"We Are Your Future." A Softball Player's Plea Caps an Energetic Night as Edison Introduces Its Budget.
Rumors that the long-delayed spending plan would cut police, fire, and youth sports brought union members and kids in uniform to a chamber that usually sits nearly empty. What they heard from the dais was a promise.
Savannah Wolenter, a seventh grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, told the Edison council Wednesday night: “We are your future. Don’t forget us.” Council President Joe Coyle responded with a pledge to protect youth sports funding. (Edison Television via YouTube)
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Chris Howell | May 22, 2026
The Edison Township Council introduced its long-delayed 2026 municipal budget Wednesday night to a packed house. It was an unusual sight. Council meetings typically draw only a handful of residents.
What filled the room were rumors. Word had spread through union channels and youth sports league emails that the new budget included cuts to public safety staffing and recreational programs. Members of the local firefighters union, IAFF Local 1197, and the Edison PBA arrived in force. Coaches and young players still in their uniforms filed in as well. All of them were ready to push back against reductions that, as it turned out, were never actually in the document.
While the budget was introduced unanimously, the township had already missed three state-required deadlines. Council President Joseph Coyle had publicly admitted at the previous meeting that he had been the one holding it up. But the vote itself was almost secondary to what played out around it.
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When the public comment portion of the meeting opened, the first person to step to the mic was Jim Walsh, president of the local firefighters union.
Walsh didn’t need much time. Not all of his members were in the chamber. Some, he said, were at a second-alarm fire with a possible entrapment on Runyon Avenue.
“While you’re sitting here thinking about this budget,” he told the council, “know that every day my members are out there doing their jobs. They’re protecting life and property. Please keep that in mind when you debate the budget.”
He sat down, and the room erupted in applause, a scene that played out through the evening.
Jim Walsh, president of IAFF Local 1197, told the Edison council Wednesday night that his members were not in the chamber — they were fighting a second-alarm fire on Runyon Avenue. (Edison Television via YouTube)
Michael Piperado, president of Edison PBA Local 75, said he came to the podium because the PBA had been told directly that an 11-officer reduction was possible. Piperado, a lifelong Edison resident, said he wanted the council to understand what that number means on the ground.
“Edison continues to be one of the most desirable communities in New Jersey because people feel safe and secure,” Piperado said. “They know that when they call 911, help will arrive quickly when they need it most.”
He also made a financial argument. Cutting officers does not necessarily save money. The Edison police department spent roughly $3 million on overtime last year, partly because the force was already short-staffed, the PBA president said. Cut more officers, and the overtime bill grows to cover the gaps. The savings are not as simple as they look on paper.
Walsh and Piperado were not the only ones raising concerns about public safety. One woman who spoke asked not to be identified because she had spent years working with domestic violence victims in Edison. Officers responding to those calls alone face greater danger, she said, and so do the victims.
“It’s probably one of the most dangerous assignments they have,” she said. “If they don’t go in pairs, it makes it that much more dangerous for the victim and for the police officer.”
She was not asking the council to hold the line. She was asking them to hire more.
Lois Tarr, vice chair of the Cultural Arts Commission, thanked the council for recent appointments to the commission before raising a concern no one else had. What about positions that simply never get filled after someone retires? Every time a firefighter or officer leaves and is not replaced, the department quietly gets smaller.
“We hope that when you look through the budget, you make sure they’re not accounting for that as a way to balance the budget,” Tarr said.
The council did not push back on that point.
To be sure, the township faces real financial pressures. The budget introduced Wednesday allows for a 4.4 percent overall increase, the maximum permitted under state law. Edison has already spent roughly 65 percent of last year’s funding through temporary measures while waiting for a formal budget to be adopted.
Costs are also rising for reasons that go beyond routine pay raises. In an online video, the mayor says fuel for township vehicles is projected to cost $1.5 million this year, up from about $1.25 million in 2025, driven largely by war-related price spikes. On top of that, a rough winter with storms falling on weekends and holidays added more than $800,000 in overtime. The council will have to weigh those factors against every request it heard from the room on Wednesday.
Councilmember Richard Brescher named the tension plainly. He said he had received letters from the police union and the sports leagues warning of cuts. But he had only received the full budget document a few days earlier, he said, and had not had time to read through it.
“To play politics with first responders and with children is wrong,” Brescher said.
Brescher proposed holding off on the introduction to allow more time for review. The motion did not advance. Instead, the council introduced the budget and set the public hearing for July 22. That gives the council 63 days to go through the document with the administration before a final vote.
The sports community arrived with its own numbers. Alan Wolenter of Hickory Street coaches softball and came with his daughter, a player. His program, Edison Midtown Girls Softball, is a volunteer-run fastpitch league for girls ages 4 to 18. It received about $20,000 in township support last year, Wolenter said. In the context of an $181 million budget, he pointed out, that is roughly four-hundredths of one percent. His question was simple. Given how small that number is, why was there ever any doubt about it?
“We will fight tooth and nail for our kids,” he said, “and we hope you guys will too.”
Then Council President Coyle invited Wolenter’s daughter to the microphone. Savannah Wolenter is a seventh grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
“We are your future,” she told the council. “So don’t forget, with any sports or anything, always consider us.”
Coyle responded without hesitation. He said he does not believe a single member of the council will vote to cut youth sports funding. The room responded with applause.
Business Administrator Sonia Alves-Viveiros backed up Coyle’s assertion.
“No services were affected,” she said. The fear that brought hundreds of people to the Municipal Complex on a Wednesday night, she suggested, had nothing to do with anything in the document.
That point drew a sharp response from Joel Bassoff, a Beach Lane attorney who is a regular presence at council meetings. He argued that months of delay and a lack of transparency were exactly what allowed the rumors to take hold.
“When a budget deadline is missed, and the public doesn’t have access to the budget,” he said, “all sorts of rumors and innuendos go around.”
He called on the council and administration to commit to meeting legal deadlines moving forward so that public servants and families would not be, as he put it, “needlessly put in fear.”
Coyle did not argue with him. He had already told the previous meeting that he was personally responsible for the delay. He repeated that on Wednesday and moved on.
The budget will go to a finance committee meeting on June 1 before a public hearing and final vote on July 22 at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Complex. Residents who want to speak on the spending plan before it is adopted will have that chance in July. Council members said they plan to go through it line by line before then.
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.