Petert Cassano

January 2, 2008 - 1:56am

Kelaher sworn in by Christie in Toms River

By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

Toms River Mayor Thomas KelaherReflecting on when he first moved to Toms River over 50 years ago, Thomas P. Kelaher said there were more chickens and chicken coops than people and houses, and now the Ocean County shore town has a population of almost 100,000 and is the seventh largest municipality in the state.

Still, it has some distance to go before it becomes a full-fledged city, as New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg reminded Kelaher when they lunched several days ago at a meeting of mayors.

"When he asked me to describe the characteristics of Toms River, I told him we did have 600 miles of streets and he said, ‘Tom, that’s nice, but in New York City we have 6,000 miles of streets,’" said Kelaher, 75, who was sworn in as the town’s second elected mayor at Town Hall on Tuesday.

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