PLUMSTED – Residents asked what groups are allowed to use town hall, and what the process is for reserving it, during a recent Township Committee meeting. Officials responded by saying that the policy needs to be made official.
Resident Karen Lamphere questioned the application process for the municipal building located on Evergreen Road.
Township Attorney Jean Cipriani explained, “the business administrator (Jennifer Witham) and I will be having a conversation about setting up a policy. It has been a first come, first served basis if it wasn’t in use. If it is available it needs to be available for any group for a first come, first serve basis. There can be requirements regarding scheduling a time, held harmless and cleaning and those type of things.”
Witham explained that were she to get a request “and if it is available, we’ll see that the door is unlocked. We do have rules for the downstairs about putting things back the way you found it. If you were to have a gathering of over 25 people, we have a form that you can fill out to identify that there will be a lot of people in the parking lot and to notify first responders if there was to be a larger gathering.”
Cipriani noted there was no current adopted policy on a requirement of insurance for the use of the building. “That is one of the things that the governing body will be asked to consider.”
Committeeman Cuozzo said that “separate from my position as a committeeman, I also serve as the CEO for a not for profit in this town and there were four or five things that were required of me. I had to provide a letter of a certificate of insurance from our insurance company and the township facility had to be named.”
“I had to provide a copy of our organizational document, the mission of our organization had to align with township goals and they wanted the organization to have been formed within the township. In other words, constituents within our town participating in that organization,” he added. A letter had to be written “that outlined our plan and term of use on one piece of paper. That is what was required of me on the other side of things, years ago.”
“It sounds like there was a sort of past practice but there has not been an adopted policy by the governing body and there should be. The part about (aligning) township goals is problematic but we’ll talk about that when we get there,” the attorney added.
Those who regularly use the building include: the Township Committee, Township Land Use Board, Municipal Utilities Authority and there are actual court sessions held in the building.
Others who utilize the facility include the Township’s Environmental Committee, Drug and Alcohol Alliance, Recreation Committee, Ocean County Agriculture Board, Brownies, the Plumsted Republican Club, and recreation sports like baseball, football, basketball and softball.
Other groups request use of the room but on a less frequent basis. The groups noted are generally monthly.
Financial Matters
The township’s municipal budget introduction originally scheduled for April, will be on the agenda of the Committee’s May 4 meeting.
While not known at the time of the meeting, Plumsted was named among the recipients of an Ocean County Tourism grant for its Plumsted Proud Marketing Project. The grant is in the amount of $750.
