Lauren Barnett, Mayor of the Borough, gave this address at the January 2025 Council Reorganization Meeting

Happy New Year, Mountain Lakes! It’s wonderful to be here together for our annual reorganization meeting in our new Borough Hall. Reverend Muller, thank you for your Invocation. That was a wonderful way to start our meeting and our work together on behalf of the Borough in the year ahead.

I am so pleased to be serving with my fellow Council Members Chris Cannon, Josh Howley, Tom Menard, Melissa Muilenburg, Khizar Sheikh, and Angela Tsai. Angela is sorry not to be here tonight and we look forward to her swearing in at our next meeting.

I want to recognize some of the distinguished visitors we have here tonight.  I see Chris Williams from Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill’s office, Sheriff James Gannon, Police Chief Shawn Bennett, Fire Chief Matt DeSantis, Deputy Chief and Administrative Officer Joe Mullaney, and former Chief Steve Castellucci. Thank you all for being here.

And thank you to all of you – friends, family, neighbors – for being here tonight. Our annual Reorganization meeting is when we re-start our local government each year and get ready to serve the residents of the great Borough of Mountain Lakes. It’s an honor for us to serve our community, and we are grateful for the trust you have placed in us.

Looking back for a moment, 2024 was a big year for Mountain Lakes:

We celebrated the 100^th anniversary of our incorporation as a Borough. We opened our beautiful new Borough Hall and Public Safety Facilities to the public. We achieved an upgrade to a AAA Bond rating; just 8% of New Jersey municipalities have this rating. We secured close to $1M in State and County grants, including over half a million dollars for a historic renovation of the exterior of our Train Station property. We completed construction of the Sunset Dam project. We completed significant road and sidewalk improvements and the first phase of grant-funded upgrades to our Boulevard Trolley Path. We supported a robust array of traditional and new community events. We achieved renewed Silver Certification from Sustainable Jersey, a multi-year effort involving many sustainability initiatives. We partnered with the Mountain Lakes School District on two new School Resource Officer positions, and we celebrated the grand opening of the Veterans Housing project and the Wawa on Rt. 46.

All of this good work would not have been possible without the efforts of our Borough Manager Mitchell Stern and his administrative, finance and recreation teams, our Public Works Department, our Mountain Lakes Police Department, our Mountain Lakes Volunteer Fire Department, our Borough professionals, our partners at the federal, state, and county levels, our partners from neighboring towns and our own community organizations and institutions, including the Mountain Lakes School District, and the over 150 residents who serve as Borough volunteers. Thank you to all of you. We are very fortunate to have so many good people working so hard in support of our community.

We will continue working together productively and collaboratively in the new year. The to-do list never ends, and new issues keep cropping up. Small communities like ours face challenges in getting all of this work done while preserving our unique character and being mindful of the impact on our taxpayers. Looking ahead, we need to complete some significant state-mandated water infrastructure projects, continue our strong focus on public safety, address the next round of our affordable housing obligation, and continue caring for our crown jewels – our lakes, woodlands, historic character, strong community spirit, welcoming community spirit, and tradition of volunteerism.

As we kick-off the new year, I encourage residents to be involved, ask questions, share your ideas and points of view, and work together with us to get things done for our community. This is the place we live, work, raise our families, and build friendships, and it takes our combined efforts to keep Mountain Lakes the best place to call home.

Some very important final words… Thank you to Councilman Khizar Sheikh for his exceptional leadership as our mayor the last two years. My fellow council members and I have incredible respect for Khizar’s contributions to our community, his willingness to tackle tough issues and to approach these issues by listening, learning and working towards consensus, his understanding of the challenges facing small communities like ours, his track record of digging in and effecting change, his responsiveness to the citizens of Mountain Lakes, his collegiality, and his celebration of our unique community.

Many good things happened under Khizar’s leadership, and he has a legacy to be very proud of. Khizar, I really enjoyed working so closely with you during your time as mayor and I look forward to furthering our work together in the new year. Everyone, please join me in a heartfelt thank you to former Mayor and Councilman Khizar Sheikh. We present you with the traditional gift of a gavel in recognition of your leadership and service to our community.

Sincerely,

Mayor Lauren Barnett