Dennis Riley and Rich Van Noord are mayor and deputy mayor, with Marc Jones and Diane Blair now board president and vice president.
With the holidays over and 2017 underway, Mt. Laurel adults and their kids have returned to their regular schedules at work and school.
Also returning are the members of the Township Council and Board of Education, who each held their annual reorganization meetings on Jan. 3.
On the municipal side of Mt. Laurel, newly re-elected council members Linda Bobo and Irwin Edelson were sworn-in for their new terms, along with newly elected council member Kurt Folcher.
Council also used the organization meeting to select Dennis Riley as the new mayor and Rich Van Noord as the new deputy mayor for 2017.
In a joint statement to The Sun, Riley and Van Noord said as mayor and deputy mayor, they were committed to keeping Mt. Laurel a great place to “live, work, raise a family and start a business.”
“We have good people working for our township, and their main concern is providing the best service possible to the residents,” Riley and Van Noord said.
Riley and Van Noord said they ran together in 2014 on a platform of doing more with less, and they were proud that, together with previous council members, the township budget only increased 1.6 percent from 2010 through 2016.
“Given the fact normal inflation during that time was more than 10 percent overall makes it even more remarkable,” Riley and Van Noord said.
Looking forward to challenges ahead, Riley and Van Noord said the township will develop long-term plans to deal with aging infrastructure and continue to look for efficiencies to free more dollars for tax relief and public safety.
While Riley and Van Noord were assuming their new roles for the township, down the street at the school district administration building, the BOE also selected its new president and vice president.
At its reorganization meeting, the BOE chose board member Marc Jones as president, with board member Diane Blair as vice president.
Jones said he was honored by the confidence his fellow board members had showed in him by selecting him as their next president, and he looks forward to working with Superintendent George Rafferty to ensure 2017 is another successful year for the district.
“I think it’s a great school district and a great community, and I look forward to keeping it that way and making it better,” Jones said.
For her part, Blair said she looks forward to helping serve Jones and the board.
“We have really great administrators, staff and parent support here in Mt. Laurel, and I’m really glad to be associated with it,” Blair said.
During the meeting, Jones was also sworn-in for his new terms along with other newly re-elected board members Kenneth Scott Jones, Michael Gallagher and Leigh Ann Erlanger.
Council’s next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. The BOE’s next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.
