UCCF 11/8/18: Another Cranford Cell Tower

Union County College and Verizon are hooking to put up another cell tower and tonight’s mobile meeting in Westfield brought out a lot of opposition.

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UCCF 10/25/18: New Fire Training Building

Coming as something of a surprise to the freeholders was the fact that a new building was in the works and possibly that it was NOT Netta Architects who got the call.

2018-905: Authorizing the County Manager to award a Professional Architectural Service Contract, through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, to The Musial Group, of Mountainside, New Jersey to provide Conceptual Design Services for the proposed construction of a new Union County Fire Training Academy Building and parking lots to be located at the existing site on Lower Road, City of Linden, New Jersey for an amount not to exceed $26,663.00. (Union County Engineering Project Number 2017-006)

UCCF 10/25/18: Open Space Bluster

In response to criticism over his handing out of oversized checks to representatives from the towns in Union County where, in 12 days, Freeholder candidate Mirabella  would be running for reelection to the freeholder board:
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What he left out is that those 150 acres were purchased in the first few years of the Open Space Trust Fund which is now being diverted primarily for Union County’s own budget and these photo ops.

UCCF 10/25/18: Campaigning in Summit

It was a little chilly tonight to be standing outside Kings so the freeholders, 12 days before an election, decided to get their photoops at Summit City Hall.

Among the topics brought up in Open Comment time:

Seeing the Light – At a Steep Cost (To Taxpayers)

Back in 2010 when the DeCotiis law firm suckered the Union County freeholder board into bonding to put up solar panels at what was supposed to be no cost then-freeholder Daniel Sullivan was more than eager to reward his political patrons by signing taxpayers up for this boondoggle:
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Today he admitted as much to Bloomberg:

UCCF 10/11/18: Waste in Union County

With all the bombast over shared services we still have this in Union County:

2018-872: Authorizing the County Manager to award the proposed contract obtained through advertised public bidding in accordance with the Local Public Contracts Law, NJSA 40A:11-1 et seq: Engineering, Public Works & Facilities Management, Division of Facilities Management: T. Farese & Sons’s, Newark, NJ, for the purpose of providing Waste Disposal Services at various locations throughout the County. The contract period shall be for twenty-four (24) consecutive months with the provision for one (1) twenty-four (24) month optional extension commencing upon contract extension. The contract will commence on November 1, 2018 through October 31, 2020, with a total contract amount not to exceed $424,728.91.

The amount was substantially higher than the last contract:
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The 21 properties all across Union County:
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So why can’t the municipalities pick up the county garbage at a little extra cost instead of having the county bill their taxpayers for this special pickup? That question was asked.

Union County To Close Juvenile Detention Center

The 82 employees of the Union County Juvenile Detention Center in Linden found out about the closing yesterday so there was no organized resistance against this resolution that passed unanimously at tonight;’s meeting:

2018-841: Authorizing the County Manager to enter into a shared service agreement with Essex County, Newark, NJ for the purpose of housing Union County Juveniles both males and females for a term of five years, with a five year option to renew, at a daily per diem of $217.41 exclusive of medical and educational services, plus 2% annual increase with no minimum guarantee.

This is how it played out at the meeting, starting with the announcement: