MAYORS ADDRESS TO MANVILLE: I want to thank Father Stan, Judge Foley all our distinguished guests and fellow residents for being here today. I also want to welcome both Steve Szabo and Dana Camacho as they were sworn in today and to remind them that they represent all the people of Manville while they are sitting on council. I want to congratulate Assistant Fire Chief Joe Barilla, Deputy Chief Ken Skirkanish and Fire Chief John Bentz as they were sworn in today as our new Chiefs. I cannot say enough about the job you and the Volunteer firefighters do for our community. Your service to Manville is something we can all be proud of and that is due to the leadership exhibited by yourselves and the past Fire Chiefs who you followed. I want to thank Dave Mroz for his past six years of service and for the job he has done as Chief the last two years. There were many positive administrative changes made over the last two years and that is a tribute to your leadership. Three years ago I made the decision to once again run for Mayor after being away for four years. While the majority party on Council was in power during my 4 year absence, they would like you to think that I was Mayor straight through those years. I don’t blame them for not wanting to take the credit for those years. However, they can take credit for double digit property tax hikes; failing to apply for any grants; being clueless on flood recovery; our police force being brought down to a critical low; and no progress whatsoever on the redevelopment of the Rustic Mall. It seemed the inmates were running the asylum. It was not the then Mayor’s fault, because she was leading them on the right track but some of the members of her Council refused to follow her leadership. Since my being re-elected, over the last three years we were able to stabilize taxes; add four new police officers to our force without raising taxes due to our ability to turn our dispatching duties over to Somerset County as most of the communities in Somerset County have done. We have a bi-partisan team negotiating with the owners of the Rustic Mall and have approved a plan which the redevelopment committee feels will be beneficial to our community. There are some issues that need to be resolved and the plan by far is not finalized. It still has to go to the planning board for approval but at least we have been working with the owners to get that vital piece of property developed. We have restructured our recreation committee and everyone has seen the outcome of the hard work done by Stephanie Cornelson, John Bentz and the recreation committee with the new programs they have instituted and the year-round sports events we have for the youth of our community. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Pat Gorbetuk for the pool programs he oversees in the summer. Lastly, we were able to work with the Governor’s representatives, Commissioner Martin and our legislator’s to secure $30.1 million dollars for 104 buy-outs for our most repetitive flood victims. Great strides were made by the flood commission under the leadership of Frank Jurewicz. They did an outstanding job in getting the Army Corp and the State DEP to finalize the study started eleven years ago. This morning we heard a lot of talk about who has the majority and what rights the mayor has in our form of Government. The Republican Party now has the majority on Council and under our form of government can do just about anything they want but what the majority party has to remember is that being the majority comes with the responsibility for this community and with that responsibility comes complete accountability. They can no longer just vote no and criticize without coming up with an alternative. They cannot misrepresent the truth. They can no longer go around criticizing someone for taking benefits while doing it themselves. They cannot go and tell people we could have had an additional fifty homes bought out and we stopped the state from doing it. I don’t think the legislatures that are here today would have allowed that and I am still waiting to hear where Councilman Onderko got that information. You can no longer scare people by saying the police station is closed because we do not have dispatchers despite the fact there has never been any change in access to the police station. We always had to call to get in after hours. However, if you insist that it is still closed you now have the votes to do something about it. We are mandated by the county tax board to go through a revaluation this year. When I went to fight the revaluation as we are going through a transition and I believe it is not in the best interest of our community I was told that a Councilman even sent them a letter saying we need to do this because we need to fairly distribute the taxable properties. This is my 20th time addressing the residents of Manville with my State of the Borough address and I want to thank the residents of this great community for giving me the opportunity to serve them for twenty years as your Mayor and the three prior years as your Councilman. You may not have agreed with me on some of my policies or maybe all of them but I can honestly say to you that there was never an ulterior motive. I have always acted in the best interest of this community and what I thought would help our town. Some people use the expression this is “My Manville.” I disagree, because if this is your Manville then you are only acting on what is best for you. My philosophy has always been this is our Manville and we need to do this together to make Manville a better place for all of us to live. As I have stated in the past to those who think they can get to me by badgering and trying to frustrate me into not performing my tasks as your Mayor, there is a creed I have served by and will continue to live by as Mayor of this great town we call Manville. I have this quote by Abraham Lincoln hanging in my office and it reads like this: “If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.” Manville is a great community and we have a lot to look forward to. We have a full shopping mall at the Marketplace. We finally have a place in Manville where we can do our grocery shopping with a Super Wal Mart. We have the redevelopment of the Rustic Mall around the corner and we have new ratables to replace the buy-outs we obtained from the State. I am looking forward to working with this Council for a successful 2015. I want to wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year and may God Bless this great town we call “Our Manville.”
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 18:53:05 +0000
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