The Week in Union County

Every week, Patch takes a look at the region's top stories of the past week. Here's what happened throughout Union County:

Westfield

A  on a tree in Westfield's Brightwood Park Friday morning. It is not known when the hate symbol was painted there, which was in an area with other graffiti. The Westfield Department of Public Works covered the swastika within hours.

The Westfield Planning Board announced  in consideration of plans regarding the reconstruction of Ferraro's restaurant. The landmark downtown restaurant was destroyed in a six-alarm fire in May. The owners of Ferraro's are due to submit new plans for consideration.

A  from Westfield High School who spent 19 days conducting environmental research in Africa returned to Westfield on Sunday.

New Providence

Petitions bearing 1,000 signatures regarding  were submitted to the Borough Clerk Wednesday by Gary Kapner, former president of the New Providence Business and Professional Association who helped start the petition. Kapner wrote a in June, explaining why he believes the sale of liquor licenses could be used as "an economic tool" to help revitalize the downtown area. Once all signatures are approved by the clerk, Borough Administrator Douglas Marvin said the next step in the process is for the council to prepare a resolution. From there, a referendum would be placed on the November ballot. 

New Providence police officers responded to  early Wednesday morning. Officers found two blue suitcases, one placed against a signpost near the commuter parking lot on Springfield Avenue and the second suitcase placed near the railroad pedestrian tunnel. Both suitcases were X-rayed by Union County Bomb Squad Members and found to be empty. Although there were no explosive devices located at the scene, police say the cases were intentionally placed to create a public alarm.

Early Tuesday morning, New Providence Police responded to a report of a  on Sagamore Drive. The victim said when he was walking to his vehicle, he noticed his interior lights were on and observed an individual in the driver’s seat rummaging through his belongings. The suspect threatened the victim with physical violence and then exited the vehicle with some of his belongings. The victim described the suspect as a black male, approximately 30 to 35 years old, wearing long jean shorts, a black or blue t-shirt and was bald or had a closely shaven head. Three other residents on Sagamore Drive and two residents on Penwood Drive reported that their vehicles had been burglarized, which all appear to have been unlocked.

Cranford

The Cranford Township Committee approved  Tuesday night to officially change the current sewer billing system to user-based fees, rather than having the fees determined by property values. Under the new system, residents will be charged according to a system of tiers.
Homes that use between zero and 75,000 gallons of water will be in the first tier and pay $175. Approximately two-thirds of the houses in town will qualify for this first tier. Homes that use more than 75,000 gallons of water will qualify for the second tier, and will owe $175 plus an additional 12-tenths of a cent for each gallon after 75,000. The third tier will be made up of Cranford taxpayers who use more than 300,000 gallons of water. This primarily includes businesses.

Township officials called on residents to help fight proposed development on . Dozens of residents attended a special Township Committee meeting Tuesday to discuss a  to allow a developer to construct 360 residential units at the quiet corner of 215 Birchwood Ave., a street that's prone to flooding.
"Cranford has been subject of a builder remedy lawsuit," Mayor Daniel Aschenbach said after the court's decision was handed down.
The mayor has, for months, insisted that he would file an appeal if the development project was approved. "We believe the site specific conditions are such that any development will create more flooding and problems for a larger area of the community," Aschenbach said.

Decked out in Hawaiian leis and bristling with energy, more than 70 Cranford children gathered with their parents in the audio-visual room of the Community Center Thursday night to officially say  to the 2011 Summer Playground Program. Led by Playground Program Coordinator Andrea Krenek, the event was the culmination of a six-week program that included daytime recreation programs at four local parks: Mohawk Park, Brookside, Lincoln and Orange Avenue School.

Springfield

Springfield hosted Union County’s celebration of the annual National Night Out event this week. The night mixes law enforcement education with kid-friendly fun, and drew families throughout the region. Police and fire departments from several Union County municipalities were on hand to offer demonstrates, safety lessons and peeks into the latest tech. Patch was on hand to record it all, and we featured a of and .

In other law enforcement news: Could Springfield soon have its first police chief since 2009? This week, Township Public Safety Director recommended that acting officer-in-charge of the department, Captain John Cook, be . The Committee will discuss the recommendation at their next meeting. 

Summit

Common Council introduced a new ordinance Tuesday to rectify a parking one gone wrong. Currently, Summit has a virtual parking holiday in its four Park & Shop lots after council approved a fee schedule in November 2010 to initiate a paid shopper parking program. However, council failed to approve the bonding ordinance to pay for the equipment to collect the money. Council will hold a special meeting Aug. 23 for a public hearing and final vote on an ordinance to re-establish two-hour free parking.

Scotch Plains

TD Bank Robber Sentenced to 8 Years: A Washington, Warren County, man who robbed the TD Bank on Park Avenue in Scotch Plains on Feb. 6 was . Joseph Pennello, 47, turned himself over to law enforcement on March 12 and admitted to robbing the Scotch Plains bank and four others in Hackensack, Hackettstown, Rutherford and his hometown of Washington. In addition to the eight-year sentence, Pennello was also ordered to pay $18,054 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release.

Clark-Garwood

What are the chances? The first prize for watercolor in the professional category was given to Dante Bonardi for “Shadows Reflected.” The top watercolor award in the non-professional category went to Bill Connolly for “Shades of Millbrook.” Both artists live at The Pointe, a small townhouse development in Garwood.

The Clark Pool Swim Team celebrated the end of their season with a team party on Tuesday. "I think everybody had a good time while steadily improving this season," said coach Christian Lewis. "I tried to mix hard work with fun." This year the team end-of-the-season award was t-shirts, which were given out before the kids and coaches played water polo, followed by a biggest splash contest.


Berkeley Heights

Residents appealing the zoning approval for the proposed Berkeley Aquatic Center's new 51,000-square foot facility argued at a meeting this week that the facility would not be consistent with the town’s existing ordinances.

In front of about 100 people in the Susie B. Boyce Meeting room at Warren’s municipal complex on Monday night, attorneys representing interests both for and against the facility argued about why it did or did not belong on the proposed site, nestled between Hillcrest Avenue and Emerson Lane in Warren, on the border of Berkeley Heights.

The proposal was submitted correctly with the planning board earlier this year. But Warren resident Jonathan Wishnia appealed to the zoning board, contesting whether township zoning officer John Chadwick made the right determination on the application.

On April 5, Wishnia filed an appeal of Chadwick’s determination that the center’s swimming facility was a conditionally permitted use of the site within the required 20 days after learning of Chadwick’s decision, but failed to include the $5,000 escrow deposit. A day later he re-filed with the deposit.

The evening’s hearing could not be conducted without board approval of Wishnia’s appeal.

After 40 minutes of arguments related to Wishnia’s intent, the board determined that Wishnia had every intention of filing his appeal and the escrow payment on time.

The attorneys then moved forward with detailed legal arguments about the not-for-profit and for-profit nature of the aquatic center business as it relates to land use. 

Richard Skolnick, the attorney for the Stop the BAC Neighborhood Association made up mostly of Berkeley Heights residents, pointed out that a memo Chadwick sent on March 8 to the Planning Board referred to the BAC as a “non-profit aquatic center.”  

The residents feel they can win.

“The great turnout shows how much the residents care,” said Berkeley Heights resident John Woods. “They got to see what the case is all about.”