The Westfield Leader Newspaper

OUR 108th YEAR – ISSUE NO. 20-99 FIFTY CENTS 232-4407

The Westfield Leader — Serving the Town Since 1890 —

Thursday, May 20, 1999 USPS 680020 Periodical – Postage Paid at Westfield, N.J.

Published Every Thursday

INDEX INDEX INDEX INDEX INDEX

Arts................Page 23 Classifieds..... Page 22 Editorial ........ Page 4

Honor Rolls .. Page 19 Mountainside Page 3 Obituary ........ Page 10

Religious ....... Page 11 Social ............ Page 6 Sports ............ Page 13

CYAN YELLOW MAGENTA BLACK

David B. Corbin for The Westfield Leader

REACHING ITS GOAL...Board members, volunteers and agency staff of The United Fund of Westfield display the many types of services that are supported through the Fund’s annual campaign. They are in front of the “thermometer,” which depicts the 100 percent completion of the 1998 goal of $613,000.

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United Fund of Westfield Attains $613,000 Goal For Campaign to Assist 21 Member Agencies

By PAUL J. PEYTON

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader

Whether it is quality after-school education programming and transportation for a family forced out of their home during last year’s Labor Day storm, helping to get a young adult off drugs or sending a developmentally disabled child to summer camp, the United Fund has a long and rich tradition in Westfield of providing people-oriented services.

Last week, the United Fund of Westfield celebrated the end to another successful campaign as Westfielders continue to step to the plate to finance the many services that depend on financial support from the agency.

The Fund reached its 1998-1999 goal of $615,000, a 2.5 percent increase, or $15,000 over the previous year’s effort.

Twenty-one agencies are supported by the Fund, which was incorporated in 1957. That year, the Fund raised $229,764. It surpassed $300,000 in 1977, $400,000 in 1982, a half million dollars in 1985 and $600,000 10 years ago.

Darielle Walsh, President of the Westfield Board of Education who served as the 1998 Campaign Chairman, noted in this year’s United Fund Annual Report that $523,000 of the funds raised were from local contributions.

“Through the generous contributions of Westfield residents, the quality of life for two out of every three Westfielders is improved,” she said in a statement published in the latest United Fund newsletter.

Linda Maggio, Executive Director of the United Fund for 25 years,

noted that since the Fund was incorporated in 1957, a total of $16.48 million has been raised through the annual fundraising effort.

“Westfielders care. They respond to the human services need,” she explained.

And what services are these? The United Fund has 21 agencies that receive annual allocations.

These include the American Red Cross, the Westfield “Y”, Arc of Union County, the Cerebral Palsy

League, the CONTACT We Care crisis help-line, Mobile Meals on Wheels, the Westfield Community Center, Westfield Neighborhood Council, Youth & Family Counseling Service, Jewish Community Center and Community Access Unlimited, an agency that places mentally handicapped adults in apartment living.

The United Fund begins its annual campaign through town-wide mailings, with follow-up phone calls three weeks later.

“You don’t get milk from a cow in writing her a letter. You have to sit down beside her and get to work,” Mrs. Maggio noted.

“It’s good old fashioned fundraising. It’s the door to door, the one-on-one efforts (that are successful),” she explained.

This year’s Campaign President, Alan Gutterman, noted that the cam

paign actually had to work extra hard this year due to a decline in funding received from the United Way of Union County.

Mrs. Maggio noted that the reduced funding made the United Fund raise another $20,000 in donations to reach this year’s campaign goal.

Last year, the United Way allocated $112,000 to the United Fund. That number dropped in 1998 to $91,000, based on a drop in designated funds from contributors.

Over the many years the campaign has existed, the United Fund has always paid each allocation promise to its member agencies – that’s $16.48 million over the past 40 years.

“That’s a lot to be proud for this town,” Mrs. Maggio told The Westfield Leader.

The campaign begins in the fall and concludes in the late spring.

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Legendary Astronaut Story Musgrave Merges Science of Space Travel, Artistic Perspective By MICHELLE H. LePOIDEVIN

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader

With six stellar missions in space, degrees in medicine, business administration, physiology, biophysics, literature, psychology and history, Dr. Story Musgrave has proven that the sky is the limit in personal growth and education.

