Township Reorganization Meeting Swearing In 2010 Part 3

Um, thank you, mayor. I would like to thank everybody for coming out. Um, hopefully uh to support me. Uh, my friends, family, uh, people who voted for me, we ran this year. I thank you all for your support. My parents, I came from New York. I would like to thank them for always being there for me. I hope I can always continue to make you proud. I'd like to thank my in-laws who could not join us here today uh who are also always there to support me. I have family members that are here. I see my brother, my brothers-in-law. I'll get to my wife after just a couple of minutes. Uh thank you very much, Rose being there for me. I ran an election this year. I ran in media. Uh I want to acknowledge and thank her. She knew it was going to be a very challenging campaign. She ran gracefully and agreed uh to to run with me and I thank her very very much for that. I'm sure I'm going to leave some people out. But I do have some names of of people who worked with me in my campaign. Manda Harrison, Glenn Harrison, Mike Sternady, Michael Baitman, Juan Medina, Steve here, PG Waxman and family. I know Peters here, but I thought I saw him there a minute ago. uh his wife and his daughter got involved in helping with the campaign. I thank them very much as well. And if I missed anybody, I apologize. I I truly appreciate everybody's support. One person that really worked very closely with me on the campaign and could have meant it to me, has become a very close friend of mine, uh I I could I say it every year and I need to say it again. I really need to extend a very very heartfelt thanks to Ray Coz. Ray, you're a true friend and thank you so much for always being up here with me. Speaking of the committee, uh I joined the same year that Manash joined and we had three elections. We ran opposing parties we both won. Uh Manash, I really look forward to working with you and serving with you as deputy serving under you as deputy mayor. Uh Senator, your wise comments, smart guidance I can always call you any time to there for me. I appreciate that. Steve, good luck. We'll be here to work with you. We'll be here to work with you agreeing discussions and at the end uh we're going to work together to make this a better town. I know that during the next three years we're going to have some challenges and this year we have some very unique challenges working uh with our lesson on ships working with Frank and our especially with David Jan this is all something that as a community and I have to continue to do there's one unique challenge obviously that's on everybody's mind that I think I'm going to leave for the mayor to address but I do want to say just for a brief moment uh just a few of my feelings. I know that uh we are in financial times and we are dealing uh with our EMS department. This year our EMS department has handled I believe 800 uh calls more than the past year. uh we work with them uh and help fund the UBC ambulance for our EMS department and I know our EMS department has worked on training assistant training our police department and our office of emergency management. We have some very tough decisions to make ahead and we will work all together. Let nobody think that we don't appreciate. We appreciate it and we know how hard it is and we know how hard it is to be out there first to stop you. We know what it means to go into emergency situations. We do appreciate it. As I said, we're going to have to figure out how to deal with this over the next couple of months and I'm sure the mayor will address this later on. Hopefully, we will be able to get through this year. And as Steve just said before, the mark of what makes a person or what marks a talent is going to be how we get through the times when they're tough. And I don't think the times when they're easy because it's really easy to look good when everything's going just right. It's harder when we have some tough decisions to make and we have to work together and everybody has to give. Finally, of course, I need to thank my wife and children for their support. Thy do [Music] and for those of you who have heard me get into school, I guess my youngest did not really want me to take that off of office. I spend so much time away even when I'm home. I try not to keep the phone with the Blackberry lo in my ear or in my hand. There's so much that goes on. I can't thank you guys enough and I'm sorry that I'm not always there to do homework with you and not always there to drive you to where you need to go. My daughter tells me I can correct that. See if we make licensing permissible at but have to understand 23. But thank you very much for being here. And of course, finally, I would not be able to do this without the support of my dear wife Sarah, who has stood by me for so many years doing this. This is my seventh year on the committee. My 10th year or 11th year involved in government. It takes a big toll on family. It takes a lot of time away from family. It means missing family occasions. It means interrupted family time. It means coming home at late hours, leaving to go to early hours. I can't thank you enough. That said, I want to wish everybody a happy new year. God bless the committee, of course, our military, all our first responders, and everybody here. And I hope you have a healthy, happy, and fruitful new year. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Um, Steve, you got I'm glad to see your mom taking back to Lakewood. Um, and I know that that your family's very supportive. Your dad and family support you. Uh it's important is important. Support family is important and it's a tough role and I I think you're up for the challenge and I look forward to working with you this year. Um certainly has certain different ideas of how we deal with the homeless, how we deal with the budget issues different that's good. Um conversation challenging questions is is part and parcel of the government. nothing is is is done simplicity foc Thank you all for coming to be here me today like to take this opportunity again I thank the residents of Lakewood because they trusted me to make my being here a reality there's a great responsibility to sit up here amongst those who have set a high standard of integrity and fairness committee. I just want to start off thanking Assemblyman Ron Dancer and the other JY for coming out here today to be with us. Um Dancer is also Mayor Pompe and shares numerous uh county boards and assist our residents here in Lake and the tree holders together with other fields. The boys been longtime friends with Lakewood. They look around the county roads in Lakewood. They always been very very uh helpful to us. There's council I know construction going on in the area. We recently did hope road and central avenue as well and they always appreciated what they did road. Speaking of road, I must tell you the story few a few weeks ago before the holiday. It was a Friday, late Friday afternoon, and I get this phone call from some guy that lives in the area on Swankham Road in Manhattan. And he goes, "Man, there's this huge pothole on Squanam Road and it's, you know, three-day holidays coming up and it's really deep and kind of lighter there is kind of and you know, someone's going to fall into it. Someone's going to trip into it. Please, you got to take care of it." No problem. I pick up the phone. I call John Frank. I said, "Hey, John, I did a favor. The pile can take care of that kind of deed. I want to fall into it. Do me a favor. Take care of the pile." He puts me in touch with Jim Casey. I told him Jim Casey who is the uh road supervisor. I need to get to dispatch the road crew out there and we stop construction up the title. 15 minutes later I get a phone call. Some constituent calls me up. Really? You do? What's going on in Lakewood? We have no better time to stop fixing roads on a Friday afternoon. Traffic is backing up. What's wrong? Come on. What are you thinking? The council doesn't realize what they're doing. One pull back friends. Do me a favor. instead of doing like the real, you know, a long time job on this the whole philosophy for just doing favor slap down some some cold patch, you know, real quick job. We'll get back to it next week when it's a little quieter. 20 minutes later, I get another phone call. Some guy calls me up Lakeland Township, you're a bunch of dogs. You don't know how to fill a pile down some laptops for all of them. And it's amazing how each person, depending upon what they see, that's their reaction. And I certainly invite everyone to call me. We try to assist everyone. Uh the numbers are not private. So hold me in my home, hold me anyone accountable and I'm certainly willing to help and assist. I'd like to confirm for his hard work, diligence and dedication to service of the past year as mayor has done so much for Lakewood as a longtime country and also as a standing cate down in Trenton. Long ways as banner of pride and I'm thankful for him for his kind constant guidance and counsel. I'd like to congratulate Mayor Steven Langford and his family this month's dedication reaching this plateau. Steve I wish him much success and the return as mayor of 2010. I'd like to congratulate and mayor Lenstein on his election to office. Mayor has won tremendous advantage over all of us. Regardless of what position mayor's in, he's always mayor looking at the end of the day. So, goodbye. I must say I'm humb humbled to sit up here together with honorable Ray Coles. Honorable Ray is truly a special person. He goes above and beyond the call of duty when his constituents reach out to him for assistance. One of Honorable Ray's famous line that he always says is it's a close family up here and I'm glad to be part of this family.