Jenkintown mayor puts his lighter side forward
By Carolyn Davis, The Philadelphia Inquirer | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
If you went past the window of Fill A Bagel one morning this month, you might have seen
After kneading, he walked to a machine with a small conveyor belt that forms the dough into circles. Foley, 53, had to catch them with one hand, stretch them with the other, and then put them on a board. Like the classic I Love Lucy episode where chaos ensues when
"Everything is fun for 10 minutes," he said as he finally mastered the grab.
The publicity ploy, devised by arts festival organizers, may seem unorthodox for a mayor -- but not for Foley, an unpaid elected official who loves his town so much he'll do most anything to show it off.
"I don't just think he's the best mayor
Foley has a media bent; he earned his undergraduate degree at
When he and his family -- he has two daughters and a son -- were about to move to the borough from
"I never had been a joiner," he said, "never been involved in an elective capacity."
But when former Mayor
He again faced no opposition in his reelection bid last year and coasted to a second term.
"I'm thinking about not doing a third term, but I haven't made up my mind," said Foley, who doesn't envision running for any other office.
As mayor, he oversees the
He bumped into one himself in 2011 when his daughter, 15 at the time, hosted a party at their house and one attendee ended up hospitalized with alcohol poisoning.
Now, as overseer of the department, Police Chief
For instance, Bunker said, Foley led the effort to shutter a longtime massage parlor on
But it's his lighter side -- the polar opposite of some pols' manner -- that is most visible.
Foley, a marketing manager for a
His greatest fame came in April, when he ate at all 24 borough eateries on one day to promote restaurant week, tweeting as he went. Local news outlets and online sources ranging from a
By the time he got home that night, his wife said, "He just had that glossy look over him -- that he-would-never-eat-another-bite kind of look."
Like the time he read on the social-media website Reddit about "Pie it Forward," a group that describes itself as "on a mission to change the world with the power of pie." Last year, three people from the group traveled around
When Foley learned they were looking for a place to stay in the
"He kind of calls me randomly and says would it be all right if these folks come and stay at our house?" she said. "He never thinks, 'What's the likelihood they're serial killers?' That's very slim to none, so why not?
"They came and it was a great experience."
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