Candidates for local government posts introduce themselves

Who are they?

By Ruth Luse
   On Nov. 7, from 6 a.m.-8 p.m., Valley voters in Hopewell Township and Pennington, where there are races, and Hopewell Borough, where two incumbents are runnm8ing unopposed, will pick people to serve them on their respective governing bodies.
   For Hopewell Township Committee (three-year term), there are two candidates for one open seat. They are:
   Republican Michael A. Chipowsky was raised and educated in Hopewell Township. He and his wife, Mary Jane, have lived on Bear Tavern Road since 1984. There have two daughters, Anne Marie and Margaret.
   Mr. Chipowsky became part of the Hopewell Township Police Department and served for over 35 five years, the last 10 as chief of police. In 1986, he was appointed as Mercer County director of public safety under then-County Executive Bill Mathesius. He was responsible for administering a $14 million budget while directing two correctional facilities, the Mercer County Youth House, the Mercer County Office of Emergency Management, the central kitchen, the medical examiner’s office and the Mercer County Geriatric Center. He returned to the township police department in 1988.
   At 16, he joined the Union Fire Company and Rescue Squad and has been a member for over 40 years. He is a life member and served as the company president and trustee for over 12 years. In February 2006, he was elected to a term as fire commissioner with the Hopewell Township Fire District.
   As police chief, he served as the executive director of Hopewell Valley Office of Emergency Management and the Mayor’s Task Force on Traffic and Trucking, until his retirement in March. He also served: for over 10 years as an executive board member of the Hopewell Valley Municipal Alliance; on the Hopewell Valley Regional School District Safety Committee; and as a member of the Hopewell Valley Schools Superintendent’s Roundtable. He also helped coach local youth sports.
   A graduate of the New Jersey State Police Academy and graduate of the 157th session of the FBI National Academy, Mr. Chipowsky has been awarded the Hopewell Township Silver Star for valor and the Mercer County 200 Club award for valor.
   Democratic incumbent David Sandahl of Dublin Road is serving as deputy mayor and member of the Hopewell Township Committee. He owns Decision Consulting, LLC, a small business. From 1987-2004, he was a partner with Kepner-Tregoe, Inc. From 1978-1984, he served as a fiscal economist/budget examiner for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and in 1974-75, was a staff aide to the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.
   Married to Diane Sandahl, he is the father of two grown children, Jennifer and Matthew. He has a master’s degree in public and private management, Yale University; and a bachelor’s degree in economics, Bowdoin College.
   Mr. Sandahl is chairman of the Princeton Family YMCA Board of Directors and has been a board member since 1995. He also was Mercer County YMCA Volunteer of the Year (2000), is a member of the Executive Committee of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, is a Paul Harris Fellow, Princeton Rotary, and received a Special Service Award, United Way of Greater Mercer County (1995).
***
   For Pennington Borough mayor (unexpired term that runs to Dec. 31, 2007), there are two candidates for one open seat. They are:
   Republican James E. Benton of Kings Court began his term as mayor in 2006. He serves as executive director of the New Jersey Petroleum Council and has over 25 years experience in energy policy and research, including supply, transportation, refining and marketing. He has assisted the state in response to the threat of terrorism posed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
   Mr. Benton is active with the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey Society for Economic Development (SEED), New Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA), and has served as a member of the board of trustees of the American Cancer Society, New Jersey Division.
   A graduate of Rider College with a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration, he and his wife Betty Ann, a reading specialist at Hopewell Elementary School, have lived in Pennington for over 20 years and have two children who are Hopewell Valley schools graduates. During those years, Mr. Benton was a coach of various youth teams, Scout leader, and a volunteer at church events.
   Democrat Tony Persichilli and his wife have been residents of Pennington since 1977. They live on Baldwin Street. After graduating from Rider University with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education, he taught seventh grade before returning to Rider for a master’s degree in marketing. He has been approved as a substitute teacher in Ewing Township. After retiring from AT&T in 1999, he worked the next five years as a vice president of human resources at Prudential Financial. His career has been focused on promoting and leveraging human capital, skills and capabilities within larger organizations.
   Mrs. Perschilli is the former CEO of St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton and now serves as the executive vice president of Catholic Health East.
   In his retirement, Mr. Persichilli has served as a fundraiser for St. Francis Medical Center and the American Heart Association. He also has served as a member of the Pennington Borough Council since 2005. He is chairman of the Personnel Committee, member of the Public Safety and Parking committees, liaison to the Shade Tree Commission and Pennington Business & Professional Association, and has lead contract negotiations with employee unions and represented the borough in recent negotiations with the school board.
   For two Pennington Borough Council seats (three-year terms), there are four candidates. They are:
   Republican Rachel Donington-Torpey of Burd Street is a founding partner of CR Connections, LLC, a strategic event management and public relations consulting firm. Established in 2003, CRC has planned and executed major events for some of New Jersey’s leading corporations and nonprofit organizations including Novartis Pharmaceuticals, IDT Corporation, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey and New Jersey Network.
