By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Karen Murphy was re-elected chairwoman of the Hopewell Township Planning Board for 2015 at the board’s annual reorganization meeting, held on Jan. 22.
Ms. Murphy was re-elected unanimously after the board voted 5-4 against making Marylou Ferrara, who was appointed to the board Jan. 12, the chairwoman.
When Planning Board recording secretary Linda Barbieri called for nominations for the chair position, things unfolded differently than usual.
First to speak was Mayor Harvey Lester, who nominated Ms. Ferrara. Before Mr. Lester finished speaking, board member Jack Belmont, looking stern, boomed in a decisive voice that he nominated Ms. Murphy
. Looking somewhat taken aback, Mr. Lester said he had been trying to nominate Ms Ferrara while someone “talked over him.”
That settled, Ms. Barbieri called the roll on the nomination of Ms. Ferrara, a former Township Committee member, who left the governing body at the end of 2004. A former mayor, Ms Ferrara also served on the Planning Board during her tenure on the governing body.
Ms. Ferrara missed being named chairwoman by one vote, with four members voting for her and five against. Voting for her were Mayor Lester, Lawrence Clarke, Ms. Ferrara herself and Fran Bartlett.
Voting no on the nomination of Ms. Ferrara were Bruce Gunther, Paul Kiss, Kevin Kuchinski (a township committeeman), Russell Swanson and Ms. Murphy.
After that vote, Mr. Clarke asked Ms. Barbieri if board members who had voted for Ms. Ferrara could also vote for Ms. Murphy. Ms. Barbieri replied in the affirmative and Ms. Murphy was unanimously re-elected chair, a position she has held for several years.
In quick order after that, the board voted unanimously to reappoint Mr. Kiss as vice chairman.
In other business, the board reappointed Mr. Kiss as chairman of the board’s Application Review Committee (ARC). A development application must be declared complete by ARC before it can advance to the full Planning Board. The other members of the ARC are Messrs. Swanson, Belmont and Clarke.
Robert Miller, also the town’s longtime zoning officer, was reappointed board secretary for 2015. Ms. Barbieri was reappointed recording secretary.
Other reappointments included Paul Pogorzelski as engineer, Frank Banish as planning consultant and Ronald Morgan as board attorney.
