Empty ‘Till Spring

While out for a walk yesterday in one of the local parks, I came across two grey abandoned bird houses hanging forlornly back-to-back, anticipating the cold emptiness of winter, yet hoping for the far-away return of spring, when they will be populated again with inhabitants signaling the beginning of another cycle of life.
 
This week, we are enjoying three days of progressively balmy weather, as if Mother Nature is tossing a few freebies at us on its way to winter. These are good days to be out taking advantage of the sun and mild temperatures, at least to the extent that you can.
 
In the back yard, I expect to be doing some more tidying up by trimming away some of the unkempt raspberry briar patch that’s become overgrown, as well as some tall unruly weeds that began their encroachment this summer – just getting ready for another spring, like the inhabitants-to-be in those two bird houses.

Bridgewater Public Works – Still at Work

A few days ago, during what now seems to be a period of interminable rain, wind, solid cloud overhang, and bone-chilling temps, this photo shows a Bridgewater Township Public Works crew that was out in that weather, picking up yard brush, as part of its service for Township seniors. The fall pickup ended October 15.

I’ve written about this before, because it is a great benefit for those of us who have no easy means to dispose of accumulated brush and branches and for whom time has made the chore harder each year. I’m lucky enough still to be able to get out myself and to clean up the yard periodically, and this twice-yearly service is the one thing that helps me to dispose of branches.

The material is carted off to Bridgewater’s recycling facility, and there is no waste. Mulch from this operation is available to anyone for a nominal fee, according to Bridgewater’s new policy. Next step: leaf cleanup. The Township provides bags for leaves and will pick them up curbside from any Bridgewater resident’s property. Just call the Public Works Department to get on the list.

Photo by Dick Bergeron

Jack Ciattarelli, a Man for Our Time

Politics can be a brutally tough game. In order to get anything done, an elected official has to work with a team of peers. It’s even tougher when, in his or her heart of hearts, a politician veers away from the group on a particular topic and acts upon insights that some colleagues may not possess or do not have the will to act upon.

That is why I think that it would have been easy for Jack Ciattarelli, one of five people on the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, to have voted with the rest of the freeholders in maintaining 15 paid holidays for county employees in 2010.

Instead, he was the sole dissenter claiming, as reported by Martin C. Bricketto in the Courier News on Monday, that, “…our holiday schedule is excessive,” two more than even State of New Jersey gets.

The Last Butterfly of Summer

With all of the nonsense going on in Washington D.C. and New Jersey politics these days, I wasn’t mentally up to filling this space with more of the same – will save commentary on that for some other day.

Instead, I thought I’d share with you one of dozens of snapshots that I was lucky enough to have taken in mid-August of this year.

When we came back from our New Hampshire lakeside vacation, we encountered the damage inflicted on our neighborhood in Bridgewater after it was struck by a microburst of wind that brought down literally tons of trees. The big oak in our front yard was lucky to have survived, but it needed some major trimming to bring it back from the brink.

When the tree experts arrived and began their work, I decided to take my digital camera out to the front yard to record the event. As an unexpected bonus, I noticed the butterflies that were being attracted to our garden by the wayside.

That’s when I changed priorities and concentrated my camera on capturing images of these delightfully friendly creatures of the summer. If you’re careful, quiet, and move slowly, you can get your camera very close to a butterfly – easily two feet, even closer.

One of the startlingly revealing facts about nature is its insistence on reminding us that we are merely a part of it, despite the human tendency to think that we are its ultimate product. This is not to degrade the exponential progression of mankind or the value of the human soul, just a cautionary signal that our future is short and our task, heavy.

Businesses Support Large Chunk of Bridgewater’s Property Base

Like most other local real estate property taxes in New Jersey, those in Bridgewater are very high, but they do not reflect what the impact could really be on the typical Bridgewater homeowner.

Were it not for the massive influx of large corporations such as the Bridgewater Commons Mall, Met Life, Sanofi Aventis, Merrill Lynch etc., etc.; as well as hundreds – if not thousands – of small to medium size businesses and professional buildings popping up on the Bridgewater landscape, the tax levy on this township’s residents would be even more intolerable.

Most of your residential property tax bill is taken up by school taxes. Yet, in the midst of a severe recession, the salaries contained in school levies have been increasing annually at a rate above that of inflation. In fact, from March through August of 2009, inflation has been in negative territory. In July and August, for example, those rates were minus 2.10% and minus 1.48%, respectively.

Association contracts for school employees are negotiated on an individual school district level. Contract talks are held behind closed doors with no interim reports to the tax-paying public. And, they are based on wage increases relative to those awarded to other school districts in the state of New Jersey, not on economic factors.

The contract with the Bridgewater-Raritan school district, effective July 1, 2008, provides for a three-year increase of 12.8%.