By Jessica Ercolino, Staff Writer
The year 2008 presented no dearth of significant news affecting area residents. From scandals facing local school board members to details of a brutal murder allegedly involving a Millstone man, there were several stories prompting many to shake their heads or wonder why. On the bright side, there was a new contract for Robbinsville firefighters and a local softball team that helped put a smile on many faces, sports fan or not.
Here’s a look back at 2008:
School board member quits after slur
Less than six months after being elected to a one-year term on the Robbinsville Board of Education, board member Joseph Armenti surrendered to calls for his resignation over an anti-gay slur he used during a public meeting.
The board accepted Mr. Armenti’s resignation Oct. 13 three weeks after he used the word “faggot” during a conversation about insults students overhear in district schools. He contended that students have the right to use such words under the First Amendment.
The situation went on to draw widespread attention from both residents and the media. Students created “Erase Hate” T-shirts and the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance brought in Garden State Equality, a New Jersey gay rights group, to voice its concerns on a statewide level.
Mr. Armenti’s resignation came days before Robbinsville High School hosted the 2008 New Jersey Gay-Straight Alliance Forum and one month before the school’s theater department performed “The Laramie Project,” a re-creation of interviews with Wyoming residents after the deadly attack on gay college student Matthew Shepard in 1998.
In November, the board unanimously appointed Robbinsville resident Melissa Foy to fill the remainder of Mr. Armenti’s unexpired term. Ms. Foy, principal of the John I. Dawes Early Learning Center in Manalapan, was one of six candidates interviewed for the position during a public board meeting. She said upon her appointment that she intends to run for another term during the April 2009 school board elections.
Teacher fired amid teen sex scandal
In February, Pond Road Middle School technology teacher Daniel Corvino was arrested and soon after fired after allegedly broadcasting sexually explicit material through a Web camera to a 14-year-old Robbinsville girl.
The Ewing resident was charged with one second-degree count of official misconduct, one third-degree count of aggravated criminal sexual contact and three second-degree counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
He is expected to appear in court Jan. 5 for a status conference. If convicted, Mr. Corvino could face a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Two students brought the inappropriate communication to the attention of a teacher after they received instruction on the dangers of Facebook and MySpace at Robbinsville High School. Mr. Corvino was quickly fired from his teaching position in the district, and forums were held for residents to voice their concern over the matter.
Before being hired as a teacher, Mr. Corvino managed New Jersey-based hip-hop artist Shawn Livernoche, whose 2001 autobiography, “A Brief History of Rhyme and Bass: Growing Up With Hip-Hop,” details the duo’s party lifestyle and sexual encounters with women and underage girls.
This was the third case of a Robbinsville teacher being arrested in three years.
In 2005, Scott Copperman, a then 35-year-old Robbinsville High School teacher and coach, pleaded guilty to third-degree endangerment-of-a-child charges after police determined he had kissed a female student and sent her romantic e-mails.
A year later, Daniel Finn Mr. Copperman’s replacement resigned after he was charged with possession of less than 50 grams of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and serving alcoholic beverages to persons under legal age.
Softballers gain national attention
It started with a 14-0 win over Allentown on June 23. It ended with a parade through the streets of Robbinsville on Aug. 19.
It’s what happened in the two months between, however, that will make the Robbinsville 12-year-old District 12 Little League softball team remembered.
Robbinsville won 24 straight tournament games to earn the right to play for the Little League Softball championship in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 13.
Despite taking a lead into the final inning, Robbinsville lost the title game to Simpsonville, South Carolina, 9-5. The second-place finish in the country is the best ever for a District 12 team.
As good as Robbinsville did, it could not be looked upon as a total surprise. Robbinsville’s 12-year-old team was comprised of girls that had won the state title the previous two years as 10-year-olds. At the 10-year-old level, teams do not play past state championships.
Robbinsville also had something other teams simply did not two dominating pitchers. Rebecca Freeman and Lauren Fischer overwhelmed one team after another. Add in Erin Wojton, Julia Borowski, Jessica Samel, Claire Speranza, Christine Levering, Ali Valentin, Leanna Gearhart, Paige Motusesky and Taylor Ponti and you have the best Little League team ever to come out of Mercer County.
And, by the way, Robbinsville won the state title as 10-year- olds in 2008. Once again, the 12-year-old District 12 team this year will be comprised of girls that won the state title the previous two years.