Westfield High School (WHS) students were witnesses to those limitless accomplishments in the auditorium of their school last Friday, as the 60-year-old former astronaut — who logged more than 1,200 hours in space flight — urged them to reach for their dreams and to recognize the artistic beauty in space travel.

“Space flight is not just science. It’s living in all worlds,” Dr. Musgrave told The Westfield Leader.

He further noted that, while preparing to lecture at WHS, he requested that not only science classes be invited to attend, but students from arts and humanities courses as well.

When asked how he has merged the side of the brain which often favors art and creativity with the side that typically features technical and scientific strengths, Dr. Musgrave

mused, “If you don’t convert something to art, it’s going to die.”

In the Star Wars sagas and other films depicting space, such as Apollo 13, Dr. Musgrave said space was used primarily as a backdrop for painting a drama or tragedy, instead of capturing the actual atmosphere and circumstances in the great beyond.

Dr. Musgrave, who traveled on five space shuttles, completed 500 firefalls and has compiled hundreds of colorful, lifelike slides over 30 years, told the students, “I want you to come away with a spirit of what space flight is.”

Beginning with a slide of a small, curious child bending over to examine a treasure on the beach, the astronaut noted the eagerness to learn and the wonder in the child which he also attributes to science and art exploration.

“It’s the reach,” he explained, that helps individuals discover inner greatness and attain satisfaction.

Dr. Musgrave showed slides of a 40-year-old NASA training plane, noting the “harmonizing of the turquoise and blues” as artistic features beyond the technical structure he

presented. “Science is one way to know the world,” he told the packed auditorium, “but beauty is another.”

Through other slides, Dr. Musgrave detailed the colors that played on several sunsets around the spacecrafts, and the many colors that continued to dance behind the Hubble Telescope which he has helped to maintain and reconstruct.

Slides of his children sending him off on his missions, as well as the liftoff of a shuttle, were depicted by Dr. Musgrave as having energy, power, and an artistic voice.

Painted sunsets and azure skies were strategically shot by Dr. Musgrave, who utilized the position of the sun to enhance another photograph. He also showed one slide from the perspective of flying under the Earth.

“Do you see the folks on Earth? They’re having a sunset!” Dr. Musgrave laughed as he pointed out parallelism and perspective in other slides.

“Space walking is much more like ballet than engineering,” interjected Dr. Musgrave, as the slides contin

ued. He showed one slide from his point of view in space while looking across the entire continent of Australia.

A blob of Coca-Cola was perhaps one of the most interesting slides to WHS students, as Dr. Musgrave told them that when dipping and stirring his straw in the drop of soda, he could detect the separate components of

Dr. Story Musgrave

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Taylor Hardware Set To Close Its Doors After 80 Yrs. in Town

By KIM KINTER

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader

Taylor Hardware, which has been operating in downtown Westfield for 80 years, is closing.

The current owners, Kathy and Art Balinkie, are holding a “Quitting Business” sale over the next five weeks to sell everything in the Elm Street store, including fixtures. The store will close for good on Saturday, June 19.

Mr. Balinkie said he and his wife decided to close the business because they could not afford to pay the rent.

“The owners were asking a fair market price,” he said. “But we couldn’t afford the fair market price.”

Carol Greco, who manages properties for the Schwarz family who owns the Elm Street building, de

clined to comment further. She did point out that the Balinkies have started a new home improvement business and literature the couple prepared said that they could not handle both businesses. Customer orders will be taken by telephone only.

Mrs. Greco said that there are no tentative tenants for the building.

“We have nobody. The family has always felt that it would rather have a store rented at a lower price than have an empty store,” said Mrs. Greco.

The Balinkie couple, who has owned the store for the last 11 years, bought it from the previous owner who had operated the business for 16 years.

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Math Curriculum Update Weighed by School Board

By MICHELLE H. LePOIDEVIN

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader

The Westfield Board of Education examined some of the components of the Math curriculum for grades five to eight during its meeting Tuesday evening, while acknowledging that there is still a long road ahead in the planning and refining of the curriculum’s structure.

