It was truly great to see so many children out and trick or treating in South Amboy this past Halloween. We were way overdue for a festive Halloween.

Seeing so many families out and kids enjoying the day reminded me of the days when I was a kid going door to door. The weather was great, the police kept everyone safe and the day was free from incident. It is a far cry from the Halloween of last year that was canceled by Hurricane Sandy. Nice to see the resiliency of people to celebrate fall this year.

Speaking of resiliency, it was also pretty awesome to have NJ 101.5 choose the South Amboy Waterfront as one of its locations for the Light Up New Jersey event on Oct. 29th. Hundreds of people gathered to share stories, sip hot coffee (courtesy of Dunkin Donuts) and joint thousands of others down the NJ coast to point our flashlights to the sky to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.

The evening was set in motion by some opening words by Sayreville Mayor Kennedy O’Brien. South Amboy Council members Mickey Gross and Christine Noble stopped by and the Sayreville Council was very visible that night. Seems the only person of prominence that didn’t show up that night was South Amboy Mayor Fred Henry.

As it happens to be, he went to a Devils hockey game that night instead of the anniversary event being held in his own town. Turns out the Devils won that night, unfortunately Mayor Henry, lost…again. This pretty much sums up how flood victims have felt since the storm…where is the leadership?…and shame on him, as it doesn’t get much easier than it was on Oct. 29th.

As people recovering from Sandy in South Amboy face the latest blunder from city hall (being issued letters of Substantial Damage that were signed off on by the wrong city official — something the State even says is odd), I hope the frustration is enough motive to make sure you don’t go to a hockey game on December 31, 2014 and be there for the mayor’s last day in office… just to show you care.

-Andrew Horezga