Plainfield Plaintalker as expected covered the most interesting portion of the Council's meeting. A large portion of the agenda was devoted to the annual renewal of "liquor licenses".

Another resolution to be enacted next Monday was to terminate the developer for the controversial Richmond Street and East Third Street redevelopment area amd to authorize the negotiation of a redeveloper's agreement. Simple me, I would think that would be two seperate resolutions. However we who are not goverment people know little about how laws and resolutions are written. If there would be a problem I guess the lawyers will figure it out.

Olive Lynch addressed the Council during the public hearing portion and gave an overview of the present status of the MRMC situation. She asked for a more formal indication of the Council's support of the civic efforts to arrive at a solution that will meet Plainfield's needs.

Councilor Storch suggested that the Council pass a resolution requesting the Legislature to immediately pass legislation enabling the recommendations of the New Jersey Commission on Rationalizing Health Care Resources. It was noted that the State Legislature's session is scheduled to end this June, and that the next Council meetings will be in July-monthly summer schedule.

Precedent exist for a resolution that had not been presented at the agenda setting session to be introduced and acted upon at the business meeting. I would have thought that this suggestion would meet that criteria.

For all's benefit I have copied the conclusions of that report:
VI. Conclusion
This chapter provides an overview of the analytic
approach to identifying which financially distressed
hospitals in New Jersey are potential candidates for
financial assistance from the State. It should be noted
that the analytic framework represented by Figure 12.2
is based only on strictly quantifiable metrics. As such, it
cannot possibly address all of the social, economic and
geographic issues that must be examined by government
in determining which financially distressed hospitals the
State should support to maintain access to care. The
quantitative analytic framework, therefore, must be
supplemented by an assessment of non-quantifiable
factors and input from policy analysts and policymakers
regarding their knowledge of local conditions. In the
end, mere numbers cannot take the place of sound
judgment; they can only guide that judgment.
Among the non-quantitative issues that the Commission
and State need to consider in determining which
financially distressed hospitals are essential to
maintaining access to hospital care, include but certainly
are not limited to:
• Whether the services provided by a hospital are
available and accessible elsewhere in the hospital
market area;
• What the impact on residents would be in terms of
travel time/distance to access hospital care in the
event of a hospital’s closure;
• Whether a hospital is part of a hospital system and
the extent of the resources available to the system to
support a financially distressed facility;
• What public transportation alterations or other
transportation solutions are available or would be
necessary to maintain access to care in the event of
a hospital’s closure;
• What quality of care and efficiency improvements
are possible and necessary in financially distressed,
essential hospitals;
• What potential access to care implications would be
for particular medically underserved populations if a
hospital were to close;
• What the potential impact on access to key
ambulatory services would be if a hospital ceased
operating as an inpatient facility;
• What the impact on employment in the hospital
market area would be should a hospital close.

An unfortunate part of that report is that Plainfield is placed in the Morristown service area. Public transportation is good from Plainfield.:Train from Plainfield to Newark Penn Station, Light Rail car to Newark Broad Street Station, then train to Morristown.