MANCHESTER e

By Bob Vosseller

MANCHESTER – Ninth District Lawmakers visited the senior communities, warning them to keep an eye on legislation that would allow people younger than 55 to buy into the developments.

Co ee With Cops Brews Up Good Rapport With Police And Community

The bill, S-2537, and its Assembly counterpart, A-4106, would allow any property owner in a senior community to sell to a buyer regardless of age. Realtors and others are supporting this change, saying it allows seniors to live in a property while deeding it to their children so they won’t pay more if they go into assisted living. They also note that the senior community guidelines would still enforce that the person living there would be a senior.

Opposition to this bill note that it’s already

(Communities - See Page 4)

Lawmakers Warn: 55+ Communities Under Fire Former Councilman Sworn In Again

By Bob Vosseller

Wallis, who chose not to run for reelection last fall, was chosen by the Council to fill the unexpired term of retiring Councilman Sam Fusaro. Fusaro resigned last month after having served on the governing body since 1990. He and his wife moved to Toms River. Joined by members of his family, Wallis took the oath of office. “I want to thank everyone here. My whole family is here, especially my wife. As long as I have been doing this, except for my little break of a month and a half, she

(Councilman - See Page 5)

By Bob Vosseller MANCHESTER

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Start with some conversation in a cozy setting, add a little caffeine, police officers and members of the public and you have Coffee with Cops.

For more than a year now, Manchester’s men and women in blue have been meeting up with residents at various spots around the community ranging from diners, to grocery store parking lots to pizzerias to simply share some beverages and food and listen to their concerns, questions and thoughts.

Detective Joseph Fastige of the police department’s investigations bureau said the program kicked off about a year ago.

“Around November of 2021 after everything started to settle down

Former Ocean County Administrator Hired

By

Vosseller

operations of the town.

Block, 71, of Stafford Township, is the town’s former mayor. He was elected in 1983 and served as mayor for 26 years. He was the Ocean County deputy clerk prior to his

(Administrator - See Page 5)

Includes: arrangement conference, removal from place of death, alternative container Batesville ccbmdfc, transfer to crematory, crematory fee

Communities:

Continued From Page 1 challenging to know who is living in a home, and that there are school bus stops in the senior communities. They worry that this bill would turn a senior community into a normal neighborhood, fill up the schools, bring up taxes, and impact quality of life. They also note that senior communities already allow the deed to pass to someone’s child. They worry that property moguls are going to buy up the senior communities and rent them out instead of allowing retirees to have a place of their own.

Senator Christopher Connors, Assemblywoman DiAnne Gove, Assemblyman Brian Rumpf (all R-9th) and their chief of staff Jay

Smith came to Manchester recently to speak out against the bill. They were the guests of the Manchester Township Coordinating Council which is made up of each of the township’s age-restricted communities.

Connors said S-2537 was introduced by the chairperson (Sen. Troy Singleton) of the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee which Connors said he is a member of. “With respect to him, I feel he is misguided with this piece of legislation which would allow units to be sold to individuals that do not meet the age parameter.”

An individual could be less than 55 years of age and purchase a unit in an age restricted community under the proposed legislation. Conners said current law states you have to have at least one person that lives in a dwelling unit that meets the age restriction of the community. For a 55+ community, 80% of them must meet the age restriction. For 62+, 100% have to be of that age.

“It is very difficult to monitor that,” Sen. Connors added. “If you don’t meet those parameters you could essentially lose your certification to be able to have an age restricted community. How do you monitor that? One of the ways that we always felt was to guarantee that those who bought the units were 55 and over and that would be easier to monitor than it would be if we just open it up.

“There always seems to be an assault on our common interest communities,” Connors said. “Legislation throughout time immemorial - during my initial tenure in the legislature going back to 1989 - there has always been some form of legislation which is attempting to put into statutory law, provisions that were done for common interest communities.”

He told the audience, “you have always enjoyed self-governance throughout the years, some of the legislation that has been proposed were a result of problems that occurred in other parts of the state.

“When it comes to Trenton, there is always an assumption that (Trenton) can run things better and as a result legislation has been introduced over the course of the last 20 years that would change the way common interest communities would organize themselves and how they would represent their own communities. We happen to believe that is a misstep and the wrong thing to do,” Sen. Connors said.

He said he didn’t feel all common interest communities have the same problems “that some of the other communities had in the northern part of the state. We don’t need intercession from Trenton to tell us how we should run.”

The Senator said, “you retired to these communities for a specific reason, you wanted to be able to determine how you lived and you wanted to protect yourselves which is why they call it a common interest community - because the interests are common for the people that live there. The biggest strategy in Trenton seems to be to want to open up the common interest communities to individuals that may not share the same interests to the people that organize them and have run them all these years.”

Connors warned the MCC that such efforts involve, “individuals that don’t meet the age restrictions that we currently have.” He noted that age restriction was only allowed under state regulations in relation to common interest communities which is why 55 and older or 62 and older communities can exist.

Gove and Rumpf echoed Connors remarks denouncing the current legislation posed by Sen. Singleton and co-sponsored by other legislators that would impact common interest communities and vowed to provide updates to the MCC about the issue. They urged residents to communicate their dislike of the legislation to those in Trenton. Berkeley Township Council has enacted an ordinance that codifies senior communities’ age restriction, essentially making the town able to enforce it.

