Board of Trustees Discuss Department Restructuring, Appoint New DPW Director

A recap of Monday’s Board of Trustees regular Meeting

Announcements

• The South Orange Community Garden – registration for the 3rd season will begin on Saturday, January 21 at 9 a.m., at The Baird Center.  Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis.  The Community Garden is located in Riverside Park (f/k/a the Third Street Playground Park) on
  West Third Street, between Vose Avenue and Church Street. More information is available at
  www.southorange.org/communitygarden.
  
  
• Village Hall Offices and Village Facilities – Closed Monday, January 16 in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal holiday.
  
  
• Board of Trustees Budget Workshop Meeting – The Board of Trustees has scheduled its next Budget Workshop meeting for Wednesday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Village Hall.

Public Comments

• David Solomon was unhappy with the timing of the NextG hearing last week and asked about the status of the transcript from that hearing.  The transcript has since been posted online.
  
  
• Marlow Taybron thanked the village and Village President Alex Torpey for turning on the lights in the Rite Aid parking lot.  Taybron suffered injuries in a car accident recently in the area.  She expressed concern with the lighting in Grove Park.
  
  
• George Mattias thanked the village for fixing previous lighting problems.  He said that Grove Park is littered with tree branches.  He also brought up street signs that are missing at intersections on South Orange Avenue.
  
  
• Alyssa Aronson asked the trustees what their New Year's Resolutions were for the village.

Presentations

• South Orange Fire Chief Jeff Markey gave
  
  
• Main Street South Orange gave a presentation from their design committee with plans on improving the NJ Transit trestle on South Orange Avenue.  Among the ideas presented was improving the brick walk way, a new paint job, some historic photos and lantern fixtures.  The committee also wants to add bike racks to the side of the trestle.  The next step is for Main Street South Orange to meet with NJ Transit.

Board Discussion

• Reagan Burkholder discussed a salary study that he is currently working on.  The study will show a comparison of the Village’s employees with those of other communities.
  
  
• Trustee Michael Goldberg brought up adding some additional support to the Village Clerk’s office.  Currently Deputy Clerk, Sherri Brown, is on an extended leave for health reasons.
  
  
• Trustee Nancy Gould asked
  
  
• Interim Administrator Reagan Burkholder talked about restructuring some village departments.  Among the key initiatives he would like to do is to make a central area in the lobby of Village Hall for residents to be able to solve most of their problems.

Consent Agenda

• 14 resolutions were passed on the consent agenda. 

Resolutions

• Resolution #2012-006 passed 5-0 (Trustee Mark Rosner was absent from the meeting).  This resolution appointed Thomas Michetti to the position of Director of Public Works.  The previous director, Mario Luciano retired at the end of last year.

All Board of Trustees meetings can be viewed on the South Orange Village website here.