- are interested in the promotion The Law children battle gravi- nance on promotions within the must submit a letter of intent, ty at the Easter celebration police department was intro- . according to the proposal. sponsored by the duced Tuesday night at the bor- Following the written and oral Celebtations Committee of ough's councils work session. examinations, the results of Garwood Saturday. See Page The proposal specifies a five- which could include bonus points B-1. part process that is expected to for tenure, college credit and mil- ensure legitimacy and impartial- itary service, the chief of police ity from the time of a vacancy would make a recommendation occurs in the department, right for each officer based on a numer- through to the evaluation of ic ranking system.