Alex Torpey
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On the article Village Has Little News for Frustrated Commuters
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On the article Village President Aids in Water Rescue
Alex Torpey
8:19 pm on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
ReplyThanks all! Just happy to be able to be part of (and trained by) a group like the Rescue Squad that does this kind of stuff every day for people!
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On the Blog Post Government of We
Alex Torpey
11:45 am on Friday, June 29, 2012
ReplyOne statistic isn't particularly convincing, otherwise we could look at 2007 elections in South Orange and see that the turnout in May was about 33% higher than the turnout in November and right from there conclude we shouldn't move them. You've been involved with the Democratic Party for years, so I know you have a particular partisan perspective on this, and that's fine, but I just don't agree with partisanship in our village elections.
I've asked for comprehensive data on this issue multiple times in Board meetings, and I'd suggest tuning into one of those, where I lay out over a dozen points as to why we shouldn't move the elections, but to be quite honest I'd prefer not to get into a back and forth with you Tom, considering the nature of how you have been acting towards me lately, I can't see anything productive coming from it.
However, if anyone reading this post has questions about the elections or anything else mentioned I'm happy to answer them on Facebook, Twitter, at atorpey@southorange.org or during my office hours on Tuesday afternoons in Village Hall.
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On the Blog Post Government of We
Alex Torpey
5:36 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
ReplyTo be clear, there is no guarantee of cost savings, only a potential. The savings, if realized, would be up to about 10-12k a year, an amount that I don't believe is significant enough to use the financial argument to decide an issue as important as this, especially if you consider other costs, for example the increased costs to candidates that I believe would happen if elections were in November.
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On the article Rethinking Admissions: Should Colleges Still Look At SAT Scores?
Alex Torpey
9:10 pm on Monday, October 10, 2011
ReplyI hope that colleges, and public education in our state and in the US move away from such a standardized and rigid set of indicators for measuring success and performance. Grades and test scores are much more subjective than they appear and end up shaping educational curricula around the tests, which doesn't provide enough practical preparation or critical thinking skills for being a competitive student, worker or innovator in today's economy. How many jobs require bubble sheet fill-ins?
This could be biased coming from someone who went to a college that had a nontraditional educational environment, but I hope that we can learn some lessons from those types of institutions (Hampshire College, in my case) and apply them to our public education system.
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On the article Updated: South Orange Survives "Historic Rise in Water Level"
Alex Torpey
10:19 am on Monday, August 29, 2011
ReplyElena - I have heard no reports of residents trying to contact emergency services and not being able to get through, please forward some information about that experience to atorpey@southorange.org.
As for the sewage, that is what happens in most storm/sewer systems when they experience as much saturation as ours did, meaning the amount of rain in the geographic vicinity (such that the water in the system has nowhere to drain) and rain days prior, so the systems are already full when the real storm comes. These areas that overflowed were cordoned off by SOPD, and DPW was working to clear the drains. If you look at many other communities that have areas in flood zones, South Orange is in relatively good shape, thanks to a lot of work by residents and our municipal employees and volunteers
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On the article Updated: South Orange Survives "Historic Rise in Water Level"
Alex Torpey
6:55 pm on Sunday, August 28, 2011
ReplyTom - There are about six people that went through the last CERT class, in addition to the people around town who already had gone through the class in years past. Unfortunately our CERT members have yet to receive their equipment from the state/county still. Additionally, SHU has between 50-70 people in their CERT program, and we have had about seven applications for CERT for the next class that should be taking place at SHU this fall. Are you interested in the program?
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On the article Library is SO Shelter; Pets Okay; Codey Arena Also Open
Alex Torpey
8:39 pm on Friday, August 26, 2011
ReplyIn the event the Library is used as a shelter, the Library Director (Melissa Kopecky) will be there, The OEM Coordinator (John Gross), myself, and likely folks from the Health Office, Fire/Police Departments, Rescue Squad and Public Works will be on standby if not in and out throughout the day to provide whatever support is needed. Everyone who could be needed will be in town and ready to help as the situation warrants.
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On the article Garden State Equality Gets Quizzed at Cryan's
Alex Torpey
1:11 pm on Thursday, August 19, 2010
ReplyHey Steven - Thanks for the comment, and correction, of which the article has been updated to reflect.
FYI, I was directed by GSE staff to the website for information for this article, but as you pointed out, it may not reflect the most current numbers. Here is the link to that page where those membership numbers were found: http://www.gardenstateequality.org/about.html.
Alex
Alex Torpey
6:50 pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Scott - I appreciate your enthusiasm but your divisive tone is not very productive. I think it's quite clear everyone is working together to find solutions for the commuters, please be part of that, rather than politicizing it!