Vote for
Carr, Saydah, Coughlin
When elected, I will focus on three key priorities that matter most to our community: responsible management of the municipal budget and taxes, advocating for responsible land development, and strengthening public safety. I believe in smart growth that respects neighborhood character, avoids overdevelopment, and ensures that infrastructure and services can keep up with demand. With transparency and accountability, we can create a community that remains safe, livable, and financially stable for everyone.
While the majority of tax revenue is allocated to the school budget, there remains an opportunity to exercise greater fiscal discipline within the municipal budget. Excluding fixed obligations such as salaries, pensions, and benefits, the implementation of a zero-based budgeting approach is necessary. This process should include a thorough review of staffing levels across all departments to ensure that resources are aligned with actual needs. The objective is not to reduce or eliminate services, but to ensure that they are funded responsibly and managed with maximum efficiency.
As respresentatives of the community, I will actively advocate so that the police can enforce the law. I would like to partner with our traffic officer to explore adding bike lanes in Glen Rock, creating safer and more enjoyable ways for families and neighbors to get around town. I also believe that increasing the number of police officers will help us keep our community safe, supported, and connected. Lastly, it is the duty of the community’s representatives to guarantee the people have access to reasonable healthcare resources, and support.
The first step I would take is to create a “Start a Business in Glen Rock” handbook that provides clear guidance on how to open a business in town. This resource would help reduce the time it takes to get started and support prospective owners in ensuring a smooth opening. Strengthening communication and support between the council and business community is also essential. In addition, I would explore cost-saving services for local businesses, such as shared garbage removal. Finally, I believe in building partnerships with our schools to create a mutually beneficial relationship—businesses gain reliable employees while students gain valuable work experience.
My plan for guiding future commercial and residential development in Glen Rock is rooted in balance. We want to maintain the character and charm of our town while also encouraging smart growth that supports residents and local businesses. For commercial development, I believe in supportive pathways for new businesses to open and thrive—while making sure existing businesses feel valued and heard. For residential development, the focus should be on responsible planning that respects our neighborhoods, addresses infrastructure needs, and ensures that any growth enhances the quality of life for our residents. Above all, development in Glen Rock should reflect the values of our community, strengthening the place we are proud to call home.
Vote for
Jonathan Hendl (1D)
My name is Jon Hendl, and I’m running as a Democrat. I’ve lived in Glen Rock for 25 years, raised five children here, and been deeply involved in our schools and community. I was president of Shooting Stars Travel Soccer for 5 years, drove Faber Field’s renovation, removed the Coleman air horn siren, and improved our sidewalk reporting process to have a standardized form with no anonymous reporting. As an executive VP for one of the biggest communications firms in the world, I know how to bring people together and get results. My top priority is making sure every resident’s voice is heard, because real progress comes from listening and taking action. As a former NCAA athlete, I’m relentless about teamwork and perseverance. I believe actions matter more than promises. I'll work to bridge divides, support businesses, families & seniors, and find creative solutions for Glen Rock.
Fiscal responsibility means showing value and efficiencies.
Shared services: Expand collaboration with neighboring towns to share services and monetize unique resources, like vehicles that we have and other towns do not.
Leverage assets: Too many Main Line lot commuter parking spots sit empty each week (65). Let’s convert 20 of the unused resident spots to out-of-towners at $200/mo, bringing in $4,000 monthly for Glen Rock. If more spots go unused, we’ll expand the program. We can also partner with local businesses so commuters can pre-order food for pickup, supporting our economy.
Incentivize departments: Set annual goals for department heads, tying wish-list items to performance. This motivates innovation and better results. Do this in August and then determine if performance was achieved prior to the next budget cycle.
Keeping Glen Rock safe requires officials, staff, and residents, working closely with the GRPD so I'd make sure we have strong two-way communication with the police.
As a walkable town, we should always focus on pedestrian safety by evaluating needs from the perspective of those on foot and via traffic studies.
I’d prioritize rapid flashing beacons at all schools where guards aren't present (like Oxford and Blvd at Byrd),and continue advocating for a crosswalk on Pinelynn west of Coleman, where 75 kids cross daily. In high-speed zones straight aways I support Chief Ackerman’s call for more radar signs to slow traffic on streets like Rutland.
I support adding cameras at Faber to match the protections at Memorial. Separately, I’d use the GRFD air raid sirens for emergencies when voice communication isn’t possible (i.e., active shooter).
Like all the issues we're facing in Glen Rock, the need for better communication sits right in the center of all challenges. We need better, two-way dialogue with businesses so they can express concerns and solve the challenges together. To attract more businesses, we must cut red tape, especially outdated and mandated parking requirements for businesses that limit downtown growth. Businesses should never walk away because it's too hard to do business here. Let's make the Harristown extension more appealing and find at least one business that can generate revenue from people at the adjacent fields. When we move forward with the commuter parking pilot, use some of the revenue to develop a marketing campaign designed by a new committee of local business owners and residents who are professional marketers and communicators.
