The Week in Union County

This week, like last week—and the week before that—featured a winter storm. It also featured the release of the findings from the 2010 Census, showing relatively steady growth in Union County, but significant gains in central and south Jersey. Here in the county, take a look a what’s happening with your friends and neighbors.

BERKELEY HEIGHTS/MOUNTAINSIDE

Mountainside Teen Mourned Friends, family and the entire St. Peter’s Prep high school community continue to mourn the tragic loss of their St. Peter's Prep senior, B.J. Giannone, who died on Monday following a swim meet.
Giannone, a Mountainside resident, collapsed following his participation in a 200-meter freestyle relay at St. Peter’s College. Giannone, who went into full cardiac arrest, was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
"It is a crushing loss of a campus leader and student-athlete for the school," said St. Peter's Prep President Robert F. Reiser in a statement on the school’s website.
Giannone was also a member of the baseball team, Campus Ministry and the yearbook staff. Among his many interests were travel, songwriting, and volunteering. A popular student-athlete, Giannone, who was in his first year on the swim team, was participating in a meet with Marist and Ferris high schools when the tragedy occurred.

GLHS Boys Swimmers Break Record  It was a meet to remember for the Governor Livingston High boys’ varsity swim team when they beat a 30-year-old record. The team of Greg Fennell, Jon Drori, Nicandro Donadio, and Nick Rubino finished first in the boys’ 400-Freestyle Relay versus Chatham, shattering the school record by three seconds with a time of 3:26.55 in the race. It was, without a doubt, a great ending to the meet for the up-and-coming program.

That same boys’ relay team also finished first in the 200 Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:34.51.

CLARK/GARWOOD
Rite-Aid Robbery On the evening of Weds., Feb. 2, Clark Police responded to a reported at the Rite-Aid Pharmacy at Raritan Road and Central Avenue. Witnesses say a white male in a black hooded sweatshirt and face mask vaulted the pharmacy counter at the rear of the store, brandished a box cutter and demanded drugs from a Rite Aid employee. The suspect broke open a locked prescription cabinet and dumped multiple prescriptions into a garbage pail before fleeing the store on foot. Thanks to one witness who saw the suspect flee in an SUV, Clark Police were able to stop and catch the suspect, Michael Giuliano, 30, of 781 Nicholas Place, Rahway.

Salt of the Earth at the supermarket's Montclair store on Friday, Jan. 21. Fred Balsamo, 50, noticed two men who appeared to be in the process of loading rock salt into a Hyundai Elantra before paying for the rock salt. When Balsamo approached them, the pair left the shopping cart and ran into the car. Balsamo then attempted to stop the car by placing himself in front of it, but the car accelerated and struck him before fleeing the area. Balsamo was uninjured, and the pair was unable to place any of the rock salt into the car before they fled the area. Twenty containers of rock salt, with a total value of $200, were found on scene.

Let’s Eat! This week, we wrote about Garwood's newest name to the restaurant scene:  at 100 North Ave. serves up reasonably priced Mexican/American dishes, courtesy of owner Ivan Alvarez, an El Salvador native. Try Grandma's tostadas.

CRANFORD
Power Outages Reported Cranford Police estimate that about 60 households in town were without power Wednesday, after freezing rain coated power lines and trees with ice Tuesday night through Wednesday morning. Downed and low-hanging power lines were also common around town, prompting road closures and traffic delays.

Winter Cleanup Blues The winter blasts that have been hammering the east coast have taken a healthy chunk from the 2011 budget, according to township engineer Richard Marsden at a township meeting Tuesday night. Township Engineer Richard Marsden said Cranford has about $23,000, or 39%, remaining of the total $60,000 budgeted for cleaning up after storms.