Francine Elson, K-8 Math Supervisor, offered overhead transparencies, which outlined the proposed course offerings for sixth through eighth graders. She also reviewed how the Math Department and students have utilized the computer stations and new software.

Her report update occurred as part of the district’s ongoing review of its K-8 Math curriculum.

The eighth grade pupils currently participate in classes entitled “Algebra Prep. – Part 2,” “Algebra I – Part 2” and “Algebra I – Part 2 Geometry Strand.” Seventh graders hone their math skills through “Algebra Prep – Part I,” “Algebra I – Part I” and “Algebra I – Part I Geometry Strand.” Sixth graders take “Pre Algebra.”

Ms. Elson reported that she has been pleased with test results for both Roosevelt and Edison Intermediate Schools, but will maintain a watchful eye on results from future testing.

New proposed additions to the curriculum would entail “extensions” for grades six and seven. The curriculum for the sixth-grade extension is currently under construction by Math Department administrators. The sixth-grade courses are heterogeneously grouped, while the seventh grade classes are homogeneously grouped.

Another addition would include a “GEPA Prep,” a course name and curriculum which is still under construction.

Ms. Elson noted that this GEPA Prep course, which would last for one semester and include instruction for both math and language arts, would be necessary for students who might be struggling with such skills, needing an extra boost before the GEPA (Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment) is administered.

The course would also help students refine their algebra skills. Ms. Elson called the course “preventative.”

Board Member and Long Range Planning Chairperson, Annmarie Puleio, said that she has heard concern from parents and she has noticed herself, that often a course topic is quickly presented and perused, then pushed aside and brought up much later.

“It is an approach-avoidance-approach-avoidance” process, Ms. Puleio explained.

Ms. Elson maintained that math subjects, such as fractions, could be introduced as early as first or second grade.

However, Ms. Puleio persisted that the early introduction of math topics could have a detrimental effect on students who experience difficulty and are afraid to conquer it later because of a negative early experience.

Turning to the pros and cons of technology, Ms. Elson admitted that although she tries to push an interest in using computers and software to her instructors, most of the teachers are either untrained or not skilled enough on the keyboard of the computer.

For sixth graders, a Prentice Hall textbook and multi-media math software are utilized in three lessons per unit, according to Ms. Elson. She called that system “user friendly.” Graphing equations software and a program called Data Explorer is also utilized.

But, because some instructors are still adjusting to using computers, Ms. Elson questioned the board as to whether or not it was worth spending the money on training.

Board Member and former Vice President Ginger Hardwick then asked Ms. Elson if she felt the board was spending their “computer dollars” unwisely by putting them into this curriculum.

Ms. Elson responded that it was still too early to determine. She added that another year could reveal the ultimate pros and cons of integrating technology into the math curriculum.

“It’s going to be a slow process in which we’re going to learn together,” Ms. Elson said. She added that although she is excited by the prospect of using the Internet once the schools are wired for technology, she added

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Tamaques Parking Solution Remains Under Discussion

By PAUL J. PEYTON

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader

While Westfield police officers are following the Town Council’s directive to ticket motorists who park along the roadway through Tamaques Park, there now exists a lack of available spaces during peak park usage hours, officials revealed Tuesday night.

A straw poll vote drew a 4-4 tie among the eight council members present on allowing park users to park on the grass until a more permanent solution is rendered. Since the council took action to ban parking on the oval roadway through the park, over 40 summonses have been written, including 12 this past Mon

day night alone, according to Third Ward Councilman Neil F. Sullivan, Jr., Chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee.

Last fall, residents living in the area of the park came before the council in opposition to a plan to add 71 parking spaces to the park by paving over the lawn area.

That plan has been derailed, at least temporarily, with the council agreeing to amend the agreement it had with the contractor hired for the proposed parking stalls, to allow him to work on other paving projects in town instead.

The Public Works Committee, chaired by Third Ward Councilman

David B. Corbin for The Westfield Leader

GOING OUT OF BUSINESS...Taylor Hardware, a fixture in downtown Westfield for 80 years, is going out of business. The hardware store will close its doors for good on June 19.

