Mahaney Named Citizen of the Year

CAPE MAY — Edward J. Mahaney Jr. was presented the Citizen of the Year Award by the Taxpayers Association of Cape May for exemplary leadership and vision.
The award was presented to Mahaney at its annual meeting Aug. 17 in city hall auditorium.
Mahaney was elected Mayor of Cape May in 1995. At that time, the city was facing a crisis when it was discovered its primary water supply wells were turning salty.
Taxpayers Association President Kate Wyatt said Mahaney’s, “principled, hard-driving, exacting personality traits,” led to skillfully solving the saltwater intrusion problem.
By June 1998, Cape May’s desal plant was built and was producing drinking water.
Wyatt said the project took years of personal sacrifice, visits to Trenton, meetings with state and federal legislators in additional to applying for grants and low interest loans.
“He negotiated 21 listed permits down to just five,” she said.
Mahaney also served on the city’s Planning board from 1991 to 2003, on city council from 1995 to 2003 and the historic preservation commission from 1994 to 1995.
Mahaney spearheaded regional watershed conferences through the county Board of Freeholders and contributed information to the state Water Master Plan, said Wyatt.
She called Mahaney a visionary who demonstrated the power of one person working with the community.
“When you turn on your shower tomorrow and make your coffee to start the day, you will realize his contribution to Cape May,” said Wyatt. “Our children and grandchildren will too.”
Mahaney said while he did work very hard on the desal project, he could not have done it without the cooperation of four other councilmen: Tom Phalen, Bob Elwell, Jerry Gaffney and John Bailey. He said they had a common goal even though they sometime differed on the means to accomplish it.
He said when the five men occasionally get together now, they talk about how, “every week in Cape May there is a controversy.”
“I think that is the nature of the town and you have to accept that if you are going to live here, ” said Mahaney.
He said if the city had not come together and backed the desal plant project, “the problems and controversies we have today would not have existed because we would not have had any drinking water available after 1998.”
He said when council was told in 1995 the city was running out of drinking water, “we were just stunned.”
Mahaney said every resident was behind the project because open public meetings were held on the topic. He acknowledged Mayor Jerome E. Inderwies, who was superintendent of public works in 1995, David Carrick, water department superintendent, Jack Jansen, former chief financial officer and Bruce MacLeod, then assistant chief financial officer.
Mahaney said they made many trips to Trenton and missed many dinners due to late night meetings. He said a desal plant was “virgin territory” for which the state Department of Environmental Protection did not have any regulations at the time.
Mahaney received a standing ovation.
The city’s desal plant produces 2 million gallons of water daily. Of the plant’s $5 million cost, one-quarter of the cost was paid by grants with remaining costs covered by low-interest loans spread from 20 to 40 years. Contact Fichter at (609) 886-8600 Ext 30 or at: jfichter@cmcherald.com