JACKSON – A resident supported the township’s move to hire more police, but questioned their requirements at a recent Township Council meeting.
Resident Richard Egan, a retired police officer, asked the Council about an ordinance they passed concerning the hiring of future police. “Are you going to hire police without a civil service test? Is that what this says?”
“It allows a bit more latitude mostly for inter-department hiring,” Council President Martin Flemming said. “Everyone still has to pass the ordinances of the town and the prerogatives of the chief. Not all the towns of New Jersey are civil service.”
Flemming said, “at this time, we cannot hire anyone from a town that doesn’t have civil service. We’re not allowed to do it. This would allow us to do it.
Egan clarified, “so you are going to hire policemen that have been fully vetted and are actual police officers but someone in a town that is not civil service?”
The Council President answered, “if they have the capability to do it. It opens the door and offers us a bit more latitude for the officers we want to get.”
Resident Joseph Sullivan thanked Mayor Michael Reina and the council for their commitment to hire more police officers as “this ensures that as this township grows, our police department grows with it. As we see in other places in the country, they took an opposite opinion and they saw chaos. We don’t see chaos in Jackson. It is a safe community and we are all proud to live here.”
Rova Farms
During the public comment period Archpriest Serge Ledkovsky of Saint Vladimir Memorial Church spoke about the recent formation of the Rova Farms Advisory Committee whose purpose was to determine how that property would be utilized for recreational purposes. Rova Farms is adjacent to the church and also shares a cultural link to residents there.
“We greet this with joy and we do seek to actively work with the Township Council in any way possible and some of our people did put in their resumes to serve on it,” he said.
Environmental Issues
Resident James Rapp spoke about Jackson Township’s “rural nature and the hydraulic nature of our sub soils.
“We have an amazing amount of woodlands still in Jackson,” he said, noting that a bunch of the revenue that Jackson enjoys from tourism are hunters. “Hunters require a lot of raw land and undeveloped land in which to hunt.
“It may seem disproportionate to someone who comes from the city when they come to Jackson and see our vast woodlands. You can go several miles through Jackson Township and see woodlands,” Rapp added.
“It is absolutely critical that Jackson and the Jackson Council recognize what a gem Jackson Township is in the state of its preservation and its part in the global preservation of our atmosphere,” Rapp added, referencing a scientific forum he viewed that involved 360 scientists. “The time for deforesting is long over and it is time for reforesting.”
Rapp said, “Jackson stands at a unique position in that we still have much of our intact ecosystem. All we have to do is protect what we have. We are the source of many of the waterways that go west and east. We are very unique in that.”
“I am here to speak tonight for the waterways, animals and the trees because the science on the atmosphere and the science on what to do to reverse global climate change is very clear: it is to plant trees and to stop cutting down trees,” he added.
Grant Ideas
The council also sought public input on projects for Community Development Block Grant funding.
This marked the second of two public hearings on the issue. The governing body is looking at a few ideas for the project that would be funded through county money. Those plans included the possibility of automatic doors at township buildings, handicapped accessible areas at township parks and concrete entranceways into public buildings.
No one came forward to offer any additional comment during the public hearing.