David B. Corbin for The Westfield Leader

GETTING A FACELIFT...Painters work feverishly to paint the exterior of Arcanum Hall at the corner of East Broad and Elm Streets while a police officer ensures their safety. The workmen were high atop Westfield when they completed work on the tower portion of the building earlier in the week.

Page 12 Thursday, May 20, 1999 The Westfield Leader and THE TIMES of Scotch Plains – Fanwood A WATCHUNG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. PUBLICATION

CYAN YELLOW MAGENTA BLACK

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Residents can donate funds any way they like. They can charge it, pay in quarterly or monthly payments, pay in stocks, “any way that is the most convenient for the contributor,” Mrs. Maggio explained.

“I’ve got one guy that has been giving us $10 a month for 25 years,” she said.

Another woman who lives in the Senior Citizen Complex on Boynton Avenue brings in a crumbled $5 bill each year.

“And to me that means as much as the guy who can turn around and write you a check for $5,000. It’s money straight from the heart,” Mrs. Maggio explained.

In the Westfield public schools, employees can give through payroll monthly deductions. Dr. William J. Foley, Superintendent of Schools, headed up that effort this year for the United Fund.

He noted that the employee response was “overwhelming.”

“This is truly a community united by the spirit of helping each other,” Dr. Foley responded in his message in the Annual Report. The Report will be mailed to all households in town.

Richard Rippe, who serves on the United Fund board as well as representing the United Way of Union County, added that without the support of Westfielders, “many struggling agencies could not survive.”

Stanley Kaslusky. Executive Director for the “Y,” noted that the Fund helps the “Y” “to provide affordable quality services to children,” such as subsidizing the Search Institute program.

The Search Institute, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, provides programs

focusing on youth development. The “Y,” which will receive $154,600 this year from the United Fund, receives the largest allocation, followed by Youth & Family Counseling, $51,800, the Neighborhood Council, $48,500 and the Red Cross, $38,500.

Mrs. Maggio noted that the United Fund is the one stable source of funding these groups have on an ongoing basis providing, of course, they continue to meet the criteria of providing services to the Westfield community.

In allocating money, a number of factors were taken into account. An evaluation of each agency was undertaken by the Budget Review Committee along with consideration of each organization’s ability “to provide cost effective programming for Westfielders.”

The allocations are recommended first by a 13-member volunteer Budget Review Committee, which presents its plan to the Board of Trustees that makes the final decision. There are more than 300 volunteers who help the United Fund in its effort.

In addition, the results of a survey of United Fund contributors conducted last year, ranking the importance of services, was taken into consideration.

Services to the elderly was deemed the most important service of interest to residents, followed by home health care, aide to the homeless, child care, youth development programs, child/spouse abuse programs, substance abuse programs, literacy education and services for those surviving from mental illness or those who are mentally handicapped.

WESTFIELD POLICE BLOTTER United Fund of Westfield

Achieves $613,000 Goal

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 12

· A North Scotch Plains Avenue resident reported the theft of a bicycle from her garage.

· A woman reported that her wallet, containing $475 in cash, was stolen after she left it at a pay telephone at the north side Westfield Train Station.

· Leon Billups, 40, of Plainfield was arrested and charged with attempted theft by deception and with uttering a forged instrument (presenting a fraudulant check) at a Central Avenue bank, according to police.

Bail for the suspect, who authorities said was also wanted on 21 fugitive warrants from various New Jersey towns, was set at $7,716, including $4,000 for the Westfield charge and the remainder from the warrants.

THURSDAY, MAY 13

· An employee at an Elm Street store and a customer at the store each filed harassment reports following a verbal dispute between the two which occurred at the store, according to police. No charges have been filed in connection with the case.

· Clifford Lawson, 41, of Westfield was arrested and charged with shoplifting a jogging suit valued at $72 from an East Broad Street clothing store, police said. Bail for the suspect, who was also

wanted on an Essex County warrant, was set at $100.

FRIDAY, MAY 14

· A Tice Place resident reported that someone piled a large amount of dog excrement outside her basement window.

· An employee of an Elm Street supermarket reported being harassed by a male suspect known to her, who demanded $50 which he said that she owed him.

