Wednesday, 27 April 2022
www.TheObserver.com
Vol. CXXXIV, No. 51
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BELLEVILLE’S MAYORAL BATTLE
ROVELL
Race pits incumbent Melham against sitting Councilman Rovell For team Melham, it’s about record & staying positive By Kevin A. Canessa Jr.
R
kc@theobserver.com
egardless of whether you agree with it, there is absolutely no denying that in the last four years, Belleville has seen unprecedented growth, from new residential units to commercial sites and more. In fact, it’s not just redevelopment that has happened at warp speed here. It’s just about everything the municipal government has a hand in. And now, Mayor Michael Melham, who spearheaded mostly all of what’s gone on, is asking Belleville residents for four more years to build on what he’s accomplished
and on what he hopes to continue to do through 2026. And the incumbent says his opponent, Councilman Steve Rovell, despite being critical of much of what has happened the last four years, has offered no platform of his own while continually bashing him, despite voting in favor of much of it. “You can’t apply logic and reason to ‘crazy’ as I say all the time,” Melham said in a sit-down interview with The Observer last week. And then he noted the importance of the PILOTs, or payment in lieu of taxes, the township has granted to developers. See MELHAM, Page 8
Long-serving Steve Rovell looks to take mayor’s seat By Ron Leir
N
For The Observer
ow in his fifth term as a Belleville lawmaker, Steve Rovell is seeking to topple incumbent Mayor Michael Melham in the township election May 10. Steven Rovell, who currently represents the Second Ward on the Township Council, is making his first bid for the township’s highest municipal office. His running mates are Charles Hood, the township’s information technology officer and Tracey Juanita Williams, who sits on the Board of Education. Rovell is a senior program manag-
er at the Picatinny Federal Arsenal in Morris County. Rovell, whose family members are third-generation Belleville residents, has served the last decade as president of the longstanding nonprofit Belleville Foundation which has donated more than $100,000 in college scholarships to local high school alums since the 1940s as part of its commitment toward the future of Belleville. And, for the past 15 years, he’s served as an unpaid Suburban Metro Joint Insurance Fund commissioner. Rovell said he’s running for mayor “because I see the town going in a See ROVELL, Page 5
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