MANALAPAN — The Manalapan Police Department has a new sergeant.
With his family members at his side and many of his fellow officers filling the meeting room at town hall, Patrolman Kevin McIntosh took the oath of office as a sergeant and was promoted to his new rank during the Aug. 12 meeting of the Township Committee.
The promotion came days after the police department said farewell to two veteran officers. Capt. Jeff Morrell and Detective Sgt. Robert Rushnak both retired on Aug. 1 after 25 years of service in Manalapan, according to municipal officials.
Following McIntosh’s promotion, Patrolman Aaron Abeles and Patrolman Mark Casagrande were sworn in as members of the police department in front of their family members. Both men have already been working on patrol.
In other police news, Police Chief Christopher Marsala announced that effective Aug. 17, Patrolman Kenneth Mikulik would become a detective and Sgt. Leonard Maltese would become a detective sergeant.
Marsala thanked the committee members for supporting McIntosh’s promotion to sergeant and for their ongoing support of the police department.
Mayor Jack McNaboe thanked his fellow committee members for supporting police promotions that were made earlier this year.
“The police department is expensive to run, but it is a necessity,” the mayor said, adding that he has confidence in the newest members of the force.
In another presentation at the Aug. 12 meeting, municipal employee Susan Lapkin was honored for action she took while she was working at the Manalapan Senior Center in July.
One morning, Lapkin saw a man who is a regular participant in the senior center’s programs and recognized he did not look well.
Officials said Lapkin contacted the man’s family members and they picked him up at the senior center and took him to a hospital where doctors determined he had a significant medical issue that could have resulted in his death without intervention. The man’s family credits Lapkin for saving his life.
The committee members thanked Lapkin for her dedication and said her actions were indicative of municipal employees’ concern for people with whom they come into contact.
In other business, the committee voted 5-0 to file an application to obtain a Monmouth County municipal open space grant in the amount of $18,460. The funding will be used to construct a wooden pavilion at Holiday Lake Park in the Holiday Park residential development at Pease and Blenheim roads.
Officials said there are picnic tables at the park, but no shelter. The park was created when the development was built by Hovnanian in the late 1960s.
And, the committee voted to repeal an ordinance it adopted in 2014 granting the Manalapan Soccer Club the right to use municipal property for soccer fields.
The 2014 law gave the soccer club the right to lease a portion of the Tillis tract on Route 522 and to create three small playing fields at that location.
For various reasons, that plan did not come to pass and the committee’s action to repeal the 2014 ordinance was essentially an administrative action which indicates no lease had ever been signed, Township Attorney Roger McLaughlin said.
The vote to repeal the 2014 ordinance was 5-0 with no comment from any member of the public.