The MANCHESTER Times Vol. 26 - No. 36
In This Week’s Edition
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM
Lakehurst Council Members Ask Santa For A Drone
Manchester Gets High Marks In Audit
BREAKING NEWS @
jerseyshoreonline.com
Community News! Page 11-15
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 18
Inside The Law Page 21
Classifieds Page 25
−Photo By Bob Vosseller (Above) There was no Christmas tree lighting event held this year in Lakehurst due to the COVID-19 restrictions on the number of attendees at gatherings. (Right) The Lakehurst Community Center’s interior Christmas tree was looking festive during a recent Borough Council meeting. By Bob Vosseller LAKEHURST – Due to the COVID-19 limits on inside and outside gatherings, this year’s Christmas tree lighting
ceremony had to be canceled but Mayor Harry Robbins pointed out that the tree was lit up brightly outside the community center for all to see.
Emotional Supports In Place For Students With COVID
By Chris Lundy TOMS R I V ER – When a student is diagnosed with COVID-19, contact tracers will tell everyone they’ve been close to, in order to warn them, and to slow the spread to others. The identity of the
student is not made public in order to protect their privacy. But this is 2020. News spreads. Kids find out who is sick. Even if the kids are learning from home, they are all connected on their remote devices. They are tex-
ting and group chatting. Soon, everyone knows. This adds a new wrinkle for district leaders in trying to prevent bullies which might be literally adding insult to injury. Districts throughout (Students - See Page 7)
An interior tree also brought out some holiday atmosphere inside the center during a recent borough council meeting. One item that
might soon be on the council’s Christmas gift list is a drone. A resident commended the town for putting
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By Chris Lundy MANCHESTER – An auditor had nothing but good things to say about the state of the township’s finances during a recent Township Council meeting. Every year, every municipality has an outside vendor perform an audit of their finances to determine what could be improved. In 2020, they are reviewing 2019’s finances. For the second year in a row, the auditors had no recommendations for the township, said Andrew Zabiega, who presented the audit’s findings. Manchester has $19 million in debt. This sounds like a large amount, but the state allows them to have as much as $117 million in debt. Township officials agreed that they did not want $117 million in debt. Recently, officials were able to refinance some of the bonds that they owed, cutting between $300,000 and $400,000 in the amount owed, Zabiega said. “You’ve been very frugal with your debt,” he said. The surplus is up by $30,000. Every town has a surplus fund. This gets dipped into for emergencies. The fact that it went up a little bit means that the township was able to replenish anything that was spent, and then add a little more of a cushion for the future. The township has a tax collection rate of 98.5%, he said. (Audit - See Page 4)
(Santa - See Page 4)
Lakehurst Goes To Full Remote Learning
By Bob Vosseller LAKEHURST –School District Superintendent Loren Fuhring discussed with members of the Board of Education and residents that students have been moved back to a full remote learning model with the recent closure of the school building. During a Zoom meeting of the Board of Education, Fuhring explained that the decision to go full remote was made for reasons of safety. “We have determined as of today (December 9)
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we will go full remote learning through January 18. The school is closed that day (January 18 due to Dr. Martin Luther King Day) and students will return on January 19,” she said. “We have no cases reported from the school at this time or due to the school. However we have a number of families, staff on quarantine due to outside exposure, again not from our school. Unfortunately, at this time we feel with those (Learning - See Page 10)
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