Smart growth is always key. While Glen Rock has ZERO obligation to add more affordable housing, I’ll stay vigilant to ensure we don’t end up with large apartment or condo complexes on land we don’t have and infrastructure we can’t support. My ideas will be based on data and insights. I will support residents who want to create their forever home in Glen Rock. That means allowing families - not builders - to determine how neighborhoods grow and evolve. I’d revisit policies designed to penalize homeowners or restrict such growth and eliminate policies and ideas that push us towards a home owners association mentality. Finally, I’ll add more rigor and accountability to make sure major or complete knockdowns don't change the integrity of the community or massacre trees that maintain shade, privacy, reduce flooding and beautify our community.
My top priorities are keeping Glen Rock safe, affordable, and vibrant. That means protecting essential services while demanding fiscal responsibility, so residents get top value for every tax dollar. It means putting creative budgetary solutions into place, like sharing services and facilities with neighboring towns to stabilize taxes. It means tackling safety head-on -- supporting our first responders and addressing traffic and pedestrian risks with real solutions, not half-measures. It means championing local businesses by cutting red tape, and working tirelessly to support our existing businesses and attract new businesses that meet our neighbors' needs. And I’ll use every tool at our disposal to ensure development is responsible, maintaining Glen Rock’s character while giving residents a true voice in the process.
I’m Seth Rosenstein, and I’d be honored to earn your vote.
Certain candidates talk about cutting, but I believe Glen Rock can retain strong services without compromising quality. By aggressively pursuing shared services, carefully reviewing costly contracts, and leveraging grants, we can control taxes while keeping essential services fully funded. Unlike others who treat the budget as numbers on a page, I see it as a reflection of our priorities -- public safety, recreation, and quality of life. I will protect those priorities while being a careful steward of your tax dollars.
Residents deserve more than reactive solutions to safety concerns. Safety starts with supporting our police, fire, and other talented first responders with the resources they need. I will continue pushing for improved traffic calming in high-risk areas, safe walking and biking routes for children, and stronger communication between residents and borough officials on emerging concerns. Hate directed against any community cannot be tolerated and I will continue to be vocal in combatting antisemitism and other forms of discrimination that are a scourge on society.
Building community trust and responsiveness ensures residents feel secure both in their homes and throughout our town.
Too often, small businesses in Glen Rock struggle against unnecessary red tape and lack of support. I will continue working to streamline borough approvals, repeal and/or modify problematic ordinances, modernize parking and pedestrian access, and create real opportunities for businesses to succeed. Unlike those who speak about general support, I believe local government must play an active role in promoting our local businesses. By fostering events and partnerships that draw residents downtown, we can help businesses thrive -- keeping our town vibrant and contributing to strong property values.
Development in Glen Rock must respect our town’s character. I support balanced, responsible growth that enhances our downtown and protects residential neighborhoods. That means thoughtful zoning, encouraging redevelopment of underused commercial properties, and ensuring that growth does not exceed what our infrastructure and community can handle.
Resident input will always guide decisions, so growth strengthens our community without sacrificing what makes Glen Rock remarkable.
As a career CPA, the budget process and resulting municipal taxes is a top priority.
Safety is another top priority area. All of our residents need to feel safe in our town and I totally support our police, firefighters, EMT and other first responders in that effort.
Long term planning for the development of Glen Rock is another top priority that is at a critical inflection point today due the increased demand for larger single family homes and the recent affordable housing mandates handed down by NJ legislation.
Glen Rock's budget process needs to be revisited. We need to implement a zero based budget approach to enable a complete understanding of the needs of borough departments.
Departments need to own and be accountable for their budgets. In that regard, following a zero based analysis, I would insist that the department heads present realistic preliminary budgets for discussion. These preliminary budgets would be capped at lower or equal to the prior year spend. This will force tough decisions to be made.
This approach can be implemented without compromising current essential services.
As a CPA, I have substantial experience in this area.
I am totally in favor of allowing the police and first responders to do their job as they are trained to do. They are the experts in safety issues and I would listen to their advice and recommendations so that proper decisions and actions can be made.
Transparency is critical in order to make sure safety issues are addressed in emergency situations. The council needs to make sure all residents are aware of what is happening in real time. Using the advice and recommendations of our first responders, the proper decisions and actions can be expedited.
Local businesses are an extremely important part of the lifeblood of our community. Therefore, our existing businesses as well as prospective ones require support from our council to move forward. It starts with the council's understanding of the type of business and ongoing communications with the businesses to respond to concerns and needs. The council needs to be transparent about issues that concern local businesses. Glen Rock has a Business Commission, comprised of business leaders that has a mandate to address the above but its effectiveness needs to be improved with increased support and direct involvement by the council.
Growth and change is inevitable in Glen Rock and I am totally in favor of encouraging such. However, we need to manage our growth by following our master plan via our zoning and planning boards and following our existing ordinances.
We are challenged by the increased demand for larger single family homes as well as the new affordable housing mandate. I support our master plan that provides that we maintain the historical character of our community, but the above challenges require a willingness of our council to push back in a reasonable way so that our town does not suffer from over development.
I do advocate for strong opposition to our unreasonable affordable housing mandate. I am not against affordable housing in Glen Rock, but the unreasonable size of our mandate will force overdevelopment, threatening infrastructure resources.
