Vernon Township replaces its absent councilman

Vernon — Paul Emilius Jr. was sworn in to take Glenn McLaughlin’s spot on the Vernon Township Committee at last Thursday’s meeting. Emilius, a Glenwood resident, will serve out McLaughlin’s term — until December 2011 — and take his place as deputy mayor. But the road to that spot had a few bumps. At the last town council meeting, he was nominated by Gary Grey to take the spot, but couldn’t be voted in due to an abstention by Valerie Seufert and a no vote from Richard Carson. By law, because the council didn’t choose a replacement, the choice was thrown to the local committee of the party that the former councilperson belonged to. In the end, the Republican committee came back to the person who’d been nominated in the first place — Emilius. He also ended up being sworn in twice as well. He was sworn in for the first time at the Republican committee meeting on June 8, and again at the public meeting on June 11. Emilius is a principal at GEOD Corporation, a family-run engineering and surveying firm in Newfoundland. He is also extremely active in the Republican party on both the town and county level. He serves as vice chair of State and National Affairs for the Sussex County GOP and served on the town’s planning board for a number of years.