JACKSON – Township officials hired a new Deputy Municipal Clerk during a recent meeting that also focused on issues like bus travel in town.
Beth-Ellen Gencarelli, who used to work at the Manchester clerk’s office, was hired through a resolution to be the new deputy clerk.
Bus Safety
Resolution 141-2025 regulates the pickup and discharge of children by school buses on certain roadways. Vice Council President Mordechai Burnstein said “we are working with law enforcement to try to get ordinances that are actually enforceable that will hopefully bring the necessary safety results.”
Council President Jennifer Kuhn elaborated on that resolution saying, “this resolution has multiple streets on there. We worked with Traffic Safety (Bureau of the township police department) We will have signage. This is not an ordinance. This is a resolution and a call for help from the residents for children getting off of buses to try to keep them safe.”
Burnstein added the resolution calls upon the various bus transportation vendors to meet yearly and have the bus routes for public and private school students reviewed by the police department.
“All routes should be reviewed. Last year it was done very late and it wasn’t fully done so we are calling for it to be done earlier so the PD has a chance to review it and make any recommendations,” he said.
Kuhn said she and Burnstein are scheduled to meet with “LSD (Lakewood Local School District) buses and bus vendors and I believe they are trying to get the camps in there, on May 7 to have a face-to-face conversation about the process and procedures of how the buses are driving and we just want to make sure we are on top of that with (Police Public Safety) Director (Joseph) Candido and the police department.”
She noted that doing it by resolution made more sense that creating an ordinance for the same purpose. “That is why an ordinance is taken off the table and we are just doing a resolution so we can put it upon everybody else (to make sure children safely enter and exit buses without crossing the street or as in as safe a manner as possible, given drivers of speeding vehicles sometimes ignore the law),” she added.
Also passed was a resolution that will allow the police department to request and acquire excess Department of Defense Equipment. Resolution R142-2025 authorized Jackson Police to participate in the Defense Logistics Agency, Law Enforcement Support Office 1033 program.
Also approved was a resolution authorizing Designated NJ Transit Bus Stops which Councilman Nino Borrelli voted against explaining he had not received enough information about this resolution.
“We have traffic issues on the roads in our town and I think this will add another element to it with big buses coming in. That is my concern,” he said.
Burnstein said, “we don’t have the ability to say which buses come into Jackson. The goal of this resolution is to give the PD more oversight in regard to these vendors and a chance to see that everything gets reviewed.”
Kuhn accused Borrelli of “saying no to employment here” in his voicing objection to that resolution. “These people need transportation to get to work. It is not like they are causing more traffic or anything.”
“I wish you would have called me and asked me because I would have explained to you it is not causing more traffic. It is helping and I believe the mayor said he’s been trying to get (in communication with NJ Transit). That is what the mayor said. I don’t know if that is true,” Kuhn added.
She said the idea was to get more vendors “to come in so people could get to work. So that is the explanation to that but you already voted no.”
Borrelli replied, “I expressed a concern. Maybe I’ll be wrong but time will tell.”
Also approved was the issuance of a grading license to Kahal Jackson Pines Corporation regarding property identified as 217 Brewers Bridge Road, and awarding a contract to Magic Touch Construction Co., Inc. for the township’s Community Development Block Grant renovations and alterations for the Jackson Township Senior Center.
R148-2025 granted a special permit for a social affair and authorized Clerk Sandra Martin to certify a special permit application.
The governing body also passed a resolution accepting a grant of $3,840 from the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control for this year’s Cops in Shops Summer Shore Initiative Program.
A resolution authorizing and approving a person-to-person liquor license transfer application to Liquor Works Corporation (Plenary Retail Distribution License No. 1511-44-006-011) was also approved. “This changes the effective date to April 14,” Kuhn said clarifying its purpose.
Ordinances Approved
Ordinance 2025-09 entitled “Subcode Fees” was unanimously passed. The ordinance was designed to comply with New Jersey construction code was unanimously passed. The council also introduced Ordinance 2025-10 which will add payment methods, establishing permitted methods of payment to the township.
“This specifies that all payments to the township must be paid by personal check, business check, money order or credit card. Cash will no longer be accepted except for the following: the tax collector’s office, municipal court and the senior center. They will still be accepting cash,” Kuhn noted. “Legally the courts have to accept cash.”
Kuhn added, “mainly we are looking to no longer have the offices handle cash – including the clerk’s office – which has gone cashless within 10 weeks. We wanted all the other departments to follow suit.”
In relation to that, Resolution R139-2025 closed out the cash fund in the township clerk’s office.
The post Jackson Council Hires Deputy Clerk, Looks At Bus Issues appeared first on Jersey Shore Online.