The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Oct. 22 was officially declared “Vito Mistretta Day” by the Township Council, in honor of a lifelong township resident credited with helping start the Hamilton Street redevelopment.
Mistretta, owner of Vito’s Head Shop on Hamilton Street, is an original member of what is now the Hamilton Street Advisory Board, as well as a founder of the Marconi Foundation of Franklin Township.
Mistretta was also Assistant Scout Master for Boy Scout Troop 10 and chairman of the Youth Correctional Institutional Complex within the state Department of Corrections, according to the commendation.
Mistretta was accompanied to the Council meeting by his family and friends, all of whom he thanked.
“I appreciate this honor,” he said.
“Amazing accomplishments for a man of 39,” Mayor Phil Kramer joked. “Thank you, Vito, for all you’ve done, you are a true citizen of the town.”
“I served with you on the Marconi Foundation, that’s where I got to know you, I’m proud to call you a friend,” Kramer said.
Deputy Mayor James Vassanella said that growing up in th etownship in the late 1960s, all of his friends got their first haircuts at the Mistretta barber shop.
Vassanella said he got to know Mistretta during teh latter’s tenure on th eoriginal Hamilton Street Business District board, which Vassanella credited for laying teh groundwork of teh current Hamilton Street redevelopment.
“The hard work that they did, including Vito, those early years is the reason we have the very large amount of growth and revitalization that we have now,” Vassanella said. “Keep up the good work and I hope you’re not retiring from all those things you’re doing, but if you are, enjoy, you deserve it.”
