MANCHESTER – Mayor Robert Hudak and township officials are excited about the purchase of more open space in the community.
The mayor told The Manchester Times that the purchase of the 16.5 acres near Hilltop Nursery School. “What happened was a developer came to us requesting us to vacate streets so they could build more houses on the site.”
A street vacation is a technical term for when a town deletes paper streets. These are streets that are drawn on a map of a town but in reality, there is just an undeveloped area.
“I don’t know if they had an official plan or not. That was the thought of what they wanted to do and we turned around and said ‘Instead of vacating the streets why not buy the property and use it for open space?’ We are now able to preserve that property and stop housing development from occurring there,” Mayor Hudak said.
The mayor said it would be used for open space, “public land and preserved so it won’t be developed in the future.” This is separate from an Ocean County park project involving recently purchased open space within the township.
“This is on the other side of Route 37,” the mayor said.
This land will be paid with open space funds according to Township Clerk Sabina Martin. The $49,960 purchase is still in the process of awaiting paperwork from the title company. The property is made up of various parcels in the same area.
Business Administrator Brandon Umba explained during the first reading of the ordinance that originally, “the owner of the property wanted us to vacate our land and vacate streets in favor of them creating new block lots to build homes.”
“The amount of land they were requesting from us was something of a cumbersome nature to the point we asked ‘How much are you invested in building these homes?’ At that point we negotiated it so that it was all the paper streets and the developments over by Hilltop by Route 70 in between Manchester Boulevard,” Umba added.
The ordinance was passed on final reading last month and Mayor Hudak said during that meeting “I’m really glad the council is on board with that. I’ve been a big proponent of it and it will be a really great addition to our community.”
Lots For Sale
During the Township Council’s August 8 meeting three ordinances were introduced authorizing the sale of property lots in the township at 112 Champlain Street, 1410 Sixth Avenue and 1408 Sixth Avenue. A public hearing on those ordinances will be held during the Council’s August 22 meeting.
Business Administrator Brandon Umba said “we review this twice a year and so this will be it for this year. The mayor has instituted a moratorium on selling properties right now after this because we are still reviewing the drainage study that we have in Pineland Park which we might be utilizing those different lots for drainage purposes.”
Heritage Minerals To Be Gated
Jersey Central Power & Light will be installing several gates on their property which is designed to block illegal trespass to adjacent Heritage Minerals property. Law enforcement have been trying to deter trespassers due to numerous nuisance and safety violations.
Police Chief Robert Dolan reported during that meeting that more that around 300 summonses have been issued this summer through a cooperative effort with Berkeley and Toms River police departments that also border the property.
Members of council commended the efforts made by the police department to bring that matter under control and to provide an increased police presence at the site where trespassers have been illegally entering the area for parties and gatherings in recent months.
“Thank you, the Sheriff’s Department, Toms River and Berkeley police departments and the state police. People are coming up to me expressing they are very happy with the response,” Mayor Hudak said.
“Please extend that to all your officers,” the mayor told Dolan.
Increasing Fines
The governing body voted to introduce an ordinance which would increase quality of life violations from a maximum fine of $100 to $500 given the specific violation.
Township Attorney Kelsey McGuckin-Anthony clarified that this would allow the township to impose a fine up to that rate but it would not necessarily be an automatic $500 fine. This would apply beyond the Heritage Minerals situation, designed to protect the quality of life in all areas of town.
Mayor Hudak and Council President Joan Brush attended the recently held National Night Out event held in Lakehurst which this year combined participation with both the township’s police department and Lakehurst’s officers.
“Our Recreation Department was there and it was very well attended. They had the goggles to show what it is like to be impaired by drugs or alcohol and it looked easy so I tried it and I put them on and could not put my one foot in front of the other. I was told to sit down,” Brush said, laughing.
Township Events
Chief Dolan noted the monthly Coffee with Cops program which this month was restructured as Pizza with Police” was held at Linda’s Pizza on Route 37 and was very successful.
Brush reminded the public that the Recreation Department’s Hawaiian Night was rescheduled to August 19 and that contingent to weather, Wednesday night concerts at Harry Wright Park were continuing.