During her third community meeting Tuesday night, Fourth Ward Councilwoman Dr. Renée Baskerville gave nearly 100 people inside the Montclair Fire Headquarters a crash course on the importance of voting on Election Day, Nov. 4.
"With the Wall Street free-for-all, corporate greed and CEO bonuses creating the toughest financial times for Americans since the Great Depression and threatening to escalate the recession in which we find ourselves into a Depression, we must vote and make sure every eligible voter in Ward 4 and in the township votes," Baskerville told an applauding crowd.
People’s Organization for Progress Chairperson Lawrence Hamm roused the crowd with a welcoming "Power to the People."
"I don’t think I need to convince anyone in here on the need to vote," Hamm said.
While French, Spanish, Italian and Russian interpreters were on hand to help residents whose first language is not English, Hamm reminded residents that Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq and that eligible voters need to be educated as well as registered.
"We need some action if we want victory on Nov. 4th," said Hamm, urging residents to bring their friends and neighbors to the polls.
Delving into the sacrifices people made during the Civil Rights movement, the start of the Social Security system and the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s, Hamm seemingly wanted residents to understand the gravity of the nation’s historical discords, so that people could grasp their right to vote.
"Everything that we have … came about through the struggle of the people," he said.
Many residents attended the meeting to hear about the upgrades slated for Glenfield Park.
Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. presented a plan to renovate the area and create synthetic and upgraded natural softball fields. The plan does not include a football field due to space limitations, though lines will be drawn for football practice during the season, DiVincenzo said.
A synthetic football and soccer field will be added to Watsessing Park in Bloomfield, he said.
The existing softball field at Glenfield will be sodded and irrigated, and the park’s baseball field will be upgraded with a synthetic surface for Little League and softball, DiVincenzo said. Amenities will be added, including supplementary bleachers, an upgraded backstop and playing mound, and a larger dugout.
The area will also be landscaped, plush with cherry blossoms, DiVincenzo said.
The New Jersey Green Acres local assistance program will shore up the project – set to begin next June and expected to be completed by the end of 2009 – with an $800,000 grant, the county executive said.
Also on hand to hear the plan was Montclair Mayor Jerry Fried, Deputy Mayor Roger Terry, At-Large Councilwoman Kathryn Weller, Essex County Administrator Joyce Wilson Harley and Montclair Chapter NAACP Treasurer and Political Action Chair Roz Samuels, who also urged residents to hit the polls.
"Let’s keep the vote alive," Samuels said.
