Township Council's Veterans Agree With Selection of Byrnes to Lead

Only two of the seven Township Council members who were up on the dais all last year were still there at the New Year's Day organization meeting.

Judy Noonan and Fran Siddons are now the senior members on the Township Council, which has had five new members sworn in since Jan. 1.

So some residents at the Jan. 17 council meeting seemed surprised when just minutes after Berkeley Board of Education president .

But Noonan and Siddons, who are both serving their first terms, voted for Byrnes and say they have no problems with him serving as council president, even though he has never served on the council before.

"No, not at all," Noonan said today "He has a lot of experience. He's very informative. He has experience with meetings."

"Fran and I discussed it," Noonan said. "We felt he was very competent. We are team players."

Also sworn in at the Jan. 17 meeting was Kevin M. Askew. He replaces Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. for the Ward 2 council seat.

Both men will have to run in the June primary and the general election in November if they want to retain their seats past 2012, said Township Clerk Beverley M. Carle.

Councilmen John Bacchione, Thomas Grosse and Robert G. Ray were sworn in on New's Year's Day. Bacchione and Grosse were both members of the Berkeley Board of Education. Ray was a longtime Central Regional school board member.