Three newly elected Lawrence Township Council members will be sworn into office when the Lawrence Township Council holds its reorganization meeting at noon on New Year’s Day at the Lawrence Township Municipal Building.
Cathleen Lewis, Michael Powers and John Ryan will be sworn into office for four-year terms. One member from among the five council members – Lewis, Powers, Ryan, Jim Kownacki and Christopher Bobbitt – will be selected to serve in the ceremonial post of mayor for 2020 and 2021.
Lewis will be taking the oath of office for the third time. She held the ceremonial post of mayor in 2014 and 2015. She has lived in Lawrence Township since 2004, and works in the Office of the Ombudsman in the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
Lewis was excited when she and her running mates – Powers and Ryan – won reelection in the November general election.
“During the campaign, we talked about the good things we did and that the town has the potential to be. The votes are validation of the hard work the council has done,” Lewis said on election night.
Powers will be sworn into office for the fifth time. He held the ceremonial post of mayor in 2006 and 2010, prior to officials’ decision to make it a two-year term. It had been a one-year term that rotated among the Lawrence Township Council members.
Powers grew up in Lawrence Township and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1986. He is the general counsel for the GOG Foundation in Philadelphia.
Powers said he is interested in encouraging the continued redevelopment in Lawrence Township, pointing to the Brunswick Pike Redevelopment Area near the Brunswick Circle in the southern part of the township.
Powers also wants to encourage community building and a sense of community through entities such as Lawrenceville Main Street and the Greater Eldridge Park Neighborhood Association.
Ryan will be taking the oath of office for a full, four-year term. He was chosen to fill out the unexpired term of former council member David Maffei, who resigned in October.
Maffei’s term would have expired at the end of this month.
Ryan, who has lived in Lawrence Township for 34 years, recently retired from the United Parcel Service.
Ryan said he became interested in serving on the Lawrence Township Council after he began attending the council meetings, as well as the Lawrence Township Planning Board meetings and the Lawrence Township Zoning Board of Adjustment meetings.
“The community has given me a lot, and I want to give back to the community,” Ryan said.