Mayor delays surgery until after the election BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer BRICK TOWNSHIP - Mayor Daniel J. Kelly has rescheduled the date of his hip replacement surgery until mid-November, after the mayoral election. "I have no intention of being out for long," he said. "I'll be walking around on crutches, but I'll be working as the mayor." Kelly had originally planned to have the surgery in January but decided to move it up to mid-September because he was in pain. "I thought about it again," he said. "It wasn't fair to the party to have this in the middle of an election. So we scheduled it for right after the election. I'll be recuperating in November." Kelly will have the surgery Nov. 16 at the Rothman Institute's satellite services unit at Atlantic City Medical Center instead of at its main facility in Philadelphia. Kelly, a Democrat, faces longtime Republican Councilman Stephen C. Acropolis in November in the race for the two-year-unexpired term of former Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli. Kelly has had rheumatoid arthritis for years. The disease runs in his family. He was active in sports and spent years running and coaching basketball, which took a toll on his joints, he said. "I've lived a hard life on my legs," he said. "I played basketball on concrete. But I don't have any regrets. Of all my family members, I seem to have it the worst. I'm just hoping my kids don't get it." He doesn't plan to be out for long after the surgery. Kelly broke his left leg years ago playing softball. Three days later he went back to work. "I worked for a company where I was the only New Jersey representative. I had a cast on my leg. I drove out to Maryland for a sales meeting and made sales calls." Scarpelli resigned as mayor on Dec. 8 for "personal reasons." One month later, on Jan. 8, he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark to accepting bribes from an unnamed developer. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 7. Scarpelli was elected to an unprecedented fourth term in 2005, in a narrow victory over Acropolis.