Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Prosecutor Details Duties, Crime in County

Romankow describes challenges of law enforcement in speech to men's club.

November 10, 2010
By Ken Tarbous

Union County has more than 2,000 gang members, county Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow told the Old Guard of Summit during the club's meeting Tuesday morning at New Providence Municipal Center.

The western part of the county, including New Providence, Summit and Berkeley Heights, has much less of a problem than Plainfield, which is home to 800 gang members and Elizabeth, where at least 600 live, Romankow said.

"We know there are a lot of gang members we don't know about," Romankow said. "Elizabeth has many more gang members than has been documented."

Romankow and his staff of attorneys, detectives and analysts have been actively combating gang activity and the related drug distribution and homicides that go with it. As part of its ongoing efforts, the Union County Prosecutor's Office has won 350 convictions of major drug dealers, Romankow said.

Besides gang activity, the prosecutor spoke passionately about his background as an attorney, his experience fighting crime and putting away criminals, and his office's responsibilities.

In its push to tackle the homicide problem in Union County - there have been 23 this year, up from last year's 13. Romankow said that he has strengthened the prosecutor's homicide task force has been strengthened to include seven attorneys and 16 detectives.

In addition to investigating murders and other homicides, Romankow's office also is responsible for investigating child abuse. The prosecutor described in graphic detail the physical and sexual abuse children suffer at the hands of abusers.

Last year alone, 400 new files on the abuse of children age 12 and under were opened, and there were more than 650 reports of sex crimes and abuse of children 13 and over in Union County, he said.

"It's incredible what these people do. I tell people, 'If you don't believe in the devil, come to my office for about a week,' " Romankow said. "It's incredible what they do to these kids."

But Romankow, who oversees all of the police officers in the county, said there is more to his job than just convicting bad guys.

His has more than 260 employees in his office, which has an annual budget of $28 million, and he leads 68 assistant prosecutors, 75 detectives and other staff in helping keep the streets safe.

Last year, the Prosecutor's Office reviewed approximately 7,000 cases that resulted in an estimated 1,500 indictments, 1,500 plea deals, and 1,500 downgrades of charges that were handled by municipal courts, the prosecutor said.

"My job isn't just to prosecute these," he said. "We have other areas where we can do some good as well."

In his position, Romankow has championed an initiative to make the legal system more humane in its treatment of people with mental illnesses.

His efforts helped lead to the establishment of a mental health court in the county, and now the recidivism rate for offenders with mental illnesses has been reduced to just 25 to 30 percent, way below the national average of 90 percent, Romankow said.

"I am to the right of Attila the Hun when it comes to punishment. I just think there are some things that just should not be forgiven," he said. "But when it comes to mental illness…we need to do something."

He said it wasn't only the right thing to do but that it could save taxpayers the $65,000 per year it costs to keep people with mental illnesses in jail.

During his talk, Romankow told the audience his career as a crime fighter almost didn't happen. In 2002, he was considering retirement after a long career in private law practice when then Gov. Jim McGreevey offered him the job. Romankow felt he could be effective in pursuit of justice. And he said he enjoys the work.

"This is actually fun, and they pay me," he said.

Romankow spoke at the 3,605th meeting of the Old Guard of Summit, which celebrates its 80th anniversary next week. The club bills itself as a "retired men's organization" for men over 50, and it draws its membership from New Providence Summit, Chatham, Berkeley Heights and other surrounding communities.

The club holds weekly meetings on Tuesday mornings at New Providence Municipal Center, where featured speakers talk about relevant issues of the day. This week's meeting was attended by 112 members. The club boats an active roster of 150 members, with the rolls totaling nearly 350 men, according to Membership Chairman John McCloskey.

"We're doing a lot to replenish the membership, because in the past guys have been dying and moving on," McCloskey said.

Next week's Old Guard meeting features retired New York City police officer Richard L. Cowan, a club member who will speak on "Wasteland and Beyond: Anatomy of Undercover Cops."

For more information on the Old Guard of Summit, go to summitoldguard.homestead.com or contact McCloskey at (908) 233-0236.

Thoms Concedes Support for Park Sale Led to Defeat

But outgoing mayor says agreeing to sell the Oakwood Park to Union County was the right decision for the borough.

November 4, 2010
By Ken Tarbous

Incumbent Mayor John Thoms, who failed in his bid for re-election to a second term, acknowledged Tuesday night that he lost the mayoral race because he backed the proposed sale of Oakwood Park to Union County.