Millstone man faces murder charge
Rosario DiGirolamo of Millstone was charged in March with the 2007 murder of his mistress, Amy Giordano, of Hightstown.
Eight months later, he was at his parents’ Brooklyn home eating Thanksgiving dinner with his family, possibly including the young son he admitted abandoning at the same time he allegedly dismembered the boy’s mother.
The release of the former Conair employee on Nov. 26 was the result of family members posting his $1 million bail.
Law enforcement officials said in April that Mr. DiGirolamo killed Ms. Giordano, 27, in June 2007 by hitting her on the head with a tool in her Mercer Street apartment and then dismembered her. Some of her skeletal remains minus her head, according to published reports were found in March in a suitcase in a Staten Island, N.Y. pond along with a photo of the couple’s young child, Michael DiGirolamo. That discovery came after a friend of Mr. DiGirolamo’s, John A. Russo Jr. of Staten Island, N.Y., helped lead law enforcement officials there.
Michael DiGirolamo, then 11 months old, was found abandoned outside a hospital in Newark Del. According to published reports, he was late adopted by a relative of Mr. DiGirolamo, believed to be his sister. Mr. DiGirolamo, 33 at the time of his arrest, flew to Italy for several weeks before returning to the states to plead guilty to the abandonment, for which he was handed probation.
Mr. DiGirolamo, who faces 30 years to life in prison for the alleged murder, has pleaded not guilty. His case has not yet been presented to a grand jury, although that is expected to take place any week now. As a condition of his bail, he is restricted to his parents’ home.
Student drug tests get approval
Despite hordes of students and parents sporting “Drug testing fails our youth” T-shirts at school board meetings, the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education approved a policy in June that allows 85 percent of Allentown High School students to be randomly drug tested.
The policy, which supplements the district’s current drug policy, requires any student involved in athletics and clubs, as well as those with parking permits, to be enrolled in the testing pool, or their participation or permits will be suspended. Parents may also opt their child into the testing pool.
A November status report from AHS Assistant Principal Connie Embley showed that 26 of 28 total students selected for two testing sessions since the policy’s September implementation tested negative for drugs. One student tested positive and the other gave a diluted sample, which carries the same consequences.
A student testing positive for the first time is required to meet with the school’s substance abuse coordinator and will be entered into the next three testing sessions. Second and third offenders will face mandatory counseling sessions, inclusion in subsequent testing rounds and suspension from school activities of up to 365 days.
School officials have said the total cost of testing would be about $3,000 a year. The district intends to test about 10 percent of eligible students.
The policy received strong reactions on both sides since talk of testing began in January. The Students Morally Against Random Drug Testing group cited privacy, trust and cost concerns as its reason for opposition, but school officials said the policy would give students a reason to say “no” to drugs.
Board President Joseph Stampe added that the district would not back down to a “vocal minority,” and that he felt the overall public was “5-to-1” in support of the policy, based on phone calls and e-mails he received.
Bridge project delayed
After news of an Allentown Main Street bridge and dam repair project broke in late 2007, local officials, residents and business owners were left worrying about the future of the historic downtown and a potential eight-mile detour for motorists.
But in April, county officials ended months of public confusion by holding an information session on two proposed plans for the project and allowing residents to sound off on their preferred approach. The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders decided on a temporary bridge and bypass route that would eliminate the need for a detour down Sharon Station Road and Route 539 a plan overwhelmingly supported by the public.
The project is projected to cost about $6.5 million or about $1.5 million more than was estimated for the original plan, but county officials said eliminating the detour would justify the added costs based on a user-cost analysis.
The structure will be built over Doctors Creek and adjacent to the existing bridge, carrying both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, county officials said. The Main Street bridge will remain open until construction of the temporary structure is complete, which will take about 18 to 22 months.
Construction was projected to begin this past fall, but the project has been delayed. Calls to county officials seeking a status update were not immediately returned.
In the meantime, two “anchors” of the town Black Forest Restaurant and Off the Wall Craft Gallery closed their doors after three decades in the town, partly due to the impending project. Businesses in the Old Mill, next to the bridge, are being forced to relocate during construction for safety reasons.
Firefighters fired; new pact OK’d
Flames of contention between Robbinsville and its firefighters union were fanned, then extinguished in 2008.
