Morris Township residents turn out for meeting on Honeywell development plan

MORRIS TOWNSHIP — Almost 200 township residents stayed late into Monday night to hear Honeywell International officials outline plans for the redevelopment of its 147-acre headquarters which could include a hotel, townhouses, and offices. It was the first chance residents...

Healthy Holidays! Flu shots for $15 at Morristown town hall

People pass around two things over the holidays: Grandma’s fruit cake, and the flu.

Morristown officials can’t do anything about the fruit cake. But they are offering flu shots for the bargain price of $15 to any adult who is not allergic to the vaccine.

“Everyone’s exposed to a lot of people over the holidays. That’s when the virus spreads,” said Morristown Health Officer Darlene O’Connell.

She has vaccine left over from a fall round of inoculations, and received speedy approval last month from Mayor Tim Dougherty and the town council to offer the shots at cost to any adults–including nonresidents–who want them, she said.

Vaccinations against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough (ages 11-64) ; meningitis (ages 2 to 55) ; pneumonia (65 and older; younger with a doctor’s prescription); and human papillomavirus (ages 9-29) also are available at the same price per shot.

The shots are free for town employees and retirees.

Inoculations will be offered from noon to 2 pm on Wednesdays in December, starting Dec. 8, on the second floor of town hall at 200 South Street. An interpreter will be on hand. Appointments are not required. For more details, call (973) 796-1975.

Gran Fondo bike event coming to Morristown

No, Gran Fondo is not a sinful dessert.

That comes afterward.

The term means “big ride” in Italian, and that’s exactly what Marty Epstein of Marty’s Reliable Cycle is planning for next Aug. 28 in Morristown.

Gran Fondos are long-distance bike races that include hill-climb challenges. Popular in Europe, where they often are named for famous racers, Gran Fondos attract hammerheads and casual cyclists alike.

“I’ve been thinking about this all fall,” said Marty, who also organizes mountain bike treks and cyclocross races. He discovered Gran Fondos in a trade magazine. “I wanted a new event.”

More details will be announced on Thursday, Dec. 2, from 7 pm to 9 pm at the Hyatt Morristown, which will be the start- and finish line of next year’s Gran Fondo.

Light refreshments will be served, along with video presentations of the Oxford Olympic distance triathlon and the Hunterdon Half Iron Triathlon, courtesy of Clinton-based PACE Racing, a nonprofit that is partnering with Marty on the Gran Fondo.

A series of New Jersey multisport events and New York road races, produced by PACE and sponsored by JackRabbit Sports of New York, also will be announced.

Marty envisions the Gran Fondo as a three-day extravaganza with local rides, music and food spinoffs that will attract between 1,000 and 3,000 riders to Morristown.

“There will be a big party” and a still-to-be-determined charity component, Marty said.

Sustainability will be the theme. Marty anticipates a green products expo at the Hyatt and participation by local restaurants preparing locally grown food.

“We’re trying to get people to stay the weekend,” Marty said. The Hyatt may offer special rates, he said.

For the Gran Fondo, expect race-and-tour combos of 100 miles, 60 miles and 35 miles, rolling from Morristown through Hunterdon County. Hill climb champs will be crowned the King and Queen of Morristown.

“There will be a lot of hoopla,” Marty said. “And something for everyone.”

December 2010 Biking Events

The winter holiday season is here and biking events are few and far between … but for those willing to bundle up for a ride, here's a list of a few choice events.

Morris Township fun(d)-raiser at Glynallyn mansion to benefit pet projects on Dec. 4

Every dog loves a good tree.

On Saturday, you can bid on one that will have your pet wishing you “Merry Christmas” for the rest of his shaggy life.

Seven doggy-trees– a Terrier tree, a Boxer tree, a Labrador tree, a Labrador puppy tree, a pair of Scotty trees trimmed with Tartan ribbon, and a Salute to Our Heroes tree–will be among auction items at the annual MARDOG cocktail party and tricky tray (tricky tree?) on Dec. 4 at lovely Glynnallyn mansion in Morris Township.

MARDOG–the Morris Area Responsible Dog Owners Group–is a nonprofit that raises money for dog parks and scholarships for veterinary students.

Its president, Morristown Councilwoman Alison Deeb, hand-decorated the doggy-trees with her sister, Leslie Carter.

Alison also will be donating a year’s supply of  pet chow to Noah’s Ark, a pet adoption center in Ledgewood. She won the food as a finalist in the Beneful Wagworld Dream Dog Park contest.

