AVALON – Avalon Mayor John McCorristin attended the Avalon Council meeting, July 26, to administer the oath of office to Greg “Chet” Johnson, who will serve in McCorristin’s vacated seat on the borough’s governing body. McCorristin stepped down from the council when he won election as Avalon’s first new mayor in over 30 years.

While at the council meeting, McCorristin spoke on his 10 years on council and some of his proudest accomplishments.

He pointed to the work of the council finance committee, of which he was a member. Under the leadership of Chuck Covington and Nancy Hudanich, that committee set the borough on the road to the elimination of all long-term general obligation debt.

McCorristin cited the restructuring of the town’s energy grid, noting “We haven’t had an outage in the four years since the steel poles went in.”

Avalon is also the host to Atlantic City Electric’s new island substation. McCorristin also pointed to the redundant feed that supplies electricity to the municipality.

The new mayor spoke of the redoing of Ocean Drive, the restructuring of the drinking water infrastructure, the celebrated five-star free library, plans for new recreational facilities for pickleball and tennis, beach and bay maintenance, and numerous projects to improve island resiliency.

McCorristin expressed a special sense of pride in the creation of Surfside Park as a center for so many borough events, as well as a general source of enjoyment for all ages.

“There were many bumps along the road,” McCorristin said of his 10 years on council, but he was proud of the accomplishments, even referencing the new trash and recycling program, which he said “salvaged” trash removal at a very difficult time.

His remarks concluded, McCorristin, gathering papers before leaving the council meeting, joked with his former colleagues, “You’ll be hearing from me.”