Get the scoop on what’s going on at the area’s municipal meetings and after.
By Elaine Van Develde
Fair Haven’s reorganization day may have come and gone, but a few appointments had yet to be made.
So, that business was completed at the Jan. 29 meeting with an appointment to the borough Planning Board, Memorial Park Advisory Committee and Historic Preservation Committee.
By Elaine Van Develde
Both Rumson and Fair Haven’s reorganizations are, as usual, slated for the same day, same time — New Year’s Day at noon.
Though they are, naturally, in different places — Rumson’s at Bingham Hall and Fair Haven’s at Borough Hall. And, the agendas are different.
In Fair Haven, Democrat Aimee Humphreys will be sworn in to her first term on Borough Council. Mayor Ben Lucarelli will be sworn in to his first full four-year term in office after filling the unexpired term of former Mayor Michael Halfacre. Susan Sorensen will be sworn in to her second term on the dais.
Humphreys unseated three-term incumbent Jerome Koch. Shortly after the elections, with one council meeting left to the year, Koch was tragically killed in a bicycle accident on River Road.
Fire Department and First Aid officers will also be inducted into their new annual roles.
There are no new council members in Rumson to be sworn in for this year’s reorganization. However, the usual municipal reappointments will take hold as well as those of fire and first aid officers.
In Rumson, however, Mayor John Ekdahl is known for his annual speech. Which, he tells Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect, will be delivered about half way through the ceremony.
By Elaine Van Develde
Fair Haven has hired a new “Special Law Enforcement Officer, Class I” and renewed the temporary contract of its interim borough mechanic.
Both are familiar faces and names in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.
A resolution was passed at last week’s Borough Council meeting, the governing body approving of the hiring of Michael Volker, effective Dec. 1, for the Special Class I position in the borough’s police department at a pay rate of $13 per hour.
The appointment was made at the recommendation of Fair Haven Police Chief Darryl Breckenridge.
Volker, a Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School graduate who lives in Fair Haven and is from Rumson, according to his Facebook page, attends the Academy of Law and Public Safety in Long Branch.
Special Class I officers are apprentices, of sort, who work for police departments and have limited enforcement powers. They go through weeks of basic training in areas such as first aid, motor vehicle laws and do not carry firearms. Class II specials do carry firearms, go through months (rather than weeks) of training and have full enforcement power, but only while on duty.
Council also passed a resolution to hire David Becker as interim borough mechanic for another 90 days at a stipend of $120 a week on top of his regular borough salary in Public Works.
Becker, according to the resolution, had been hired as the interim mechanic for an initial period of 90 days, which has expired.
This 90 days is effective from Nov. 11, 2014 to Feb. 9, 2015.
By Elaine Van Develde
“I call him Charles in Charge,” Fair Haven Borough Administrator said with a smile when bidding goodbye to the town’s well-liked director of the Department of Parks and Recreation and, more recently, Special Events, Charlie Hoffmann.
That was Monday night at the Borough Council meeting, five-and-a-half years after Hoffmann first met Fair Haven and fell in love at first sight.
“When I interviewed for this job five-and-a-half years ago, I had no absolutely no intention of taking it,” Hoffmann said at the meeting. “Someone just told me to come here and practice interviewing. I took a drive around. I was pulled over twice — so, good job with your men, chief — and instantly fell in love with this town. Then I met (then) Mayor (Michael) Halfacre in his Hawaiian shirt and said (to myself), ‘I need to work here.’ It’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made, professionally.”
Since then, Hoffmann worked as the full-time Recreation director until two years ago, when he announced his resignation. The notice was met with such chagrin that Hoffmann ended up staying on part-time transitioning D.J. Breckenridge, now director, into the job. Once that transition was complete, Hoffmann continued until now as Special Events director.
It was a transition that Borough Administrator Theresa Casagrande said was “seamless” for the residents and good for the town.
That’s because, she said, “I think it’s fair to say that Charlie is near and dear to the hearts of the people of Fair Haven. For many people, he was the face of Fair Haven, because they saw him (spearheading events around town) more than us. I think he has done an exemplary job.”
Hoffmann called attention to some new events he brought to the borough that he was particularly proud of, and thanked all those residents and officials, especially Recreation commissioners and council members Susan Sorensen and (former) Bob Marchese, who helped bring them to fruition as standing new traditions: the annual campout, father-daughter dance, grants, concerts on the dock and the centennial celebration, which has now turned into an annual Fair Haven Day.
Saying he was “dealt a great hand here” in Fair Haven, Hoffmann signed off by saying, “The ZIP code 07704 will always have a special place in my heart.”
By Elaine Van Develde
If you want to get a glimpse of how county government works, you’ll have your chance tomorrow, Nov. 25, when the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders conducts its meeting in Fair Haven at 7 p.m. in Borough Hall.
The Freeholders make the rounds to different towns each year to provide people with the opportunity.
With this turn in Fair Haven, the agenda, Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli said at the Monday night council meeting, is pretty full.
“The mayors from the Two River Council of Mayors will be with me,” he said. “We’ll be representing the complete streets resolutions and urging the county to use complete streets (designs, which include arrow-type signage on the street and bike lanes) in repaving county roads.
“Also, teachers and students from Brookdale will be here advocating making an appeal for increased county support of the college. It should be an interesting, informative night.”
By Elaine Van Develde
“Aimee, would you like to join us?” asked Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli of Councilwoman-elect Aimee Humphreys as the governing body went into executive session after the Nov. 10 meeting.
It was slightly a week shy of the newest council member’s election. The next meeting, now an annual tradition, was held at Knollwood School as a civics lesson to students about the workings of the group of people elected to represent them and their parents.
And Humphreys was there and eager for indoctrination into her new post as of the New Year.
Humphreys, a Democrat, is the first to break the all-Republican hold on the Fair Haven dais in a very long time. The last was independent Mayor Joseph Szostak, who won his independent bid for mayor in 2002. He served one term through 2006 when former Mayor Michael Halfacre won the mayoral election.
Since the election, Humphreys has been seen around town. She told Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect at the borough’s Veterans Day service that she anticipated, despite her minority position on the governing body, that “everything will be great.
“We’re all friends. We’ve all lived here a long time and all have the town’s interests at heart. I think it’s going to be a really positive experience. I’m really looking forward to it.”
She no sooner said that when Mayor Lucarelli walked over and welcomed her as a future governing body member and thanked her for being there.
“We’re happy to welcome Aimee,” he said.
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