PLUMSTED – Two new township committeemen were sworn in beside family members at the township’s recent reorganization meeting. James Hagelstein and Thomas Potter began their three-year terms that evening.
The pair defeated incumbents Dominick Cuozzo and Michael Hammerstone in the June GOP primary in a contentious campaign. The incoming committeemen are members of the Republicans of Plumsted, a new political club that formed last year and is largely made up of members that broke away from the original Plumsted Republican Club that endorsed Cuozzo and Hammerstone.
The reorganization meeting drew a large number of people to witness Township Clerk Jennifer Witham administer the oath of office to Potter and Hagelstein. Each took the oath of office joined by members of their family.
Following their swearing in which garnered some loud applause, it was time to select a mayor and deputy mayor for the new year. Plumsted’s form of government calls for the five-member Committee to choose one of their own for each of those spots.
Committeeman Robert Bowen, who served two years ago as mayor, will return to that role and Herb Marinari who has served as deputy mayor for the last three years, will continue on in that position. They were both unanimously voted in by the Committee.
Bowen was sworn in by Witham who noted that Committeeman Marinari was unable to be present for the meeting and would be sworn in at a later date.
The new mayor said that public comments would be added to the beginning of the agenda “so that those of you who want to comment on something before we act on it can actually do so and not have to comment on it afterwards. We will have public comment on agenda items and there will be a second public comment period on non-agenda items later in the meeting.”
A question that came up concerned a $30,000 appropriation item which Clerk Witham explained was for an outdated microphone sound system. “That is something we are looking at. That system is over 20 years old. The microphones aren’t working well. There is a lot of feedback so we are exploring the idea of getting a new sound system and additional speakers as it is getting hard to hear. We are at the very preliminary stages of that.”
As is routine, the Committee also adopted a temporary budget during the meeting as part of the consent agenda.
Thomas Potter stands beside his wife Susan as Plumsted Township Clerk Jennifer Witham administers the oath of office. (Photo courtesy Plumsted Township)
Meeting Changes
A resolution that was passed also added an additional township committee meeting each month.
Mayor Bowen explained this was being done, “for a couple of reasons, one to stop the need for having five-hour meetings which we have been having from 6 to 11 p.m. and the other is that is hard on the staff. It is hard for the committee. We have people who get up early in the morning, school busses run early in the morning so we are trying to get business done in a timely manner.”
“Many of the towns I have visited actually can get their meetings down to 60 to 90 minutes twice a month and get business done with plenty of time to do it and not be here until 11 o’clock at night so I’d like to try it,” the mayor added. Meetings will now be held at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of the month.
He noted that during the summer months, “if we run out of things to do – which would be remarkable – we won’t have a second meeting. As Committeeman (Leonard) Grilletto mentioned we have budget season coming up. We have a lot of busy meetings coming up.”
An ordinance concerning affordable housing will be sent back to the Land Use Board for further legal review.
It was also noted that anyone interested in volunteering to serve on any of the various committees and boards in township should send a letter of application by visiting plumsted.org/about/pages/volunteer-plumsted.
During the public comment period resident Bill Fox of Archertown Road referenced the split of the two Republican clubs within the township and blamed that situation on “personal insulting remarks that were made throughout the year and people responding to those remarks.”
Fox, a Land Use Board member added, “everyone here needs to treat everybody with integrity, respect and compassion.” He expressed hope of a reconciliation between the two GOP organizations.
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