A Marked Man

Our neighborhood has changed dramatically in the last few years, as houses have sold and younger families have moved in. The cul-de-sacs are once again filled with wagons, toys, tricycles and the sounds of children playing. The joyous sounds of unstructured playtime drift my way in the late afternoon, reminding me of when my boys were young, shooting hoops out front or organizing the other kids for a pre-dusk game of "jail break."  

Games from my childhood are lost now: Mother May I?, Freeze Tag, Red Light/Green Light, even Jacks and jump rope have been stashed in the past. One game lives on, though: rock, paper, scissors. I was thinking about this the other day, reminding myself that paper covers rock, rock trumps scissors, scissors cut paper, and so on, because no matter how many times I've played that game, I have to repeat that mantra over and over again to remember what does what and to which.

This simple game popped into my mind last week when thinking about the upcoming town council race: Does beauty trump experience, or does age trump beauty? Does youthful exuberance top a willingness to serve? I sat down with Mark Hines recently, to get a feel for the Democratic ticket, and to find out why he has taken a lot of heat over the campaign to save Open Space funds for, well, open space.

It wasn't until I started writing for Patch in 2011 that I began attending town council meetings. Greg Newcomer has been a mustachioed presence "in the cheap seats" for 18 years, Mark Hines for at least five. From the outset, Mark and Greg were both very vocal about the use (or abuse) of Open Space funds. Although council rescinded the resolution to use that money for the fields project, it is important to note the Democrats were the ones who fought that hard and unpopular battle from the beginning.

Mark Hines has taken it on the chin from many anonymous commenters on Patch, so I felt it was important to find out why. Why is he running? Why has he been singled out as being divisive? How can he and the Democrats help fix what is ailing Moorestown?  

Mark Hines and his lovely wife Elizabeth Endres have lived with their two children in Moorestown for 17 years. Both are food scientists from the Midwest who came east for their careers and decided Moorestown was the perfect place to raise their young family. Both Mark and Elizabeth are activists. They are involved in their church, they're active at Sunnybrook, route: {:controller=>"listings", :action=>"show", :id=>"sunnybrook-swim-club"} --> and Mark sits on the board of MEND. When they didn't like where town council was going with its stubborn campaign to use Open Space funds for field improvements, they created , which was then . We have specific plans for Main Street, as well as Lenola. We would love to have a 'Main Street manager,' someone whose job it is to create a climate conducive to growth," Mark said. "We're thinking that maybe could be used to salary a Main Street manager for a two-year contract. There has to be a pro-business attitude and