Peace is achieved

Months of conflict over Middlesex Borough’s Cultural & Heritage Committee ended – at least temporarily – with a would-be compromise instead of a knockdown drag-out fight.

The Borough Council tabled an ordinance on Tuesday, March 12 that would have dissolved the C&H group and split its duties between the library’s Board of Trustees and the Recreation Department.

Instead, the borough attorney will craft a new ordinance that will come before the governing body at a future meeting. That measure will establish a Cultural & Fine Arts Committee that will coordinate its projects with the Recreation Department.

That compromise allows the council to avoid a brewing problem. Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk had proposed the dissolution after interviewing former members and concluding the C&H Committee was splintered over interest in either cultural or historical projects. The mayor called for cultural projects to instead be overseen by the Recreation Department and historical matters by the library board.

Current committee members, however, had threatened that their days as community volunteers were over if the existing group was terminated.

Now, the group will continue on with a different name and work solely on cultural projects. Historical activities will be handled by the library board.

For the second meeting in a row, C&H Committee Chairman Mark Kranz spoke against the intended dissolution. He questioned the move and why current members were not interviewed by the mayor. Mikolajczyk interviewed seven former C&H members weeks ago.

“There’s a lot of things in the hopper, that we want to do, that won’t get done,” Kranz told Mikolajczyk, saying that about a half-dozen current members would not continue volunteering if the group’s duties were reassigned.

Kranz questioned if events such as Open Mic Night would continue if cultural activities came under the direct purview of the Rec Department. He noted that the rec group’s primary responsibilities are matters involving sports and parks.

For the early part of the meeting, the mayor continued to endorse his suggested dissolution.

“I still believe the split is appropriate,” Mikolajczyk said at one point. He later added, “We’re not trying to kill these events, we’re trying to push them along.”

But later, Councilman Martin Quinn asked Kranz if current C&H members could coordinate their future cultural events with recreation.

Councilman Robert Dessino noted the sentiments of C&H members regarding a dissolution of their group. “I’d just hate to lose volunteers,” he said.

The governing body then agreed to table the ordinance that was scheduled for a vote and bring forward a revised version in the future. The cultural committee will apparently continue on, but its number of members is still to be determined. Its name will also be changed slightly, dropping the word “heritage” while adding “fine arts.”

Scrutiny of the C&H Committee began last fall after the council accepted five resignations from the group over a two-month period. The council awaited an explanation from Councilman Jeremiah Carnes, who has been liaison to the committee since its 2020 formation.

Carnes missed a series of meetings during that time, in part due to illness with Covid. With no explanation coming from Carnes, Mikolajczyk began looking into the matter in January.

Carnes and Kranz have said that some who resigned had a personal conflict with the liaison.

Among the committee members who’d resigned, Kranz said some were not active. Three others never approached him about any issues, he added. Kranz said the trio never spoke to him face-to-face with any concerns but sent a letter to the mayor.

“I’m sorry but I have no respect for anybody who does that,” Kranz said.

Carnes continue to suggest that differences some have with him – rather than problems with C&H Committee activities – helped fuel the move to dissolve the group.

“I do strongly believe, if my name wasn’t a part of this, it wouldn’t be happening,” Carnes said.

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