Business View Civil & Municipal | July 2022

68 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 AT A GLANCE JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY WHAT: A delightful lakeside community, population 23,000 WHERE: Morris County, northwest New Jersey WEBSITE: www.jeffersontownship.net W hen life hands you lemons, they say to make some lemonade. That’s something the folks in Jefferson Township, New Jersey have been doing for years. “People came here to recreate,” states Mayor Eric Wilsusen, acknowledging the history of recreation on Lake Hopatcong that goes back to the 1800s. “We used to have hotels that were so grand. Lake Hopatcong, at one time, was the place to come to just because of the hotels that were built up around the lake. None of them exist anymore. They all burned down.” Jefferson Township lost their tourist industry back then. Lemons, for sure. But, slowly, they rebuilt, with cottages instead of hotels. Wilsusen explains, “A Lot of these on Township, New Jersey Lakeside Living at its best