Area mayors mulling loss of fort resources

Firefighters, first responders now aid host communities

BY SUE MORGAN Staff Writer

BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

Inside the gates of Fort Monmouth lies a small, yet sprawling city.

That 1,126-acre base, spread out between Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, hosts two fire departments, a first aid squad and its own police force.

A marina and a busy environmental testing lab, public works buildings and a homeless shelter can be found on the portion of the U.S. Army base located to the east side of Oceanport Avenue.

A bowling alley, theater, athletic fields, fitness center with indoor swimming pool, commissary, post office, more athletic fields and even a Burger King are located on the expanse between Route 35 and Oceanport Avenue’s south side.

All of those facilities are situated on the 637 acres that base insiders such as Fort Monmouth Garrison Commander Col. Ricki L. Sullivan and Public Works Director Jim Ott refer to as the “main post.”

A separate 489-acre portion of the base known as the Charles Wood area lies between Hope Road and the Garden State Parkway in Tinton Falls.

A newly constructed fire station and first aid squad building, a day-care center, a firefighter training facility, a soon-to-open firing range, and military housing take up that space.

Off Tinton Avenue lies the 171-acre Suneagles golf course and the adjacent Gibbs Hall, a popular venue for parties, wedding receptions, job fairs and community gatherings.

In lieu of their usual monthly Two River Council of Mayors meeting, local municipal leaders toured the fort’s premises for nearly four hours on Saturday morning with Sullivan, Ott and other base employees.

The mayors are expected to share that information with their respective municipality’s borough administrator and clerk, said Oceanport Mayor Lucille Chaump, one of the area mayors who participated.

With input from each administrator and clerk, the mayors hope to come up with ways for sharing services with the fort, said Chaump, whose community hosts about 419 acres of the base.

The mayors will then discuss those ideas during next month’s regional meeting, she said.

Mayor Peter Maclearie of Tinton Falls, whose community holds 254 acres of the fort property, also came along, as did Mayor Suzanne S. Castleman of Little Silver, one of the municipalities that abuts the base.

Mayors Edward J. McKenna Jr., Susan S. Howard and William F. Larkin, of Red Bank, Monmouth Beach and Ocean Township, respectively, also toured the fort.

Both Chaump and Maclearie said they are concerned about how their communities, as well as others in the region, will get along should the fort’s emergency services disband after the base closes as scheduled in September 2011.

Both of those communities, as well as Eatontown, Shrewsbury and other nearby towns, depend on the fire departments, first aid squads and hazardous materials (hazmat) teams for mutual aid, Maclearie pointed out.

“Currently, Fort Monmouth does excellent fire, first aid and hazmat clean-up,” Maclearie said.

Though Tinton Falls has four volunteer fire departments of its own, the full-time paid squad at the Army base comes out anytime those volunteers are not available, Maclearie explained.

“They back us up during the day when our volunteers are not available,” Maclearie said.

While praising Tinton Falls volunteers, Maclearie acknowledged the advanced training and knowledge that the base’s firefighters have learned on the job.

That experience, including training in searching buildings and emergency response techniques, is invaluable not only to Tinton Falls but to all communities in Monmouth County, Maclearie said.

“They are a resource to everyone. They’re probably some of the best trained in all aspects of firefighters,” he said.

To ensure that the emergency services remain available to the region, Maclearie would like to see the mayors lobby state and county officials for their support in ensuring that they do not leave the area once Fort Monmouth is mothballed.

The fort’s firefighters have formed a consortium with Oceanport’s volunteer firefighters that has benefited that community as well, Chaump said.

“Their fire department is our mutual aid,” she said.

Though he was not part of the mayors’ tour, Eatontown Council President Theodore F. Lewis Jr. spoke in support of the fort’s emergency services.

Lewis, a lifelong Eatontown resident, present-day volunteer firefighter and council liaison to the borough fire department, has had numerous personal dealings with Fort Monmouth’s fire departments.

“It’s a great advantage to have them, and it has been all along,” said Lewis in an interview on Monday.

Like Maclearie, Lewis acknowledged the base firefighters’ expertise in areas such as hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction.

That knowledge complements the skills and talents of the borough’s volunteer firefighters, Lewis said.

“It’s a level of expertise that I don’t think any other fire department has,” said Lewis, who served as Eatontown’s fire chief in 1976.

Most notably, the Fort Monmouth fire department, first aid and other emergency responders were on the scene at the Petco store explosion in March 2005.

The Fort Monmouth firefighters also responded to a structure fire at a building housing Monmouth Auto Diagnostics on Route 35, just outside the installation’s west gate, last Thursday morning, Lewis noted.

If the department is disbanded after the base closing, Eatontown and surrounding towns would lose that assistance, he said.

“The biggest loss is the fact that we’re able to call upon paid firefighters,” Lewis said. “They are always there right away.”

During the tour, Sullivan and Ott pointed to the environmental lab, located on the Oceanport side, as an essential service to the base and the region.

Fort Monmouth’s lab tests chemicals delivered from other bases in New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, Ott explained.

The lab also tests specimens from any chemical spills that occur in the local area, he added.

In addition to sharing emergency services, Eatontown residents are also able to hold the annual Independence Day fireworks show at the base’s athletic fields, Lewis said.

Students from Shore Regional High School have been able to use the pool inside the fort’s fitness center for swim meets against other area schools, Chaump noted.

Though physically located in Eatontown, Gibbs Hall and the golf course remain valuable to many area residents, Maclearie noted.

Numerous fundraisers for charity and social events have been held in both places, he added.

After Fort Monmouth closes down, most of its military and civilian workers will be transferred to the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground.