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Union County Freeholder Vice Chairman Bette Jane Kowalski and Freeholder Angel G. Estrada present a resolution to guitarist Carlos Alomar recognizing him as the keynote speaker during the Union County Hispanic Heritage Month “Excellence in All We Do” event at Union County College in Elizabeth. He is best known for his work with David Bowe from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s and has performed with a number of other famous musicians including, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Paul McCartney, Simple Minds, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Arcadia, The Pretenders and Argentine rock band Soda Stereo. (Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

Under the terms of the “Open Public Meetings Act P.L. 1975, C. 231, and pursuant to requirements of N.J.S.A 10: 4-10 of the Open Public Meetings Act, please be advised that circumstances necessitate amending the 2018 Meeting Schedule of the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

The Board has a need to cancel the Agenda Setting Session of October 4, 2018. The Agenda Setting Session will be rescheduled for October 11, 2018, commencing at 7:00 P.M.  The Regular Meeting previously scheduled for October 11, 2018 at 7:00 P.M. will now commence as soon as possible following the Agenda Setting Session. As a result of this amendment, an Agenda Setting Session and a Regular Meeting will be held on the same night. In addition to these changes, please note said meetings will not be held at the County Administration Building in Elizabeth, but rather will be held in the City of Plainfield’s Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Avenue, Plainfield, New Jersey. Holding this meeting in a different location is part of a “mobile meeting” effort to bring county meetings to other locations within the County outside of the County Seat of Elizabeth.

The Board also has a need to amend the location of the October 25, 2018 Agenda Setting Session and Regular Meetings scheduled to commence at 7:00 P.M., as both meetings will not be held at the County Administration Building in Elizabeth, but rather will be held in the City of Summit’s City Hall Council Meeting Room, 512 Springfield Avenue, Summit, New Jersey. Holding this meeting in a different location is part of a “mobile meeting” effort to bring county meetings to other locations within the County outside of the County Seat of Elizabeth.

The Board also has a need to add a Regular Meeting to the 2018 Meeting Schedule; adding a Regular Meeting on November 8, 2018. Said Regular Meeting will commence as soon as possible following the currently scheduled Agenda Setting Session at 7:00 P.M. As a result of this amendment, an Agenda Setting Session and a Regular Meeting will be held on the same night. In addition to these changes, please note said meetings will not be held at the County Administration Building in Elizabeth, but rather will be held in the Town of Westfield’s Town Hall Council Meeting Room, 425 East Broad Street, Westfield, New Jersey. Holding this meeting in a different location is part of a “mobile meeting” effort to bring county meetings to other locations within the County outside of the County Seat of Elizabeth.

The Board also has a need to add an Agenda Setting Session to the 2018 Meeting Schedule; adding an Agenda Setting Session on November 29, 2018. Said Agenda Setting Session will commence at 7:00 P.M.  The Regular Meeting previously scheduled on November 29, 2018 at 7:00 P.M. will commence as soon as possible following the newly scheduled Agenda Setting Session at 7:00 P.M. As a result of this amendment, an Agenda Setting Session and a Regular Meeting will be held on the same night. These meetings will be held as scheduled in the Freeholder Meeting Room at the County Administration Building in Elizabeth.

Persons requiring a sign language interpreter should contact the Office of the Clerk of the Board at 908-527-4140.

James E. Pellettiere, RMC, QPA
Clerk of the Board

The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders is proud to announce the offering of a new grant program aimed at promoting STEM-based education for county students. The STEM Scholars Grant, which was developed by Freeholder Christopher Hudak, is part of Chairman Sergio Granados’ “Moving Union County Forward-Plant A Seed” initiative.

“The Board of Chosen Freeholders is proud to offer county schools the opportunity to apply for STEM Scholars Grant for the first time,” said Freeholder Chairman Sergio Granados. “This program aims to foster understanding, deepen students’ knowledge, and provide educational opportunities to expand awareness of STEM programming at all levels.”

Funding for the STEM Scholars Grant is intended to assist in developing in-class and extra-curricular programs that improve student learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Only applications submitted by educators within Union County schools at the Pre-K through 12^th grade levels will be considered. The STEM Scholarship Grant requires no match.

“We encourage participation from all school districts in the county,” said Freeholder Christopher Hudak. “The STEM Scholars Grant was created to promote more grassroots approaches to learning in our county schools.”

The inspiration for the grant program comes from the Freeholder Hudak’s mother, Susan L. Hudak. Ms. Hudak was a dedicated member of the educational community of Union County. For 19 years she was a member of the Linden Board of Education. She also volunteered regularly and was president of several PTA associations.

Ms. Hudak’s dedicated work involved the establishment of a Monthly Friday Family Science Night. This program ran for 25 years at School No. 6 in Linden and exposed students and their families to STEM topics through a series of visiting guest speakers in STEM-related fields and hands-on experiments.

The Freeholder Board requests that grant applications focus on STEM education in the following areas of concentration:

1. Project Based Learning:  Creative, STEM-integrated, educational programming;
2. Afterschool STEM:  Projects and programming that focus on extra-curricular learning, including science fairs, STEM clubs, monthly labs and workshop;
3. Out-of-School STEM:  Creative STEM experiences out of the classroom, to better prepare students for STEM work in the classroom, and in the workforce.

