November 13, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 3 Glen Rock Republican candidates win by two percent margin by John Koster The Glen Rock Republicans kept their hold on the borough council, but it was a white-knuckle election for incumbents Mike O’Hagan and Mary Jane Surrago due to the challenge from Democratic candidates Sean Brennan and Amy Martin. The Republicans left the vote-counting party at the Glen Rock Annex with results from the polling places that showed three-term incumbent O’Hagan and two-term incumbent Surrago retaining their seats by a margin so narrow that a groundswell in the absentee ballots could have altered the outcome. The next morning, the absentee ballots showed that the pattern established at Glen Rock’s eight polling places was sustained: Martin and Brennan had failed to unseat the Republican incumbents, but the margin was just over two percent. The count at the Glen Rock clerk’s office showed that Surrago, the top vote getter, won with 2,047 votes and O’Hagan, her running-mate, won with 2,029 votes. Martin received 2,012 votes and Brennan received 1,993. Brennan, who has lived in Glen Rock for 13 years and has two children, and Martin, an actress/director who is active in the Coleman School Home and School Asso- Candidates win unchallenged election The three uncontested Glen Rock Board of Education candidates won the endorsement of the borough’s voters on Nov. 5. Sheldon Hirschberg, the present school board president, was the top vote-getter with 888 votes. Carlo Cella III received 807 votes, and Sanjiv Ohri received 775 votes. The three candidates and the other board members were widely praised for bringing in a school budget with a zero-percent increase earlier this year. J. KOSTER ciation, did not file in time to appear on the ballot, but announced their write-in candidacy in May. The Democrats were endorsed in the June primary and given places on the November ballot, but the margin in June showed that the Republicans had a three-to-one edge. O’Hagan and Surrago said the most important thing that happened all day was not their own re-election, but the fact that the Hamilton School had been safely evacu- ated after a terroristic telephone threat about 1:30 p.m. on Election Day. The Republicans pledged to continue a policy of advanced planning and fiscal thrift. The first results that came in just after 8 p.m. showed that Surrago and O’Hagan had a very narrow lead in District 7, the Coleman School zone near the Fair Lawn border where lawn signs for Brennan and Martin prolifer- ated. O’Hagan had a lead of 1 vote in District 7. The two (continued on page 15)