2023

One year ago, who would have thought these things would occur in Middlesex Borough during the ensuing 12 months…

• A mayoral candidate and his Borough Council running mates unchallenged in a general election.

• The federal government continuing to turn a blind eye to serious erosion that threatens to slide homes into a stream in the wake of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control project.

• A former pet alligator would be loose, putting Middlesex on the map and sparking a fugitive hunt reminiscent of John Dillinger.

These things and more happened in Middlesex in 2023. It was the year of a no-choice municipal election, disinterested feds, and a gator search that turned Victor Crowell Park into Loch Ness for several weeks.

During the 2015 and 2019 Middlesex mayoral elections combined, more than 5,400 votes were recorded as Democratic and Republican candidates squared off for the borough’s highest elected office.

In 2023, Republican Jack Mikolajczyk had no opposition for mayor as Democrats fielded no candidates for that office or two Borough Council seats. Mikolajczyk, a three-term councilman and former Board of Education president, received 1,721 votes running unopposed.

Joining Mikolajczyk on the uncontested Republican ticket, were Councilman Michael Conahan and council candidate Kevin Dotey. A former Democratic councilman under Mayor Ron DiMura,. Dotey made a comeback with the GOP after four years off the governing body. The three winning GOP candidates will be sworn-in on Jan. 2.

Erosion continued to threaten several Heather Lane and Holly Court residences adjacent to a stream on the Green Brook border. Fearing the homes would eventually fall into the stream, borough officials attempted to intercede on the homeowners’ behalf with state and federal officials. But their efforts, as of year’s end, were to no avail.

The borough’s Department of Public Works was preparing to try a temporary fix in January 2024 using Belgian blocks along a portion of the stream bank. Meanwhile, borough officials said they’d seek a state Resilient Communities Program grant to pay for a long-term solution.

The story that truly put Middlesex on the map in 2023 were the adventures of an alligator that found its way to Victor Crowell Park’s Creighton Lake in August. The reptile’s origin was never determined, but it was assumed to be a pet that was no longer wanted. It was discovered after being spotted by a landscaper who was working near the lake.

For roughly two weeks, police, DPW and wildlife officials looked for the gator to no avail. Fearing injury to human or a pet, police closed down public access to the park.

On Sept. 7, the bizarre episode that had sent numerous television news crews to Middlesex came to an end. Police in Piscataway captured the gator while it was taking a nighttime stroll through a neighborhood near Possumtown Park. The reptile apparently traveled to the neighboring town through a stream.

Upon its capture, the alligator was quarantined at the Cape May Zoo and then sent in October to Croc Encounters, a reptile park and gator farm in Tampa, Fla. There, it will presumably live out the rest of its days with fond memories of Middlesex.

More that occurred in 2023:

• Michael LaPlace was hired as Middlesex’s borough administrator in January, succeeding Marcia Karrow who stepped down in 2022. The position was filled on a termporary basis by Joe Costa after Karrow’s departure.

• The municipality took ownership of the former Middlesex Sampling Plant property on Mountain Avenue from the federal government in October. The transaction was marked with a ceremony in Middlesex attended by borough and federal officials.

• Work continued in Middlesex on the Green Brook Flood Management Project. But dozens of residents turned out to express frustration at the slow pace of the project during an August meeting at the pavilion behind the library. The session was convened by the Green Brook Flood Control Commission.

• While the mayor and council elections were uncontested, Amelia Sherr, Amanda Bayachek and Todd Nicolay were the November winners of three-year Board of Education seats in a contest with six candidates. The defeated candidates included long-time school board member Sharon Schueler. The winners are scheduled to be sworn-in on Wednesday, Jan. 3.

• The Board of Education quietly agreed to a $200,000 settlement of a racial bias suit first filed in March 2022 by one student and her family and later joined by a second student. The lawsuit claimed the plaintiffs had been subjected to racial slurs by other students and that district officials displayed a “deliberate indifference to student-on-student racial harassment.” TransparencyNJ.com, a blog that reported the settlement, noted that the deal was not an admission of guilt by the board, and that public entities often conclude it’s less costly to settle than contest litigation

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