INSET BELOW: Simone Bonutti
By Dan Moffett
Manalapan’s Town Commission will get more than the perspective of an oceanfront resident now that Simone Bonutti has been sworn in to the vacant No. 4 seat.
The town will also get the perspective of a parent with a young family, something the commission hasn’t had much of in recent years. Bonutti and her husband, Peter, an orthopedic surgeon, are raising their six children — ages 10 years to 3 months — in Manalapan, and looking out for their future is part of her reason for seeking public office.
“My kids are here, I’m living here permanently, so I want to have an understanding of what’s going on,” Bonutti said. “We can be kind of isolated along the ocean. Lots of people aren’t permanent residents and they come and go. We are permanent residents, and I’d like to help out the community any way I can.”
Bonutti, 40, was graduated from the University of Mississippi and had a career in sales of medical devices and pharmaceuticals before moving to Manalapan 10 years ago. The Bonuttis are renovating the 24,000-square-foot Italian-style home at 1680 S. Ocean and have plans in the works to install a tunnel under A1A.
Mayor David Cheifetz said a number of residents had come forward about filling the seat vacated by Vice Mayor Louis DeStefano in October, but Bonutti, who also had expressed interest in a commission opening four years ago, was clearly the best choice.
“She is head and shoulders above the other people I’ve been thinking about,” Cheifetz said, before the commission unanimously approved Bonutti’s appointment.
“I’m looking forward to having a voice for people on the ocean side,” she said.
Bonutti said she would consider bringing back Manalafest, a festival that the town held annually from 2003 to 2008, as a way to bring residents together and enable “neighbors to communicate with neighbors.”
According to Town Clerk Lisa Petersen, Bonutti becomes only the sixth woman to hold office in Manalapan in the last 78 years, succeeding Kelly Gottlieb (the town’s first female mayor in 2010), Marilyn Hedberg (2009), Ruth Caddell (1982), Gertrude Vanderbilt (1940) and Madeleine Gedney (1936).
In other business:
Town Manager Linda Stumpf told commissioners that work to bring the Town Hall into compliance with Americans With Disabilities Act requirements is progressing and should be completed by the end of January.
Stumpf said most of the modifications inside the building have been done and only a few more changes — moving a toilet, replacing door hinges — remain. She said the town hopes to get bids back from contractors for outside construction by the Dec. 16 meeting. In all, the town expects to spend about $50,000 to make the building ADA compliant, with most of that going toward changes that improve access from the parking lot.
Stumpf said after contractors finish the Town Hall, bids will go out on work to make the library compliant.
Town resident Kersen De Jong, who has made repeated complaints to the town about ADA violations and accused officials of dragging their feet on fixing them, warned commissioners that the Town Hall might lose its standing as an election poll and the library might lose its accreditation, if the construction wasn’t finished in a timely manner. The comment touched off a heated exchange with Cheifetz.
“Thank you so much for your threats, Mr. De Jong, we appreciate it,” the mayor said. “And I’m so delighted you could make it in here today but you couldn’t make it in here to vote.”
“Your cynical remarks about my handicap are not being appreciated!” shouted De Jong, who lost his legs in a 1976 accident. “How do you dare to say you’re glad that I made it in here? How do you dare!”
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