County of Union, New Jersey

Union County, NJ – The winter snows are still piling up, but community and school gardeners are already planning ahead for the spring. You can join them at the “Get Your Youth and Community Garden Growing” workshop on Saturday, February 28, at the Trailside Nature and Science Center, 452 New Providence Road in Mountainside.

To register online visit tinyurl.com/schoolgardenconference. For a brochure and registration form by mail, call 908-654-9854. The registration deadline is February 20.

Experienced and beginning gardeners are welcome. A fee of $25.00 for the daylong workshop includes lunch and all materials. Topics cover all the basics of a successful produce garden, how to grow strawberries, and more.

More details and a registration form are available at the Union County website, ucnj.org.

Get Your Youth and Community Garden Growing is presented by experts from the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Union County, a program of the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station supported in part by the Freeholder Board. For more information visit ucnj.org/rce.

(Photo credit: USDA, Kimberly Lewers)

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Please join the County of Union online at ucnj.org, on Facebook at ucnj.org/facebook, and on Twitter at twitter.com/countyofunionnj.

Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Cooperative Extension educational programs are offered to all without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait, marital status, civil union status, domestic partnership status, military service, veteran status, and any other category protected by law. Rutgers Cooperative Extension encourages individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you need special accommodations, have questions about physical access, or require alternate means for program information, please contact your local Extension Office. Contact the State Extension Director’s Office if you have concerns related to discrimination, 848-932-3584.

(From left) Union County Manager Alfred Faella, Union County Freeholder Vernell Wright, Freeholder Bette Jane Kowalski, Freeholder Chairman Mohamed S. Jalloh, Assemblyman Jerry Green, Assemblywoman Annette Quijano and Union County Sheriff Joseph Cryan present the Chester Holmes Humanitarian Award to President Carlisle, Jr. (4^th right) of Hillside. Carlisle, a former Hillside Councilman and a retired Union County Department of Community Renewal Bureau Chief, received the honor during the Third Annual Union County Black History Month Celebration on February 13 at the Hamilton Stage at UCPAC in Rahway. The Freeholder Board created the award in honor of the late former Freeholder Chester Holmes.  (Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

Union County, NJ – Another cold snap has hit the Union County area along with high winds, sending temperatures plummeting throughout the holiday weekend. The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders reminds residents that help is available for those without a warm place to stay, through the Code Blue program. 

 Code Blue is designed to coordinate municipal and County resources, to help homeless persons find a place at a shelter or warming center.

 Residents who observe anyone outdoors who is asleep or in need of assistance should contact their local police department, which will arrange for transportation to a shelter. 

 In addition, the following warming locations have been provided to the County by municipal officials or have been publicized through local media. Availability and hours may change, and public buildings will be closed on Monday, February 16, so always call ahead before coming to a warming center:

Elizabeth

Fanwood

Linden

Roselle Park

Scotch Plains

To report downed power lines or outages, contact your utility company. PSE&G customers call 1-800-436-7734. JCP&L customers call 1-800-545-7738 or use the automated reporting line at 1-888-544-4877.  

For questions about your gas service, call Elizabethtown Gas at 800-492-4009.  

Please tell your friends and neighbors about First Alert (to sign up visit ucfirstalert.org), and stay informed by visiting the Union County website at ucnj.org. Also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

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Please join the County of Union online at ucnj.org, on Facebook at ucnj.org/facebook, and on Twitter at twitter.com/countyofunionnj.

The Union County Freeholder Chairman Mohamed S. Jalloh is pleased to announce that Union County’s own Performing Arts Center has been nominated in the sixth annual JerseyArts.com People’s Choice Awards! 

The Union County Performing Arts Center is among 71 arts organizations nominated for the yearly awards program run by Discover Jersey Arts to honor the work of New Jersey’s vital, vibrant and diverse arts organizations.

“The nomination of the Union County Performing Arts Center is a clear sign that the Freeholder Board’s commitment to building a strong arts community in Union County is paying off,” said Chairman Jalloh. “We are very proud of the work that arts organizations and patrons throughout our county are doing to establish Union County as a destination for culture. I urge Union County residents to show their continued support and vote now for the Union County PAC as Your Favorite Large Performing Arts Center.”

Cast your vote today and show your support for the arts in all of Union County.

The Union County arts organizations nominated for this year’s JerseyArts.com People’s Choice Awards are:

UCPAC: Union County Performing Arts Center (Rahway) – Large Performing Arts Center
Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts Center (Rahway) – Small Performing Arts Center
Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre (Summit) – Theatre to See a Play
Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (Summit) – Arts Gallery
Arts Guild New Jersey (Rahway) – Art Gallery
New Jersey Festival Orchestra (Westfield) – Symphony/Orchestra

Don’t see your favorite Union County arts organizations on the list? Write them in to cast your vote and support the arts in Union County.

Vote now at http://jerseyarts.com/peopleschoice/. Voting ends Thursday, February 19.

“The nomination of so many Union County arts organizations exemplifies the capacity for impact the arts have throughout our community,” said Chairman Jalloh who this year’s initiatives will focus on making investments in the future of Union County that will help boost the economy and the quality of life for the residents. Through the Chairman’s “Building a Community of The Arts” initiatives the Chairman and the Freeholder Board seek to leverage the creative capacity of Union County to strengthen our community.

For more information about Freeholder Chairman Jalloh’s 2015 “Build a Community of The Arts” initiatives visit ucnj.org.

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Please join the County of Union online at www.ucnj.org, on Facebook at www.ucnj.org/facebook, and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/countyofunionnj.

