By Peter Elacqua
MARLBORO – The members of the Marlboro Planning Board have elected Mark Barenburg as chairman of the board.
Mayor Jonathan Hornik, who sits on the board, nominated Barenburg for the chairman’s position when the panel held its reorganization meeting on Jan. 6. Barenburg has served on the board since 2005.
“I am honored to be elected chairperson,” Barenburg said. “I have been on this board for 10 years and I have been its secretary for a number of years. I will do my best to lead this board.”
Michael Messinger began serving a new four-year term on the board and he was elected vice chairman.
“It makes me feel happy to be selected by my peers for this position,” Messinger said. “I grew up here and I saw the deterioration in the quality of life that happened during the 1990s when developers were running rampant.
“Now that I am older and live in town with my own children, I wanted to contribute to doing what I could to have smart planning so the children of Marlboro could grow up in a place that could still have a good quality of life,” he said.
Messinger also sits on the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education as the Marlboro representative.
Andrew Pargament was elected as the board’s secretary.
New members Michael Slotopolsky and David Gagliano joined the board as it reorganized for 2016. The board’s attorney, Michael Herbert, swore in the new members.
“I am honored to be on the board to serve my community,” Slotopolsky said. “I like helping people and causes and interacting with individuals to help them with my business expertise. I feel that getting involved and getting to know the happenings in town make me invested.”
Slotopolsky is a managing partner of Vision Financial Group CPAs, Morganville. He has lived in Marlboro for 30 years and he and his wife are the parents of two children.
“I am honored and very excited about the appointment and the opportunity to serve Marlboro in this capacity and hope I can add value to the board as it works through its 2016 agenda,” Gagliano said.
Gagliano has been a resident of Marlboro since 2002 with his wife and two sons. He has served on the board of the Marlboro Little League since 2009 and was elected president of the Marlboro Baseball and Softball Travel Program in 2014.
Herbert also swore in board member Christopher Cherbini to a one-year term.
The board will retain Herbert as attorney, Laura Neumann, of CME Associates, as engineer and planner, and Donna Pignatelli as administrative officer.
“We will be busy for the first half of the year,” Hornik said. “I for one have set a goal to end our (affordable housing) issues. I think we are in a strong position to balance our affordable housing obligations and preserve our quality of life.”
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at Town Hall. Planning Board meetings are open to the public.
