TIMES
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Inside This Week’s Edition
THE MANCHESTER
Vol. 22 - No. 14
WWW.MICROMEDIAPUBS.COM
July 23, 2016
Your FREE Weekly Hometown Newspaper | Serving Lakehurst, Whiting and all of Manchester
Christie’s Form�la Co�ld Do��le State Aid To Manchester “(The) Fairness Formula is spot-on and a needed remedy for towns like Manchester, that have been historically under-funded.” –Mayor Ken Palmer
–Photo by Jennifer Peacock Manchester stands to gain double its student state aid and $601 per average household in property tax relief under Governor Chris Christie’s school fairness formula. By Jennifer Peacock MANCHESTER – After advocating for changes for more than a decade, local officials see promise in Governor Chris Christie’s school fairness formula, saying it could double state aid to Manchester and ease local tax burden. The formula has received support from both the mayor and council in Manchester. At its regular July 11 meeting, Council— with Vice President Samuel Fusaro and Councilman Brendan Weiner absent—approved a resolution supporting the governor’s fairness formula. Council President James Vaccaro spoke to The Manchester Times later that week. “It’s a must. It’s a salvation for districts like Manchester that are throughout New Jersey.
Business Directory .............24-25 Classifieds................................23 Community News...............10-15 Dr. Izzy’s Sound News...............18 Fun Page..................................26 Health.................................18-19 Inside The Law ..........................21 Letters to the Editor......................8 Wolfgang.................................31
Without that additional funding, the costs are prohibitive. The people of Manchester need relief.” Under the governor’s plan, each school district would receive a flat $6,599 per pupil
enrolled while still receiving special education funds, which would about double the state aid Manchester receives. According to the governor’s projections, the average (State Aid - See Page 5)
Manchester Drops Energy Aggregate Months After Joining
By Jennifer Peacock MANCHESTER – Manchester has left the energy aggregate it joined with Lacey and Stafford townships. “One of our initial conversations…was the protection of the residents,” municipal clerk Sabina Skibo told The Manchester Times. The reason was price f luctuations and the bid for the basic generation service, or BGF. “ O n e of t he things Council thought was, let’s see if we bid the packet both ways, with and without particular wording. If the basic generation service dropped lower than the contract rate, that the contract would cancel out and nobody would have to opt out of the program,” said the clerk. “It would automatically go back to the BGF, or it would allow us to renegotiate the rate with them if the BGF dropped. Between Stafford and Lacey and the consultant, they felt that if we went with that wording, it was going to cause us to not get the savings we were trying to get. We wanted the wording, and the others would not agree to it.” With Stafford as the lead agency and (Aggregate - See Page 24)
Amid Warnings, Locals Leveling Up With Pokémon Go
By Shawn Smith Around midnight, the streets which are usually quiet are bustling with teens and young adults staring at their phones. Suddenly, someone cries out, “There’s a Ninetails over by Wells Fargo!” The mass of trainers rush around the corner
and out of sight, except for a few who have brought lawn chairs and set themselves up in front of the Toms River Fire Department on Robbins Street. Chances are that even if you live under a rock, you’ve heard of the newest Pokémon game (because people have probably
lifted the rock looking for one of the digital creatures). Pokémon Go is the newest craze, and within the short amount of time since its release just earlier this month, it has threatened to overtake Twitter with its number of daily users. It’s sent hundreds of locals
out on walks to spots such as parks, businesses and other landmarks. And police and business owners are noticing the uptick in pedestrian traffic, at all hours. The game uses “augmented reality,” in which Google Maps (Warnings - See Page 7)