Union County, NJ – The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders is pleased to announce that the County Police Firearms ID Unit has been honored by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for its work in solving gun crimes. The Firearms ID Unit received the Award of Excellence in recognition of its 200^th match or “hit” on IBIS, the national system for tracking firearms used in crimes.

“Since it was established in 2003, our Firearms ID Unit has proved its worth time and again,” said Union County Freeholder Chairman Mohamed S. Jalloh. “This well-deserved award is a testimony to the hard work and professional dedication of our Firearms Examination experts.”

The primary task of the Firearms ID Unit, also known as the Ballistics Unit, is to determine if a bullet, cartridge casing, or other ammunition component was fired from a specific gun.

The lynchpin of that process is IBIS, the Integrated Ballistic Identification System. IBIS is a national database of firearm evidence from crime scenes and crime guns using high definition 3D images that show the unique microscopic markings left on ammunition components when fired.

In contrast to combing through hundreds of local cases by hand, IBIS enables firearms examiners to gather evidence quickly. The 3D images are assigned a score using a mathematical algorithm to generate a list of correlating cases with scores that indicate “high confidence candidates,” from anywhere in the U.S. Examiners then compare images to determine if there is a match, or “hit.”

Depending on the level of urgency and the type of analysis needed, the Firearms ID Unit can turn around a request for an examination within a matter of hours.

“Before 2003, there would be a delay of days, weeks, or even months while investigators waited for the results from an out-of-county lab,” said Union County Public Safety Director Andrew Moran, “Now with our fully equipped lab and trained personnel, we can provide timely information to our local investigators, and to jurisdictions throughout New Jersey and the nation.”

Jalloh noted that the Firearms ID Unit is a shared service provided by Union County to local agencies in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), which runs IBIS nationally and funds the Union County equipment. 

The IBIS System in the Firearms ID Unit also serves as a portal to IBIS for jurisdictions throughout New Jersey and Connecticut, and Union County examiners provide forensic firearm examination services to all Union County law enforcement agencies and the Port Authority Police.

Presenting the award in Westfield today, ATF Special Agent in Charge George P. Belsky, Jr. thanked the Firearms ID Unit for its contributions to the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network, and thanked the Freeholder Board for its support.

“In addition to providing leads to investigators to help in solving gun crimes, NIBIN is a valuable tool for crime prevention,” said Agent Belsky. “It can provide intelligence that enables law enforcement to focus its resources to help prevent the next shooting.”

Firearms Examiners undergo a four-year training program to be qualified as experts in the field and recognized by courts of law.  Expertise in high-tech examinations including microscopic comparisons, operability studies on weapons, serial number restoration and the use of IBIS equipment are the core of the training program.

The Firearms ID Unit fields hundreds of requests for examinations each year, and one case in particular demonstrates the difference made by IBIS.

In February 2010, the Firearms ID Unit received a non-urgent examination request for a weapon recovered in Union Township. An operability study was performed on the weapon, and the test fired cartridge casings were later input to IBIS.

The subsequent correlation list put the Firearms ID Unit on high alert:  The “high confidence candidates” pointed to evidence recovered from the scene of a notorious, unsolved road rage incident in another part of the state back in January 2010, in which a police officer was critically injured in a hail of bullets.

Firearms Examiners performed a microscopic comparison that ultimately confirmed the linkage within hours of the IBIS results, breathing new life into a case that had stalled out.

“Finding the needle in the haystack is an apt description for what our Firearms Examiners do with a combination of advanced technology, skill, and determination,” said Jalloh.

For more information about the Firearms ID Unit, visit ucnj.org.

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Please join the County of Union online at ucnj.org, on Facebook at ucnj.org/facebook, and on Twitter at twitter.com/countyofunionnj.

Union County Freeholder Vice Chairman Bruce Bergen (L) and Freeholder Vernell Wright (R) present a resolution to Penelope and Gerard Garcia of Summit congratulating them on being named the 2015 “Sweethearts of the Year” by Sage Eldercare for their volunteerism at the Summit nonprofit. SAGE is a private, not-for-profit organization concerned with the health, happiness and general welfare of older citizens and their families. For more information on SAGE Eldercare, call 1-908-273-5550 or visit sageeldercare.org.  (Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

(From left) Union County Freeholder Vice Chairman Bruce Bergen and Freeholder Vernell Wright present a certificate of recognition to Assistant Director Terrence Robinson of Our House Inc. and residents Najee and Kyle for the organization’s volunteerism at Sage Eldercare in Summit.

Our House, Inc. is a private, non-profit 501(c) 3 organization that provides residential, employment and recreational services to individuals with developmental disabilities. For more information about Our House, Inc. visit www.ourhousenj.org

SAGE is a private, not-for-profit organization concerned with the health, happiness and general welfare of older citizens and their families. For more information on SAGE Eldercare, call 1-908-273-5550 or visit sageeldercare.org.

(Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

Union County Freeholder Chairman Mohamed Jalloh (2nd L) and Freeholders Angel G. Estrada (L) and Alexander Mirabella (R) present resolutions (from 3rd L) to Barry Kaverick, Jorge Comas and Jack Shaw congratulating them on being inducted into the Union County Baseball Hall of Fame at the Union County Baseball Association’s 79th Annual Hot Stove League Baseball Dinner on February 8 in Mountainside. (Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

Union County Freeholder Chairman Mohamed Jalloh (2^nd L) and Freeholders Angel G. Estrada (L) and Alexander Mirabella (R) congratulate Nick Christiani of Linden on receiving the Chris Zusi Memorial Award and Rebecca Rotola of Linden on receiving the Joseph R. Lombardi Memorial Award at the Union County Baseball Association’s 79th Annual Hot Stove League Baseball Dinner on February 8 in Mountainside. (Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)