Peter A. Capodice

SPEARHEADING GROWTH IN UNION TOWNSHIP

BY SARA MAGNOLA

Sitting in his office at Union County Vocational-Technical School in Scotch Plains, Peter Capodice has a lot to smile about. In addition to being the proud father of two and a new Grandpa, he loves his job there as the assistant superintendent, and was just re-elected for the second term as Mayor of Union Township. “Mayorship is the wonderful thing I do after I make my living,” he says. In January, Capodice will be sworn in for his second term as mayor, and tenth consecutive year on the Township Committee, but he has been playing an active and integral role in the community for even longer. A Union resident for more than 25 years, he has been a member of the Union Callmen Emergency Unit, coached various sports for the Boys & Girls Club, coached basketball for the Union Recreation Department and baseball for the Union Little League. In addition, Capodice helped to co-found Parents for Academic Excellence, was a Cub Scout leader and has been a member of the PTA and Union Soccer Association.

Professionally, Capodice started off working for Chase Manhattan Bank in New York after high school. He also worked in sales and marketing in the financial industry, selling accounting systems and software to banks, but after more than twenty years, he says that “sales were getting old.”

For years, family members who worked in education had been telling Capodice that the education systems always needed people like him to run the business end of things. So, in an effort to find a more rewarding profession, he earned his state certificate in School Business Administration and started out working for a small school district in Morris County. A few years later he was employed by the state as the Essex County school business administrator and is currently working in Union County.

Peter Capodice’s political career began in 1998 when he was sworn in as a committee member and served as commissioner of the Police, Fire, Recreation, Building and Economic Development departments. In 2000 he was elected deputy mayor and one year later was chosen by his fellow committee members to be mayor. “We are all friends” he says about the five member committee. “We’ve all been through the ringer of being commissioners of departments and we all known how the workings of the
departments go, so we have a good feel for how the town is being run and we all feel we should share the honor of being mayor.”

The things he most loves about his role as mayor, include handing out eagle scout awards, speaking on behalf of various civic associations and handing out proclamations and resolutions. The impact he and the committee has made to better the quality of life for Union residents, runs much deeper though. Among his many
accomplishments, he points to a few as especially significant. One of the first was the re-locating of a Methadone clinic in the area, almost nine years ago. Located right down the street from a school, the clinic was causing trouble for the people in the neighborhood, and putting the school children in danger. “This committee was able to move (the clinic) to another, more suitable, section of town where there was more space for it.”

In 1999, after Hurricane Floyd caused the Rahway River to flood, Capodice and the committee sought out any available county and state funding to help build a flood wall to protect the homes located near the river. Not only did these efforts protect Union residents from damaging flood waters, but it also increased property values and
lowered homeowners’ insurance. During his time on the committee, funding was also collected to build a brand new, state-of-the-art library in Union, as well as a new Senior Center, which was in high demand, since the community’s seniors were previously using a room in one of the schools.

Capodice was also instrumental in another project — the new train station located just off Morris Avenue by Kean College, which opened in 2003. “I am most proud of the train station, because I was appointed point man to really get that accomplished and it was quite a task,” says Capodice.

Capodice worked with the business owner who previously utilized the property to create a re-location plan for the existing business and then re-develop the property. Also, other new construction has resulted from the building of the new train station, which provides Union residents with an under-thirty-minute ride into New York and gives students and staff easy public transportation to and from the town and the college. A new extended stay hotel is planned to be built right on Morris Avenue and
luxury town homes, which were constructed next to the station, are now selling for half a million dollars.

According to Capodice, for him and the rest of the committee, bettering the quality of life and stabilizing the cost of living for Union residents are their top priorities. Along these lines, they are workings towards revitalizing all of Morris Avenue by bringing in bigger businesses and have increased the number of police officers and fire fighters to make the community a safer place.

Another focal point in 2007 will be the redevelopment of Union Center. Capodice is gathering information about what the public wants and needs as consumers and business owners. “It’s not my center,” he says. “It’s their center.” This attitude has been an on-going theme throughout Capodice’s political and professional careers, as
well as his personal endeavors.