The
MANCHESTER Times
Vol. 26 - No. 24
In This Week’s Edition
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM
Lakehurst Officer Promoted To Lieutenant
Land Sales And Redevelopment Plans Approved
BREAKING NEWS @
jerseyshoreonline.com
Community News Page 12-13
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 20
Inside The Law Page 23
Fun Page Page 29
−Photo by Bob Vosseller Lakehurst Police Sergeant Iain James is promoted to the rank of lieutenant surrounded by his family as Borough Attorney Ian M. Goldman administers his oath of office. By Bob Vosseller LAK EHURST – Family, friends and fellow officers of the borough police department recently observed the promotion ceremony of Sergeant Iain James to his new rank of lieutenant. His promotion ceremony was held during the most recent borough council meeting. His oath was administered by Borough
Attorney Ian M. Goldman as his wife and children joined him. “I want to thank you for this opportunity and Chief (Matthew) Kline for his support and leadership and the officers of the Lakehurst Police and staff for their support,” the new lieutenant said. Chief Kline spoke about James’s promotion saying, “Today was a great day for the
Lakehurst Police Department. The department has not had a Lieutenant position within the ranks since 1999 (21 years).” James began his career in law enforcement as a Special Class 1 Officer in 2004 with the Lakehurst Police Department. He was hired as a Class 2 Special Police Officer by the Lakehurst Police Department in September of (Lieutenant - See Page 4)
Officials Still Demand New VA Clinic
By Chris Lundy OCEAN COUNTY – While local officials continue to push for a new veterans clinic, there doesn’t seem to be one on the horizon any time soon. The current building, the James J. Howard Outpatient Clinic, opened more than 25 years ago in Brick, but
the veteran population has since outgrown it. The facility services people from all over Ocean County, but also since it’s so close to the northern border, it’s easier for some Monmouth County residents to go there, too. There are two major problems with the Brick location: space
and parking spaces. There’s not enough space inside the building to serve the veterans that need help, and there aren’t enough pa rk i ng spa ces for them all to park either. While plans for the clinic seemed to be progressing, issues with the federal bidding process led the VA to can-
cel a contract to build the clinic. John Dorrity, the director of the Ocean County Veterans Services Bureau, said that the contractor got to the point of breaking g round and quit, so they had to start the whole process over again. As to what actually happened is unclear,
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but there are a lot of people pointing fingers, he said. He hasn’t heard any news about the project moving forward since this current rut. Even the location of the future VA is being debated. Toms River wants to move it to a spot off of Hooper
By Bob Vosseller MANCHESTER – Township officials approved several ordinances concerning land purchases and redevelopment plans during its most recent meeting. Those ordinances included the passage of one calling for the purchase of property for open space at 3576 Ridgeway Road and at 3110 on Route 547. Councilman Robert Hudak said that this property was very developable “so it is a good property” to purchase for open space purposes. An ordinance granting a 15-year tax exemption for a self-storage facility project to be constructed by Whiting Storage Urban Renewal was also approved. Council President Sam Fusaro noted that all of the township’s redevelopment sites “were in places where there were either issues of oil being spilled, environmental issues or snakes so to make the property useful and viable again we have offered these incentives.” Responding to a resident’s concerns about losing tax revenue on the property, Fusaro said “we’re losing a lot less than if the property remained undeveloped.” Mayor Kenneth Palmer added, “this project was a PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) and the township will actually get more for municipal revenues than it would under the normal tax obligation. When you do this PILOT, the developer doesn’t have to pay a portion of the school tax and the reason why we are open to doing PILOTs for commercial properties is basically because they are not sending kids to the public schools so the amount we would get is more than what we would have if this was a normal tax scenario.” The mayor responded that he couldn’t give an exact figure to what the fi rm was saving in taxes over a 15- to 20-year period but “we are getting more than we would have in a normal tax situation and as Council President Fusaro said if we didn’t develop the property. I believe this property has been vacant for 50 years.” He said he believed there was a small house (Land Sales - See Page 7)
(Clinic - See Page 4)
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