Officials will address park 'hangout' issues
Action results from residents' complaints about Bucks Head site
BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Because a neighborhood park is supposed to be a safe and somewhat serene place, municipal officials are taking measures to help residents of the Bucks Head development reclaim their park after complaints were made that youths had turned the area into an unsavory and unsafe hangout.

The Bucks Head housing development is off Union Hill Road near Manalapan's border with Monroe Township.

Speaking at the Dec. 12 meeting of the Township Committee, Committeeman Richard Klauber, who serves as police commissioner, said he met with Police Chief Stuart Brown, Township Administrator Tara Lovrich andAllan Spector, the assistant director of the Department of Public Works (DPW), to review the problems that some residents of Bucks Head complained about during a recent Township Committee meeting.

According to residents who addressed municipal officials, the park has become a hangout where adults have to go after the weekend to clean up beer bottles and the remains of drug use. The residents said their children as well as young women have to avoid the area after dark because there is no lighting there. They said young girls are subjected to obscene catcalls by people who are protected by the darkness at the park.

Klauber said he and the other municipal officials visited the Bucks Head park to get a firsthand look at the scene. He said several solutions are being put into place. First, police patrols will be stepped up in the area.

Also, said Klauber, Jersey Central Power and Light was contacted about improving the lighting at the park. He said JCP&L's representatives reported that there has been an ongoing problem with the bulbs in the existing lights being broken by vandals.

Klauber said there was discussion about the possibility of installing wire cages around the light bulbs of the existing lights to prevent the bulbs from being damaged.

At a previous municipal meeting there was discussion about appropriating money in the municipal budget in order to provide additional lighting at the park.

Garbage cans will be placed in the area although it was acknowledged that there is a history of garbage cans being stolen from the park.

Klauber said it was decided that Manalapan's DPW employees will begin regular daily maintenance of the Bucks Head park.

Klauber said DPW administrators will put together a capital plan for inclusion in the town's 2008 budget for items such as renovations that could include a new basketball court. He said work would start soon to replace the fence around the existing tennis court.

Finally, Klauber said Brown will put together a curfew ordinance that will have "proper penalties."

In other business at the Dec. 12 meeting, the committee members voted to adopt an ordinance that will reappropriate $75,000 of unused money from previous bond ordinances to the present municipal budget in order to clean up and improve Thompson Grove Park on Thompson Grove Road.

The money to improve Thompson Grove Park will come from the following sources: a 2000 bond issue ($474), a 2002 bond issue ($17,236), two 2003 bond issues ($41,514) and a 2005 bond issue ($15,774).

For several years, resident Rhoda Chodosh has been doggedly pursuing a cleanup of Thompson Grove Park and a park where residents would be permitted to bring their dogs.

After the renovations are completed at Thompson Grove Park, residents will be permitted to bring dogs on a leash to the park. A stone road, new parking areas, walking paths and a great lawn are expected to be part of the project.

Chodosh thanked the committee for pursuing this project and said she is looking forward to seeing Thompson Grove Park restored to its former stature. Over the years, many of the walking paths in the park have become overgrown with vegetation. DPW employees will clear the brush from the paths and place wood chips along the walking trails.