In March, the township laid off Jason Belmont, vice president of the Robbinsville Professional Firefighters Association IAFF Local 3786, and firefighter Ed Hirschman in what township officials called a cost-saving maneuver, but firemen said was a case of anti-union tactics.
Mayor Dave Fried said the move was based on reduced municipal aid from the state and that every township department had been asked to reduce its operating budget by 2 percent. Brendan O’Donnell, president of the firefighters association, said the administration was still holding a grudge related to the township taking over the $3 million Fire District in 2006, based on mismanagement allegations.
Four months later, the township and the union agreed to a five-year contract. They had been working without one for a year-and-a-half.
When the township assumed control of the district, firefighters began working a 24-hours-on, 48-hours-off schedule, which they called demanding. Under the new agreement, they returned to a 24-hours-on, 72-hours-off schedule.
At the time of the takeover, firefighters received a 10 percent raise to compensate for the increase in hours, and automatically earned three hours at overtime rate under federal labor rules. The base salary will remain through the end of 2008 and the automatic overtime will be eliminated, under the new contract, and firefighters will receive a 2-percent raise in 2009 and a 3.5-percent increase in 2010 and 2011.
The new deal eliminates fully funded post-retirement medical coverage for new hires, and requires a 1-percent employee salary contribution toward health care costs beginning in 2010. It also includes new measures to control overtime, which township officials felt was being abused before the takeover.
What’s in a name?
Robbinsville Township spent 2008 shedding the image of its former Washington Township-self.
Though the township’s name change referendum was approved in November 2007, the change did not officially take place until Jan. 1, 2008. Since then, the township has entered into a yearlong marketing project that included the creation of a logo and tagline “Be at the center of it all.”
The change was to separate the township from the six other municipalities named Washington in the state. Those towns are located in Bergen, Burlington, Gloucester, Morris and Warren counties.
The petitioning effort was lead by township resident Lewis Koushel, who died Jan. 25, 2008 shortly after the change took effect.
Most local officials, business owners and residents have said the transition has been successful in giving Robbinsville its own identity and helped alleviate confusion for motorists and delivery services.
The township’s largest up-front cost of the name change was $796 for a new seal, and the rest of the changes were expected to take place over time in an effort to save money, they said. Some police uniforms have Robbinsville patches on them, but police cars will sport the new moniker as the fleet is turned over, which will likely take a full five years. Other vehicles and items with long shelf-life could take longer.
Road signs on state roads such as Interstate 195 still say Washington, but the New Jersey Department of Transportation is responsible for those and they will be replaced in due course.
Several officials and residents credited the Robbinsville Girls Little League softball team for giving the biggest promotion to the name change, as they represented the township on a national stage in 2008. The team, which won 37 straight games over two seasons, came within two outs of winning the Little League Softball World Series in Oregon on Aug. 13. The games were aired during primetime on ESPN, and were recently reaired as part of the network’s “Best of 2008” series.
High-schooler’s tragic accident
Tragedy tore through the Upper Freehold Regional School District and surrounding communities this past summer as an 18-year-old field hockey star described as “vibrant” and “much-loved” was killed in a one-car accident two weeks before her high school graduation.
Briana Gaum, a senior at Allentown High School, died June 2 on Interstate 95 in Lawrence. She lost control of her car swerving to avoid a vehicle attempting to make a lane change, and her car hit a tree, according to police.
Briana and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Thomas Carnevali Jr., of Lawrence Township, were pronounced dead at the scene. Mr. Carnevali’s 16-year-old brother, Michael, was critically injured in the wreck but survived.
With Briana’s parents’ permission, the three were taking the day off from school and driving to the Hamilton train station. It was Michael’s birthday and Briana and Thomas were taking him into New York City to go shopping.
Following her death, groups honoring Briana appeared on the social networking Web site Facebook, memorials were created on school grounds and the Gaum family received an outpouring of community support. The high school also established the Briana Rose Gaum Scholarship Fund.
Though Briana’s varsity field hockey jersey bearing the number 2 was retired at the high school, the number surfaced again.
Members of the school’s baseball team wore the number on their caps when they won their Group II state semifinal game and when they captured the Group II state championship. At one point in the semifinal game, Allentown player Logan Gallagher, wearing Briana’s number in tribute on his jersey, stepped up to the plate with two outs, two runners on base and the score tied at 2-2 before hitting a double and earning the team two runs.
