Real movement needed on first aid squad request

The members of the Eng-lishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad have as much patience as they have patients. The all-volunteer squad has responded to more than 3,000 calls for assistance during 2005.

The squad’s president, John J. Cuccia Jr., informed the Manal-apan Township Committee of that fact during a recent appearance before the governing body. It was another in a series of visits by a representative of the squad before the committee since 2000.

It was five years ago that the squad’s executives started asking municipal officials to provide assistance in finding land on which a new headquarters could be constructed. The squad’s present headquarters is on Sanford Street near Englishtown. That location has served the squad well for years, but as the south side of the community has developed, a more centralized location has become necessary to provide a better response time to emergencies.

Initially, officials were looking to buy a piece of property at the intersection of Pease and Taylors Mills roads in order to build a new headquarters, but that plan fell through.

Then it was suggested that the squad move to a location on Route 522 near the Manalapan Recre-ation Center. However, the proximity of a first aid squad headquarters to a house of worship caused concern which apparently scuttled that idea.

After that, it was thought that perhaps the developer of The Village at Manalapan retail project at Route 33 and Millhurst Road could provide room for a first aid building on his property. That idea also died.

Next, the first aid squad executives were told there would be a small parcel of land for a new headquarters at the Manalapan Recreation Center on Route 522, but far enough away from the house of worship so that previous concern would be out of the picture. It’s unclear how that latest promise went by the boards, but it, too, seems to have dried up.

If we have learned one thing over the years it is that government rarely moves with great speed. Projects like the installation of traffic lights, road repairs and the construction of municipal buildings rarely move with the haste that residents or those who are intimately involved with the project would like to see.

In recent years, Manalapan has not stood as a shining example of bringing municipal projects to fruition.

An addition to the police headquarters at town hall was discussed several years ago. Plans were made for renovations and an addition, but nothing has come of them. The police department continues to grow in numbers as the township continues to grow in population, but not a word has been spoken in years about those plans to expand the department’s physical structure. It is probably safe to assume that the need for more space still exists and that the cost of construction is significantly higher than it was at the time this project was first brought to the table.

It has also been several years since Township Committee members started to discuss the idea of building a teen and/or community center at the Manalapan Recre-ation Center. This eventually led to the formation of a private group that has been attempting to raise funds for such a project, but it is unclear if the members of the governing body still have any great enthusiasm for the idea.

The real cost of building and operating a teen and/or community center has never been revealed to residents and there is no clear indication that a majority of Man-alapan residents want or would use such a building. This idea remains somewhere between dead and suspended animation.

And that brings us back to the Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad, a dedicated group of volunteers who are ready to leave their families and to answer calls for help 24 hours a day. They want to be able to provide a timely response when residents throughout town require their assistance and they have tried to make that case to municipal officials since 2000. To date, their request has not resulted in any significant tangible action.

It is time for the Township Committee to take seriously the squad leaders’ request for assistance in getting a new headquarters off the drawing board and into existence. Certainly, purchasing new ambulances for the squad – as the committee recently moved to do – is a much appreciated show of support. That action should be followed in 2006 with real movement on a request for a new headquarters that has been collecting dust on the table for five years.