Concluding his report at the December 17th Mayor & Council meeting, First Ward Councilman Eugene Meola stated, “The United States has the firstborn child [announced] every year. They make a big deal on the radio and they announce it on TV. Well, I would like to have something like that for Roselle Park. Not just for the First Ward even though I’m partial. I would like to have the Vital Statistics Department find out who had a child, bring the momma in here and the daddy and give them some kind of recognition.”
The councilman stated he would be willing to give something like a $100 gift card for Toys R Us to the family of Roselle Park’s first newborn resident of 2016. He continued, “I’m doing this out of my own pocket. I never thought about doing something like this but it was an idea my wife and I threw around. I figured it was worth doing to show that we here in Roselle Park we love the community and I want to see more children. I’m not encouraging people to have more children but if they’re going to have them, Roselle Park’s a good place to have them.”
Councilman Meola also added that he is expanding his birth announcement storks to the entire borough. The residents of his ward will get first preference but if no constituent in the 1st ward needs the storks he would be more than happy to lend it out to a family welcoming a newborn anywhere in the borough.
He is in touch with high school principal Sarah Costa to see if students in the art department could construct Roselle Park six- to eight-foot storks (for boys and girls) to display on residents’ lawns. He added, “Anybody in the borough wishing to show off that they have a new birth of a child, I would really like to have them on TV-34. I’d like to make a big deal about it.”
Any family that would like to celebrate their January baby to see if they child/children were the first to be born in the borough can contact Councilman Meola at (908) 666-7824.