Milford Supervisor’s race won by a hair

By SARAH KOENIG

MILFORD — Milford Borough Police Chief Gary Williams will be the next Milford Township Supervisor. Williams won the election by two write-in votes.

Mike Rotolo, who’s served as a replacement supervisor since last spring, received 10 write-in votes and Williams received 12.

“I’m very happy,” said Williams, who ran for supervisor two years ago against an incumbent, as well as applying for the vacancy ultimately appointed to Mike Rotolo.

Neither Williams nor Rotolo were officially on the ticket for the position, because Rotolo’s appointment took place after the spring deadline for the primary election ballot.

As a result, Williams said, no one realized there was a two-year position up for election.

“Once I realized it,” Williams said, “I campaigned for about an hour, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The fact that I won came as quite a surprise.”

The Milford Township Supervisor’s race was not the only political contest with no names on the ballot. According to Candy Barillo of the Pike County Board of Elections, Delaware Township has three auditor’s positions left vacant with no write-in votes, as well as a Porter Township auditor. Milford Township’s two auditor’s positions and an auditor’s seat in Green Township received write-in votes, but the winners for those races haven’t been officially determined.

Barillo said that it’s not uncommon for seats to remain vacant, particularly during a municipal election year.

“If no one is officially elected,” she said, “an appointment is made.”

As for Williams, he will replace Rotolo, beginning in January of 2002.

“I’m very excited about it,” he said, “and it shouldn’t interfere with my duties as police chief.”

Williams believes that his administrative and executive experience will be a benefit to the supervisor’s board. But he also said that the current supervisors are doing a great job, particularly in light of the many difficult decisions they’ve been faced with recently, adding, “I make tough choices every day as part of my work as a police chief.”

His close working relationship with the current supervisors, he says, will also ease the transition.

“The Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Don Quick actually works for me on the police force.”

And being the supervisor of one of the supervisor’s isn’t the only connection Williams has to Milford Township’s municipal government.

“I’m a member of the Zoning Hearing Board,” he said. “That’s how I keep up on all the latest developments in the township.”

Williams also worked for 15 years in Milford Township in road repair and maintenance.