BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer
EATONTOWN — Democrats could occupy all six Borough Council seats and the mayor’s office, depending on the as-yet undetermined results of the race for a one-year unexpired council term.
But for now, incumbent Councilwoman Geraldine “Gerri” Hopkins and Carleton “Carl” Sohl, a member of the Planning Board, know where they stand.
On Nov. 8, Hopkins, now completing her first three-year term, and Sohl, who made three previous runs for the governing body, defeated Roy J. Eisen and William M. Kinney, the council’s only two Republicans, both of whom were previously appointed within the last 13 months to fill unexpired seats.
Unofficial results released by the Borough Clerk’s Office showed that 3,388, or slightly less than half, of Eatontown’s total 7,637 registered voters participated in last week’s election.
Hopkins, who chairs the borough’s public works and welfare committees, led the pack of four candidates with 1,714 votes while Sohl, who is also secretary of the Eatontown Sewerage Authority, garnered 1,690 votes.
On the GOP side, Eisen, chair of the governing body’s Parks, Recreation and Parking Committee, came in third with 1,602 votes, and Kinney, a local attorney who oversees the council’s Public Buildings and Insurance committees, trailed with 1,595 votes.
Eisen, a certified public accountant and a manager for Premiere Global Services in Tinton Falls, also received one write-in vote for an 11th District seat in the New Jersey State Assembly. Those seats were ultimately recaptured district-wide by incumbents Steve Corodemus and Sean Kean, both Republicans.
In January, Hopkins will begin her second consecutive council term and Sohl will be sworn to his first term; the terms will be for three years each.
Meanwhile, the race between Republican candidate Anthony “Bubba” Gaetano and Democrat Joseph Questore hinges upon the results of absentee and provisional ballots.
Results from the Borough Clerk’s Office showed that Questore, a former Eatontown Board of Education member, had garnered 1,676 votes, just seventeen votes more than the 1,659 votes counted for Gaetano, a social studies teacher at Memorial School.
The two contenders might not know the outcome of their race for the one-year seat, which is now occupied by Eisen, until provisional ballots are counted next week by the county, according to Borough Clerk Karen Siano.
Even if Gaetano, also a borough firefighter, should pull through, the Democrats would control the council by a 5-1 margin. A victory by Questore would place the governing body completely in the Democrats’ hands.
Mayor Gerald Tarantolo is also a Democrat; he only votes in the case of tie decisions by the council.
Though both Hopkins and Sohl expressed gratitude to their supporters and thanked the voters for choosing them, the two victors expressed eagerness to get down to business.
“I have my work cut out for me,” said Hopkins, owner of a Red Bank-based management consulting firm.
“I’m thankful that the voters had the confidence in me to re-elect me,” she added.
Both Hopkins and Sohl listed the reuse of Fort Monmouth, which is due to be shut down in 2011 under the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, as a major priority for Eatontown.
Tarantolo and other borough officials are participating in the recently formed Fort Monmouth Reuse Committee (FMRC), a public/private partnership now exploring how the land and infrastructure of the U.S Army base could still benefit its host communities after closing.
“With the reuse committee moving forward for Fort Monmouth, I’m sure that the council will be playing a part with whatever that might be,” Hopkins said.
Sohl called the fort closing and its reuse “the biggest thing” we have to be involved in.”
The ripple effect of the pending base shutdown would be felt throughout the borough, especially south on Industrial Way east and west, where a number of fort contractors have their businesses, Sohl pointed out.
“So much of Fort Monmouth supports Industrial Way east and west. [The closing] will hurt them and hurt our tax base,” Sohl said. “We have the largest number of [businesses] supporting Fort Monmouth.
In addition, Sohl said he is looking forward to seeing more passive recreational activities come about at the former Stella farm, located at Route 36 and Grant Avenue. The borough purchased the tract earlier this year to preserve as open space.

