Midterm Year-in-Review

It's hard to believe that this Wednesday, May 21, 2008 marks the 1 year anniversary since being sworn in as a Trustee in South Orange. It's even harder to believe that my term is now half over. There are many times it feels like nothing has been accomplished other than countless hours of meetings and literally thousands of emails. However, in preparation for the Village President's State of the Village report which is "coming soon", I started to itemize things I have personally been involved in or accomplished and it has been reassuring to realize how much has actually been done:

• Held numerous neighborhood meetings with residents around Grove Park & Fairview Ave area to address their concerns
• Implemented prohibition against parking from Sunset to Sunrise on Park Place
• Explored possibility of automated traffic light cameras at the Public Safety Committee
• Had the Police implement enhanced enforcement of traffic violations in Sloan Street area
• Had the Police shift the hours of SOPAC security detail to later in the evening to better coincide with SOPAC/Clearview hours
• Worked on the Old Stone House Task Force which created a recommendation report focusing on 3 options: Adaptive Reuse for Commercial use, Conveyance and Demolition
• Implemented Project Status report which is posted to the Village website after each Conference Agenda Meeting to better inform the public about ongoing projects in town: http://southorange.org/StatusReport/VillageStatusReport.pdf
• Held first Allcomers/Newcomers Day to encourage Volunteerism in town
• Performed a review of all Village Committees and eliminated over a dozen inactive committees
• Finalizing Village-wide Volunteer Directory which identifies all Village and private volunteer opportunities in town
• Assisted in the formation of the Village Planting Initiative to help beautify the downtown area.

In addition, we have also seen great new businesses like Eden Gourmet, Bonte and Robyn Ross open their doors and many new business poised to open in the next couple months. We have seen the completion of the new employee parking lot at 3rd/Valley, the long-awaited demolition of the adjacent MAP building, the reconstruction of the Sloan Street Parking Lot, completion of the initial phase of the River Corridor project and initiation of an RFP to begin a full Visioning Process for the downtown later this year.

I've also had the honor to attend Celebrate South Orange, Village Halloween Parade, President's Harvest Ball, Governor Corzine Town Hall Meeting, Be About Peace Forum: Can Liberals & Conservatives Find Common Ground on Iraq, South Mountain students assembly on anti-idling, Baseball Parade, Holocaust Remembrance Service, Annual Rahway River Cleanup, Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting, Main Street Annual Meeting and Montrose in May

Despite some other "distractions" and the frustration of the continued failure of the Beifus site, I am proud that we have managed to move forward and have actually made real progress towards alot of the issues we outlined in our platform last year:(http://www.pureprogress.org/platform.php)

So, now that I have reached my "midterm", I frequently am asked if I will be running again next year. The answer simply is that "I really don't know". Certainly, alot depends on my obligations with my "real job" and my family. I also don't want to commit either way at this point so my day-to-day decisions are not tainted by politics. I really do try to give serious consideration to every single vote and don't want to consider whether or not something is "politically correct", but rather whether or not something is "right" and in the best interest of the Village and the taxpayers of the Village. That was my mindset one year ago and I am proud to say that I feel just as strongly about that today.