HILLSBOROUGH: Biondi’s name goes on town hall on Saturday

   Often called “Mr. Hillsborough,” Peter Biondi will become part of the township’s permanent landscape Saturday.
   In a ceremony at 11 a.m. the municipal complex, the township municipal building will be renamed the Peter J. Biondi Building in honor of the former mayor who helped acquire the land, plan the design and oversee the building of one township complex for multiple functions.
   Weather permitting, the ceremony will be held outside the main entrance to the building on South Branch Road.
   Congressman Leonard Lance, state Sen. Christopher Bateman and Mayor Carl Suraci are scheduled to speak. Mrs. Joan Biondi and her family will attend.
   The building, originally dedicated in 1991, will marked with Mr. Biondi’s name, and a plaque in the lobby unveiled.
   Township Committeeman Douglas Tomson remembered being a youngster led on a Cub Scout tour of the building when it was first opened in the late 1980s, he said Tuesday night. Mayor Biondi proudly took the Cubs into his office and showed them an historic map with property owners’ names on the lots, said Mr. Tomson.
   Mr. Biondi “was a pillar in our community,” said Mayor Suraci. “ It is only appropriate that we honor his many years of service to the residents of Hillsborough by dedicating and therefore renaming this building.”
   Mr. Biondi was hailed as the patriarch of modern Hillsborough in eulogies following his death Nov. 10, two days after being elected to an eighth term in the state Assembly.
   He was mayor of Hillsborough from 1983 to 1987 at the time the municipal facility, which combines township and school administrative offices, library, police headquarters and community meeting areas, was built.
   The Township Committee voted Tuesday night to name the municipal building for Mr. Biondi.