New councilwoman takes seat
Therese Cahill, a nurse
at Monmouth Medical Center, fills vacancy
Nurturing the sick and raising children could prepare you for just about anything. For Therese Cahill it certainly seems like enough to get her ready for a seat on the Tinton Falls Borough Council.
Cahill took her seat on the council last week. She was appointed to fill the spot vacated by Rick Maher who is moving to Wall. She comes in full of ideas and ready to serve.
Cahill, a 38-year-old emergency room nurse and mother, says that she thinks municipal government can be run like a household. "There should be a ‘honey-do’ list," she said, with the council forming the list of tasks to make the borough a better place.
A Bayside, N.Y., native, Cahill and family migrated to Tinton Falls four years ago. "After visiting my sister here for years, we decided it would be the perfect place for us to settle for the rest of our lives," Cahill said.
Considering that the family had made a collective lifetime decision to stay put in Tinton Falls, this nurse and native New Yorker decided to invest quality time in her town.
Cahill said that the homey feeling that drew her to Tinton Falls is something she feels obligated to protect and nurture. "Rather than just talk about it, I want to be someone who does something," she noted.
The opportunity to serve presented itself with Maher’s resignation, and she took it.
In a casual conversation about town involvement and Cahill asking what she could do to help, Councilman Michael Daly mentioned that a seat on the council would be vacant with Maher’s (then) pending resignation.
On a lark, Cahill applied, interviewed with all council members and, after a process of elimination was voted in by a majority to take the vacant seat until an election is conducted in May.
She said she fully intends to run for the remaining two years on the term because she loves her town and this new job.
"Learning about my own town is the best thing I can think of doing for my own brain," added Cahill. "This is where the nursing background comes in: Actively advocating for your town is as rewarding as helping someone to heal."
Easing the ouch of a hurt and healing is Cahill’s occupation in more ways than one.
At Monmouth Medical Center, she helps the sick get better in the emergency room and at home she’s kissed away a few heartaches and wounds as a mom of five.
In fact, she said she sees the town as one big family, noting that "every resident is part of that family and a good family communicates. The best part of this job is hearing about the hurts that we may be able to heal in the community. Public portions at meetings educate us and facilitate keeping the family together."
Speaking of family, it could be said that Cahill’s interest in politics or "advocacy" as she prefers to call it, was piqued by a family full of lawyers and judges. Though now deceased, her father was a judge, and the passion runs in the family, as she has a brother who is a judge and a sister who is an attorney, not to mention in-laws in the legal profession.
Cahill is a graduate of the College of New Rochelle, Westchester, N.Y. After college, she was a seventh-grade teacher for a short time.
She left teaching for marriage and children, Cahill went back to school Nassau Community College, Hemp-stead, N.Y., where she studied to become a registered nurse.