Politics & Government
Planning Board Elects New Chair for 2010
Peter Winter, Planning Board member since 2005, will take over for Kenneth White, who voluntarily resigned from his post due to work conflicts at the end of 2009.
The Bernards Township Planning Board has a new presiding member for the first time in two years with the election of Peter Winter, Planning Board member since 2005, as chairman of the board for 2010.
Winter becomes just the third chairman in the last seven years, replacing 2009 chair Kenneth White, who voluntarily stepped down from the board at the end the year, and current Mayor Scott Spitzer, who chaired the Planning Board from 2003 to 2007.
"I hope to run this board as efficiently and effectively as Ken White and Scott Spitzer have in the past," Winter said after being elected at the Planning Board reorganization meeting on Tuesday night.
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The new chair has served the township since 1998, when he joined, and stayed on Quarry Task Force until his move to the Environmental Commission in 2004 and eventually the Planning Board the following year. Winter also served as vice-chair of the Board under White for the past two years.
Replacing Winter as vice-chair will be Planning Board Member Karen Del Vento.
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The board also welcomed two new members as alternates, Gwenn Gilmore and Carol Bianchi, both of whom have spent time serving on the Environmental Commission and Zoning Board of Adjustments.
Deputy Mayor John Malay, a former Planning Board member from 2001-2003 and in 2006, replaces former mayor Carolyn Kelly as the second Township Committee voting member on the board with Mayor Scott Spitzer.
The beginning of 2010 will be an important time for the Planning Board as they finalize the most recent draft of the Bernards Township Master Plan.
The last complete revision of the Master Plan took place in 2003, with additional updates added each subsequent year, but 2009 was the first time substantive, comprehensive revisions were made to the plan since the former date.
The board is currently finalizing the newest draft of the Master Plan, and considering adding an additional "Green" element to the plan.
Public hearings are expected by the beginning of March on the Master Plan revisions.
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