MANCHESTER – For several township meetings now, Council Vice President James Vaccaro has been recommending to his fellow council members that they examine the idea of establishing a senior center within the township.
He’s received little feedback but during last week’s council meeting, Councilman Craig Wallis suggested to Council President Roxy Conniff that she form a committee to investigate the feasibility and need of such a facility.
“I would like our council members to discuss the need for a senior services community center that we would establish in Manchester Township,” Vaccaro said.
“We keep going over it,” Councilman Wallis said. “My suggestion to you (Council President Conniff) is that you form a committee of the council to look into the viability of it. I know every senior development has a club house so they may not have as much of a need but we can look at if there is a need and where it would go and what it would look like.”
“It is something the mayor and I talked about,” Conniff replied.
Council Comments
In other news, Councilman Joseph Hankins reported that he recently spoke before members of the New Jersey Assembly at the State House in Trenton as part of the public safety awareness committee “on a report that I was chairman of for volunteer improvement and retention. We are going to work on some things and hopefully we can do a better job of holding on to our volunteers (in the area of emergency service response) once we get them.”
“I contacted Congressman Chris Smith about the SAFER grants and the AFG grant that come up every year but we want to make sure he is in support of those grants. Every year they come up for a vote. On February 23 a letter was written by two senators to try and make sure these two grants were supported,” he added.
Hankins also noted that during a prior meeting, resident Gail O’Connor had reported about the resident of a Canterbury Drive unit who had put rat poison on the lawn as a means to prevent dogs walking on the property.
O’Connor noted that this was an inappropriate action by the man who lived there and that it would could harm other animals in the neighborhood as well as people. “She was concerned about people leaving poison out where dogs could get it and other animals,” Hankins said.
“A resident of the Leisure Village West community contacted the Manchester Township Police Department on Dec. 23, 2023, to report an incident alleging the misuse of a pesticide. The Leisure Village West grounds manager reported the same incident to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection on Dec. 27, 2023. The DEP Bureau of Pesticide Control conducted a site visit and is reviewing the matter,” NJDEP Press Director Lawrence Hajna told The Manchester Times.
The councilman said, “New Jersey Wildlife Management has a hotline. They have laws that govern in the improper use of poison.” The phone number is 877-927-6337. “They sound like they were more than happy to come out to anyone who leaves poison out where wild animals could get them.”
He would also like to see the township market itself as the “Gemstone as the Jersey Coast” in an effort to secure more small businesses, commercial establishments, franchise restaurants, and medical health care firms to provide services for Manchester residents.
Vaccaro however emphasized that any effort would have to “maintain the township’s rural character as we grow.”
Councilwoman Michele Zolezi noted her reappointment to an Environmental Protection Agency citizens advisory committee for the next two years. “I am very excited about representing Manchester, Ocean County and New Jersey at the federal level. We are talking about sustainability, environmental impacts and things of that nature and how we can work with the rules and regulations and funding. We typically meet once a month.”
