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NJ mayor sorry he used city generator for ice cream shop

A New Jersey mayor has apologized for using a municipal generator to keep the refrigerator running at his ice cream shop, CBS New York reported.

North Haledon Mayor Randy George northhaledon.com

When Superstorm Sandy knocked out power for many residents of the northern New Jersey town of North Haledon, the Department of Public Works superintendent offered Mayor Randy George a spare generator. George accepted and used the generator to keep his ice cream from melting.

George now says he regrets the decision.

"I shouldn't have said 'yes,'" he told 1010 WINS. "I should have said 'no,' and the next morning when I woke up, I realized I should have said 'no,' and I brought the generator back."

"I was in the middle of a lot of things. You know, getting a shelter ready, getting gas for the emergency vehicles. I wasn't thinking and I made -- it was a wrong decision," George said.

The mayor also reportedly allowed Police Chief Robert Bracco to take another municipal generator home, but he said he believed that decision was authorized, since Bracco had worked long hours in the wake of the storm.

North Haledon's borough attorney is working to determine whether any laws were broken.

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