By Stephen Appezzato
TINTON FALLS – This year’s reorganization meeting featured returning faces on the dais, the election of a new council president and an exciting project update.
Tracy Buckley, Risa Clay and Michael Nesci were sworn in for another term on council after being reelected in November. State representatives from Legislative District 11, Vin Gopal, Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul, administered the council members’ oaths of office, followed by expressions of thanks from the returning council members.
Nesci thanked his family and residents for “putting their trust in me and my fellow council members to guide our town towards a safe and affordable place to live.” He also mentioned that he has big plans and ideas to bring to the council throughout his four-year term. Buckley and Clay shared similar remarks.
Following the first roll call of the new year, council member and former council president John Manginelli nominated Clay as council president, signaling he would not seek to fulfill the role in 2024. Clay was unanimously appointed to the role. Council member Lawrence Dobrin was voted deputy council president.
Going into the new year, borough administrator Charles Terefenko provided a recap of 2023, as well as a report on what’s to come in 2024.
The borough is sitting on more than $2 million in grant money for upcoming projects, including a new softball field at Sycamore Recreation Complex and a bathroom building at Wardell Park “which you’re going to be seeing come this spring,” Terefenko said.
He also announced that, in partnership with the Tinton Falls Police Department, a new opioid overdose prevention program will be rolled out for high school students in the borough.
And last year’s borough audit report received exemplary marks. “That’s something that we should be proud of,” Terefenko said. “The mayor’s edict when he got elected was streamlining budgets and operating efficiently and effectively and I think we’ve done that throughout the year as well.”
Dobrin proudly announced that renovations to the borough library will finally be completed and the building will reopen this year.
“Two years ago, I became a liaison to the Tinton Falls Library Association and was a member of the board of trustees,” Dobrin said. “I told them at that time that we were going to get this library open. This year of 2024, this library will open,” he reported, an announcement met by a round of applause.
The borough’s public library has been shuttered for more than six years after an air quality assessment identified mold on the premises. Since 2017, no one has entered the building.
The borough remediated the mold outbreak and began the renovation process, which included purging the library of its books due to mold contamination. A $217,500 grant from the New Jersey Library Construction Bond Act will help complete the project.
The article originally appeared in the January 11 – January 17, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
