Four seek seats on commission

Three incumbent commissioners and one hopeful are seeking seats on the Bordentown City Commission.

By: Scott Morgan
   BORDENTOWN CITY — On May 10, city voters will turn out to select the three men who will run the City Commission for the next four years.
   Three incumbent commissioners and one hopeful are seeking terms on the nonpartisan commission, which opens all three seats for election every four years.
   Commissioners John W. Collom III, James Lynch and John Wehrman all hope to land another four years on the commission, while Al Csapo Jr., who once came within 14 votes of winning a commission seat, looks to replace one of them.
   Below, the candidates discuss their qualifications, hopes and plans for the city over the next four years.

John Collom



   Mr. Collom, 68, is a resident of Farnsworth Avenue who currently serves as the city’s mayor. The retired PSE&G senior engineer is running for his second term on the commission.
   Mr. Collom said residents should vote for him for the same reasons they did four years ago — he is a lifelong resident of the city, giving him "a pretty good historical approach" to things.
   "It’s a small town," Mr. Collom said. "It’s always been a small town." And while it may be getting more urban that it once was, he said, Bordentown City still has "the aura of a small town. That’s precious and I’ll preserve that and enhance that in any way that I can."
   The main issue facing the city, Mr. Collom said, is its finances — "operating within the limited resources that we have." Mr. Collom said the City Commission "has done a remarkable job" in finding grants (about $1 million in grants is expected to come into the city this year) for infrastructure repairs, from streets to buildings to public space. What the city needs, he said, is an eye on maintaining Bordentown’s small-town atmosphere while expanding its open spaces and redeveloping the downtown business district and city houses.
   "That’s part of the charm of the town," he said. "It’s not a cookie-cutter town."
   The way to attain the goal of efficiency and "ambience," he said, is to continue working on the Master Plan, which already has outlined utility plans and open-space plans and is now working on addressing infrastructure and parks. Volunteers, who already come out often to help with streambed cleanups and park construction activities such as the Second Street Park project, he said, are key to helping the city stay in good financial straits and still get things done.
   "Our efforts will be more toward repair and restoration," he said of the commission’s direction in the future. "We’re getting there."
James Lynch



   Mr. Lynch, 49, is a resident of East Union Street who serves as the city’s police commissioner. A truck manager at Brandow Chevrolet on Route 130 in Florence, he is vying for his fifth term on the commission.
   Mr. Lynch said residents should vote for him because "I have really enjoyed the position I’m in as director of public safety," adding that after four terms and 16 years on the City Commission, his experience proves a valuable asset. "Experience," he said, "plays a role in your ability to perform as a good commissioner."
   Mr. Lynch also added that his leadership qualities, honed at the Bordentown Military Academy when he was a boy, have proven their worth and will continue to help him in his decision making in the years ahead.
   For Mr. Lynch, the most important issue for the city is the budget. In a small city that is pretty much built out, he said, the commission must be extra careful of where and how it spends residents’ money, something he feels the current commission has done.
   "All the past commissions I’ve had the privilege to work with," he said, "not one of them has taken the budget lightly."
   The City Commission Monday introduced the 2005 municipal budget, two weeks after it originally had scheduled to introduce it. The introduction was delayed, according to Mr. Collom, because the commissioners were not comfortable with it.
   As for what the city needs, Mr. Lynch said the commissioners need to finish public projects that have been moving too slowly. Restructuring the Police Department in the last two years, not only to name a new chief but to add the position of lieutenant, he said, has taken the lion’s share of his time. But now, he said, the commission needs to focus on incomplete public projects, such as the languishing Second Street Park.
   City officials have cited lack of manpower in the Public Works Department as one reason those project tend to stagnate. The other reason they’ve cited — money.
   Asked what it takes to fix the city’s problems, Mr. Lynch said "competence." A commissioner, he said, needs to stay clear of personal agendas and make sure his decisions are made for the good of the town.
   "The decisions you make affect people’s lives," Mr. Lynch said. "Over the next four years, I have to maintain what I’ve done, or do better than I’ve done, in the past four years."
John Wehrman



   Mr. Wehrman, a resident of Park Street, is running for a third term on the commission. He is the owner of a small trucking company who puts his age at "around 70." He currently serves as director of public works.
   Mr. Wehrman said residents should vote for him because, after 48 years in town, where he raised two children and served 16 years on the local school board, he has shown his attachment to the city.
   "I think I’m straight forward and willing to serve," Mr. Wehrman said. "I don’t have all the answers, but I think I work hard."
   Like Mr. Collom, Mr. Wehrman said the most pressing issue for any elected official is the proper spending of residents’ money. "No frivolity or loose spending," he said. While he believes the commission has done a good job with the money available over the last four years, he said, "you never have enough money, nor enough people. But we haven’t overspent our budget yet."
   Over the next four years, Mr. Wehrman said, the city needs to continue its public works projects, from sidewalk repair, to the "urban forest" that keeps Bordentown a designated Tree City, to finishing the city’s veterans memorial monument and historic home and business repair.
   The way to do all this, he said, is to keep the funding going. Sometimes taxes pay for projects and sometimes grants, Mr. Wehrman said. Ideally, he said, the city should look for more grants more often, but ultimately, things will come down to one basic ingredient — "just a lot of hard work. There’s no magic wand in the picture that I can see."
Al Csapo



   Mr. Csapo, 53, lives on Farnsworth Avenue and is a longtime hopeful for a City Commission seat. The machinist and machine repair technician for General Motors in Linden is running for the sixth time.
   Mr. Csapo said residents should vote for him because of his dedication to the community. He is a lifetime resident of Bordentown, a graduate of the Bordentown Regional school system, a member of the Bordentown Elks and Bordentown Historical Society and a veteran of the Army National Guard, which together give him a broad perspective on the town and its citizens’ needs, he said.
   Besides making a regular point of talking directly with residents about local issues, Mr. Csapo said he has regularly attended City Commission meetings since he was 16, to keep up with local issues.
   "I’ve been actively training myself for a job as a city commissioner," he said.
   The city’s most pressing issue, Mr. Csapo said, is the budget, which he said he is disappointed to see introduced so late. Working the budget, both responsibly and in a timely manner, he said, "is the most important job the commissioners have."
   He said he is concerned about the budget growing beyond taxpayers’ ability to keep up with it, and would like to look for ways to keep it trim, such as shrinking the number of cars used by city officials by 10 percent and looking at smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
   As far as what the city needs to focus on in the years ahead, Mr. Csapo talked about the environment. A volunteer with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife and avid environmental ally, Mr. Csapo said, "I would be the most aware environmental commissioner of the three." He cited a personal (and successful) campaign to get the city to mend local trash trucks leaking "garbage juice" and small amounts of diesel fuel as an example of the little details that add up.
   Mr. Csapo said also that he would like to explore ways to reduce the late tax payment fines for residents (up to 24 percent, if paid over a year) and have the city’s Post Office pay for its own trash removal.
   "I want to make Bordentown City (a place) where city residents can grow, live and work happily and peacefully," he said.