Two Democrats will be sworn onto Borough Council on Saturday
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Mayor Angelo Corradino said he’ll look back on groundwork to solve borough challenges when he gives his reorganization day address on Saturday.
Two first-time Borough Council members will be sworn in at the first-of-the-year meeting, which will begin at 11 a.m. in Borough Hall off North Main Street.
The borough government will make professional appointments and name residents to volunteer boards and commissions in preparation for the new year.
The new councilmen, Ron Skirkanisch and Mark Gregor, are both Democrats, and will bring the composition of Borough Council to three from each political party.
If votes deadlock, the mayor, who is a Democrat, would break the tie.
He said he hoped more teamwork would help make progress on pressing borough issues, like facilitating a plan to build on the former Rustic Mall site and the cleanup of the downtown area on Main Street and Camplain Avenue.
He said “an anti-Angelo movement within the Republican Party” surfaced last year on Borough Council, exhibiting partisan symptoms “similar to what’s happened in the nation’s capital,” he said. Luckily, Republican council members Lou Petzinger and Sherri Lynn “voted for the well-being of the community rather than looking ahead to their next election,” said the mayor.
The new members should create a better camaraderie, he said.
The new council, which also includes Republicans Susan Asher and Steve Szabo and Democrat Ed Komoroski, will choose its president for the year Saturday. Ms. Lynn, who was president last year, chose not to seek another term on council.
The mayor said he’ll review the “tremendous job” of the public works and emergency responders in dealing with late October’s Sandy storm.
He said the borough was fortunate being hit only with high winds, and escaped the flooding that submerged much of the borough in August 2011.
”We’re all grateful that was the extent of it,” he said.
The borough learned better communication skills, he said, including encouraging residents to register their mobile phones, as well as their land lines, in the borough’s emergency alert system. Responders also realized they need to keep public areas open to help people charge cellular phones and establish Internet connections, he said.
As for flooding, he said the borough will continue to support the multi-member Raritan-Millstone Flood Control Commission, established in February, and do “heavy lobbying” for money for long-term solutions.
”As much as the shore areas need it, don’t forget about us, too,” the mayor said.
Manville resolved in 2012 to make its downtown areas more attractive. The mayor said it has led to more police patrols on loitering and littering, and more pressure on landlords to clean up their properties and screen the activities of their tenants, he said.
The mayor said he was told in December to expect an application by March for the vacant, fenced-off Rustic Mall property off South Main Street. The mayor has said he’s looking for a mixed-use proposal of retail, office and residential to spur a downtown revival.
”Hopefully then I’ll be able to cut the ribbon before I leave office,” he said.
A reception at the VFW hall on Washington Avenue will follow Saturday’s reorganization meeting.

