Editorial, Westfield- Feb. 20 1997
New Life for
Rialto Proves Local Residents Can Make a Difference
The announcement last week that
the Rialto Theatre, a Westfield landmark since 1922, has
been sold and will remain a movie house, has proved that
residents can make a difference.
The Rialto, located at the
corner of East Broad Street and Central Avenue, is
considered a staple in the economy of Westfield’s
downtown which has changed largely from retail (there are
no men’s clothing stores in town) to entertainment,
i.e., restaurants and coffeehouses.
Shortly after press accounts,
including those in The Westfield
Leader, revealed that United Artists
was looking to sell the popular movie house to a Long
Island developer who would turn it into retail, a group
of citizens created the "Save the Rialto"
volunteer organization. Although the group had nothing to
do with bringing CJM Entertainment into town to purchase
the theater, its actions made developer Herman
"Hy" Carlinsky rethink his actions of getting
easy approval for a retail establishment at the site.
The new owner, Jesse Sayegh,
who heads the Cedar Grove-based CJM Entertainment, owns
theaters in Linden, Cedar Grove and Ocean Township. He
also recently acquired the Montclair-based Bellevue
Theatre. Interestingly, Mr. Carlinsky’s firm,
Armstrong Management Corporation, also had been
interested in that theater, as well.
Mr. Sayegh has said he wants to
split the upstairs theater into two screens, thus
creating four screens, two on each floor. Currently the
theater has two screens downstairs and one upstairs.
The "Save the Rialto"
group wrote letters to The Gap’s headquarters in San
Francisco in an effort to steer off its interest in
opening a Banana Republic store at the site. The Gap
decided not to move forward with their proposal.
Through the persistent efforts
of the volunteer committee, organized through Westfield
MainStreet, the Rialto has been saved, at least for now.
With upgrades in the sound
system and fiscal appearance (both interior and exterior)
we believe the theater can still be a viable business
despite the competition it faces from the Sony 10-Plex on
Route No. 22, East, Mountainside. Local theaters like the
Rialto and the Bellevue serve a purpose: They provide a
convenience for local residents, and stimulate the local
economy by providing business for the many restaurants
and coffeehouses located nearby.
The new Rialto owner has
promised to continue to show films geared to the whole
family while adding foreign films into the mix to attract
an even greater audience.
It is also important to keep
the theater so as to maintain alternate-time use
businesses in the downtown, according to a past study of
downtown development. This helps to alleviate traffic
jams and parking woes at peak hours during the day.
The "Save the Rialto"
movement, which has drawn groups of children from
Westfield’s schools over the past few months in
support of the theater, has helped keep families in town
rather than shifting this business out to the highway.
Their fight follows a similar one by Westfield residents
and surrounding towns in the early 1980s to fight the
development of a mall on Route No. 22 on property located
on the Westfield/Springfield border.
We wish Mr. Sayegh the best of
luck and success as he assumes command of the Rialto. We
encourage Westfield residents to show their support by
viewing flicks at Westfield’s last movie house.
After all, a few months ago it appeared the
theater’s future was doomed.
Editorial, Scotch Plains - Feb. 20, 1997
We Anxiously
Await Final Numbers On Municipal, School, County Budgets
In the next few weeks municipal
governments of the communities covered by The
Westfield Leader and The
Times of Scotch Plains and Fanwood,
will be unveiling their budgets. This is the first piece
of the local property tax and is the smallest of the
three sections in the tax bills. The school budgets,
which will go before voters in April, and the Union
County spending plan are the other parts of the property
tax.
School budgets will be unveiled
in the coming weeks while Union County Freeholder Finance
Committee Chairman, Walter D. McNeil, Jr., said he hopes
to have the county budget adopted by the end of March.
Westfield’s governing body is expected to introduce
its municipal spending plan in March with adoption set
for April. The final version of the Scotch Plains
municipal spending plan is expected to be in the hands of
the Township Council by mid-March for introduction.
The Westfield budget, currently
being reviewed by the Town Council, shows a hike of
$667,000 over last year’s spending plan. The current
Scotch Plains’ budget, being reviewed by the
council, is $538,000 or 3.63 percent over last year. The
amount to be raised through Westfield and Scotch Pains
taxes still is being reviewed by local officials.
The Fanwood Borough Council
introduced a $5,512,787.41 spending plan last week, a
$211,256 or 3.98 percent increase over the 1996 budget.
The budget shows no tax increase over last year, the
first time in recent memory that the governing body has
been able to accomplish that feat.
Union County Manager Ann M.
Baran unveiled an executive budget of $276.5 million in
January. The budget, which has been turned over to the
Finance Committee, contains no increase in the overall
tax levy. The Democratic majority has indicated they
would like to see the county budget lowered even further.
In addition to the local
budgets, the Westfield Board of Education is proposing to
put a referendum for some $5 million before voters in
September for technology improvements throughout the
school system. The referendum is expected to go before
voters in October.
Also, Westfield downtown
property owners and merchants will see an added tax as a
result of the newly-created Special Improvement District.
The SID board unveiled a $226,000 spending plan last
week.
As the numbers are revealed by
local officials they will be reported in this newspaper.
At present it appears Westfield will see the biggest
increase, although it is hard to discuss the actual
impact until the local budgets are introduced.
We encourage local officials to
hold the line as much as possible by trying to avoid any
significant increases. Hopefully this can be done by
maintaining the current level of municipal services in
Westfield, Scotch Plains and Fanwood.
We look forward to seeing the
final numbers as they are released by our local officials
after the countless number of hours they have spent
sifting through financial data.
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