NEW PROVIDENCE

Pioneers End Week With Win The New Providence boys’ varsity basketball team (13-3) had a rough week, but they were able to end it on a high note. Against Roselle on Tuesday, the Pioneers turned the ball The Pioneers didn’t play to their potential again on Thursday night against Jonathan Dayton of Springfield, turning the ball over nineteen times. The bulldogs outscored the Pioneers 29-16 in the remaining 12:45,  But the Pioneers were able to end their first losing streak of the season on Friday against Oratory Prep. Junior forward David tip in off of Vinny Fuschetto’s desperation miss in the fourth quarter gave the team a 45-44 win.  will face Roselle Catholic on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Girls’ Hoopsters Have Full Week The New Providence girls’ varsity basketball team also had a full week, falling to Oak Knoll with a 53-49 decurday after losing one of the team's top plays to foul trouble. But against rival Governor Livingston on Monday, the Lady Pioneers were able to push through the fourth quarter by maintaining a lead, ending with a 45-42 win. . The team improved even further against A.L. Johnson on Thursday night, using the foul line to break Johnson in the 53-45 win.  host Hillside on at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

SCOTCH PLAINS/FANWOOD

Is the Rough Ready? The Scotch Plains Mayor and Township Council's discussion of  properties to Shackamaxon Golf and Country Club, which went on the market in December, attracted a slew of comments from Patch readers. A number of readers, such as Michael S. Weber, supported the concept. " A highly creative and practical proposal like this one is long overdue," he wrote Tuesday. "I hope it works."
Others, however, expressed considerable skepticism. "There are vacant stores on E. First St and Park Ave due to the fact that the Blue Star and Watchung Square Malls have more than adequate parking and more to offer," Ronald Loneker Sr. wrote Thursday. "Moving City hall and other services to Shackamaxon would only provide more space to go unoccupied." 

On Tuesday, the Mayor and Council voted 4-1 to Planning Board to examine the viability of labeling the country club, Municipal Building, and other township properties "areas in need of redevelopment," which would grant the township greater control over what type development does eventually occur at the club. 

SPRINGFIELD
Firefighters Get to Work What do Springfield fire fighters do when faced with seemingly overwhelming odds? They do their jobs.  Earlier this month, Springfield FD responded to an accidental fire on South Springfield Ave. the night after a major snowstorm. The snow made it impossible for the fire fighters to perform standard fire fighting techniques. The multi-family home’s lay-out—multiple staircases and hallways—presented challenges as well. Still, despite the challenge and a sudden flare-up that met the responders when they reached the fire, they were able to contain the fire without

SUMMIT

Report: Summit Councilman Did Attempt Insurance Fraud A former Union County Superior Court Judge has issued a report indicating that Summit Councilman Tom Getzendanner did in fact suggest to City Solicitor Barry Osmun to change the dates on his legal bills to receive additional reimbursement from the Municipal Excess Liability Joint Insurance Fund. Summit's Common Council has decided to take no disciplinary action but instead will undergo ethics training in the coming weeks.

Hospital Appeals Helipad Denial Atlantic Health has formally filed an appeal with Union County Superior Court against the Summit Zoning Board of Adjustment's denial of an application for variances to construct a helipad on the roof of Overlook Hospital.  6-1 in June to deny an application for variances in connection with building a helipad on the roof of the hospital's C-wing for inter-facility transfers of stroke patients.

WESTFIELD
Minding Their Manners. Sort of… Tuesday's meeting of the Westfield Town Council brought debatelight on Central Avenue to a new heated level. Resident Maria Carluccio questioned Mayor Andy Skibitsky and Town Council members over the mayor calling her rude in a previous meeting and whether they thought she was rude. Skibitsky and Council members remained silent during Carluccio's questioning. Skibitsky also vetoed a request by Councilwoman Vicki Kimmins to bring the town's traffic safety consultant to a Council meeting to hear questions from Carluccio and Adina Encelscu about the traffic light. Carluccio and Encelscu have questioned why the light was placed on Encelscu's front lawn instead of at the nearby intersection of Central and Clover.
Stand up and be counted Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday show that Westfield's population rose to over 30,000,  keeping its place as the fifth largest community in Union County. The data also showed that Union County saw a gain of 14,000 Hispanics become the largest minority group and the southern portions of New Jersey saw the greatest growth over.

Gang News A new state report showed  identified 11 gang members living in Westfield, belonging to a total of five gangs.