Administrator:

Continued From Page 1 election as county clerk in 2003. He was reelected in 2008. He was later appointed as the county administrator. by The Asbury Park Press. Arace was supported by Gilmore in both his 2021 and 2022 mayoral races against former Mayor Robert Hudak. sponding to a later comment from the public questioning the appointment, noted that it was in the mayor’s purview to appoint a new business administrator and vouched for Block’s ability to serve in that role.

Block’s tenure as Ocean County administrator ended last year when the Board of Commissioners decided not to reappoint him. Michael Fiure was appointed to replace him.

In Manchester, Block replaced Brandon Umba who was hired by the former Hudak administration in July of 2021. Umba, of Medford, is a Republican 9th District Assemblyman in Burlington County.

Council Vice President James Vaccaro chaired the meeting in the absence of Council President Roxanne Conniff who was not present due to illness. He and new Councilman Hankins voted in the affirmative while Councilwoman Michele Zolezi abstained as she objected to the late notification of added items to the agenda during that meeting.

Block’s name was on the list approved during a January 23 Council meeting. Mayor Robert Arace’s appointment of him was passed in a two to zero vote as there were only three members of council present for that session.

Councilman:

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Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore voiced his opposition to Block’s removal according to an article has always been there backing me up. I couldn’t do this without her.”

“My daughter, the fi rst time I was sworn in, she was 12 years old. I have my brother in-law here, who has been in the town here for 50 years almost, my other brother-inlaw has served as a councilman. We’ve been taught to service your community and do things for them. I also want to thank the council. They allowed me to come back and do this,” Wallis said.

Wallis said, “I think this will be an exciting year, especially with the council president (Roxanne Conniff ), Councilman

(Joseph) Hankins, it brings new freshness to this whole organization. I’ve seen the town since Mayor Arace has been elected, those people who work in this building, they are just a different crowd now. He has given them the respect that they have always needed to do what they are supposed to do.”

The township’s political organizations have no say in the choice of who might submit their application letter or who is selected to fill a council position, that is decided by the rest of the Council. In Manchester’s form of government, those of any political affiliation or none at all, can present a letter of interest with their background that is reviewed by the Council.

Resident Edward Lynch wasn’t happy with Block’s appointment. “I want to express my disappointment with the mayor appointing what appears to me to be a political payback for township administrator.”

Township Attorney Lauren Staiger, re-

Block was making over $206,000 a year when working for the County. The resolution that approved his contract for his new job has his salary set at $149,000. Umba’s salary was $156,000 annually.

According to the Township, Block started on February 1. He told The Manchester Times, “I look forward to getting involved and doing a good job. I’m two weeks in.”

Coffee:

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(from the COVID-19 pandemic) we started to do coffee with a cop once a month in Manchester and Whiting. We try a different section of town.”

Sometimes it has been “Pizza with the Police” or “Cookies with a Cop.” “We’ve done that, we had pizza with the police at Linda’s on Route 37 which was better for evening hours. It is important to reach everyone,” Fastige said.

“Moving forward we definitely want more events on weekends,” the detective added. Chief Robert Dolan announced the most recent Coffee with Cops event was on Saturday at the township’s Dunkin Donuts to accommodate those who couldn’t make it due to working during the weekday.

“If we do more on the weekends, we have a better chance of people showing up,” Fastige added. Detective Fastige said that he attends the events and “our traffic safety guy, someone from patrol, today we have our SRO (School Resource Officer) and we usually tell everyone during roll call, we’re having coffee with the cops, come on out. We have a patrol sergeant and lieutenants and they mingle.”

Last month’s Coffee with Cops program was held at a relatively new business in town, The Toast Café at 1900 Route 70 and it also included Chief Dolan, Mayor Robert Arace, Council Vice President James Vaccaro and Councilwoman Michele Zolezi.

“I run our social media and I get a lot of issues and concerns through there, but they don’t see my face and I don’t see theirs. This is in person and it is actually better as it gives us a chance to talk and conversate and we learn so much about the concerns and issues of Manchester Township. I love it. I’m glad we started it and we’re going to keep doing it,” Fastige said.

Along with the officers, there is usually a table featuring a Manchester flag draped over it filled with swag items and useful reading material concerning police and township programs.

“I learned early on that if you have some swag, some nice cool stuff on the table, people are drawn to it. We have some coffee mugs, Frisbees and some little stuff for the kids,” he added.

Toast Café owner Yehuda Fryer said he was pleased with the event. “It was very beautiful. People can interact with the cops. Manchester is a small but big town and you don’t always see officers come in to a store and I think Coffee with the Cops is a great idea. We are also giving out reflectors for the Jewish community so on a Friday night when they are walking around, they don’t get hit by a car.”

Mayor Arace was also pleased to see the large turnout at the event that brought law enforcement and the community together. Councilwoman Zolezi noted the professionalism and dedication of the police department.

Chief Dolan told The Manchester Times that the department’s roster is about 72 full time officers and two part-time officers. “I think this is a great outreach and we will continue to do it once a month and will continue to select different locations.”

“I really like it. I think it is good for the community in general because our officers get out and meet people. The days of foot patrols are long gone. The community engagement that you had is gone due to lack of time but this brings people together,” the chief added.