The victim said that after telling the suspect she did not owe him money, the latter threw a small box in her direction and left the scene. No charges have been filed in connection with the case, authorities said.

SATURDAY, MAY 15

· Police reported that unknown persons broke into and caused damage to a recreational facility on Springfield Avenue. Garbage cans and beer bottles were strewn around, several dressing rooms were forced open, and the roof of a dressing room was damaged, authorities said.

MONDAY, MAY 17

· An IBM laptop computer valued at approximately $2,500 was reported stolen from an unlocked motor vehicle in a South Avenue parking area, police confirmed.

Coke, fizz and gas. The astronaut bore witness to the old cliché, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” when displaying his next series of slides. The pictures showed Cape Cod, the Golden Gate Bridge, Manhattan, Florida, the White Cliffs of Dover, and Calais, France, all from his bird’seye view up in space.

Accompanied by the “oohs and ahs” of the students, Dr. Musgrave continued with photographs of the Nile, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Pyramids of Giza.

The veteran astronaut painted an artistic mural with slides of fault line

patterns, sand patterns in world-famous deserts, a heart-shaped lake in the Andes, an Australian lake which he believed looked like “aboriginal art,” and “spiral eddies of ocean currents from space.”

Thunderstorms, cloud patterns, jet streams, and the Himalayan Mountains were also shown from a unique perspective through Dr. Musgrave’s creative slide collection.

The astronaut has also compiled poetry, which he has written based on his experiences with space travel.

Astronaut Story Musgrave Merges Science and Art

Scotch Plains Councilman’s Sudden Death Prompts Election for November

By FRED ROSSI

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader

SCOTCH PLAINS – The sudden death on Monday of Scotch Plains Democratic Councilman Franklin P. Donatelli won’t lead to any immediate change in the political makeup of the governing body, which has a 3-2 Democratic majority, but will force a special election to be held in November that could alter the balance of power that switched hands less than five months ago.

The procedure for filling the vacancy calls for the Township Democratic Party Committee to submit three names to the Township Council within 15 days, according to Township Manager Thomas E. Atkins. The individuals must be Democrats, he told The Times.

The council then has 30 days to act on and appoint, by a majority vote, one of the three individuals. If the council does not act or is unable to agree on a candidate, then power reverts to the party committee, which then would appoint one of the three submitted names to the council.

Township Attorney Andrew Baron told The Times that he was still looking into the details of the appointment process.

The new member would serve only until November, when a special election will be held. The winner would then take office immediately and serve out the remaining three years of Mr. Donatelli’s fouryear term. The special election provides the Republicans with the opportunity to reclaim the majority status they lost last year after 25 years in power.

There wasn’t any discussion earlier this week about possible names to be submitted to the council.

It remains to be seen whether Mr. Donatelli’s replacement will be a low-key, independent-minded individual like himself, who managed to stay somewhat above much of the rough-and-tumble of local politics, or a forceful party activist who will want to play more of an active role in governing.

A new council member in the latter mold, if victorious in November’s election, might want to have a turn to serve as Mayor during the Democrats’ four-year term in power.

After their election last year, Mayor Geri M. Samuel and Deputy Mayor Tarquin Bromley had planned to take turns as Mayor each year. There was also no mention during the early part of this week

about possible Republican candidates in November.

Mr. Donatelli, 65, died less than five months into his first term on the governing body. Just three weeks ago, he stunned his council colleagues and many residents by abstaining during the vote on the 1999 municipal budget, which had called for an unpopular six-point tax increase.

It was a move that drew him loud cheers from the several dozen residents who attended the council’s meeting that evening.

Mr. Donatelli told The Times afterwards he had made up his mind on the budget and tax proposals after listening to residents speak out for more than three hours.

It was just last week that he voted in favor of the amended 1999 budget, which contained a five-point increase in taxes, a move that resulted in displeased residents jeering him at the meeting.

Flags in the township flew at half-staff in honor of Mr. Donatelli, and Mr. Atkins told The Times that employees at the Municipal Building were “pretty devastated” by the death of the lifelong township resident.

Mayor Samuel, who was elected along with Mr. Donatelli last November, said she had met him a year ago when he joined the Democratic ticket.

