Both fifth ward council candidates – Robert Mathieu and incumbent Thomas ‘Thos’ Shipley – will be participating in a debate on Thursday, October 25th. Second ward candidate Richard Graves has accepted to take part but Joseph Petrosky, the current 2nd ward councilman who is running for re-election, stated that he would be unavailable due to having oral surgery that day.
The evening will have the fifth ward candidate debate and Mr. Graves will be on-hand to answer questions and make himself available in case Mr. Petrosky can re-arrange his commitment and participate.
The use of council chambers for the October 25th debate was approved unanimously by council over a month ago during the September 20th municipal meeting. Formal invitations for the event were sent out on October 12th.
The event is free and open to the public.
As with the mayoral debate, there will be questions from panelists as well as those selected randomly from those in attendance. There will be a section where each candidate will ask the other one a question.
The debates will start at 7 p.m. Thursday night in the Roselle Park Municipal Complex located at 110 East Westfield Avenue.