Saturday’s festivities run from 6 pm to 8 pm. Alison promises wine, hors d’oeouvres, desserts and a chance to win such specialty items as a Jets football, food baskets, dinner gift certificates to area restaurants and a golf package.

And the backdrop is straight from the Gilded Age, when Madison’s “Millionaires’ Row” was called the “Newport of the West.”

Here’s Alison’s description of Glynallyn:

Glynallyn is one of Morris Township’s few remaining Gilded Age-era mansions. It was built between 1913-1917 as a private home for George Marshall Allen, heir to the Old Crow Whiskey fortune, and his wife Grace and daughter Lorraine.

Mr. Allen admired Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire, England, the ancestral home of Sir William Compton (c.1482- 1528), a close friend of King Henry VIII. He sent renowned New York architect Charles I. Berg to England to study the castle and model his fantasy home after it. George Marshall Allen chose the Canfield Road site in Convent Station because it resembled the rolling countryside of Warwickshire.

Just off Madison Avenue, the location was once a part of “Millionaire’s Row,” an area once known as “Newport of the West.”

Over its 95-year history, Glynallyn was the Corporate Headquarters of the General Drafting Company for 40 years and became again a private residence when Chris and Melitta Shields purchased the house in 1997.

Situated amidst 7.5 acres, Glynallyn has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1987 and has been repeatedly referred to as one of the finest Elizabethan Tudor houses in the country. The mansion features intricate stone and plaster work, hundreds of stained glass windows and hidden surprises around every corner.

A vaulted room called the dungeon, with heavy steel studded doors acquired from Dannemore Prison, a huge fireplace and a Shakespearean stage were extensively used to entertain from informal Halloween parties to amateur theatricals.

Tickets to the event are $25/person or $45/couple if you register by December 1 by calling 973-644-0188 or emailing mardog@optonline.net. Tickets are $35/person after December 1.

Morristown artist Paul Laud aims his mighty pen at North Korea

Laudable Inkworks

This week’s installment from local artist Paul Laud:

Kim Jong Il has got no Seoul

Paul Laud

Want more recreation in Morristown? Come to town hall Dec. 2

Should Morristown have more parks?  How is the bike plan coming along?  Do trees have a place in the town’s future?

No question is too green; bring ‘em all to town hall on Thursday at 7:30 pm.

Technically, it’s a planning board meeting.  But the real action will involve Mayor Tim Dougherty, the town environmental commission and you, for a review of two little-known yet important documents.

One is the town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan. The other is its Environmental Resource Inventory.

Morristown officials want to set some priorities for future land conservation and recreation. What’s your wish list for open space, recreation and conservation?

The resource inventory will include a forestry study, and discussion of how it fits with town parks and neighborhoods. The environmental commission seeks suggestions on how to link public lands for more recreational uses. Also on the docket: A progress report on the town’s bicycle plan.

At least two rounds of public talks are anticipated in coming months, with a final presentation to the planning board in late spring. Recommendations may find their way into the town’s zoning master plan.

Municipal officials want to make this really granular–targeting land uses neighborhood by neighborhood, according to Paul Miller, coordinator of Morristown’s sustainability office.

Having a smart plan for open space and recreation should boost Morristown’s chances for landing grants, according to Barbara Heskins Davis, vice president of programs for the Land Conservancy of New Jersey. And that should translate to a better quality of life for everyone in town, she said.

Morristown already has scored a Smart Growth Planning Grant for this project, courtesy of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC). The $6,000 award will be matched by a like amount from the town.

The money will pay the Land Conservancy of New Jersey, for help updating the open space/recreation plan and environmental inventory. Founded in 1981, the nonprofit Land Conservancy is dedicated to preserving and protecting open space. Members of the organization will lead the public meeting on Dec. 2.

“Public involvement and input is critical to the success of all municipal planning efforts that strive to effectively meet the needs, desires and expectations of its citizenry,” said Paul Miller.

“This first of two rounds of public review and comment will help ensure that Morristown’s Open Space and Recreation Plan, as well as its Environmental Resource Inventory, will provide invaluable data and directives to the town boards charged with making sensible land use decisions and protecting our fragile environment on behalf of current and future generations.”

VIDEO CASE STUDY: ‘The Legend of Lake Pocahontas’

The next ‘Messiah’? Harmonium goes for it with ‘Cantata’ in Morristown

Picture yourself as director of a top-notch choir. The holidays are coming. You’re tired of the traditional Yule repertoire.