Tax rates rise
Residents in all of The Messenger-Press’ municipalities saw an increase in their property tax bills during 2008.
Local officials cited rising costs of fuel and retirement plan payments for hikes in municipal and school taxes rates, and municipal tax rates also were adversely affected by cuts in state aid.
Allentown residents saw the biggest increase in their tax bills, as the local tax rate increased from $1.04 to $1.11 per $100 of assessed value. The borough’s original budget, which proposed a 23-cent tax hike, was held for four months while officials awaited state extraordinary aid and revisions in other state aid figures. In August, Allentown received $100,000 in extraordinary aid and $66,230 in restored state aid, which helped drop the proposed increase in the tax rate.
The borough also bore the brunt of an approved hike in school taxes for both Allentown and Upper Freehold due to a state-mandated equalization formula based on taxable property in each town and the number of enrolled students from each. The school tax rate for Allentown residents rose from $2.72 to $2.85 per $100 of assessed value. Residents in Upper Freehold saw a .6-cent increase in school taxes, as well as a 2.4-cent increase in their tax rates last year.
In Robbinsville, the municipal tax rate increased from 34 cents to 36 cents per $100 of assessed value, and the school taxes rate went up 3 cents. In April, voters rejected a proposed 4-cent increase in the school taxes rate, and Township Council voted to slice $263,000 off the total bill to drop the rate.
While Millstone residents rejected a 2.008-cent increase in school taxes rate and cuts were made to keep the school tax flat voters approved a 1.1-cent increase in the township’s fire tax rate. The local municipal tax rate increased by .8 cents per $100 of assessed value last year.
Residents in Plumsted saw the lowest increase in overall taxes during 2008. The Township Committee approved a budget that kept the local tax rate flat at 9 cents per $100 of assessed value. The school tax rate also remained flat, but residents saw an average increase of $28 because taxable net valuation in the township decreased from the 2007-2008 school year to 2008-2009.
The only local increase in the township’s tax bill came as a result of a voter-approved fire budget, which raised the fire tax from 6.5 cents to 6.9 cents per $100 of assessed value.
More cash for open space
In a tough year for the economy, residents of both Allentown and Upper Freehold approved increases in both municipalities’ open space tax rates.
In Allentown, residents approved a 3.5-cent increase in the open space tax rate to pay debt on purchased open space lands. The new rate spelled an annual increase of $53.66 for the average borough homeowner.
Upper Freehold voters overwhelmingly supported increasing the open space tax rate from 4 cents to 6 cents per $100 of assessed value, which raises money for farmland preservation and debt service on farmland. The increase equaled an approximate $104 annual increase for the average township homeowner.
Township residents approved the 2-cent referendum during the 2007 election, but a misprint in the question asked voters to instead approve a .02-cent increase, which led to Township Committee scrapping the results.
Upper Freehold looks at land use
Throughout 2008, Upper Freehold addressed many of the land-use amendments in its 2007 Master Plan re-examination.
In September, the Township Committee approved an ordinance that increased lot sizes in the agricultural residential and rural agricultural zones from 3- and 5-acre zoning to 6- and 10-acre zoning, respectively, and added noncontiguous clustering and equine community development options as permitted uses in the AR zone.
Noncontiguous clustering establishes sending and receiving areas wherein large, uninterrupted parcels of farmland and open space (the sending area) can be preserved by transferring development rights to a different, noncontiguous parcel (the receiving area) to be developed at a higher density.
The township also amended some of its zoning plans this year, based on residents’ concerns.
In November, an ordinance expanding the types of development permitted in all areas zoned village neighborhood was proposed, but residents of Imlaystown protested the inclusion of their neighborhood in the ordinance due to traffic and architectural concerns. The Township Committee amended the ordinance to create a separate zone VN-I (Imlaystown) to distinguish the two distinct neighborhoods.
Last month, the committee again heeded the protests of landowners along Route 537 when reviewing an ordinance that would change zoning there from highway development to a less-intense community commercial zone. Those with property along the route contended that changing the zoning would decrease the value of their land and sully plans for development into which some of them had invested thousands of dollars.
