Cheryl Brown: Candidate for Cedar Grove Council

Cheryl Brown is the lone candidate challenging incumbent Councilman E. Romeo Longo for the unexpired two-year seat of former Councilman Patrick DeFrancisci, who resigned last year.

Family: Husband, Kevin; Three children, ages 7, 9 and 11.

Years in Township: 14

Parishoner at: St. Catherine of Siena

Clubs/Service Organizations: Junior Women's Club of Cedar Grove, former president; South End Elementary Schoool and Memorial Middle School FSA committee volunteer; Currently serves as Cedar Grove Recreation Advisory Board member.

Candidate Statement:

I’m Cheryl Brown and I’m running for the Cedar Grove Town Council.

My husband and I moved our family into Cedar Grove fourteen years ago. Cedar Grove’s character and potential stood out from other towns, making our choice that much easier.

My husband and I have been involved in town events and organizations. Now, I have the opportunity to continue helping the town by being part of the Council.

The ongoing well-being of Cedar Grove depends on the Town Council’s work. It’s easy for any of us to debate the town’s issues at our backyard barbecues and in the high school football game bleachers. Stepping up to the responsibility of affecting change is far more difficult.

I applaud our neighbors who’ve made themselves available to all of us in Cedar
Grove as our Council members, helping to steer our town in the right direction.

Why me? Why now? My natural inclination is to help people. That’s how I was raised. Being of service to others is what my husband and I teach our children. In some way, each one of us in town does our part to help others—in our home, in our neighborhood, with a local group, even in large-scale organizations. What we can offer depends on our talents and on the time we can devote. Living in Cedar Grove, I’ve been able to offer my time and talents to several groups and organizations while balancing my time with my family.

I support the work of our schools through Family School Association activities. I serve our community through the Cedar Grove Junior Women’s Club. To help with our active town, I volunteered for the Cedar Grove Recreation Advisory Board. Now, I have the opportunity to take what I see as a natural next step and put my time and talents to use on the Town Council.

I believe in doing what’s right. As a member of the Town Council, I’ll be vigilant about the Council doing what’s right for Cedar Grove. We have a wonderful community with the potential to excel in many ways and give residents of all ages the unquestioned resolve to make Cedar Grove their life-long home. For example, Cedar Grove’s community atmosphere can be attributed to our playgrounds, fields, and community spaces. Maintaining these spaces, improving how we use them, and mapping out additional community spaces will help Cedar Grove preserve the atmosphere that attracted so many of us and keeps us here.

Do I have all the answers to all the town’s questions? No. In fact, I’ll admit to not even knowing what all the questions are. I do, however, know how critical it is to ferret out the most pressing issues and work collaboratively to arrive at solutions that are in the community’s best interest. Having held leadership positions in other groups, I appreciate the importance of focusing a group to coalesce as a true team. Drawing on my career in the sciences, I value the objectivity of asking probing questions, gathering appropriate information, proposing constructive solutions, and putting plans into action.

If elected, I look forward to working closely with the Council and the community to help keep Cedar Grove on a path to excellence.