Walpack’s 14 residents to get a new township committeewoman

The population in New Jersey’s smallest municipality dropped from thirteen to twelve last month when Walpack Township Committeewoman Janina Wycalek died at age 76.

Tonight, the two remaining township committee members will meet to appoint Kelly Happe, 36,  a former municipal clerk and the daughter of Mayor Vincent Maglio, to fill her seat.

While the 2020 U.S. Census counted seven residents of Walpack, the New Jersey Globe projects that the current population is fourteen, including two new residents who registered to vote this month.  That number reflects the two newest residents, Kenneth and Julia Bechtold, who own property in Walpack and recently changed their voter registrations from Lafayette.

Between Happe (it’s pronounced Happy), her husband, Chris, and their three children – the only children in town – her five-member household represents 36% of Walpack’s entire population.

Walpack has become a ghost town over the last six decades after the federal government’s 1955 plan to ease flooding on the Delaware River included the building of the Tocks Island Dam and a man-made, 40-mile long and one-mile wide lake that would have engulfed the small Sussex County town.

Using eminent domain, the U.S. government claimed over 70,000 acres in the area, including all of Walpack.  The population went from 384 to 150 between 1970 and 1980, dropping to 67 in 1990, 41 in 2000, and 16 in 2010.

Despite taking the homes of Walpack residents, the controversial dam project was abandoned in 1975.   Many of the houses in Walpack, now owned by the U.S. government, are uninhabitable.

But there are some advantages to living in Walpack: average property taxes are just $450 annually – perhaps the lowest in the state.  There is no municipal property tax — just for students who attend Sandyston public schools — and to Sussex County.  About $39,000 in state aid covers the entire municipal budget.

And Walpack appears to be a model of shared services agreements.

Still, it’s unclear what the future of the municipality will be.  The much-smaller Pahaquarry Township, also a casualty of the Tocks Islan Dam project, dissolved in 1997 after its population dropped to six.

Maglio, a 70-year-old pastor, became a township committeeman in 2007 after the death of his father, Mayor Joseph Maglio, a member of the governing body for 56 years.  He became mayor following the death of Raymond Fuller in 2011.  (Fuller’s wife, Virginia, a former municipal clerk, died in 2018; their son, Dean, 68, now resides in their home).

The third member of the township committee is James Heigis, 85, the owner of the storied Walpack Inn.  Maglio and Heigis are both Republicans.

To obviate any appearance of conflict, since Maglio was one of two votes to appoint his daughter, the governing body approved a rule of necessity so that government would be able to function.

Local politics in Walpack is not especially partisan, which is how Wycalek, a liberal Democrat – when she lived in Montclair in the early 1970s, she was one of the leaders of a grassroots group seeing a nuclear freeze – came to spend ten years on the local governing body in a hugely conservative part of the state.

Wycalek was first elected to local office in 2013 after Russell Pagano, the executive chef at the Walpack Inn, moved to North Carolina.  In 2019, a Republican, Ken Salazar, challenged Wycalek; she defeated him with 71% of the vote, 5-2.

Wycalek was one of two registered Democrats in the Walpack; the second Democrat, 72-year-old Frankie Tuttles, voted just once since 2000, and it’s unclear if he still lives in town.

The Bechtolds are both are Democrats.

Last year, Republican Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) carried Walpack by six votes,  7-1, in his successful bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski.   Republican Jack Ciattarelli won Walpack by three votes, 4-1, against Democrat Phil Murphy in the 2021 governor’s race, and Donald Trump won the borough by five votes, 8-3, against Joe Biden in 2020.

Maglio is up for re-election this year; he didn’t file nominating petitions, so his name won’t appear on the primary election ballot.

There will also be a special election for Wycalek’s unexpired term, which runs through the end of 2025.

That’s also complicated.

Because Wycalek died after the March filing deadline, it will be up to the two political parties to pick the candidates, and they have until September 12 to do that.

If Happe wants the Republican nomination, she’ll need to get the support of Salazar; he is the GOP municipal chairman, and the second of Walpack’s two county committee seats are vacant.   She – or any other eligible candidate – can file as an independent.

There appears to be no legal path for the Democrats to run a candidate since both county committee seats are vacant, and there is no entity to nominate someone to run.  The Bechtolds must reside in Walpack for one year before they can seek local office.