Nutley: Scarpelli's son runs for father's vacated seat

NUTLEY - Chiropractor Joseph Scarpelli, 49, a Nutley native and former Essex County Freeholder and School Board member, wants to serve on the Board of Commissioners in place of his father, Commissioner and former Mayor Peter Scarpelli.

“After seven elections and 25 years, I’ve decided it’s time to go hit the little white ball for a while,” the senior Scarpelli told PolitickerNJ.com.

But he’s not yet not in retirement mode. The 70-year old Commissioner of Public Works, who finished third in total votes last time, serves as his son’s campaign manager, and his son intends to run a full-blown campaign.

“I have a lot invested in this town,” said Joseph Scarpelli. “I own a home and business in Nutley. The town is at a crossroads. We’re facing escalating property taxes, and development’s an issue. The development we have will determine what kind of town we’re going to have.

“Clearly it’s always a challenge to attract the right ratables that will
place less strain on our services and our school system and enable us to preserve our residential character,” he added.

Active in a number of civic organizations in town, Scarpelli said he’s not banking on his family’s public name in this race.

“When you have this kind of field anything can happen,” he said. “I will put my resume out there.”

Two things Scarpelli said he would like to do are consolidate services and examine the possibility of marketing some of Nutley’s services to surrounding municipalities.

“Maybe you have a town that has outside services doing recycling, and maybe we can do that for them at a lower cost,” said the candidate.

Looking at his father, the younger Scarpelli said he’s proudest of how the veteran commissioner cultivated Nutley pride.

“He raised money privately for the centennial clock. He developed swing night, a big block party we have in town every August, he was
accountable,” Scarpelli said.