JACKSON – Fire officials received a proclamation celebrating a new fire tower located in the township.
Mayor Jennifer Kuhn had attended the recent dedication of the tower, where she received a proclamation on their behalf. During the most recent Township Council meeting, she presented it to them.
The tower dedication ceremony and the presentation during the council meeting served to honor firefighters and remind residents to be careful while in area woodlands and to showcase the efforts of the New Jersey Forest Service in maintaining safety during wildfire season.
Mayor Kuhn said, “it has been 78 years since we’ve had a (new) tower, we have one in Jackson.”
The nearly 80-year-old, 136-foot Lakewood tower was built by Jersey Central Power and Light in 1944 for a sum of $360. Back in 1974, the Lakewood Tower was moved about 300 feet due to a property dispute but remained operational after that. The structure was decommissioned in July of 2024 and later demolished.
The 133-foot Veterans Fire Tower, which fire officials described as being located at “an ideal site” based at the Forest Resource Education Center (FREC) on 370 East Veterans Highway cost approximately $1,648,900. It offers improved wildfire detection and coverage in Ocean County. It will be used to monitor for wildfires especially with the older tower’s decommissioning.
The new tower began construction in early 2025 and featuresmodern observation capabilities as part of the NJ Forest Fire Service’s network of over 20 towers. The towers are used for fire detection and to coordinate response with ground units and aircraft. Veterans Fire Tower will be staffed during fire-threat days.
“I was at the ribbon cutting and Senator Latham Tiver, (a Republican member of the New Jersey Senate, representing the 8th Legislative District) presented it to me and I as well as council felt it deserves to go to our fire departments. So, we asked them to come here.”
“This newly constructed fire lookout tower in Jackson replaces a previously dismantled structure and represents a significant advance in fire monitoring capacity improving visibility, response time and overall public safety,” Kuhn said reading the proclamation.
Firefighting Ordinance
That evening Fire District 3 representative Michael Grossman, Fire District 2 representative Scott Rauch and Fire District 4 representative Stanley O’Brien explained the fine points of Ordinance 2026-13 entitled Fire Prevention that was voted on and unanimously adopted by the council and concerned firefighting procedures.
Grossman said, “We were audited by the DCA (NJ Department of Community Affairs) years ago and they said we had to revamp our township ordinance for the fire prevention code and bring it up to date because it was old and antiquated. That is chapter 204. We worked with the DCA with our verbiage and what they wanted to see in it.”
“For example, we did a few changes. We moved the fire hydrant which was 100 feet to the fire department connection and reduced it to 50 feet on new construction when we do our plan reviews. It’s actually safer that way,” he added.
Grossman said, “we implemented a ‘click to enter’ requirement for all unmanned gates at developments so we can access the gate. Fire trucks, ambulances, police cars can access the gates to enter these developments to get in rather than break through the gates and sit with the siren that’s not working at two in the morning and waking everybody up.”
He noted that updates were made based on issues that the DCA wanted to change within communities for better response. “It brought it up to date with the verbiage.”
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