Sunday, January 8, 2006
By JAN BARRY
STAFF WRITER
RINGWOOD - For years, Republican borough officials derided Joanne Atlas as a radical and an impractical environmentalist.
On Saturday, three Republican council members helped elect Atlas mayor.
And in a political move that upset her three Democratic council colleagues, Atlas joined the GOP trio in a 4-3 vote to elect Republican Councilman William Marsala as deputy mayor.
"I accept this role as a great honor," Atlas said in a statement, "and hope to help lead Ringwood toward a sustainable future for our children, for our elders and for future generations."
Atlas, 65, was active for years as a leader of Skylands CLEAN, a local environmental group. An indication of her bipartisan leanings is that her husband, Mitchell Kahn, is a Republican.
In his remarks, Marsala, who led a GOP sweep of three seats in winning a second council term in November, said, "I think it would send a good message that we could work together as a team."
Atlas was also lauded by municipal Republican leader Scott Heck, who retired from the council after 12 years in December.
"I felt we were at the opposite ends of the spectrum," Heck said of sitting on the council with Atlas, who was elected in 2003. But then he came to realize, Heck said, that they are both committed to working for the betterment of Ringwood.
Atlas' rise from environmental activist to mayor was just one of the historic shifts that occurred on the Highlands community's governing body at Saturday's reorganization.
Outgoing Mayor Wenke Taule, the first woman to hold the post, noted in her farewell address that for the first time the seven-member council has a majority of women. The new majority includes Atlas, Taule and newly elected Republicans Donna Anderson and Linda Schaefer.
"Ringwood has come a long way in a short time," said Taule, who in 2002 was the third woman ever elected to Ringwood's council. She became mayor in 2004 after Democrats won a council majority the previous November.
Taule made it clear, however, that the new female majority did not agree on who should head the council. Taule opposed Atlas' bid for a year term as mayor and led an unsuccessful drive to seat her deputy mayor, Bill O'Hearn, as mayor.
Atlas outmaneuvered Taule, O'Hearn and fellow Democrat Tom Mac Allen by enlisting Republican support.
Atlas sought to smooth ruffled political feathers in her mayoral address. She listed several themes she intends to promote that likely would appeal to both parties. They include:
• Forming a task force to look at building a senior citizens center.
• Creating a cultural arts council and a tourism commission.
• Boosting shopping and promoting growth within existing shopping centers.
• Lobbying for a water user tax to help supplement the tax base for Ringwood and other towns in the state-designated preservation area of the Highlands.
• Working together to defend Ringwood from legal action by the federal Environmental Protection Agency that seeks municipal funding of a portion of Ford Motor Co.'s cleanup of toxic paint waste in Upper Ringwood.
E-mail: barry@northjersey.com