By Anthony J. Machcinski
A beautiful spring day greeted a small crowd who witnessed the dawn of a new era. At noon of May 31, Mayor Richard DiLascio offi cially resigned from his position as the Mayor of Lyndhurst, giving way to now-Mayor Robert Giangeruso to take the office.
“The timing is perfect,” DiLascio said. DiLascio vacated his position as Mayor in order to dedicate more time to his law practice but will still serve as a commissioner for the township.
Giangeruso became Mayor after a unanimous vote by the commissioners. In the 2009 election Giangeruso was the leading vote-getter among candidates, making him the most likely option for Mayor.
“It was a great feeling knowing that the people that you grew up with and have lived with want to support you,” Giangeruso said. “It’s an honor to be called Mayor.”
Giangeruso got his start in politics while he was a Lyndhurst Police Officer when former Mayor Peter Russo took him under his wing and became his mentor. As Russo became Mayor and eventually an assemblyman, Giangeruso was taken along for the ride, going to several political events with Russo and getting his feet wet in the political scene.
“It’s an honor to be called mayor, sitting in the seat of my mentors – Russo, (Anthony) Scardino, (Bill) Gallagher – people I looked up to as a kid,” Giangeruso explained.
Giangeruso comes to power at a critical time for the township, as it was announced on May 31 that the town would start to see some of the money from the financial albatross known as EnCap returned to the township.
If the past is any example of the transition of power, according to Assemblyman Gary Schaer, there will be no issues.
“I can think of no town that runs as smoothly as Lyndhurst,” Schaer said at the meeting.
As the dawn rises on the Giangeruso regime, the newly- named Mayor is already hard at work.
“My bigger plan is to get the roads all resurfaced, get the sidewalks fixed, and try to dress up the town and infrastructure,” Giangeruso said.
Nearly 46 years after he graduated from Lyndhurst High School and 13 years since he retired as Deputy Police Chief of Lyndhurst, the boy who grew up on Riverside Ave. has finally taken his seat on Valley Brook Ave.
