Times
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS, INC.
THE BRICK
Vol. 14 - No. 48
Inside This Week’s Edition
Business Directory............................ 19 Classifieds......................................... 20 Community News.......................... 9-10 Dr. Izzy’s Sound News...................... 14 Fun Page .......................................... 18 Government ....................................... 7 Inside The Law ................................. 21 Letters to the Editor ............................ 6 Wolfgang ......................................... 27 WWW.MICROMEDIAPUBS.COM
March 26, 2016
Your FREE Weekly Hometown Newspaper | Serving Brick and Lakewood Townships
BlueClaws R amp Up For April Home-Opener
By Chris Christopher Chris Tafrow is 35 years of age, but he feels like a child. “Every year,” the Lakewood BlueClaws’ general manager
said of the season, “it feels like Christmas time.” The BlueClaws, the Philadelphia Phillies’ low Class A farm club, will play their regular-season
home opener April 14 against the Greensboro (N.C.) Grasshoppers at 6:35 p.m. at FirstEnergy Park. “I am super excited,” said Tafrow, a 1999 graduate of Toms
River High School East where he competed in baseball and basketball and played the snare drum in the Raiders’ band. “Just the other day, when we began setting up
The Lakewood BlueClaws take the field at their 2015 home opener. This year’s first home game is April 14.
School District Considers Staff Reduction, Self-Insurance
By Judy Smestad-Nunn BRICK – Tightening the school budget down from an original proposal could mean Brick Schools would switch to self-insured medical benefits and possibly shed 10 positions. At a special meeting March
21, Board of Education members voted for a tightened, tentative $143.56 million budget. The board had rejected introducing a larger budget at its March 17 meeting, which topped $147 million. (Taxes- See Page 13)
Budget Discussion: Repairs, Gas Prices
By Judy Smestad-Nunn BRICK- The discussion introducing an originally proposed budget of $147 million (later reduced to $143 million) between board members and administrators explained some of the line items in this year’s school budget spending. After four years of flat taxes,
the Board of Education rejected a tentative 2016-17 school budget that would have seen a spike in expenditures of $7.1 to the district’s $147 million budget. (See accompanied story in this issue.) Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said at the March (Prices - See Page 5)
the park, we had a good feeling. All of our planning is starting to happen.” There will be improvements at (BlueClaws- See Page 3)
–Photos courtesy Lakewood BlueClaws
NJ “Vulnerable” Target For Human Trafficking
By Judy Smestad-Nunn OCEAN COUNTY – Imagine children as young as 12 years old who have to perform sex acts, against their will, in exchange for shelter, food, clothing and attention. The sexual exploitation of children is the most hidden form of child abuse in the country and it is the nation’s least recognized epidemic, said Patty Mojta, social worker and department head of Prevent Child Abuse New Jersey, the only non-profit dedicated to preventing child abuse and neglect in the state. Mojta lecture, “The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in New Jersey” was held at the Toms River Library recently, focusing on domestic sex trafficking of children in the United States. Conservative numbers show that at least 100,000 minors are currently exploited through prostitution in the U.S. each year,
and some 100,000 to 300,000 of U.S. children are at risk of being sex trafficked and exploited, Mojta said. 83 percent of people trafficked in the U.S. are U.S. citizens, and all 50 states have reported cases. New Jersey is vulnerable because it is a tourist destination and is within a day’s drive to multiple major metropolitan cities. The state has many highways and truck stops, Atlantic City, and “hyper-masculine environments,”
such as major sporting events and military bases, Mojta said. Superstorm Sandy impacted the sexual exploitation of children because people became displaced and lost their jobs, resulting in individuals at their breaking point and on the brink of being volatile, she said. “What do you think of when you hear the words ‘teen prostitute?’” Mojta asked the audience. Some audience members said (Trafficking - See Page 12)
–Photo by Judy Smestad-Nunn Social Worker Patty Mojta, who is the department head for Prevent Child Abuse New Jersey, speaks on the scope of human trafficking found in the U.S.
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