Clinton Township Newsletter

11 A p r i l 2 0 1 4 "The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day."~Robert Frost p l ay b a l l ! Now that Spring is here, kids throughout our area are gearing up for the opening of the baseball season. I remember as a kid spending Spring afternoons playing stick ball in the streets by my home in Elizabeth, N.J. Today, youth sports are more organized offering the kids a variety of opportunities suited to their skill level – school sports, intramurals, community leagues and travel teams. Many of these teams exist thanks to the efforts of volunteers. While some coaches are paid, many volunteer countless hours of personal time teaching our children the finer points of the game and helping them hone their individual skills. Thanks to all those volunteer coaches! Generally youth athletic events draw a lot of community support. Parents, siblings, friends and neighbors spend afternoons cheering on budding athletes. Sometimes, however, that support backfires and rather than encouraging our children to try harder, it discourages them from trying at all. As parents we've all been there. We get caught up in the emotion of the game. We cheer loudly when our team is winning, but complain even louder when things aren't going our way. Sometimes we forget that our kids are listening to – and learning from – the insults and rude remarks. This negative support has gotten so bad in some areas, teams have developed a parent code of conduct that must be signed before kids can even play. There's a poem titled "Standing Alone" some teams use to promote positive encourage- ment from fans. One of the stanzas goes like this: A thoughtless voice cries out, "Strike out the bum!" Tears fill the boy's eyes, The game's no longer fun. Caught up in the heat of the game I, too, have forgotten it's about fun and learning the sport. Kids, left to their own devices, quickly move on to other things and will not dwell on wins and losses. So, enjoy the Spring and Summer sports with your kids. All too quickly involvement with these sports will end, and we only hope that the lessons learned are good sports- manship and the intricacies of the game. –Victor Rotolo Victor A. Rotolo, a resident of Clinton Township, was named to the list of 2014 NJ Super Lawyers for the ninth consecutive year. Call The Rotolo Law Firm today: 908.534.7900 to discuss any legal situation confronting you. Your half-hour consultation is free of charge! Their attorneys and staff are ready to serve your legal needs. The Rotolo Law Firm • 502 US 22, Lebanon, NJ 08833. www.rotololawfirm.com T h e h u n T e r d o n C o u n T y C u l T u r a l a n d h e r i T a g e C o m m i s s i o n b y F r a n k C u r C i o New Jersey place names can be mystifying—like, where on Earth are Bivalve, Dingmans Ferry and Ten Mile Run; amusing—like Double Trouble, Buttsville and Lower Squankum; but most are simply descriptive—like Lower Valley, Round Mountain, Pine Hill and so on. Others are derived from the names of an early or famous settler—Grandin, Allerton. Potterstown. These old place names developed the same way place names are developing today. Why yes, even in the late 20th, early 21st Centuries we continue to create new place names. Most of the newest place names haven't reached official or even semi–official status yet. Some day some may. How's that? If someone says they live in Deer Meadow or Wellington Heights or Waters Edge or Beaver Brook, they're using a place name. The Beaver Brook placename is unique in that it's been recycled. From Colonial times until the 1850s, the area we call Annandale was called Beaver Brook. With the coming of the train station and the village it spawned along with the post office established there, the Beaver Brook name was abandoned. The golf course resurrected the name and it became applied to the residences built there—the return of an historically accurate place name. New Jersey place names are abundant and ubiquitous—there are about 600 legal municipalities in our State, and some have over a dozen place names. There is even one municipality in a neighboring county that is two square miles in size and has five place names! But legally, place names are puzzling. You can use a place name only if it is the name of your post office. But you cannot use your place name for any legal docu- ments—they require knowing your legal municipality. The deed to your house, for example, says Clinton Township. Miller's—now Cryan's—might be the gateway to Annandale with a rock–solid Annandale identity, but its liquor license is from Clinton Township. How do people know the legal municipality from a place name? The NJ Department of State maintains an official list for legal use. It's a big list. But there you can find out that Dingmans Ferry is in Sandyston Twp. in Sussex County. Ten Mile Run is in South Brunswick Twp., Middlesex—Run, as in Spruce Run, means small stream—Ten Mile Run crosses the old Lenape Trail ten miles southwest of the Raritan (there are also One, Three and Six Mile Runs). That's all well and good, but is there an easier way to determine municipal names from place names? Yes, but it involves getting your hands on an official New Jersey Road Map—in this economy, getting a free paper map from the State can be difficult. Check at a NJ Tourist Information Center—there's one in Liberty Village. Otherwise, do it electronically. Go to state.nj.us—once at the homepage, navigation to the map is intuitive (click Transportation, then Maps & Publications, then NJ State Map—which is in *.pdf format). Now look at the map, start with your hometown. Notice on the map it says CLINTON, then Annandale and Allerton. Next door, to the east, it says READ- INGTON then Whitehouse and Three Bridges. That's right, municipalities are in all upper case, place names are not. You'll eventually find Bivalve and figure out how it got its name. Soon you'll be able to correct people when they mispronounce Forked River; you'll know Weehawken from Weequahic, Pequannock from Peapack, and Hopatcong from Pohatcong. You might even be able to do something I haven't mastered as a life–long Jerseyan—say Ho–Ho–Kus without a chuckle! More local history next time (June) F r a n k C u r C i o l o C a l r e a l T o r p u b l i s h e s n e W s l e T T e r o n r e a l e s T a T e m a r k e T C o n d i T i o n s Joe Peters' newsletter shows how long it is taking to sell a house in Clinton Township and other areas of Hunterdon County plus a break down by price point. There's also an update on the factors affecting our local real estate market. You can read the full version at www. jpeters.com. If you're thinking about buying or selling a house in 2014, give Joe Peters a call at 908-238-0118.

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