Shift toward plant-based dining slowly growing in Hudson Valley
The movement to go meatless is not an option for all chefs
Kathleen Willcox
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A recent grain bowl featured on Troutbeck’s Instagram spurred one commenter to ask, ‘Can it be made vegan?’ The Hudson Valley historic inn answered an enthusiastic yes on behalf of the chef, Gabe McMackin, who is finding that more diners are asking for plant-based options.Troutbeck
Vegetarian chef Lukas Volger doesn’t think everyone should eat like him, or vegans for that matter. But increasingly, he’s noticing that more and more people are.
“I see subtle shifts happening. I don’t see everyone eating all vegan food in five years, but I think because more and more restaurants, cookbook authors and food companies are offering delicious and innovative plant-based food, people are starting to consume more plants overall,” said Volger, author of “Start Simple: Eleven Everyday Ingredients for Countless Week
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Nobody would ve expected the 70+ percent approval rating Gov. Phil Murphy enjoyed in the early days of the pandemic to last this far into the crisis. So he’s got to be pretty happy with a Monmouth University poll the gold standard of New Jersey polling pegging his approval rating with state residents at 57 percent while 35 percent disapprove.
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An audit report released Wednesday by the Office of the State Comptroller found the Borough of Keansburg gave what it described as excessive benefits to its employees, including 11 weeks of vacation to the police chief in 2018.
“Keansburg’s police chief was granted vacation leave on the taxpayer’s dime for more than 20% of the work year,” acting State Comptroller Kevin D. Walsh said. “Eleven weeks of vacation is unreasonable and wasteful. Most New Jerseyans are lucky to get a few weeks of vacation each year.
Walsh added, Giving a public employee who is paid $208,000 per year 11 weeks of vacation in addition to paid holidays, sick leave and compensatory time isn’t illegal, but it should be. The Legislature possesses the power to stop this sort of waste and abuse and has used it in the past to protect taxpayers. In the absence of legislative changes, these sorts of outrageous abuses will continue.”
Keansburg police chief got 11 weeks paid vacation in one year
KEANSBURG An audit by the Office of the State Comptroller found that this borough awarded nearly a half-million dollars in longevity payments to police officers and other municipal employees over a two-year period, and sold back weeks worth of unused vacation and sick days to the then-police chief and borough clerk in apparent violation of their contracts.
Although not identified by name in the OSC report, former Police Chief James Pigott held that rank during the years audited, 2017 and 2018. In the latter year, the OSC found that the chief received 55 vacation days, or 11 full paid weeks off.
Police chief got 11 weeks vacation, other cops, employees got ‘excessive’ payouts, audit says
Updated May 06, 2021;
Posted May 05, 2021
Keansburg Borough Hall, once a bank building that was given to the municipality.Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media
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Keansburg, a small, blue-collar Monmouth County town on Raritan Bay, came under sharp criticism by the state comptroller Wednesday for paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars in “excessive benefits” to its employees.
Those benefits included 11 weeks of vacation time to a former police chief, who was not named in the report.
Some employees were provided with compensatory time that could be sold back, while the borough paid out a total of $451,000 in so-called longevity payments in 2017 and 2018 essentially a yearly bonus for length of service the comptroller found in its 20-page audit.