The committee unanimously rejected the ordinance and discussed the possibility of creating two separate highway development zones, similar to the village neighborhood zoning.
Changes aplenty in Plumsted schools
By the end of 2008, the Plumsted School District had apparently recovered from what seemed like a wave of administrator resignations over the last year-and-a-half.
In September, the Board of Education hired a new superintendent Mark DeMareo after being without a permanent chief of schools for more than a year.
The district had come close to hiring a new superintendent in April, but the top candidate took a position with another school district and the board held off on conducting a new search until after the April school elections. Interim Superintendent Bob Smith had been filling the position since December 2007.
Also in April, the board accepted the resignation of Dr. Gerald H. Woehr Elementary School Principal Jean Morgan. She was the fifth top administrator to leave the district since June of 2007, when then-Superintendent Jerry North left for the Marlboro School District and was swiftly joined by Business Administrator Jim Edwards.
New Egypt High School Principal Richard Caldes also left the district shortly thereafter. Former Assistant Superintendent Christine Carlson took the position of interim superintendent, but resigned to take a superintendent/principal position at Brielle Elementary School.
In July, the district hired Robert Burkhardt as principal of the elementary school, and three months later, New Egypt Middle School Assistant Principal Thomas Farrell was named principal at the high school. In December, James Osmond, a sixth-grade math teacher in Jackson Township, was selected from among 170 candidates to fill the vacancy at the middle school. He is expected to begin Feb. 17.
New faces after election
While most local governing bodies in The Messenger-Press area kept the status quo, a few saw and will see some new faces.
In Robbinsville, Township Councilman Tim McGough announced his resignation in August, prompting a search for a short-term appointee to fill the seat until the November election. Washington Town Center resident Rich Levesque was appointed in September, and elected in November to fill the remainder of the term, ending June 30, 2011.
In a close race for two seats on the Allentown Borough Council, incumbent Republicans Margaret Armenante and Michael Schumacher defeated Democrat Wayne Smith.
A new mayor Steve Alexander took over in Upper Freehold after former Mayor Stephen Fleischacker lost his seat on the Township Committee to newcomers Lori Mount and Stanley Moslowski Jr. in the 2007 election. Longtime Committeeman Bill Miscoski chose not to run in that election.
The Upper Freehold Township Committee will welcome another new face this year as Robert Frascella replaces Committeeman David Reed, who chose not to seek re-election in 2008. Dr. Frascella defeated fellow Republican Bryan Scheff in the June primary race.
After replacing Ray Dilfanian, who resigned from the Millstone Township Committee in late 2007, Committeeman Michael Kuczinski was elected to another three-year term in the November election. Newcomer Fiore Masci was elected in an uncontested race to fill Committeeman Steven Sico’s seat. Mr. Sico chose not to run for re-election.
Two newcomers also took their places on Plumsted’s Township Committee in 2008. Republican Steve Reed replaced longtime Committeewoman Ada Roberts and Republican David Leutwyler took over for Committeeman Ken Francis, who died in October. Mr. Leutwyler ran unopposed for the remaining two years of that seat in the November 2008 election, and Mayor Ron Dancer ran unopposed for another three-year term on the governing body.
COAH deadline riles
Nothing seemed to elicit more groans from local officials in 2008 than having to meet the strict, end-of-the-year state Council on Affordable Housing deadline or face potential lawsuits.
Planned third-round COAH rules were scrapped in Jan. 2007 after the state Appellate Division of Superior Court deemed them insufficient. The COAH recently determined the need for more than 115,000 affordable housing units throughout the state to be made available through 2018 more than double the previous estimate of 52,000.
A municipality not submitting its third-round housing plan by the Dec. 31, 2008 deadline is left open up for builder’s remedy lawsuits, allowing developers to “bust” zoning and build at higher densities.
Robbinsville, Upper Freehold and Millstone joined pending litigation versus COAH to fight what officials felt were unsubstantiated amended projections and an unfair time frame to submit a plan.
But those towns and Allentown all filed plans by the end of the year, stressing the plans could be amended in the future.
Robbinsville’s plan to fulfill its 317-unit affordable housing obligation includes 60 affordable apartment units to be built as part of the approved Project Freedom development off of Gordon Road and 116 units already built in the Foxmoor development by extending affordability controls on the units.
