It seems astounding to us, but the reason the Montclair Town Council couldn't go forward tonight with its second reading and public hearing on the ordinance to declare the Marlboro Inn a historic landmark was because somebody forget to send notices to the homeowners within 200 feet of the inn. Turns out the whole thing was not strictly legal so they had to start from scratch.

That doesn't seem to be the only snafu. Outgoing mayor Robert Russo said he showed up for a planning board meeting on Monday night only to find a sign saying that it had been cancelled.

The Barista passed up a chance to attend the Yankees-Boston game tonight in order to go hear all the ruckus on the Marlboro Inn. But was there ruckus? Noooooooo. The only people who spoke came to praise the outgoing members of the town council.

And the Yankees won, too.

The new council will be sworn in Thursday at noon, which is when the new Marlboro Inn ordinance will be read. The new public hearing will be July 13.

We caught up with incoming the incoming mayor, Ed Remsen, at the firehouse dedication earlier and asked about the little mistake. After all, it seems like there's a race for time, as developer Steven Plofker has applied to demolish the inn. Now, it's two more weeks before an ordinance could be passed. Not to worry, Remsen said. Apparently, Plofker has so many hoops to jump through before he gets his permit that the town has time to recover from its error. Of course it's still up in the air how the new council will vote on the inn issue.

Interesting, though, that Plofker remembered to do his paperwork.

June 30, 2004 in Controversy, Marlboro Inn | Permalink