You want to commission something new. A Christmas piece that’s not overtly Christian.

What do you do?

If you’re Anne Matlack, artistic director of the 100-voice Harmonium Choral Society, you might ask your husband to bang out something.

In 1996 she did just that. Jabez L. Van Cleef, her spouse, responded with lyrics. Elliot Z. Levine composed music for flute, oboe and English horn, with some hand bells, tambourines and “body percussion” thrown in.

They called their creation Cantata for the Animals. Harmonium will reprise it on Dec. 11 and 12 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown; tickets are $25.

Cantata has been performed by Harmonium at the American Choral Directors Association convention, and by the Yale Camerata and the Westminster Choir College. It’s even been sung in Japanese, by the Tokyo Voices.

How does Anne think Cantata turned out?

“We dream of it as the next Messiah,” she said during an interview in her Madison living room.

LISTEN TO EXCERPTS OF ‘CANTATA’

Jabez’ lyrics tell the Nativity story from the viewpoint of dogs and cats, sheep and cattle, even worms and a spider. The goal was to be inclusive, to reveal universal truths shared by Christians and non-Christians. So the Mary character can be interpreted as Mother Earth, Jabez said.

“There’s nothing about Jesus here,” said Jabez, a poet and author of 35 books on religion and human rights. “It’s called The Song of the Baby. That people can contrive to produce a baby is miracle enough. It’s enough manifestation of God. It has kind of a Zen quality.”

“What made it happen was the words,” said Elliot, who sings with the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble when he is not composing or conducting. “It had interesting intellectual and moral issues. The characters had some depth.”

The sometimes-playful lyrics inspired him; listen for a minor-key variation of Three Blind Mice.

He also composed solos that are difficult to execute; Elliot praised Harmonium for nailing them consistently over the years.

For Anne, a Yale graduate who also is choir director at Madison’s Grace Church, Harmonium concerts are an exercise in variety. You might be hard pressed to find a nation that the choir has not represented in song since Anne took the reins in 1987.

By 1996, she was ready to shake up Harmonium’s holiday routine.

“It’s boring to do a whole program of carols,” Anne said. Some of the same joy can be conveyed with other selections, she contends. “Choral singing is very spiritual, and all about community-building.”

Harmonium will return to Morristown on New Year’s Eve to perform at First Night Morris County. The choir takes its music seriously–and has a seriously good time doing it, as this 2008 video attests.

Judge says Morristown municipal attorney does not have to disclose campaign contributions

Morristown municipal Attorney Vijayant Pawar is a town employee, not a contractor, and therefore he is not required to report campaign contributions under the town’s 2008 anti- “pay to play” ordinance, a judge ruled today.

Superior Court Assignment Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis dismissed a lawsuit by Morristown Republican Vice Chairman Richard Babcock and three others who sought to compel the town attorney to disclose any contributions to Mayor Tim Dougherty’s campaign last year.

“I think Mr. Babcock and his co-horts owe an apology to Mayor Dougherty, the town council and the taxpayers for wasting their resources on such a frivolous matter,” said Vij Pawar after the hour-long hearing in Morristown.

The municipal attorney said the plaintiffs easily could have checked his contributions on campaign forms that the Mayor filed with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. “Apparently, that logic escaped them,” the lawyer said.

Praising the town attorney’s character, the Mayor  said the town was lucky to have Vij Pawar as a $95,000-a-year employee. The lawyer works long hours in town hall that would cost much more if he were billing his time as a contractor, said the Mayor, contending the lawsuit was a failed attempt to embarrass his administration.

“This was not about right or wrong. This was about trying to smear someone’s character,” Mayor Dougherty said after the hearing.

Richard Babcock, a former council candidate, said he has nothing against Vij Pawar. He joined the lawsuit “over the principle that this (pay to play) ordinance has a loophole,” he said.

Morristown voters passed a referendum in 2008 that bars vendors from doing municipal business for four years if they donate more than $300 to a local candidate or official.

Alan Zakin, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, argued in court that Vij Pawar’s stance violated the spirit of the pay to play ordinance–meant to dispel “perceptions of improper influence” in town hall–as well as the Mayor’s campaign pledge of  “openness and transparency.”

Citing the municipal attorney’s private practice, Alan also questioned whether Vij Pawar really was a full-time town employee.