The township also plans to convert 20 market-rate units in the Mercer Mobile Homes Park on Route 130 to affordable units.
Upper Freehold officials submitted a housing element containing a preferred plan the “My Farm” community and an alternative plan the “Lakeside Village Square Center” to fulfill Upper Freehold’s 160-unit affordable housing obligation.
The My Farm concept, an active farming community for disabled people with special needs, is proposed for a tract on Breza Road currently earmarked for preservation, and requires special COAH approval because it does not exactly fit the council’s mold of family-housing. Township officials, then, opted to include the other concept a mixed-use, “inclusionary” development with market-rate and affordable housing units, and commercial uses, between I-195 and Route 539 as a safeguard against builder’s remedy.
To address Allentown’s 38-unit affordable housing obligation, officials requested a “vacant land adjustment” from COAH, which would declare it fully developed and therefore unable to build new housing.
Officials in Millstone encountered community opposition to the township’s housing plan, which calls for 85 units to be located in a proposed mixed-use development at Route 33 and Bergen Mills Road. The property is in a planned commercial development zone, and would require a sewage treatment plant. Despite the criticism, township officials approved the plan with the deadline looming, assuring residents that that development would be removed from the plan if other developable properties come online.
The rest of the township’s 172-unit obligation would be filled through other smaller projects, such as the Allen House on Stagecoach Road and the Cainwright House on Burnt Tavern.
Towns KO the state
Local municipalities came out on the winning end of fights against two proposed state mandates this year one to eliminate the state Department of Agriculture and one to charge rural townships for state police services.
The 2008 state budget proposed that municipalities using state police services for free would begin paying for patrol. Millstone and Upper Freehold Ttownships, which do not have their own police departments, were among 89 municipalities in the state that would need to pay for the service, create their own force or look into consolidation.
Paying for state police in Upper Freehold would have cost the township $254,065, raising the local tax rate almost 2 cents, officials said. In Millstone, the tab would been $348,152, which officials said could have raised the township’s local tax rate by almost 3.5 cents. Officials contended the state police was specifically created for rural towns and that many divisions of the police were being utilized more in urban areas.
After months of protests and letter-writing campaigns from affected towns, the state’s Council on Local Mandates nullified the provision in October, saving those municipalities from the unwanted tax burden.
In February, Gov. Jon Corzine proposed cutting the Agriculture Department and closing nine parks a move that would have saved about $500,000. Upper Freehold, Millstone and Plumsted Ttownships municipalities that have a combined total of more than 102,000 acres of preserved land approved resolutions opposing the cuts.
Residents and officials there are among 2,500 people to journey to the Statehouse Annex in Trenton on April 1 for a New Jersey Farm Bureau rally.
Farming enthusiasts statewide said Gov. Corzine heard their protests, and the governor ultimately repealed the cuts in May.
Sex offender laws remain in place
Despite a state Superior Court Appellate Division ruling in July that said townships could not impose residency restrictions on convicted sex offenders, local towns said they would rather face litigation than repeal their ordinances.
The ruling determined New Jersey’s Megan’s Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register with the state, is all-encompassing, and ordinances enforcing residency limits conflict with the law’s intent.
A Robbinsville ordinance, enacted in 2005, bans sex offenders in the township from living within 2,500 feet of where children congregate. In September, Township Council approved a resolution maintaining its sex offender residency ordinance “until such time as the council feels that the State of New Jersey has provided adequate laws to protect children from sexual predators.”
Robbinsville’s ordinance also commended Upper Freehold for not repealing its sex offender ordinance, which prohibits high-risk offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, child-care facilities, parks, playgrounds, public recreational facilities and horse farms with minor riding programs, according to the ordinance.
Those in the moderate-risk category are prohibited from residing within 1,000 feet of those establishments, and low-risk offenders are prohibited within 500 feet.
After the July ruling, Millstone Township officials voted to introduce an ordinance repealing the sex offender residency ordinance there, but did not act on a second reading of the ordinance in December, and it died. Millstone’s residency ordinance sets similar guidelines as Robbinsville.
Like most other local officials, Plumsted Mayor Ron Dancer said the township will risk litigation to uphold its ordinance, which also maintains a 2,500-foot limit around schools, parks, playgrounds and child-care facilities.
Allentown Borough also has a sex offender residency ordinance and did not act to repeal it in 2008.