“He was the kind of person you can feel like you’ve known your whole life. I really feel like I’ve lost someone special,” she said. “He was an easy person to like.”

Republican Councilman William F. McClintock, Jr. said that, while he knew Mr. Donatelli for many years, “I never got to know him as well as I did in the past four or five months. He was a nice guy and I liked him a lot.”

“Politically, he was kind of a wild card,” Mr. McClintock said, alluding to Mr. Donatelli’s budget vote abstention in April. He noted, however, that the late councilman could also “occasionally cut to the chase” during political discussions.

Mr. Donatelli is survived by his wife, Lorraine McDede Donatelli, seven children, 10 grandchildren, a sister and four brothers. An obituary appears on page 10 of this newspaper.

Funeral services will be held today, Thursday, May 20, at 10 a.m. at the Rossi Funeral Home in Scotch Plains. Taylor Hardware opened its doors in

1919 at 143 East Broad Street and moved to its current location at 125 Elm Street in 1939. It was opened by Harry N. Taylor who sold it to his son, Harry D. Taylor, in 1935 for $1.

This is according to Mrs. Greco, whose great grandfather was Harry N. Taylor. The store was relocated to its current location when the space originally a theater on the first floor and a bowling alley in the basement was converted into a retail property, she said.

The wood floors that still receive only a light oiling and the surrounding 4,500 square feet of space are still pretty much the same as when Mr. Taylor moved there in 1939.

In fact, two items for sale include an antique set of oak drawers and a tall metal Acme Safe Co. safe painted with the name, Taylor Hardware, both of which were probably used in the original store.

With the closure of Taylor Hardware, approximately 15 pieces of downtown property will be vacant.

Michael LaPlace, Executive Director of the Downtown Westfield Corporation, said he was uncertain about the exact total of how many were vacant, but said he knew that owners of several properties are in various stages of negotiation, he said.

The 131 East Broad Street property, the spot of the former Temptations and Recipes, has been leased, Mr. LaPlace said, though he said he has not told who the new tenant is. The corner property at 200 East Broad Street, home of the former Garden Botanika, also has been rented to an individual who plans to open an independent gift shop called Papery, it was confirmed.

Mr. LaPlace added that the Taylor Hardware location is desirable and that the Downtown Westfield Corporation has had numerous calls from interested tenants throughout the years.

Debbie Schmidt, Chamber of Commerce Director, said she has gotten a few calls from Chamber members concerned about the store closing.

“The Chamber (of Commerce of Westfield) always hates to see a longtime business leave,” she said. “We think it is important to have a balance of independent and chain stores. That is what makes Westfield’s downtown unique. We hate to lose that.”

She said that when the Elm Deli, Backroom Antiques and Storytime on

Elm recently closed on Elm Street, there was an active discussion about how to maintain that balance and that discussion continues today. Backroom Antiques recently reopened on Prospect Street.

The independent hardware business has been particularly vulnerable, however, with the proliferation of large home repair centers. Villager’s Hardware, a smaller-store division of Home Depot, in fact, is opening in Garwood next to King’s grocery store in November. Ground breaking was last weekend.

Though he had not owned a hardware store previously, Mr. Balinkie bought the business because of his interest in home repairs.

“I always liked fixing things,” he commented. He also brought years of retail experience, having owned and operated one of the area’s first independent sneaker stores, “Arch Rival,” in the Livingston Mall more than13 years ago. When “Foot Locker” came into the mall, however, the Balinkie’s lease was not renewed.

Mr. Balinkie admitted it has been similarly “tough” in the hardware business. Just as the couple got started in 1980’s, Home Depot began opening up its big stores in the area. At the same time, real estate was not booming as it is now and, consequently, home repairs and renovations were down.

But Mr. Balinkie tried to compensate, he said, by offering service. The store stayed opened seven days a week and offered services such as screen repair and glass repair. Mr. Balinkie also began offering handyman services as more and more people asked for help with specific projects.

Mr. Balinkie is, in fact, starting a home repair business, called Taylor Home Repair Services that will service the greater Westfield area. He and many of the employees he has employed at the hardware store the last 11 years are offering such services as rescreening, brick and patio repairs, gutter cleaning and repairing and painting and refinishing.

