Politics & Government

Top River Edge Spot Goes to Moscaritolo

Voters support change for Mayor

Voters in River Edge came out today to push for change on the governing body and in a tight race the top spot in town went to Sandy Moscaritolo by a slim margin of 72 votes. Moscaritolo garnered 1,583 votes over incumbent Mayor Margaret Watkins with 1,511.

The newcomer to River Edge politics joined the council in December to serve the remaining one-year term following .

A municipal law attorney, he joined the council after spending many years working for the Borough of New Milford as their Municipal Prosecutor, Municipal Court Judge, Borough Attorney, and member of their Board of Education before coming to River Edge.

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He received a law degree from the University of Bridgeport and his law practice is located in town. Moscaritolo has also served the Bergen County District Ethics Committee (investigating allegations of attorney ethics violations), and lectured for the NJ Bar Association and the Citizen's Police Academy.

The tight race was also portrayed in our .

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Council Race

With all newcomers running for the two three-year term council seats, Democrats picked up the spots to retain a 4-2 Republican majority.

Kathleen Murphy picked up 1,530 votes followed by runningmate Thomas Papaleo with 1,564. Republican candidates Delia Joyce Carroll (1,488) and Anthony Cappola (1,485) trailed Papaleo by a slim 45-vote margin.

Murphy (D) works part-time in optical sales in New York while volunteering as the President of The River Edge Women's Softball League, District Representative for River Edge Girl Scouts as well as being a Troop Leader, active PTO member and Key Communicator for the River Edge School budget committee, former River Edge 4th of July committee member and former "Junior Woman of the Year" award recipient.

Papaleo (D) currently teaches math in the Teaneck Public School system and is the president of the union.

Open Space

Up for renewal for the next five years was the Open Space Tax and again by a small margin of voters failed at the polls, 1,136 to 1,013.

If it had been approved residents would have contributed one penny for every $100 of their tax bill to the preservation and maintenace of the borough's parks and ballfields.

For the past two years, a portion of the Open Space Funding has been utilized to cover the salary and wages of three DPW workers who oversee the maintenace of the parks. Funding had also gone to the 9/11 Memorial Garden, Beautification, Environmental and Historic Committees and the Shade Tree Commission.

During the upcoming budget season, the council will now instead have to find a way to retain the three DPW employees positions in the operating budget.


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