If there’s one thing that is certain, it’s Craig Guy, Hudson County’s new executive, keenly remembers West Hudson is as much a part of the rest of the county as anywhere else. Not always the case, he’s offered services to residents in Kearny three days each week after Mayor Carol Jean Doyle asked for just one.
And last week, as part of his listening tour of each of the county’s dozen municipalities, he was at the Henrietta Benstead senior center on Columbia Avenue in Kearny — along with members of his staff — to listen to residents’ concerns and to let them know what the county has to offer. Perhaps most importantly, however, he spoke of the county’s best of the best.
More 100 seniors were on hand for the first of its kind event here.
“To the mayor and to the other folks here — this is some building, this is some complex,” Guy said at the top of his remarks of the Henrietta Benstead. “You have the kitchen, you have this room that looks like it was recently redone. Kearny should be proud of what the mayor and council have done here, as far as providing the opportunities for everybody. Well done, I must say.”
Guy touted some of the county programs of which he’s most proud.
“We have some some roads that are county roads, but there’s so many different services, whether it be senior items, whether it be veterans, whether it be Social Security, whether it be a Medicaid, whether it be housing — the services that directly affect people’s lives. We have to be able to literally, as elected officials, I believe, put hot food on the table. We have to be responsible to everybody that elects us to make sure that everybody in the county, everybody in Kearny, has what they need to get through the day, whether that’s a roof over your head, whether you’re a veteran and you need information on special services that maybe some veterans are unaware that we offer or whether you’re a senior and you need to be up to date on on a lot of the different services that we we offer — not everybody knows.”
Guy also praised the senior boat cruises around the Manhattan Harbor that many of the town’s seniors get to enjoy each year at no cost.
“I hope everybody in Kearny knows that the great boat rides that we offer each and every summer (are ours),” Guy said. “You know, the demand for those boat rides folks is through the roof. So, what we did this past year is we expanded the amount of boats that we normally do.”
He also made sure to note how vital it is for the county to support those who have serve in the Armed Forces.
“The veterans, in whatever conflict or war that they fought in, did so to provide us the opportunity to speak in front of nearly 100 seniors today,” Guy said. “You know, we owe it to them. We owe it to the seniors who forged everybody’s life, your kids, my kids, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles.
“So we have to be supportive of those folks …”
And Guy said while he is proud of what he’s accomplished in just nine months in office, he’s aware it’s not the be-all, end-all.
“I want to hear from you today, our directors want hear from you today on basically what kind of services you think we we can do better,”Guy said.
And at that, the seniors surely shared how they felt the county could do better.
One such area was the availability of Spanish-speakers for those who do not know English.
All departmental reps have at least one — in most cases, more — who are fluent in Spanish.
Doyle, meanwhile, says she’s extremely appreciative of Guy’s efforts for Kearny.
“When Craig was first elected, I asked him if we could have one day when county folks came here,” Doyle said. “He said, ‘I can do better —how about three days a week.’ He’s really gone above and beyond our expectations.”
Seniors in need of any Hudson County service should visit www.hcnj.us. The Department of Veterans and Aging may be reached at (201) 369-4314 or toll free at (877) 222-3737. The main number for the County Executive’s Office is (201) 795-6200. Send an email to hcexecoffice@hcnj.us.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.