News Updates as of 25 December 2009

• Former Matawan Borough Council member Lillian G. Burry is to head the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders when a Republican majority takes control of the board on 7 January 2010, according to APP. She was the first woman to hold the position when selected for the 2008 term. Since the Democrats took control and replaced her as director after she'd served only one year, the Republicans are making sure she gets her second year in what is typically a two-year term of office.
Derek Burlew of Cliffwood Beach, a freestyle Motocross pro, will perform in the inaugural 15 city tour of Gravity Slashers, which begins in Charlotte, NC on 2 January 2010 and ends in Cleveland, OH on 6 March 2010, according to SXdirt.com.
The Husky Holiday Tournament will be a three-day boys varsity basketball event held at Matawan Regional High School on Sat 26 December, Mon 28 December, and Tue 29 December, beginning each day at 8 am, according to the MRHS boys varsity schedule. Manalapan, Marlboro, and Howell are invited to the tourney, according to The News Transcript. The MRHS boys varsity team is 0-3 after their loss to Raritan on 23 December. The next Huskies home game will be Tue 5 January at 6:30 pm against Shore Regional. Check out the team's roster here.

The Lady Huskies defeated Franklin 74-35 on 23 December, making them 2-1-0, according to NJ.com. With three games under their belts already, maybe it is time for the girls varsity page at MRHS to be updated with a roster, schedule, new photos, etc?
The Independent provided a nice summary of Matawan Husky Wrestling's Icebreaker Invitational held last Saturday during the blizzard. Home opener will be Mon 4 January, when MRHS hosts Marlboro.

After seeing Up In the Air today, the world is back in balance after reading Thomas McDermott's article Coping With Layoff by Inventing a Holiday. He suggests riding the Staten Island Ferry past Ellis Island and pretending that you've just landed in America, the land of opportunity, with only the shirt on your back and a dream. What is that dream? Not a bad way to adjust one's thinking. And certainly a better choice than Ryan made in the movie.
Bank of America's Matawan branch at Ravine Drive and Main Street is having some asbestos removed by Synatech as part of an interior renovation project, according to APP. The websites related to the Asbestos, Lead, and Hazardous Waste Laborers Local 78 in New York, which is so upset about BOA using non-union laborers for this project, were corrupted, so I couldn't do much research. What I could find showed the union has jurisdiction over New York City and Long Island, so I assume they are down in Matawan because BOA is headquartered in Manhattan. It isn't clear that they represent local workers here.
NJ Transit trains heading into the city were stacked up on their approach to Newark Penn Station for hours on Wednesday, not unlike planes trying to land at Chicago's busy O'Hare Airport. This writer had a 3 1/2 hour commute into the city that day. Presumably all lines were affected by the problem with the tunnels, not just the North Jersey Coast Line as suggested by The Independent. Conductors explained that each train entering Newark Penn had to be turned around after its passengers disembarked, which was the primary reason for us sitting for hours outside of the Newark International Airport stop.
Matawan residents will be paying an average of 10% more for their tap water beginning in January 2010, according to The Independent. Borough Ordinance 09-23 was presented to the Borough Council on 1 December 2009 and was brought up for a vote and passed by the Council on 15 December 2009. The details of the ordinance are not readily available as the ordinance is not posted online and The Independent article provides an utterly confusing rate calculating scheme.
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  A Rowan University mechanical engineering student from Matawan is heading to the Gambia in January 2010, according to Newswise. She and two other local students will join their teacher on his 4th Engineers Without Borders trip to Africa to finish assessing a roughly two-mile stretch of road adjacent to a swampy area that regularly floods waist high and keeps villagers from getting to town. They will also begin to train the local villagers on how to fix the road once the assessment is completed.
  
• A Keyport campaign has degenerated to name calling, including accusations that one of the candidates really lives in Cliffwood Beach, according to The Independent. Oh my. Say it isn't so.