Everything in the store is now 20 percent off. A simultaneous in-store contest aimed at stimulating sales is being managed by a national firm, Paul Brooker Sales, of Wichita, Kansas. Under the contest, people accumulate points each time they visit the store and the person with the most points at the end of the sale has a chance of winning 12 different items, including a grandfather clock.

Taylor Hardware to Close Doors After 80 Yrs. in Town

that she is having a hard time trying to find some algebra computer workshops for teachers and more user-friendly software.

Board Member Thomas Taylor asked Ms. Elson to take into consideration the feedback and concerns of the board while refining the curriculum and told her that as one of the district’s top administrators, she should be able to provide “analytical” answers instead of “political” ones when addressing these concerns.

Superintendent of Schools, Dr. William J. Foley reported that although this was just an update by Ms. Elson, further investigation and refinement of the curriculum would be necessary. He added that the board would learn more about the curriculum at its retreat this summer.

In other board business, Peter Osborn, a Westfield parent and teacher in another district, enumerated several reasons why the board should not approve the revised 1999-2000 school calendar.

Among the reasons Mr. Osborn gave were vacation plans, educational ben

efits and financial commitments would be disturbed if the proposed calendar was given the green light.

However, after long deliberation, the board decided to approve the calendar in a 6-3 vote with Board Members Eileen Satkin, Carol Molnar and Thomas Taylor rejecting the calendar.

According to the calendar, school would begin on Wednesday, September 8, and end on Wednesday, June 21. The spring vacation would begin on Monday, April 10 to Friday, April 14. School would be in session from Monday, April 17, to Thursday, April 20. Good Friday on April 21 would be a day off for students.

One unused snow day would close schools on Thursday, April 20; two unused snow days would close schools on both April 20, and Monday, April 24; and finally, students would enjoy three days off on April 20, 24, and Friday, May 26, if there are three unused snow days.

BOE Weighs Update On Math Curriculum

Area Residents Achieve Dean’s List Recognition At Columbia University

Several local students were named to the Dean’s List at Columbia University’s two undergraduate schools.

They include Michael Feldman of Westfield, Ehrlic Lo of Scotch Plains and Katharyn Boyle of Mountainside.

To achieve deans list status, student have to have received a grade point average of 3.33 or higher.

Fred S. Roberts Receives Computer Science Award

WESTFIELD — Rutgers Professor and Westfield resident Fred S. Roberts, director of the University’s Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS), has been awarded the ACM-SIGACT (Association for Computing Machinery-Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory) Distinguished Service Prize.

The prize is awarded annually to an individual who has made substantial service contributions to the theoretical computer science community. It is presented at the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, and comes with a $1,000 prize, a travel grant to attend the conference and a plaque.

Mr. Roberts joined the Rutgers mathematics faculty in 1972 and has also held visiting positions at Cornell University, AT&T Bell Laboratories and Northeastern University. In January 1996, he was named the director of DIMACS.

With administrative offices at Rutgers, DIMACS is an National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center and receives support from the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology. It is a joint project with AT&T Labs-Research, Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies, Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore), NEC Research and Princeton University, comprising some 175 affiliated scientists from these organizations.

The center runs research and educational programs dealing with topics such

as network security, massive data sets, massively parallel computation and the interface between the mathematical and biological sciences.

Mr. Roberts has been a leader in focusing the mathematical sciences community on outreach to areas beyond mathematics. His major research interests are in mathematical models in the social, behavioral biological and environmental sciences, and of problems of communications and transportation; graph theory and combinatorics and their applications; measurement theory; utility, decision-making and social choice; and operations research. John J. Walsh, will hold an open meet

ing on Wednesday, June 9, at 8 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers to generate opinions on whether the council should move ahead on construction of the new lots.

Mr. Walsh said he wants to hear from opponents of the plan, as well as from individuals who can’t find parking spaces in Tamaques.

“I want to have a balanced hearing,” he said.

At Tuesday night’s council conference meeting, the governing body agreed to a request from Recreation Director Glenn S. Burrell to have the contractor pave the path within the picnic area in Tamaques.

