(Fanwood, NJ) — The Borough Council held its annual reorganization meeting Monday night, January 6th, at Borough Hall. Councilwoman Erin McElroy Barker was sworn in to her fourth term by Mayor Colleen Mahr while Councilwoman Patricia Walsh took the oath from the Mayor to begin her third term.
Also taking the oath was long-time municipal prosecutor Daniel Prosecutor as well as Fanwood Rescue Squad Vice President Juliana Lance, Fire Chief John Piccola and rest of the Fire Department’s leadership.
The Mayor swore in Kathleen Thomas to another four-year term on the Board of Health. She has served on the Board for 20 years.
Councilwoman Walsh was elected as Council President for 2025.
Council standing committees and liaison/council representatives as well as the Mayor’s appointments to boards and commissions were approved as were numerous annual professional services agreements.
In her remarks, Mayor Mahr said Fanwood is “still the same small suburban community the people refer as their own piece of Mayberry where they love raising their families, they love the streets they live on, they feel blessed to live here and call it home.”
She said Fanwood is a community made up mostly of single-family homes with well-maintained neighborhoods and parks, safe streets, and a volunteer rescue squad and fire department “that in times of trouble will be there in a blink of an eye.”
The Mayor said Fanwood has over 100 residents that serve on the borough’s volunteer boards and commissions.
She also said the borough’s newly opened library and community center has “so much potential to continue to expand our minds with both the written word and the way we will engage in programs that we believe are culturally, professionally and beneficial to you.”
The Mayor also noted that the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education will hold a scaled back bond referendum question to voters of the two towns on Tuesday, January 28 to improve the district’s learning spaces. She said the first question concerns the acquisition of the former LaGrande School on South Avenue in Fanwood, at a projected cost of $10.5 million, as well $34 million in district-wide upgrades. LaGrande would be used as a pre-kindergarten hub and free up nine classrooms in the elementary schools. She said the district would receive $11.4 million in state aid towards the $34 million in upgrades.
The second question before voters will be a “one-time ask” to fund the operations of the new school at a cost of $1.1 million. She said the first question would cost Fanwood taxpayers $156 per year with the second question costing $94 per taxpayer for a total of $250 per year.
She said “the issue of space and capacity is not going to go away” regardless of the outcome of the referendum, the second time the issue has gone before voters after a referendum was defeated this past September.
