Today is Sunday
Jul 05, 2009
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The three mayors of Cedar Crest |
| | Posted on Thursday, October 30, 2008 | | | By Joel Keller
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
It doesn’t matter if you did it 5 years ago or 45 years ago: If you’ve ever been the mayor of your town, your experience gives you a different perspective on how things are run in your community. You want to be active—to participate in the decision-making process. And you examine the effectiveness of the services provided to see where improvements can be made and how much they might cost.
Three Cedar Crest residents are in this boat; they were once mayors of the New Jersey towns they lived in before moving to the retirement community in Pompton Plains. They know they can use the skills they acquired in public life to help themselves and their fellow residents, providing a voice to management of the privately run community.
“One cannot forget the background we have and the experiences we’ve been involved in,” says Rusty Thompson, who was mayor of Ho-Ho-Kus from 1996 through 2003. Before being elected mayor, she was on the town council for 5 years; her 13 years of civic experience has helped her in her roles on the resident committees she participates in, including the community’s Future Planning Committee. “I never forget the people skills I learned in 13 years,” she says. “I would see things going on in the meetings and so forth. The more prepared you are by learning your job and developing these skills, the better you are to the public.”
David Way, who served as mayor of Pequannock in 1962 (mayors are elected by the council for one-year terms in that township), was very active on Cedar Crest’s Resident Advisory Council after he moved to the community early in its eight-year existence; he recently served as the council’s president. “The chief thing that having been in the municipality governing body taught us, which was useful here, was how to work with people and how to persuade people—how to help arrange reaching a consensus,” he says. | |
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Improving safety through experience
For Walter Ash, who was mayor of Saddle River from 1984 through 1987, his view is more from a public works and services perspective. Although Cedar Crest doesn’t have a private police force or fire department, he recognizes that the private security crew members are EMTs. However, he says, “If there is a serious incident, we have to call Pequannock for police help. That’s the biggest (difference). But we’ve been very fortunate that we haven’t had to rely on them.”
On the topic of public safety, Thompson, who’s currently a freelance writer, is especially proud. Based on her experience with a similar system in Ho-Ho-Kus, she went to then-executive director Chip Warner and suggested that the community institute a system for all residents to be called in an emergency. She was put in charge of the committee that worked with Cedar Crest to get bids on and eventually implement the system. “That system now, I understand, is mandated in every Erickson community,” she says. “So you know, little acorns…”
Cedar Crest’s voting record is stellar
As far as the civic-mindedness of their neighbors is concerned, all three former mayors note with satisfaction that the residents not only show up for elections at a much higher percentage than the rest of Pequannock’s general population, they vote for school board members and educational initiatives that many would think they’d vote down. “I think there’s a feeling that, amongst the personality and natures of people here, [we] want to support educational things,” says Way.
So, if they were to give Cathy Guttman, Cedar Crest’s current executive director and de facto mayor, some mayorly advice, what would they say? “Be visible,” says Ash, a notion Way agrees with, as he thinks the better you know your constituents, and the better they know you, the easier your job becomes. Thompson concurs, but adds something that everyone should do: “Be a good listener.”
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News From Other Neighborhoods |
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