The Week Ahead: Crime Statistics, Flood Control and Football

With the long, holiday weekend behind us, here's a look at what's coming up this week in Cranford and some of the stories Cranford Patch will be bringing readers throughout the week:

• The Cranford Board of Education will meet tonight at 8 p.m. in the Board Conference Room, located on the lower-level of , 132 Thomas St. On the agenda, the board will approve a number of policies and discuss "anti-bullying training for board members."

• The first meeting of the will meet tonight at Millburn town hall. The council grew out of the regional that was held last month at Union County College in Cranford. The main objective of the new mayors’ council is to work together toward mitigation of flooding in towns along the , which was made worse by Irene and highlighted by damages sustained in those towns.

• Representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers presnted their findings on the condition of Cranford's levees during a special meeting last week. The ACE's report shows that using areas such as Lenape Park as a retention basin may be more difficult than officials anticipated. The report also showed that the levees are not stable. We will be publishing a story about the meeting and the Army Corps findings.

• The will conduct its regular meeting tomorrow night at town hall. The agenda includes the mayors' reports on flood control-damage assessment, the Army Corps of Engineers report and the Mayors Council on Rahway River Watershed. In addition, the governing body is expected to authorize the mayor and township clerk to enter an interlocal services agreement with Westfield for health officer services. This comes several weeks after the resignation of former longtime health officer, Warren Hehl, who is now serving in the same capacity for the city of Rahway. In addition, another resolution will authorize the mayor and clerk to enter an interlocal services agreement with Garwood for "certain construction code official services."

• As remediation work continues on the lower level of town hall in the wake of Hurricane Irene in August, a number of departments - including the local TV station - are working out of trailers located in the rear of the Municipal Building. Patch will be doing an update on the remediation and explore how the departments have been functioning since being relocated to trailers.

• The NJ State Police have released their annual Uniform Crime Report for 2010. The overall crime index for Cranford shows a slight increase in crime. While violent crime has dropped, incidents of non-violent crime increased from 2009 to 2010. Patch will be publishing a story on the report and local reactions.

• The Cranford Cougars football team will take on Parsippany-Troy Hills in the state finals on Saturday at 10 a.m., at Kean University in Union.