Town will ask sheriff's office to man school post
BY MARK ROSMAN Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Members of the Township Committee have given the goahead for Township Administrator Tara Lovrich to contact the Monmouth County Sheriff 's Office for the purpose of requesting that an officer be placed atManalapan High School.

Manalapan is one of three schools in the Freehold Regional High School District to have a full-time School Resource Officer (SRO) assigned by a municipal police department.

Manalapan police officer Jonathan Suydam is the SRO assigned to the high school, but he is presently serving with the armed forces in Afghanistan. FRHSD Superintendent of Schools James Wasser has asked the committee to assign an SRO to the high school in Suydam's absence.

Speaking at theApril 23 meeting of the Township Committee, Mayor Michelle Roth said a resident contacted municipal officials and informed them that the Union County Sheriff 's Office has entered into shared services agreements with municipalities in that county.

Roth said the resident suggested that Manalapan officials approach the Monmouth County Sheriff 's Office to determine if an officer from that department can be assigned to SRO duty at the high school while Suydam is serving in the armed forces.

Lovrich was directed to write to the Monmouth County Sheriff 's Office in order to begin a dialogue about that idea.

During the public comment portion of the committee meeting, residents Lewis Burgess and Joe Caporrino came forward to comment about an ongoing situation at Bucks Head Park, which is in the Bucks Head residential subdivision off Union Hill Road.

Last fall residents of the development informed township officials about numerous quality of life issues at the park, including young people drinking and using drugs at the park, a lack of garbage cans and harassment of people as they walked past individuals who were "hanging out" at the park after it closes at dusk.

In his comments at the April 23 meeting, Burgess said, "I am encouraged because the Manalapan Police Department jumped on this situation" with increased patrols of the park. He said Capt. Lou Moreto and Police Chief Stuart Brown reached out to residents to deal with the situation. Burgess asked for the increased patrols to continue as the warmer weather arrives.

Brown, who was at the committee meeting, said a plan has been devised that will allow residents to share their concerns about the situation at Bucks Head Park with police without fear of retribution from the people who are causing the problems at the park. He said the fear of retribution was a key concern for the residents.

Burgess was not as complimentary about the Department of PublicWorks. He said DPW employees who came to the park to deal with certain aspects of the situation drove a truck into the park and left furrows in the grass. He also said DPW employees cut down brush and left it in the park and cut down poles and left stumps which pose a danger to people using the park.

Roth noted that the committee had just approved funding for lights to be placed at Bucks Head Park. She said the comments about the DPW's actions would be investigated.