EATONTOWN — Oceanport has rejoined the Fort Monmouth Emergency Services Advisory Committee (ESAC) after a hiatus spurred by a report calling for the absorption of its police and court operations by neighboring Eatontown.
Officials from Oceanport have been absent from ESAC meetings since the release of the report last summer that recommended the Eatontown Police Department absorb the Oceanport Police Department and that Eatontown take over court operations for Oceanport.
“There was a missed signal here that … we are trying to dictate,” ESAC Chairman and Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said Jan.29. “And that is not what we are intending to do.”
Tarantolo explained that the ESAC is an advisory panel formed to explore emergency services plans for the three towns in the wake of the fort’s impending closure.
He said the committee is seeking to establish a dialogue among the three host towns on how to handle the loss of emergency services that have been provided by Fort Monmouth when the fort’s main operations move to the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Md.
“This committee was formed based on the fact that we wanted to get a handle on what we were going to be confronted with when Fort Monmouth closed and we lost that resource as an emergency services component,” Tarantolo said.
The ESAC has begun talks on forming a wide-ranging shared services agreement among the fort’s three host towns. Discussions on sharing services were begun as an alternative to the recommendation that the towns’ emergency services departments be consolidated.
“Let’s start putting down on paper ways that sharing of services, not consolidation, but sharing of services for the Fort Monmouth region can be effective with no or minimal degradation to any of the services that are currently being provided,” said Diane Canterbury, project manager for the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority, or FMERPA.
The committee met Jan. 29 after months of relative inactivity to discuss how the fort’s three host towns — Eatontown, Oceanport and Tinton Falls — will make up for the loss of mutual emergency services the towns will experience when Fort Monmouth closes in 2012.
A feasibility study was completed in July by the Cranford-based Jersey Professional Management, which called for the several emergency services departments from the three towns to be consolidated, including fire, first aid and court services.
When the results of the study were released, several officials from the three towns dropped out of the ESAC amid fears that the committee would try to enforce the consolidation recommendations.
Tarantolo said at last week’s meeting that he was happy to see ESAC members back at the table, and explained that he understood why officials from Oceanport and Tinton Falls would be upset with the results of the July study.
“When you start to try to influence what’s been in place for many, many years, obviously that becomes very reactive,” Tarantolo said. “So, we’ve got to look at this in that light, but we also have to look at it from a reasonable and logical approach.
“At some point in time, things are going to change,” he said. “And in hoping to do what we are hoping to do, the changes are the only way that you are going to accomplish the end result.”
Tarantolo continued, “In some cases it may be extensive. In some cases it may be nothing. Again, those decisions have not been made yet. It’s something that is going through an interactive process.”
Fort Monmouth currently provides the three towns with police, fire and first aid services through mutual aid agreements. While the towns do not rely exclusively on the fort for emergency services, they do receive assistance and backup from fort personnel.
The ESAC is tasked with exploring a fire and first aid shared services agreement among the three host towns and developing a plan on how police, fire and first aid services in the three towns will respond to events at the site when the fort closes.
The committee will also have to begin developing ideas to help the three neighboring municipalities adjust to the future development that is expected to take place on the fort property when it is turned over to the towns.
Tarantolo explained that the committee would also be looking into the prospect of developing a regional courthouse at the site of Fort Monmouth’s Life Cycle Management Center.
“That building contains 57,000 square feet of office space,” Tarantolo said. “We only have 15,000 square feet in [Eatontown Borough Hall].
“We desperately need space, but we don’t need 57,000 square feet,” Tarantolo said, adding, “So, the idea came up that we would create a regional municipal court facility at that new building, which would incorporate the local courts for smaller towns.”
The court facility could host court services for several area towns and would result in a significant cost savings for any municipalities that chose to be involved in it, according to Tarantolo.
While the thrust of the Jan. 29 meeting was geared toward discussions on shared services agreements, Canterbury also called on committee members to begin comprising a list of items that, if left behind by Army officials, could be used by the town’s emergency services personnel.
Some of those items include vehicles, emergency services equipment, and office supplies and materials.
The next meeting of the ESAC will be held at Eatontown Borough Hall on Feb. 26.