The biggest change for the Lackawanna Coalition this month is the temporary relocation of our meetings to the Summit Public Library while Millburn Town Hall undergoes extensive renovation. Elsewhere in this issue, member David Peter Alan details the train schedule for those attending in person. Zoom attendees will not see any change. Adjusting to a new space, we streamlined our April meeting without an opening educational presentation, resuming those in May. We thank Patrick Allen, our representative from Community Member Summit, for helping us to find a temporary new home.
We’ve been glad to see some progress in long-needed repairs at Summit Station, where a staircase has been closed for months. We brought the situation to the attention of the NJT board in March. Since then, Summit Mayor Elizabeth Fagan and NJ Transit Liaison Dawn Spango have been in communication, with the next step approval by the NJ Department of Community Affairs. Having just a single staircase in the busy Summit Station has been a problem for too many passengers for too long; we’re glad to see progress.
Does your station have also an issue that has been a problem for too long? Have you seen something recently that needs to be addressed before it becomes a major issue? As the saying goes, “say something”—and we have a place where you can do that. Check out our Station Inspection Form at https://lackawannacoalition.org/station-inspection, fill out as much of it as you need (it’s comprehensive, but few items are actually required) and we will gather comments to bring to future board meetings. For real-time information about transitory issues, we recommend using Clever Commute (https://clevercommute.com) to share. Also, News12 reporter Amanda Eustice has reached out about their new segment, Toll of Commuting, which “showcase[s] the sometimes challenging or smooth commutes of those right here in the Garden State and beyond”. Please e-mail Ms Eustice at Amanda.Eustice@news12.com to share your story.
At the April board meeting, the board fell into its former practice of going immediately into executive session at the announced start time, leaving the public to sit and wait for an indeterminate length of time. It was stated that the session was required for certain business items to be addressed, but with the meeting scheduled to start at 10 a.m., couldn’t the executive session have been held at 9 or 9:30? Even the day before? Our time is valuable, too. We encourage the board to plan ahead in the future. Unless a call that changes a situation comes in shortly before a scheduled meeting, executive sessions should not be held on public time.
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