MANCHESTER – During the latest township Board of Education meeting, Mayor Joseph Hankins presented a proclamation to school officials for their swift actions in providing the Manchester High School as a shelter during the recent Jones Road wildfire.
The high school gymnasium was quickly set up as a shelter supplementing other facilities that responded to the evacuation of residents in Lacey, Barnegat and Waretown.
During spring recess, the fire in southern Ocean County displaced over 5,000 residents. Within minutes of the mayor’s request for assistance from the district in helping the Township open up Manchester Township High School for evacuees, the school district jumped into action by mobilizing the Buildings & Grounds Department, which opened the building for support.
The proclamation states that “in times of emergency and great uncertainty, the Board of Education has consistently and generously opened the doors of Manchester Township High School as a shelter and evacuation center – not only for the residents of Manchester Township, but for our neighbors in surrounding towns, as well.”
Superintendent Diane Pedroza, Mayor Hankins, and the Board spoke about the seamless collaboration and the ongoing partnership between the local government and educational leadership in Manchester, especially in times of community crisis.
A similar situation occurred in December when a power outage displaced residents in the Whiting section of the township requiring residents to come into the high school to stay warm.
Mayor Hankins noted the cooperation between the township and school during a recent Township Council meeting as well. “It is important to note that the Manchester school system not only supports Manchester but (Manchester Township Emergency Management Coordinator) Sgt. Robert Sharry received a phone call from the Emergency Management operator in Lacey and he said ‘We are filling up our shelter can you guys help us out?’ In a moment’s notice he made a phone call to the Superintendent of Schools and the school was open and the Red Cross, CERT team and Emergency Response Team was there to start building cots and put things together.”
The mayor added, “a group called the CART team took care of the animals that came in. They set up cages and if you wanted to sleep by your dog, they would put a cot near the cage. It was well put together and we had about 40 to 50 evacuees there that night. Some people went straight to bed, others meandered around. Some came and left a short time later; some stayed later.”
“It was a good practice run. The Red Cross and CERT team said they had just run a drill similar to this at their facility so it worked out well,” Hankins said.
Council President Roxy Conniff echoed the remarks made by her fellow council members and thanked “our first responders, our volunteers, our paid and volunteer firefighters who protect our town and surrounding towns. It was only two years ago that we had our own wildfire in Manchester and Lakehurst that impacted a ton of acres and they were on the red line and stepped up.”
Councilwoman Sandra Drake noted the efforts of the community. “I had the opportunity during the fires in Barnegat and Lacey to join the police department and those at the high school along with Council Vice President (James) Vaccaro and Mayor Hankins to help throughout the night. We were there until about two o’clock in the morning.”
Vaccaro said, “a special thank you to those volunteers who helped the evacuation center in Manchester and Lacey Township high schools. I want to thank the Manchester Board of Education for permission to use the high school as a fire evacuation center.”
He also noted that he, Councilwoman Drake, the mayor and Police Chief Antonio Ellis were present at the high school along with EMS personnel at the high school helping the Red Cross with the evacuation center.
Councilwoman Michele Zolezi noted she was receiving an award pertaining to her environmental work on the day the wildfire sparked during a meeting that included New Jersey Department of Environmental Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette.
She said that the subject of forest fire preparedness had come up and “unfortunately that afternoon we learned what had happened so that shows we always need to be diligent and vigilant. We’ve talked about this in the past – about making sure we aren’t having fires (in wooded areas) . I also want to thank all those agencies that were there helping out in Ocean County.”
The post Officials Thank School District, Wildfire Responders appeared first on Jersey Shore Online.
