Waterford, NJ
The entrees at the Atco Diner are often not as appealing as what you can get on the side, the locals say.

It's not that the meals aren't mouthwatering.

Dennis Kain, a township resident and regular here, said he jokes to friends that he sold his stove because he's always here.

But Kain and others are also drawn here to catch up on township gossip and gripes. And no one can dish on that better than Dolores "Lori" Toussaint, whose family has owned this White Horse Pike diner for the last 42 years.

She usually holds court behind the lunch counter, barricaded behind rows of candy, gum and other snacks. She's quick to refill a cup of coffee or hustle into the kitchen to get an order. She is just as quick with advice, especially if the problem involves local government, the regulars say.

"There are some people who come and talk to me here but are not comfortable getting up in front of a microphone at a township meeting," Toussaint said. "But they come here and order, and they talk. I just do a job. I resolve issues. That's what I do."

Spurred by growing complaints she heard in the diner about a redevelopment effort that would have claimed several homes through eminent domain, Toussaint waged a successful campaign for a seat on the five-member township committee in 2001.

She ran as a Republican to counter the Democratic majority that supported the redevelopment effort. She said she was an independent before that.

After taking office she helped lead the effort to kill the redevelopment and eminent domain plan. Toussaint was elected to the first of three, one-year terms as mayor in 2003 by the other members of the committee.

But it hasn't been all roses for Toussaint.

Another campaign she launched to address alleged rampant misconduct in the township police force has aroused emotions, and, some say, divided the township of about 10,000 residents wholly located in the environmentally protected Wharton State Forest. Seven officers have been investigated for misconduct since the probe was launched. Two were found guilty and resigned. A third resigned before charges were filed. Four, including three who received favorable rulings from Superior Court appeals, are fighting the charges.

Toussaint makes no apologies for stirring things up. She knows it can sometimes be thankless, but also says somebody has to do it.

"Politics is a funny thing," said Toussaint, 57. "Sometimes you have to do the unpopular thing, but it's the right thing. No one is out to hurt anyone. We've been in business here for 42 years and employed a lot of families here. This police thing is not easy, but it's the right thing."

Toussaint said a lot of the complaints she heard were about trying to get a cop when needed. She said some officers were hanging out in a local Wawa and other locations instead of patrolling. At least one officer was charged with having sex while on duty and another was accused of tipping off drug suspects before a bust.

Critics say the probe has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and was blown out of proportion.

"This has been a terrible experience for Waterford," said Laurelle Cummings, who was a Democratic township committeewoman during the failed redevelopment effort and a former Camden County freeholder. "It's been awful. The whole town is upset by it."

Cummings said she doesn't patronize Toussaint's diner.

That's OK with the regulars here, though.

"This diner is like the bar "Cheers,' " said Carol Caruthers, 57, a township resident who said Toussaint befriended her several years ago when she was down on her luck and that she'll be forever grateful. "It's a place where everybody knows your name. It's a heartbeat of the township."

But even Caruthers admits Toussaint makes people take sides.

"She is a polarizing person," said Caruthers. "I think she's a profile in courage. Seeing corruption and cleaning it up, it may be to her political detriment, we don't know that. She may have ruffled some feathers, but she did the right thing."

Caruthers makes no bones about whose side she's on. She's Toussaint's treasurer in her upcoming re-election campaign.

Toussaint is running for township committee on the Republican ticket with Shern J. Kier Sr. against Democrats Roeder D. Halbert and Maryann Merlino.

Caruthers insists her alliance with Toussaint came after she was already involved with pressuring township government to do something about an intersection that floods in front of her church at Carl Hasselhan Drive and Cooper Road. It was a campaign she kicked off in the diner.

Lewis Trunzo said he's also squarely in Toussaint's corner.

"I started coming here during the eminent domain thing," said Trunzo, who owns a house down the road from the diner on the White Horse Pike. "I think this place should be an historic landmark."

Toussaint makes no such claims to establish a landmark here, even though the walls of the diner are adorned with vintage pictures from her native Philadelphia, including a tough-looking, youthful picture of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo in police uniform.

She just said her diner is a place where she gets "the pulse of the community."

Originally published online here: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070723/NEWS01/707230347/1006