Pringle, right, in his capacity as Red Bank’s borough attorney, with Mayor Pasquale Menna at a 2007 meeting.
Eating crow, Belmar Mayor Ken Pringle says he’ll accept an invitation to tour Staten Island for a day to make amends for stereotyping of island residents and other visitors to his hometown.
Pringle also tells the Asbury Park Press he’ll quit writing the newsletter that blew up in his face when he characterized some Belmar tourists as “guidos” and epoxy-haired, cat-fighting women from Staten Island.
Pringle’s faux-pas generated widespread media attention, including a New York Post article that labeled him a “beach bum” from a “two-bit Jersey beach town.”
From the Press:
The mayor and the Staten Island group, SINY, have not yet set a date for his visit to the island, though Larry Ambrosino, the director of the nonprofit group, said he hoped to welcome the mayor sometime next week.
Pringle stressed that his acceptance of the invitation does not mean he needs to change his feelings toward the island.
“I have no adverse opinion of Staten Island,” he said. “”My comments were humorous.”
He added that he plans to invite SINY to Belmar to see “firsthand” the problems that renters cause here and that he described in the newsletter.
