FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Three new police officers were sworn in as members of the Freehold Township Police Department at the Township Committee’s Jan. 29 meeting.
James Brian Burdge, 27, joins an uncle and a cousin who have served in the police department. His uncle, George A. Burdge Jr., is a former detective sergeant in Freehold Township and a retired detective in the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. The new officer’s cousin, George A. Burdge III, is an officer in Freehold Township’s Traffic Safety Bureau.
Burdge was a President’s Physical Fitness Award winner for four straight years in high school. He was named Most Improved Student and earned the Excellence in Physical Education Award.
Burdge attended Brookdale Commu-nity College, Lincroft, and Monmouth University, West Long Branch, before earning his bachelor’s degree in law and criminal justice from Rowan University, Glassboro.
Kevin Patrick Cherney, 29, also comes from a line of police officers. His father, Thomas, is a retired officer from the Old Bridge Police Department. His uncle, Rudolph, is a retired lieutenant from the Hazlet Police Department. Another uncle, Frank, served the Aberdeen Police Department as a lieutenant.
Andrew R. Galaydick III, 26, joins the Freehold Township Police Department after serving Edison police as an auxiliary police officer. In January 2000, Galaydick was appointed as a juvenile corrections officer by the New Jersey State Department of Criminal Justice. He completed training for this post at the New Jersey State Police Academy in Sea Girt.
Galaydick earned his associate’s degree in criminal justice at Middlesex County College, Edison.
All three of Freehold Township’s new police officers took their oaths at the meeting and officially began their service to Freehold Township upon entering the Monmouth County Police Academy at the end of January.