Ordinance requires check of door-to-door solicitors

BY FRAIDY REISS
Correspondent

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Sales-men and semitrailers are the focus of a pair of ordinances scheduled to be introduced at the Oct. 25 meeting of the Township Committee.

One measure would revise the township’s solicitation and canvassing ordinance, which currently divides solicitors into three groups with three different sets of rules and time restrictions.

The new, simplified ordinance would differentiate only between commercial solicitors, including “vendors, peddlers, hawkers and canvassers of commercial products or services,” and non-commercial solicitors, including those involved in “political campaigning, advocacy, education or proselytizing.”

Commercial solicitors would have to undergo a criminal history check before they could obtain a solicitation license, under the provisions of the ordinance. They would have their door-to-door activities restricted to 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Additionally, residents would have the option of joining a Do Not Solicit list, which both commercial and non-commercial solicitors would have to follow, if the new measure is adopted.

The proposed ordinance is a response to a murder in Toms River in which a door-to-door magazine salesman stabbed a 77-year-old woman to death, Mayor David M. Salkin said.

A second measure to be introduced next week would make it illegal for drivers in the township to use an engine brake, a noisy braking system found primarily on tractor-trailers.

An engine brake – the most common brand of which is the Jake Brake, manufactured by the Jacobs Company – uses engine compression to slow a large vehicle, especially on steep downhill slopes, thereby preventing deterioration of the wheel brakes. But the braking system emits a loud roar when it is used and it has been banned in many areas.

In other business, the township will apply for a $600,000 Green Acres loan to be used for the development of Opatut Park, Route 79 and East Freehold Road.

The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres program provides long-term, low-interest loans and grants to municipal and county governments for the acquisition of open space and for the development of outdoor recreation facilities.

The money, which brings to $1.1 million the total amount Green Acres has loaned the township for the park, will be paid back at a rate of 2 percent over 20 years, Township Administrator Thomas Antus said.