RIVER VALE—Two-term Republican Mayor Glen Jasionowski, a presence on the Township Council dais for a decade as mayor and a councilman, will not be running in November’s General Election.
Council President Mark Bromberg said he will run for mayor.
Bromberg’s Republican team, gathering under a “River Vale Unified” slate, will include incumbent councilwoman Denise Sieg, and newcomer James Tolomeo, Library Board president, and a former Planning Board member and football coach.
“Mayor Glen Jasionowski has decided not to run for reelection so that he can utilize his leadership skills in his next pursuit. Council President Mark Bromberg, who is serving his eighth year as council president, will step up and run for mayor,” said a March 29 press release.
All candidates filing to run in municipal Democratic and Republican primary elections must file with Bergen County by Monday, April 4.
Bromberg said Sieg “has been involved with our very successful [Pascack Valley] Department of Public Works shared service with Montvale.”
“Mark, Denise, and Jim look forward to working together to serve the residents of River Vale with continued stability and professionalism,” said the statement from Bromberg.
We were unable to connect with either Jasionowski or Bromberg by press time.
Jasionowski’s tenure has seen many recent major developments, such as the 249-townhome complex, Fairways at Edgewood, off Piermont Avenue and Rivervale Road, which was approved in 2019 despite opposition and where construction continues.
The development included 24 affordable units, which were built first off of Piermont Avenue.
The development will transform 40-plus acres, or nine former golf holes of Edgewood Country Club, into one of the town’s largest developments, rivaling the nearby Holiday Farm condominium complex.
Now before the Joint Planning Board is Collignon Estates, a 13-townhome, two affordable apartments development planned for a 1.25-acre site at Rivervale Road and Collignon Way.
Also approved was a new $13.3 million, 18,000-square-foot Public Safety Complex, for which a construction management company was recently hired for $378,000, and construction likely to begin by late 2022 or 2023, said officials. The complex is planned for 3.25 acres at the corner of Rivervale Road and Prospect Avenue.
In October, officials estimated an average $185 annual tax bump for 30 years to pay off the bond.
However, officials also noted that as more townhomes come on the tax roll from the 225 market-rate units in the Fairways at Edgewood development, the annual Public Safety Complex tax hit should be reduced.
Throughout 2019, the mayor was also at the center of a contentious, acrimonious debate over a proposed local deer bow hunt —which he initially supported — to reduce the township’s deer overpopulation.
After a half-dozen meetings, much public pushback, meetings with lethal and non-lethal deer management advocates, and sometimes heated, but also civil discussions about deer impacts, the council “paused” its decision to hold a bow hunt, pending reports about ordinances needed, hunt scheduling, and the police chief’s input.
After the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, the proposed deer hunt debate largely faded from public view.
Most council members appeared to believe that taking action was a no-win situation, given the strong, sometimes incendiary rhetoric and social media backlash unleashed by some residents and non-residents opposed to any type of deer hunt.
Lately, only Saddle River in Bergen County was running an annual deer bow hunt to reduce deer numbers.