Improve Code Maintainability

[brianghig]

Ensure that the Code Climate grade for the repo is at least B.

Current grade is C, per https://codeclimate.com/github/Asymmetrik/node-rest-starter

Evaluate the Code Climate findings, determine the most impactful and valuable changes, then implement those changes.

[eacaps]

After looking through the Code Climate findings I think this would be better done after typescript conversion