Thomas Scrivo, an attorney for the defendants, said the ordinance and the state public contracts law that enables it both refer to contractors, not municipal employees.

“This is a case where you start with a very small false allegation and you build on it,” he said.  The plaintiffs “knew that to trigger the ordinance, (Vij Pawar) has to have a professional services contract–and he doesn’t. It’s plain and simple.”

The Mayor and council also were named as defendants; the Mayor said he does not yet know the town’s legal bill for defending them.

As for who was underwriting the lawsuit, Richard Babcock said he did not know. Nor did he profess to know much about fellow plaintiffs Kemesh Patel and Frances Kennedy; he said he was approached about their suit and joined it because he wanted the same answers.

The other plaintiff, former GOP council candidate Ed France, said he did not know who funded the lawsuit, either.

“It’s a sad day for the taxpayers of Morristown,” Ed said of the ruling. “We created an ordinance to avoid these kinds of problems, and (town officials) are finding ways to sidestep the ordinance.”

Complying would have set a precedent that might compromise other town employees, according to Vij Pawar.  Things could get uncomfortable for employees who backed the wrong candidate, if they were forced to disclose contributions locally.

The judge said the town could rewrite its pay to play ordinance to address situations like this one, if it so desired.

Richard Babcock  submitted such an amendment to the town council this month. But no amendments are possible until later next year, according to Linda Carrington, a resident who helped spearhead the 2008 referendum. By law, she said, referendums cannot be revised for three years.

Linda expressed support for the Mayor’s hiring of Vij Pawar as a full-time employee.

“It was not done to circumvent the law,” she said. “They appointed the attorney to know what their legal bills are.”

Hearing scheduled today in pay-to-play lawsuit challenging Morristown town attorney

Does Morristown’s municipal attorney have to disclose whether he made any campaign contributions in last year’s mayoral race?

Superior Court Assignment Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis is scheduled to hear testimony on that question this afternoon in Morristown.

A group of citizens has sued the town to force the disclosure, contending town Attorney Vijayant Pawar is violating an anti- “pay-to-play” ordinance enacted by voters in 2008. The law prohibits vendors from doing business with the town for four years if they have donated more than $300 to any municipal candidate or official.

Vij Pawar was appointed by Mayor Tim Dougherty, with the town council’s consent, on New Year’s Day to dual posts as municipal attorney and legal director at a salary of $95,000. He says he is a town employee, not a vendor, and therefore is exempt from the ordinance.

His compliance could set a precedent that would expose other town employees to unwarranted scrutiny, he has said. Attorneys for Morristown also have said the lawsuit is moot because it was not filed within 45 days of the appointment.

Lawyers defending the case also are questioning the residency of plaintiff Kemesh Patel, and suggesting that a Clifton resident, David Scholz, is behind the lawsuit, according to The Daily Record.

Vij Pawar did not respond to calls seeking comment last week. In May, he described the lawsuit as “frivolous” and a waste of tax dollars.  Citing the ongoing litigation, the Mayor, who is a Democrat, declined to comment last week.

One of the plaintiffs is Republican Richard Babcock, vice chairman of Morristown’s GOP municipal committee and a former council candidate.

He has drafted an amendment to the ordinance that would pertain to the town attorney.

“I am a believer in open, honest government, and transparency. I don’t feel that’s the case in this instance,” Richard Babcock said. “This is a loophole” in the ordinance “that flies in the face of its intent. Anyone can be hired as an employee and be exempted.”

He is likely to face an uphill battle with his amendment, which would extend disclosure requirements to  “all 
professional
 business 
entities
 or 
individuals, 
including 
department 
directors,
 appointed 
by 
the 
Mayor
 with 
the
 advice 
and
 consent
 of 
the 
Council…”

Alison Deeb, the council’s lone Republican, said she is not involved in the case.

The lawsuit questions Vij Pawar’s status as a full-time town employee, asserting that his own website states that he maintains a private legal practice.

Alan Zakin, an attorney and public relations consultant advising the plaintiffs, said in an interview that Vij Pawar has determined others’ eligibility to work for the town under the same pay-to-play rules for which he is claiming an exemption.

“The voters of the town of Morristown did not intend for the current administration to take upon itself to carve out convenient exceptions to the anti-corruption mandate they adopted,” said legal papers filed on behalf of Richard Babcock, Kemesh Patel,  Ed France and Frances Kennedy by lawyer Thomas Benedetti of Florham Park.

The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 pm.

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