Plainsboro residents will choose two commissioners in the contested fire district elections, which will be held Saturday, February 20, from 2 to 9 p.m. at the Plainsboro Firehouse at 407 Plainsboro Road.
Incumbents Michele Holder and Ken Brown will face challengers Ted Wagner and Mitchell Schwartz for two seats on the commission this year.
Brown was born in Boston and moved to Plainsboro after graduating from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1993. His father is an electrician, and his mother does clerical work.
He has been a member of the Plainsboro Volunteer Fire Company since 2000 and has been serving as a Plainsboro Fire District Commissioner for the past six years. He has two children, ages 6 and 3. His wife is an EMT and a life member of the Plainsboro Rescue Squad. Brown works at a small mold and tool shop as a tooling engineer, where he designs and engineers injection molds for the plastics industry.
Holder is originally from New York and re-located to Plainsboro in 1996. Her father is an accountant in Brooklyn, and her mother is a restaurant entrepreneur. Holder has served as a volunteer with the Plainsboro Volunteer Fire Company since 2000. Before being elected as a commissioner in 2007, she served as fire company vice president for one year and president for three years.
Holder, who has held senior level executive management positions for both IBM and AT&T and is currently employed with AT&T, is married and has two children, both of whom graduated from the WW-P school district and are in college. Her husband is also a volunteer with the Plainsboro Fire Company since 2000 and works in Plainsboro.
Brown and Holder say they want to “continue to maintain a stable tax rate for Plainsboro residents.” They say they also want to ensure the fire district can meet the fire protection needs “of a growing and changing town.”
The incumbents also said they wanted to pursue installation of OPTICOM, a traffic-controlled system that they say will decrease emergency vehicle response times as well as provide repairs and maintenance to the Plainsboro firehouse. Holder and Brown also say they want to see a staff with a full-time day supervisor to complement the paid firefighters and volunteers.
The incumbents point to a “stable tax rate” since they were elected as a major accomplishment of their terms. They also point to the establishment of a full-time professional day time staff response to complement the volunteers. They said they also “successfully negotiated a three-year contract for the paid firefighters.”
Wagner, a 42-year member of the fire department and a lifelong Plainsboro resident, was formerly a fire commissioner and is seeking to be elected to a seat again. He was defeated in last year’s election through a write-in vote. Before that, he served eight years on the commission.
As an active member of the fire department, Wagner said he wants “to ensure that the best is provided for the residents of the town in terms of manpower, equipment, and more.” Wagner’s two sons are also active members of the fire department.
Schwartz, a resident of Plainsboro for 25 years, is a corporate tax attorney who works for a consulting firm that offers tax and business advisory services.
Schwartz does not have previous experience as a volunteer or as a commissioner with the fire company, but “I really want to do what’s best for the fire company, and I really think I’ll bring the financial background,” he said. “I’m also independent. I’d like to think I’m going to bring a different perspective to it.”
Schwartz said his son is the reason he became interested in becoming a fire commissioner. “I’m looking for a way to give back,” he said. “I’m very impressed with my son’s involvement and the people he works with.”
Schwartz has an undergraduate degree in accounting from Rutgers, after which he graduated from Seton Hall University’s law school. His father was a store owner in the Bronx, and his mother was a bookkeeper. He was raised in Leonia before he met his wife, who lived in an apartment in Hunters Glen at the time. He moved to Plainsboro, and from there, the couple moved to the Brittany development and now to the Gentry.
The couple has two sons who are both in college. Schwartz’s wife works as an ESL teacher with the WW-P Community Education.
