Corson, Newman, Hayes, Pancoast want township moving forward, but keeping character
UPPER TOWNSHIP – The Upper Township Committee swore in its two newest members and named Curtis Corson the new mayor Friday night.
“It’s quite an honor, to be honest,” Corson said.
Corson has served for more than 20 years on the committee. He has overseen revenue and finance, emergency management, housing and construction code.
He now steps into the role that Richard Palombo filled since 2000.
“It’ll be quite challenging,” he said, “but I’m up to the challenge. It’s going to be good.”
Corson has big shoes to fill, but also an example to follow having worked with Palombo for so many years.
“One of Rich’s strengths was he listened to people,” Corson said. “He heard them out and that’s a good attribute. He would sit down and listen. It’s not always easy when someone is upset or irate, to take it on the chin for a while until they get it out of their system. That’s what you have to do in a leadership role.”
Jay Newman was named deputy mayor after being elected to the committee in the fall.
“It felt good to get back up there again,” Newman said, having previously served on the committee.
The mayor, deputy mayor and other committee members – including newcomer Mark Pancoast and Kim Hayes, who was elected to her first full term after being appointed to the board – spoke with the Sentinel about the group they’ll be working with, what they’ll focus on as they take office, and how they’ll help get COVID-19 under control.
“I think we’re going to work well together,” Corson said. “Like any other group, we’re going to have some learning curves, but we have a great group of professional people and everybody has their niche. Jay Newman and I have the longest history together; we were running mates years ago. But I think we have a very cohesive group and we’re up for the challenge.”
“I’ve worked with Curtis before, he was my running mate when I was on the committee prior,” Newman said, “but we’re all Republicans and we’re all working for the betterment of the township so that should keep everybody in check. We have checks and balances in the system, and we have people with special knowledge of what they’re doing and how to do it.”
“We’re getting along great,” Pancoast said. “I got in there a little earlier than the other new members, and it was good to finally have them on board. I think we’re going to be able to do a lot of things the community asked of us while we were campaigning.”
“We have a good group,” Hayes said. “We’ve said all along our ticket works really well together. We’re just excited. We have three people who really have a passion for where we live, and we’re all doing this because we just want this to continue to be a good place to live. All three of us are public servants in one way or another – I’m in health care, Jay has been a fire chief for 30 years, and Mark is in law enforcement. (He is a lieutenant in the Ocean City Police Department.) So we’ve all dedicated our lives in service to others and this is just the next evolution of that.”
In his final committee meeting in December, Palombo discussed the importance of working through disagreement for the common good.
“Over the years the committee always worked together,” he said. “We may not agree on things, but we agree to get a consensus and we were able to accomplish a lot. As my colleagues move forward I wish them all the luck, and I hope they work together with the same type of partnership.”
“That’s always been my experience and my philosophy in government,” Corson said. “It should be; it should work that way. We’re not all always going to agree. That’s why discussion and debate is always good in government.”
“We have our back-and-forth behind the scenes all the time,” Newman said. “It happened all the time when I was on the committee before. You won’t agree on everything. Somebody sways one way or the other, or someone comes around to another person’s way of thinking. It always worked out in the end, as long as everybody has the best interest of the township in mind. That’s always been the case.”
“The great part about our team is we can respect each other’s ability to agree to disagree,” Hayes said. “We can compromise and come up with a solution. Our goal is not to make ourselves look good, our job is to make the community a great place to live.”
“I’ve only been in there a few weeks,” Pancoast said, “but with this past snowstorm, reaching out to people, one of the concerns is being able to be transparent and get information out to the public. Part of that, which I’m making my goal in charge of technology and communication, is to revamp their website and make it more user-friendly with more detailed information.”
“Mayor Corson has been a tremendous help to me,” Hayes said. “When I first joined the committee he reached out to me and was always there for any question I had. He has a wealth of knowledge about the township. It’s great to have that at your fingertips. Jay is another lifelong resident who has a lot of knowledge. It’s a great team to lead us into the future. They also respect our opinions all the time.”
With a new major project and a not-so-new pandemic surging, the committee has no shortage of issues to keep their hands full as they begin the year.
“The biggest issue right now on the forefront, and for the next couple years, will be the B.L. England plant and that property,” Corson said. “The redevelopment of that is going to be a huge undertaking for the township and it involves a lot of planning and zoning. It will help shape the future of Upper Township.”
“It’s all new,” Pancoast said. “Kim is a nurse so she can help with the pandemic end of it. (John) Coggins, Jay and Curtis as our new mayor, they all have a lot of experience. We’re communicating well and it’s definitely a good group.”
Most residents will like the ratables that come with the new businesses and the new attractions, but many longtime citizens are leery of seeing their hometown change too much.
“It’s a delicate balance with that,” Corson said. “It’s an ironic thing – my grandfather was mayor when the electric company came here. He negotiated the deal to get them the electric company. Now here I am in the middle of the replacement of the electric company. It’s quite an honor.” Atlantic City Electric operated the B.L. England generating plant until it was sold to R.C. Capital, which in December sold the closed plant to a group of investors who plan a marina, hotel, restaurant and shops on the site.
“Mayor Palombo started out with the Beesleys Point project, so obviously that’s something I want to see us work on and bring to fruition,” Pancoast said. “Getting the community more involved has been my goal from the beginning.”
“There’s some big things happening there and we’re excited for that,” Hayes said. “A lot of us know the need for more ratables in the township but we need it to be smart growth. We like where we live, we like that it’s rural. I think that’s a draw for a lot of people, but at the same time we want to move into the future. It’s finding that balance – how do we modernize without losing that way of life we all love?”
Like elected officials all over the country, the committee will try to do its part to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
“The big thing with COVID, on our level, is to keep our employees as safe as possible and to provide the proper guidance that’s handed down from the CDC and the Department of Health,” Corson said. “We have to keep people aware of what’s going on. It’s out there and we’re going to be dealing with it for quite a while. It’s affected every family.”
“I think (what’s needed is) getting together with the people in Trenton and getting some solid guidance,” Newman said. “The guidance is terrible from the federal government on down. People aren’t following the science, it doesn’t make any sense. When things don’t make any sense to me, it’s hard to push it forward. I believe the virus is real, I believe people should get vaxxed, but I don’t believe we should get in other people’s business whether they’re vaxxed or not.
“I don’t believe in mask mandates, I don’t personally think they work,” he added. There’s hundreds of thousands of cases where people were masked and they still got COVID, hundreds of thousands of cases where people were vaxxed and still got COVID. Whenever you mandate something people are going to push back, and I’d rather rely on good health practices like washing hands and getting vaccinated. But I don’t want to rely on all these crazy things. I would never shame anybody for wearing a mask. If that’s what makes you feel good, fine. That’s how I feel but obviously we’ll follow the laws, rules, and regulations as they come.”
“I work in health care, so I’m seeing it firsthand and experiencing it,” Hayes said. “I know what’s coming and how difficult it’s been. We also have to look at risks and benefits in health care. Do the benefits outweigh the risks? You have to figure out the right decision for everyone. We have first responders, people who are used to dealing with situations where you have to think quickly. These are tough decisions but I think we’re ready for any challenge.”
Caring Together topic
SOMERS POINT – A Caring Together, Living Well session online is scheduled for 3 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12 courtesy of Shore Medical Center.
The topic Good Grief: How to Live After Any Loss – Presented by Angelic Health and facilitated by their Bereavement Counselor and Spiritual Care Coordinator Ken Jackson, who will discuss many types of grief, from the death of a loved one to loss of identity, retirement and independence challenges. Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3ehGawN