Tumultuous 2 Years In Maplewood: Outgoing Mayor Gives Thoughts

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — During the last two years, Maplewood lost more than two dozen residents

and even a local doctor to COVID, lost a resident in the flood of Hurricane Ida, and lost a local high school student who was shot to death at the school athletic complex.

It was a tumultuous time to lead a town, and probably not what outgoing Mayor Frank McGehee expected when he took the helm in January 2020.

But there were highlights, too: arts festivals, achievements, more money for main street, and new residents who wanted to make the town their home.

In Maplewood's form of government, the public elects five Township Committee members for staggered terms. Each year, at a reorganization meeting, the commissioners choose a mayor and deputy mayor from among themselves. Dean Dafis had been serving as deputy mayor under McGehee, and became mayor this past Saturday. READ MORE: Dafis Becomes Maplewood's First LGBTQ Mayor

McGehee will continue to serve on the committee for one more year.

McGehee Looks Back

At the last committee meeting of December 2021, McGehee reviewed the last two years, saying he gains strength from his daughter. He touched on hate crimes against different groups, and also ways the community helped each other.

Here are McGehee's remarks:

It has been an absolute honor for me and my family - Marie and Madison - to serve and lead our town as your Mayor sice January 2020, with dignity, thoughtfulness and love.

In the last two years, we have experienced so much - together. We worked everyday to fight against the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic to keep our residents informed and safe - from providing daily updates on cases and deaths to communicating information on how best to protect each other and managing the vaccination rollout.

We tackled the task of helping deserving families in the community receive access to essentials throughout the pandemic while providing our first responders with necessary PPE so that they could continue to serve. We also assisted our small business community with exploring or linking to financial opportunities to assist them during the pandemic.

We came together after the murder of George Floyd and worked with our youth to reaffirm that Black Lives Matter here in Maplewood both in our words and actions. And frankly, we still have work to do.

We embraced the opportunity to recognize the importance of Juneteenth in our community and before it was a national holiday, we celebrated this true day of independence.

We continued to change the culture of our Police Department top down stemming from the events of July 5, 2016 which was the year that I first ran for office.

We stood up to anti-Asian hate and mourned the loss of Asian life.

We also reiterated that antisemitism is not welcome in Maplewood.

We assisted our residents and small businesses with recovery efforts as a result of the devastation in the aftermath of tropical storm Ida and continue to apply pressure in Trenton to address infrastructure.

In addition to the community members who we lost as a result of COVID19, we were shocked and saddened by the tragic losses of our beloved community members including Moussa Fofana, Kadeem Buckham, and Danny Ives among others. May they continue to rest in peace and may we all continue to show our love and support to their families in the years to come.

On the municipal front, the last two years have only enhanced our relationships with our county and state level officials in Newark and Trenton. In addition, our ongoing collaboration with mayors across Essex County including Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Union, Millburn, Livingston and South Orange is strong.

We endured a contentious presidential election in 2020 which would have had direct implications on our community if the outcome had gone the other way. We rallied within and throughout New Jersey as well as in accompanying states to ensure Maplewood’s voice was heard and that our values were reflected resoundingly.

Our township operations went through significant changes including the search and hiring of a new business administrator, which is critical to how we manage our day to day operations.

We addressed several difficult situations from reimagining our Maplewood pool staff to engaging with our school district and teachers union in partnership with South Orange Village President, Sheena Collum, to find a way to get our children, teachers and staff back in school safely after over a year of virtual school as a result of the pandemic.

It has been a privilege to work with such an amazing Township team - from our Township Clerk, Liz Fritzen; our Health Officer Candice Davenport (thank you Candice!); Township Attorney, Roger Desiderio; to our department heads in Engineering, Public Works, Code Enforcement, the Library, Finance, Fire, Police, Recreation and their teams. I can’t thank them all enough for their tireless commitment to our town.

Many in our community might not be aware of the amazing behind the scenes efforts led by our Township staff to keep our town running smoothly every single day. As a result, since becoming Mayor I started our employee of the month /employee spotlight to recognize these amazing individuals publicly.

It has also been my honor to publicly recognize so many of our residents for your tireless efforts to better our community whether (former Maplewood Mayor) Ellen Davenport or Maplewood resident/music teacher Jake Ezzo to the extraordinary Christina Swarns. It’s also been wonderful to appoint and work with many of our residents on a wide range of committees from the Maplewood Planning Board to the Green Team.

And I couldn’t have done any of this without the love and support
of my family. Marie has been and continues to be a champion for small businesses throughout our community. As a member of the Board of Trustees for Family Connections New Jersey, She has raised money and advocated for their social services including mental
health resources. Also, Marie’s own personal story about how she prioritized her self care so that she can continue to serve others in so many capacities is such an amazing inspiration to so many across our community and beyond.

Madison inspires me with her tenacity. Being a teenager is hard, particularly at this time in our history. But she continues to navigate the ups and downs with courage, grace, wit and humility. She has also forged her own path in service by being involved with the issues that she cares about such as food insecurity in Essex County.

Some of my favorite moments at Town Hall have been when Madison would visit me on her walk home from school and stuck around to hang out with the Township staff.

Serving on our Township Committee is about service, sacrifice and dedication. No matter if you’re Black or White, LGBTQ, a man, a woman or non-binary individual, it is first and foremost about doing the work, and notably the hard work, of the people who elected us to serve each and every day.

Regardless of who leads our amazing community in 2022 as Mayor, I will continue to collaborate with my colleagues on the Township Committee, the residents of Maplewood, and elected officials in Essex county, Tenton, and Washington to finish the work. Our master plan. Our fire merger. New development and businesses in underrepresented areas. Our athletic fields and Our Schools.

As I have stated, it’s about the work - service, sacrifice and dedication. And with that, tonight I will be supporting the nomination to appoint Dean as our next Mayor.

Again from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of my family, thank you, it has been an honor.

Mayor Frank

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This article originally appeared on the Maplewood Patch