"I made the decision to support the park because it was in the best long-term interest of the borough of New Providence," Thoms told NewProvidence.Patch.com. "At that time, I did not think of the political consequences, and if I had to do it all over again I still think it's the best long-term decision for the borough of New Providence."

Councilman J. Brooke Hern defeated Thoms by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. That was about the same as the losing margin for the non-binding ballot question on whether to sell Oakwood Park to the county for $1 and a commitment by county freeholders to make $3.5 million worth of improvements to ball fields and other facilities in the park.

Resident Sherry Zabel said the mayor's misstep in casting the deciding vote in favor of the park deal cost him the election.

"I think John Thoms didn't lose to Brooke Hern, he lost to Oakwood Park," Zabel said. "I think he made a mistake. Maybe he should have brought it to a town vote."

Shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, Thoms, who was elected four years ago as a Republican but failed in his bid for re-election to a second term as an independent, thanked the nearly 50 family members and friends gathered at the William Paca Club. Thoms also congratulated his opponent, Hern, on the victory.

"We've got some significant challenges in New Providence," Thoms said in his concession speech. "I wish our new mayor well. Let's get behind our new mayor, our new council because we've got some tough times coming up ahead."

Thoms' supporters said the outgoing mayor was handicapped by the decision of the borough's Republican Committee to endorse another candidate this past spring. When that candidate, former Mayor Al Morgan, lost in the June primary to Hern, Thoms decided to run as an independent.

"I'm very disappointed. John worked very hard as mayor. Unfortunately we had to run off the [Republican Party] line," said Bob Dougherty, an advisor to Thoms and a former New Providence GOP chair.

Thoms' supporters, while praising the man and the job he has done as mayor, lamented the actions of the party establishment in a town with an all-Republican council.

"As long as he got one vote he was a winner, because the bureaucrats cut him off as a governing mayor," said 82-year-old lifelong borough resident Nicholas Perillo. "He should have been No. 1 on the ballot. He had to run as an independent. He's been a great mayor."

A decorated Vietnam veteran, Thoms reflected on his years as elected official in the borough.

"I worked hard for the residents of New Providence not only as a mayor but as a councilman going on seven years of service to the town, probably in the worst economic crisis we've had since the Great Depression," said Thoms, who served three years on the borough council before his election to mayor. "I did the best I could in coming up with innovative ways in dealing with the challenges we had."

New A&P Draws Raves. Parking Lot? Not So Much.



Residents, town official concerned about safety at growing Village Shopping Center

November 4, 2010

By Ken Tarbous

Many residents are thrilled to have the new A&P Fresh supermarket in the Village Shopping Center, but for some residents, navigating around the parking lot is proving to be a difficult task.

Residents say they love the downtown location and have even been able to find parking spots. But the spots they're finding in the busy area are giving them longer walks to the store than they were used to when the Acme market was in the shopping center. Residents with small children, however, say they're struggling to deal with narrow driving lanes and a lack of traffic signs, among other concerns.

"I think it's a mess. I think it's dangerous for people. It's dangerous for the cars," said Erin Skotarczak, a mother of three who has lived in the borough for a little more than a year. "There are so many ways to get in and out of that lot. I just don't think there's any rhyme or reason to that lot. It's just very dangerous."

Adding to the confusing flow of traffic are the multiple parking lots behind McGrath's Hardware, M&M Liquors, Colorado Snow & Skate, and adjacent to Ferdinand Jewelers that feed into the Village Shopping Center. Drivers often use the South Street entrances and exits for those lots to access the center's lot.

Also fueling residents' frustration is the noticeable absence of corrals to catch carts left behind by shoppers. And in recent months, contractors' vehicles and garbage containers have crowded spaces near the free-standing building that houses Braunschweiger Jewelers. Smashburger, a Colorado-based restaurant chain, will open in the building this winter, bringing additional traffic into the parking lot. This Monday, an Allstate Insurance office will open its doors in the shopping center.

Councilman J. Brooke Hern said that spaces will be harder to get as time goes by and that the lot's configuration needs to be addressed to improve safety as more tenants move in.

"The parking situation is obviously bad. There is not really much that can be done to turn back the clock and achieve what would have been the right result, which would have been not to build that building [housing Braunschweiger Jewelers] in the center," said Hern, who is the Republican candidate for mayor in this year's election. "It really is a situation, I think, the town is just going to be living with, and it's going to get worse if and when those empty stores get filled."

For his part, the owner of the Village Shopping Center, Larry Paragano, is actively pursuing solutions to the traffic flow and safety problems, according to the center's property manager.

