Last week, you probably saw stories about Vito Perillo, who was recently reelected as mayor of Tinton Falls, New Jersey. He racked up 2,209 votes in Tuesday’s election, easing past runner-up Ellen Goldberg, a retired schoolteacher who has 1,898 votes.
Vito is retired, as well. In fact, he's been retired since 1980. The man is 97 years of age! He served in World War II in the Navy and worked 38 years as an electrical engineer for the Department of Defense.
He said thanks to his town this way on Facebook: “I stopped to think about why people might vote for me. Maybe it’s because I’m a WWII veteran, or an ‘old guy’ (hopefully not), or maybe it’s because you read my flyer highlighting our accomplishments over the last 4 years. My hope, however, is that it’s because you see that I care about our town and the people who live in it above anything else.”
What I like about this is, Tinton Falls (40 miles south of Newark) runs non-partisan mayoralty elections. I have no idea if His Honor is a Rep or Dem or a Whig. He only got off his sofa to run for office the first time four years ago because he didn't like the road he saw his town going down. He didn't like his property taxes, the way the town was spending those tax dollars, and scandals in the police department.
“I felt drastic improvements could be made to our great town,” Perillo said. So he wore out two pairs of shoes, taking his campaign to the streets, and won the election. In the town of 18,000, he probably shook every hand in town along the way.
In that first term, he cut property taxes and re-did the contract with the police. He got more than 10.6 miles of sidewalks and roads paved, got a new traffic light put up at a dangerous intersection, and had a new park built “where residents are enjoying pickle ball and family time.”
And he keeps the town ticking like a clock: “In the four years I’ve been here, we haven’t missed one garbage pickup.”
The mayor is a widower, still close to his two daughters and grandchildren, who live close by.
He still plays golf and works out at the Y often, still puts on a suit and drives himself to work every day.
But my favorite thing about the man is, he doesn't make a deal of his age. When the term for which he was just reelected is up, he will be 101, but he didn't ask for votes because he's 97. He saw a need to get his hometown back on a good course and he's doing it, and that's what I think matters.
Maybe I'll go up there and have him teach me to play pickleball.
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