“The path provides non-vehicular access to the park from both Tamaques Way and Seward Avenue, and is utilized by many area residents,” Mr. Burrell explained in his memorandum to Mayor Thomas C. Jardim and council members.

In terms of the current lack of spaces during peak use hours, council Republicans favored allowing residents to park on the grass for the time being. Democrats, though, were opposed to this concept, opting instead for street parking.

Fourth Ward Councilwoman Janis Fried Weinstein said parking on the grass would help “ease the pain” of parents and others who want to watch their kids’ baseball teams play.

“You just can’t keep turning away people and giving them tickets for coming out to watch their kids play ball,” she explained.

The ward’s other representative, Lawrence A. Goldman, disagreed, saying he opposes any move to have cars park on the grass.

“On any particular day when it has rained the night before, we are going to ruin the grass,” he explained.

First Ward Councilman Gregory S. McDermott said the town needs to make a decision on where people can park now that the park’s roadway is off limits.

Councilman Walsh said if parking on the grass is deemed as a solution to the parking crunch, the governing body needs to “specifically designate the locations” where parking would be permitted.

Mr. Sullivan explained that officials would “delineate a limited number of spaces,” such as near the basketball courts and near Field No. 6, the location of one of the proposed lots. He said the council could declare a parking emergency and allow for parking in these areas.

Mayor Jardim asked the Transportation, Parking and Traffic Committee to place the Tamaques parking situation on its agenda. That committee is chaired by First Ward Councilman Carl A. Salisbury.

“Let’s get a serious look at this situation,” said Mayor Jardim.

Councilman Sullivan said he believed the issue was a public safety matter and thus should be addressed by his committee. The committee met with Westfield Police Chief Anthony J. Scutti on this and other issues prior to the council’s Tuesday conference meeting.

“Let’s not wait until September to make a decision,” he urged.

Councilman Walsh said the reason the council delayed its decision on additional lots was “to play the whole scenario out as to whether we can fit enough cars in Tamaques with the current number of parking spaces. It is evident that we can’t.”

In other business, the council also locked horns in a 4-4 straw vote on the issue of council terms. Mr. Goldman, Chairman of the Laws and Rules Committee, has proposed a plan to expand terms of the Mayor and council members from two to four years, in an effort to reduce political posturing during the fall campaign season.

According to information from the Center for Government Services at Rutgers University, of the 565 municipal governments in New Jersey, only a handful of towns have terms of less than three years.

Officials explained that the council could opt for a non-binding referendum to get voters’ opinion on the issue. Because Westfield’s government was done through Special Charter legislation at the state government level, the Legislature would have to take action to change the town’s council terms.

Under the current system, town voters elect four council members, one from each ward, annually and the mayor every two years. Mr. Goldman’s proposal calls for biennial council elections, with a mayor’s race every four years.

While council members favor threeyear terms, they said such a move would eliminate the possibility of staggered terms due to the town’s four wards, each of which has two council representatives.

Another hot topic lately has been a proposal by the Recreation Department to create a multi-purpose field in the panhandle section of Brightwood Park, Westfield’s last remaining natural habitat.

Mr. Walsh said unless the baseball and soccer associations come out in favor of such a plan, he is prepared to recommend that the council scrap the proposal. A wetlands study at the park was recently conducted by a consultant hired by the town. The study has indicated that while the area of the proposed field is surrounded by wetlands, the field area itself is not a wetland as specified by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

The council delayed its decision on the appointment of Nancy Priest as the new Town Historian until Mr. McDermott has had an opportunity to check with at least one person who might also be interested in the post.

The position has been vacant since the resignation of Homer Hall last year when he moved out of state. His predecessor, Ralph H. Jones, also relocated to another town, although he remains active with the Historical Society.

Ms. Priest, currently the President of the Friends of Mindowaskin Park, serves on the Westfield Historic Preservation Commission and is Preservation Chairwoman for the Westfield Historical Society. She ran an unsuccessful campaign in the GOP primary election against Second Ward Councilman James J. Gruba in 1996.

Tamaques Parking Solution Remains Under Discussion

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