Upper Saddle River November 14, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 3 Upper Saddle River’s registered voters endorsed their incumbent council members, Vincent Durante and Dr. Joanne Florio, but declined to extend the borough’s Open Space Trust Fund. The open space question was defeated 1,002 to 864. “Open space was defeated in 2011 and 2012. Many supporters blame the late sample ballots and not being able to find the question when voting,” Upper Saddle River Mayor Joanne Minichetti told Villadom TIMES the day after the election. “I would agree that the sample ballots were mailed by the county late due to the storm (Hurricane Sandy), but we did receive over 1,800 votes on open space in total. “That’s more than enough to fairly state that the residents do not support it. I again emphasize that we wanted to preserve the last piece of open land in the center of our town and improve drainage at Lions Park and enhance our recreational facilities based on many residents requesting these things. But the negative vote two years in a row emphatically tells us that these issues are not vital to our residents and consequently we will not explore these projects further or spend money on them. We have received their directive. Voters endorse incumbents, defeat open space question “We do have money in the fund which will continue to be used for maintenance, repairs, and all necessary work on the parks and fields, both borough and board of education owned. We will continue to seek county grants for projects that are completely necessary, but not for those projects that would be considered upgrades or large improvements.” Residents were asked to reaffirm their support for the borough’s Open Space Trust Fund, as public support for this fund must be renewed every five years. Mayor Minichetti previously noted that the borough had an Open Space Trust Fund that was overwhelmingly approved by voters two previous times. In November of 2011, the item was on the ballot, but was voted down. The fund covered both the purchase of properties for open space and recreation maintenance and improvements. Open space funding is used for maintenance and improvement of the borough’s recreational facilities. The two Republican council members fared better with the voters, who cast 2,312 ballots for Durante and 2,995 ballots for Florio. Durante is employed by Interchem Corp/World Gen in Paramus as senior vice president/secretary-treasurer. He is also a member of the board of directors of Steri-Pharma, LLC in Syracuse, New York. He was appointed to the USR Council in May 2009 and elected to office in November of that year. He is the council’s recreation liaison and public safety liaison. Durante is past chairman and current member of the Finance Committee. He is a past president of the Upper Saddle River Republican Club and has served as vice president of the Upper Saddle River Board of Health. He has also served as a commissioner for the Northwest Bergen Regional Health Commission. Durante has coached basketball for the Upper Saddle River Recreation Commission. He is also a former member and past chief of the Carlstadt Fire Department. Dr. Florio, a lifetime borough resident, has been a practicing chiropractor and nutritionist since 1988. Dr. Florio has served as a member of the local board of health and as president of Saddle River Valley Junior Woman’s Club. She earned her Doctor of Chiropractic degree at New York Chiropractic College and holds a master’s degree (continued on page 8)