BY MICHAEL ACKER
Staff Writer
Sayreville Police Capt. Richard Zdan SAYREVILLE – – Police Capt. Richard Zdan will retire from the borough next month after serving the community for more than 40 years.
“I would like to thank the mayor and council, the current and the former chiefs of police for giving me this opportunity to serve with the department,” Burns said.
His retirement is one of many personnel changes taking place in the department. The governing body recently swore in Capt. Edward Szkodny as the borough’s new chief of police to succeed John Garbowski, who led the department for a decade.
And the Borough Council last week appointed two lieutenants, Michael Burns and Bruce Marcinczyk, as captains, effective April 1.
Marcinczyk, a lifelong borough resident, has been with the police department since 1980, and a lieutenant since 1995.
“I appreciate the confidence that the mayor and council have shown, along with the chief and the new chief of police,” Marcinczyk said.
Sayreville Police Lts. Bruce Marcinczyk (l) and Michael Burns have been appointed captains, effective April 1. Marcinczyk, who has a wife and 19-year-old daughter, served with the U.S. Navy for two years in the Atlantic and Pacific. He has an associate degree in police science from Middlesex County College, Edison, and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Kean University, Union.
Burns, a Coast Guard veteran who served at Sandy Hook and Shark River from 1971 to 1981, is also a lifelong borough resident.
Zdan said his experience with the department has been very rewarding. He served as a lieutenant for 17 years and as captain for eight.
“Certainly all of the memories that I
have will be positive, with the people I have met in the community and the good that I was able to do,” he said.
A graduate of Rutgers University who served with the U.S. Army Reserve for six years, Zdan worked as a lineman for Jersey Central Power & Light before his father suggested that he take the civil service test in 1966.
“If I have to thank someone, being very serious, I would have to thank my father,” he said. “If not for my father talking me into taking that test on a Saturday morning, I would not be here today.”
He was among four officers appointed to the Sayreville department in 1966.
“We were the first under the civil service guidelines,” he said.
In his years with the squad, Zdan has seen Sayreville become more populated and, in general, busier.
“I have been here 41 years,” he said. “I have really seen the town change.
Zdan noted that there are fewer severe car crashes and bar-related problems than in the past.
“It was a different culture then,” he said. “I was working during the period when 18-year-olds were allowed to drink. Things have gotten much better. Bar fights have dropped down to a manageable number.”
Zdan said he worked with a fellow police captain to have the borough move up the closing time for bars and clubs from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m.
“We saved an unknown amount of lives on the road [with that action],” Zdan said.
The “quad squad,” which Zdan helped to form, keeps all-terrain vehicles out of the Julian Capik Nature Preserve on Bordentown Avenue. He also helped to implement plainclothes and bicycle patrols.
In his retirement, Zdan plans to further pursue his hobby of racing pigeons, which he said are pedigreed and travel to the coast from as far as London, Ohio, where they are trucked to begin the race.
“I’m just going to enjoy my hobby,” Zdan said.
Zdan, who has three grown children, said he and his wife are also looking to purchase a home by the Shore.