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Division champs
Retiring Hughes reflects on 20 years as county executive INTERVIEW BY BILL SANSERVINO
The WW-P 9U Warriors and 8U Warriors both won the championships in the USABL West Division in November at Sayen Park in Hamilton. Pictured in the top photo is the 9U team: Coaches Tyler Yatauro and Rob Cianchetti, Jamal Singletary, Aiden Castaldo, Kashi Chigurupati, Logan Hutchinson, Garrett Chait, William Cianchetti, Derek Schladt, Mikey Antolino, Matthew Shrank, Brandon Lau, James Taylor, Cole Barna, Levi Mittendorf, Parker Ciancia and Sid Pradeep. Below are 8U players Jason Jian, Vedant Deshpande, Ahaan Balantrapu, Christian Boden, Ben Guirnalda, Luca Redmond, Nathan Lee, Rachit Garg, Cole Espinosa, Arjan Amar, Daniel Shuman, Max Godeny, Jamie Keeley and Michael Garzio. For more on the teams, see page 8.
For the first time in two decades, long-time Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes won’t be sitting behind the desk of the county’s top administrative elected official. Former Assemblyman Dan Benson — a Democrat who was overwhelmingly elected in November over Republican Lisa Richford — will be sworn in at the county’s annual reorganization meeting, which was set to be held at the Trenton War Memorial on Thursday, Jan. 4, at 6 p.m. Hughes, who was not chosen to run again in favor of Benson during the Mercer Democratic Party Convention last March, will be looking to move on to greener pastures after many years in elected office. When asked in a recent interview with the News about what Benson’s biggest challenge will be, Hughes joked: “Removing all the Hughes signs from across the county.” Many of those signs highlight Hughes’ accomplishments during his years as county executive. His achievements are many, and they include the revitalization of the Trenton-Mercer (and the approval
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of a new terminal and parking garage at the site), the preservation of thousands of acres of open space, numerous recreational projects, multiple economic initiatives, and helping to shepherd the county through the COVID-19 pandemic. Hughes, a resident of Princeton, is the son of former governor and N.J. Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard J. Hughes. Before being elected county executive in November 2003, he served two terms on the Board of Chosen Freeholders (now the Board of County Commissioners), first being elected in 1997. Before that, he served as deputy executive director of the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. During his final days in office in December, Hughes spoke with editor Bill Sanservino about his challenges and accomplishments, as well as his thoughts on future issues confronting the county. An edited version of that interview is presented below in Q&A form. *** WWP News: You have spent the last 20 years as Mercer County executive, and more as See HUGHES, Page 3
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