   Prior to founding CRC, she served as the chief of protocol to Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. Her responsibilities included managing outreach, the social agenda, special events, overseeing Drumthwacket, and serving as the governor’s official liaison on The Drumthwacket Foundation Board. She also coordinated the governor’s international travel, organized meetings between the governor and world leaders, supervised historic renovation projects, and organized official trade and investment missions for senior business executives from American companies to 11 different countries. She also served as director of transition for Gov. Whitman from 2001-2002; event director of the governor’s 1994 and 1998 inaugural committees; and as deputy finance director of People for Whitman, the governor’s campaign committee, in 1992-93.
   A graduate of Rutgers University with bachelor’s degrees in economics and political science, she and her husband, Michael Torpey, moved to Pennington in 2001. They reside with their four young children, Anna, John, Killian and Michael.
   Democratic incumbent Eileen M. Heinzel of Hale Street is a 1989 graduate of Rutgers Law School, Newark. She practiced law; primarily insurance defense and coverage, at a law firm in Montclair. Her husband Paul is also an attorney, who works for the Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice in Trenton.
   After their first son was born in 1995, the family moved to Pennington. The Heinzels have four children; Erich, a sixth-grader at Timberlane; Julia, in fourth grade at Toll Gate; and Jack and Kristen, in second grade.
   Ms. Heinzel is a volunteer in the schools and teaches CCD at St. James Church. She also a volunteers at the Pennington Public Library and is a member of the library’s Children’s Advisory Committee.
   She was appointed to an unexpired term on Pennington Borough Council in August 2004 and was elected to that term in November 2004. As a member of council, she serves as liaison to the Hopewell Valley Recreation Advisory Committee, the Pennington Parks and Recreation Commission and the Pennington Public Library. She was appointed as council liaison to the NJDOT study of Route 31 and most recently was appointed to the Hopewell Valley School Busing Task Force.
   Republican Cosmo J. Iacavazzi of East Curlis Avenue is an executive with Sovereign Bank as vice president, government banking, and is responsible for business development and providing financial services to municipalities, school districts, counties and other government units in New Jersey. He previously served in senior management positions in a variety of businesses in the financial services, philanthropic, real estate, engineering, and cable television industries.
   He is a former elected member of the Township Committee and served as mayor of Hillsborough Township in Somerset County. He is a board member of the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority, a state agency charged with leading the redevelopment activity in New Jersey’s urban centers. He also is involved in a variety of charitable and civic organizations including membership in The New Jersey Conference of Mayors, and president of the Ivy Football Association, a national organization of former Ivy football players and business leaders.
   He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical engineering at Princeton University. He also was captain of Princeton’s last undefeated football team, earning All-America honors as a running back. Inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame in 2002, he is a member of various Pennsylvania and New Jersey Halls of Fame.
   Mr. Iacavazzi resides in Pennington with his wife Marion. They have three children, Peter, Cosmo Jr. and Jennifer, and four grandchildren. Daughter Jennifer and her husband Tyler Joyce and their two children, Dylan and Maya, and son Cosmo Jr. also reside in Pennington.
   Incumbent Democrat Joe Lawver of Burd Street has been a member of Pennington Borough Council since December 2004. In that time he has chaired the Finance Committee, developing Pennington’s first five-year budget forecast. He has also been liaison to the Economic Development Commission and a member of the Public Works Committee. Most recently, he was appointed to represent Pennington on the School Busing Task Force.
   For the last four years, he has been a stay-at-home dad. Prior to that, he was a product director for Verizon Wireless, responsible for launching and managing their second-generation wireless internet services. He also has worked as a fundraiser for private schools and universities. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and his master’s degree from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
   He and his wife, Teri, have lived in Pennington since 2002. Mrs. Lawver is a senior director at Johnson & Johnson. They have a daughter, Delia, in second grade at Toll Gate Grammar, and a son, Rowland. They are members of St. Matthew’s Church where Mr. Lawver teaches Sunday school. This fall, he rode in the Battle Against Hunger bike ride to Gettysburg, raising money for the TASK and the Trenton Rescue Mission. He also is also a founding member of the Children’s Advisory Committee at the Pennington Public Library and he is an alumni interviewer for Georgetown University.
***
   For two Hopewell Borough Council seats (three-year terms), there are two Republican incumbents running unopposed. They are:
   David H. Knights of West Broad Street has been a Hopewell resident since 1988. A 1978 graduate of Brown University with a degree in American colonial history, he received his master’s degree in 1980 from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He is employed by Picus Associates, real estate consulting firm, located in Princeton. He and his wife Linda Francis Knights have three children: Charles A. Knights, 2006 HoVal grad, who is a freshman at Miami University, Ohio; Owen R. Knights, a freshman at The Lawrenceville School; and Caroline K. Knights, an eighth-grader at Timberlane Middle School.
   Mr. Knights became involved in public service in 1994 as a member of the Transportation Subcommittee of the Hopewell Planning Board. Currently he is president of Hopewell Borough Council. He also is a member of the Hopewell Planning Board and of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission.
   Mark Samse of West Broad Street is the director of site planning and vice president of CUH2A, Inc., an architectural engineering and planning firm. He received his bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Michigan State University.
   He has served three terms on Hopewell Borough Council and has been a member of the Hopewell Planning Board for over 10 years.