Application deadline is October 15, 2018. For more information or to obtain an application, please contact Victoria Durbin Drake, Open Space Trust Fund Administrator, via email at vdurbin@ucnj.org or call 908-558-2277.

Union County Freeholder Vice Chairman Bette Jane Kowalski and Freeholders Christopher Hudak and Mohamed Jalloh present a resolution to Linden High School Teacher Barbara Brady congratulating her upon being selected as Union County Teacher of the Year by the New Jersey Department of Education. The dance and physical education teacher has been teaching in Linden for 20 years. (Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

Union County Freeholder Vice Chairman Bette Jane Kowalski and Freeholder Bruce H. Bergen today joined Union County College President Dr. Margaret McMenamin in welcoming New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and New Jersey’s Secretary of Higher Education Dr. Zakiya Smith Ellis to the college’s Cranford campus where he announced new details about tuition-free community colleges.

Governor Murphy announced that approximately 13,000 qualifying students will be able to attend one of 13 pilot community colleges, including Union County College, free of tuition and educational fees in the spring semester that starts in January 2019.

All 19 of New Jersey’s community colleges applied to participate in the Community College Innovation Challenge.  Each one of New Jersey’s community colleges will receive a $250,000 grant for student outreach, recruitment, and support, and to build capacity for future expansion of the program.

(Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

Union County Freeholder Chairman Sergio Granados, Vice Chairman Bette Jane Kowalski and Freeholders Bruce Bergen, Alexander Mirabella and Rebecca Williams joined Union County Deputy County Manager Amy Wagner and Deana Mesaros of the Union County Department of Economic Development at the 2018 Union County Means Business Expo at the Warinanco Sports Center in Roselle. The Expo enables attendees to network with other business leaders and develop new contacts. The event also provides a chance for local businesses to showcase their products and services to attendees. For more information about Union County Means Business, visit ucnj.org/ucmb or contact Deana Mesaros at 908-659-7412 or dmesaros@ucnj.org. (Photo by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

featuring speeches from Nino Quaglia, President of the Elizabeth Chapter of UNICO, Santi Buscemi, from Plainfields’ UNICO, Geri Samuels, District X Unico, and Mike Guarino of Elizabeth

The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders announced that Union County’s tenth annual Columbus Day Flag Raising event is set for Friday, Oct. 5th, at 1 p.m., on the steps of the historic Union County Courthouse.

“This year is a special anniversary, as we mark the tenth year, and we will be featuring speakers from UNICO who we have partnered with to create this event,” said Freeholder Alexander Mirabella, who is emceeing the program, and founded the flag raising event. “This is a celebration of Italian culture and history. Italian-Americans continue to make extraordinary contributions to the rich, diverse fabric of  our County, New Jersey and America.”

“Italians have had a tremendous influence in so many areas of our life from great art, literature music and food,” said Freeholder Chairman Sergio Granados. “The flag provides all an opportunity to celebrate this great culture, and celebrate the ongoing contributions of Italian Americans.”

Speakers include: Nino Quaglia, the President of the Elizabeth Chapter of UNICO, Geri Samuel, a former Mayor and Councilmember in Scotch Plains who is the UNICO District X Governor,  Santi V. Buscemi, an English Professor at Middlesex County College and an author who is a member and past President of Plainfields’ UNICO, and Mike Guarino, the President of the Columbus Parade Association of Union County.

UNICO is the nation’s largest Italian American service organization whose chapters and members engage in promoting and defending Italian culture and heritage, as well as providing scholarships, engaging in community service and other philanthropic endeavors.

The courthouse is located at 2 Broad St. in Elizabeth at the corner of Rahway Avenue. In the event of rain, the program will be moved indoors to the County Courthouse Rotunda.

UNICO District X and Plainfields’ UNICO work to organize and co-sponsor the event.

Italian-style refreshments will be served after the program in the historic Union County Courthouse. Parking (pay) is available in the Midtown area at the J. Christian Bollwage Parking deck at Elizabethtown Plaza and Caldwell Place. A second deck is Elizabeth’s Parking Deck No. 6 on Jefferson Avenue and Dickinson Street—the entrance is on Dickinson Street. 

Union County Freeholders Alexander Mirabella and Freeholder Christopher Hudak present resolutions to 2018 Linden Junior Miss Polonia Hailey Birch, The General Pulaski Memorial Parade Committee of St. Theresa’s Church of Linden President Sue Lukenda and Grand Marshal Joseph Birch congratulating them on participating in the 81stAnnual Pulaski Day Parade. The St. Theresa contingent will be marching down 5th Ave in N.Y.C. from 29th St. to 53rd St. on Sunday October 7th, 2018.  Earlier in the evening, the entire Freeholder Board joined the parade committee in raising the Polish flag outside the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth. (Photos by Jim Lowney/County of Union)

Open spaces are available for the Archery Group Safety Lesson this Saturday, September 29^th from 10am-12pm.  Please go to ucnj.org/archery to register or call 908-527-4900 or 908-654-9805.