One of the first things Dennis Elwell did as the town’s new mayor was change the color of his office. While it may seem like a trivial issue, he said it could be symbolic of what his administration wants to do. “I wanted to brighten things up around here and make Town Hall look cheerier,” Elwell said, sitting behind his huge wooden desk, one that had been moved to the opposite side of the room in order to accommodate a work table that’s due for delivery in the next few weeks. “Brightening things up” in this context means paint, wall paper and new lighting fixtures, not only in Elwell’s office, but also in other parts of the building that upon brief inspection looked a little drab. In many ways, some of the small changes in Town Hall have been long over due, changes such as assigning an office to the head of finance or moving the town attorney’s office nearer to the legal library. “I want to create a fresh environment,” Elwell said. “From what I’ve felt in the building, it seems to have worked. People working here seem happier.” While before Elwell took over, the rumor mills carried tales of impending layoffs upon Elwell’s taking office, the new mayor said last week that he hopes no one will leave. “I’m not talking about professional service contracts,” he said. “Those people come and go at the will of the administration. I’m talking about workers in Town Hall, the people who do their jobs day in and day out. Those are the people I want to keep. This is a new day. It can be a very exciting time.” Old-time Secaucus People who know Elwell say he brings an unusual vision of success to Town Hall. More than money or even election victories, Elwell seems motivated by the idea of a “job well done.” “Dennis is an interesting case,” said long-time opponent Michael Harper. “He is different from the previous mayor partly because he listens to you. If you have an idea, he’ll sit down, take it in, and if he likes it, he’ll make it happen.” When talking, Elwell uses words like trust, family and responsibility a lot, often stressing the sacrifices people have made in his life to preserve what they have built. In the past, Elwell has talked about how his father, Howie, had to go off to Africa to work in 1940 in order to save the family land and how four brothers somehow worked through the details of their lives to run a business together for more than 25 years. In fact, the Elwell family is old-time Secaucus. The new mayor was born and raised here. So was his father. The Elwells came to Secaucus in 1898, two years before Secaucus won its independence from North Bergen. Dennis Elwell went to local schools and then worked for a local asphalt company while his father ran a small trucking firm. After serving in the Army, Elwell took a job with his father’s firm and has been there ever since. Over the last year, Elwell’s appearance has been altered from a blue jeans-and-work shirt man to one who wears a suit and tie even when not attending a council meeting. His voice reverberates with confidence that helped him become a nearly invincible political force in the 2nd Ward over the last decade. Yet Elwell cannot escape his blue-collar roots. He reflects many of the same values and opinions as the people who vote for him. Over the years, he has said again and again that he is always learning about how government works and decisions are made, and after listening to everything, he makes up his mind. “If I’m going to have a legacy as a mayor in this town, it will be that I’ve always spoken my mind,” he said. “What I say may not always be popular, but it is what I think.” One of the most significant changes Elwell brings to the mayor’s office is the fact that he will not be a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. mayor. For almost 40 years, the man who sat behind the mayor’s desk in Town Hall had been retired. Mayor Anthony Just served for the past eight years, and before that, Mayor Paul Amico served for 28. For Elwell, the owner of a trucking firm, things will be a little different. “I’m going to have to work out a schedule that will accommodate my business and my duties as mayor,” said Elwell. Critical issues Elwell said his administration will face some critical issues in the first year such as building a library, fixing roads and establishing a trust with town’s business base, something he said has been lacking in Town Hall for quite some time. “The biggest asset we have is our commercial ratables,” Elwell said. “No one else in this county has what we have here, and it’s growing.” Among many ideas he has for the future, Elwell would like to set up a cultural affairs committee to look into a variety of items, like a possible auditorium for the local theater group or concerts in the parks. “I’ve heard people talking about doing book readings and poetry readings, and I think that these are things that could go on in this community if provided a space,” he said. Elwell said he is looking at the community and establishing a wish list, then will look around to see where money might be available. “After having been in so many people’s homes, I have some idea about the things they want,” he said, noting strong support for a theater, real recreation center, new library, expansion of elementary schools, repair of Meadowlands Parkway and clean-up of contamination from around the former Keystone Metal Finishers plant. Elwell said he intends to maintain many of the good things established under previous administrations, such as the planting of flowers and the running of recreation programs “I believe in many of the things Mayor Just did,” Elwell said. “One of the important differences will be in the speed with which this administration is going to move, and how far we reach out into Trenton and Washington to get the money we need to get what we want.”
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