"We're going to tweak the flow of traffic from in front of the Investors Bank down through the cleaners. We're going to make that one way. We're going to put up a stop sign to impede some of the traffic," said Bill Woods, chief operating officer of Hazelwood Management Inc., which runs the Village Shopping Center for Paragano. "The actual traffic flow is now going to be refined. We didn't know what it was going to be until the A&P was open. We now see how the traffic is flowing. It's still a work in progress."

The owner will ask the borough Planning Board on Nov. 9 for explicit permission to add stop signs, make lanes one ways, add cart corrals, and perform other adjustments to the lot. Rather than go ahead with the work immediately, Woods said, the owner wants to avoid any bureaucratic hassles during or after the work.

In 2005, the borough changed its parking ordinance at the request of business owners, easing the number of parking spaces required per square foot at each store. In 2007 and 2008, when Paragano received approvals to expand the supermarket space and put up the "outbuilding" where Braunschweiger Jewelers is located, the town gave the center two variances to allow for fewer parking spaces.

Some downtown business owners say part of the parking problem is that the downtown district has reached its limit for land available parking, with little space for further expansion.

But Woods said he doesn't believe shoppers will have a problem finding places to park. He pointed out that approximately 130 of the center's 350 parking spots are behind the stores, accessible through two walkways, one next to Aladdin Cleaners and the other between Village Pet Center and the A&P.

Shoppers who have been frequenting the new supermarket agree there are plenty of spaces available.

"I am pleasantly surprised with how easy it has been to get a spot," said resident Ali Solomon. "Obviously, this might be temporary as new businesses file in, but for now no complaints."

Whether there are enough parking spaces to meet demand in peak parking periods, such as Christmas shopping season, is still being debated.

"I live in town and am in the new grocery store a least three times a week, and I have yet to have to circle to find a spot," said resident Kate Forbes. "I am sure it will get even busier as the new stores open, but it is great to see downtown thrive."

Mayor John Thoms, who has been in contact with Woods over safety concerns at the lot, said professional parking studies by the borough and Paragano found that the current number of parking space, including those behind the buildings, were found to adequate.

"Can people park right in front of the store like when they used to go to the old Acme, run into the place and then come right out and leave? No, they can't do that anymore because this is a popular shopping center now," said Thoms, who was elected mayor as a Republican but is running for re-election this year as an independent. "So they're going to park a little further away, but it's all within the confines of the center. So, far it's working."

The Village Shopping Center and its parking issues have a long history. The center was built in the early 1960s, and fell into what residents and business people call a state of disrepair over a 20-year period that culminated with the Acme supermarket leaving the center in summer of 2006. Paragano then began plans for his $6 million renovation of the center.

There also has been a long, ongoing dispute over the tangle of access to the parking lots behind buildings on South Street and Springfield Avenue and which customers use those lots. There has been an unofficial arrangement between the nearly dozen property owners along South and Springfield and Paragano to allow people to park in any lot regardless of where they shop. But under that arrangement the costs to maintain lots, clear snow, and meet other expenses are unfairly borne more by some businesses rather than others, owners in the area say.

Bill Ferdinand, the chairman of the New Providence Business and Professional Association's Downtown Improvement District and the co-owner of Ferdinand Jewelers on South Street, said an effort to form a single, consolidated parking lot fell apart a few years ago and that talks on reaching a formal, cooperative parking agreement have stalled.

Part of the difficulty in getting all sides to agree have been issues relating to two businesses, Feathers Hair Specialists and Avenue Deli on Springfield Avenue, that do not have their own parking lots and concerns over the large number of customers of Springfield Avenue and South Street businesses parking in the Village Shopping Center lot.

"What I would like to do, at some point, is possibly work something out with all the landlords and people on South Street," said Ferdinand said, who helped run the Downtown Improvement District's parking study. "Whatever is good for the town is going to be good for us."

Woods said the shopping center's owner would like to resolve the parking issues to the benefit of all the businesses in the area.

"We want to get a cooperative solution for all this downtown," Woods said. "We haven't seen any progress made since 2007, but now that the center is getting repopulated quickly [with new businesses] we're looking to have a solution that works for everybody downtown."

Meanwhile, business owners are celebrating a reinvigorated downtown shopping district which has been enjoying a renaissance of sorts since the renovation and in the brief time the new supermarket has been open.

"This shopping center's a huge upgrade. It's a huge part of the downtown, " said Bill Braunschweiger, owner of Braunschweiger Jewelers, who sees the need for adjustments in the parking lot. "This is as good as the place has looked since it was basically brand new in the mid-'60s, and it was a long time coming. It was truly an eyesore."