The BERKELEY Times Vol. 25 - No. 49
In This Week’s Edition
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM
More County Parks Opening
BREAKING NEWS @
jerseyshoreonline.com
Community News! Pages 10-11
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 14
Dear Joel Page 16
Inside The Law Page 17
−Photo by Chris Lundy Mill Creek County Park in Berkeley is one of the parks that will be opening. By Chris Lundy OCEAN COUNTY – Add three more to the roster of county parks that are open for passive recreation. On May 14, these parks were opened to the public: Enos Pond County Park in Lacey, Mill Creek County Park in Berkeley, and Lochiel Creek County Park in Barnegat. “As we continue to follow our plan to gradually reopen all 27 of
our County parks, I again want to stress these parks a r e b ei ng reopened for passive recreation only – walking, jogging, hiking, running and similar activities,” said Ocean County Freeholder Virginia E. Haines, Chairwoman of the Ocean County Department
of Parks and Recreation. “Park visitors must maintain social distancing and adhere to the other requirements set in place for the safety of the public and (Parks - See Page 4)
Homeless Still Struggling Through Pandemic By Chris Lundy OCEAN COUNTY – While the governor has issued orders for everyone to stay at home unless on emergency business, there are some who don’t have a home to begin with. “It is hard right now for the homeless in Ocean and Monmouth
counties,” said Minister Steve Brigham, a longtime advocate for local homeless. “A lot of pantries have closed, and the ones that are still open, a lot of them have cut back their hours.” Due to the virus, everyone has to be careful about exposure to the public.
“The churches that were hosting dinners for the homeless have stopped doing dinners. I’m getting calls from the homeless almost every day saying they need food and water,” he said. Paul Hulse, the CEO/ President of Just Believe, Inc. said his group has (Homeless - See Page 7)
−Photo courtesy Paul Hulse There are volunteers putting themselves on the front line through the pandemic.
May 16, 2020
Town Asks For Coronavirus Aid
By Chris Lundy BERKELEY – Congress enacted laws to help towns deal with the costs of COVID-19, but some towns like Berkeley are being left behind, local officials said. Mayor Carmen Amato reached out to lawmakers in both the Senate and House to plead his case for expanding aid to municipalities like his. One law provides aid for towns with populations of 50,000 or greater. Berkeley has 45,000. “This is unfortunate, as my community has one of the largest senior populations in the state,” he wrote to lawmakers. “I understand that Congressional leadership is working on another stimulus package. I am respectively requesting that the municipalities population threshold be reduced to include additional municipalities that are struggling with the effects of COVID-19.” Amato noted that this is a census year. He suspects that when the census is done, Berkeley’s population will be more than 50,000. When residents are hurting financially, tax collection goes down. Since taxes are the number one way municipalities get their revenue, towns throughout New Jersey are seeing less people paying their taxes. The problem goes further. Municipalities are responsible for collecting school taxes, county taxes, and any other taxes. The town then pays the correct share to the other entities. The other entities (schools, county) always get 100 percent of their collection, even if the town doesn’t. In other words, if people don’t pay $100,000 in taxes, the town still has to give that $100,000 to the other entities. This creates a hole in the budget. That hole can only be filled by taxing the people who paid their taxes, or by some other form of revenue. “I’m concerned that when tax collection drops, the municipality must make up for the loss in revenue as part of our budget in a line item called ‘reserve for uncollected taxes,’” Amato said. “I’m asking if part of the current stimulus package have any available funds to assist municipalities with funding to make up for lost property tax revenue? If not, as part of the new stimulus package being discussed I respectfully request funding be allocated to assist municipalities in making up tax collection shortfalls.” The Berkeley Township Council recently (Aid - See Page 4)
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