Category: Independent News

  • Brookdale’s new center expands recreation space

    $22M BREC fitness center is open to the community BY ANDREW DAVISON Staff Writer Officials and members of the Brookdale community attend opening ceremonies in the college’s new Recreation and Events Center (BREC). MIDDLETOWN — Brookdale Community College’s new Recreation and Events Center (BREC) will reduce conflicts for campus recreation space and provide a brand-new…

  • Greater Media archives now available at Mat-Ab library

    BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer MATAWAN — The borough’s hometown newspaper is now available through a digital archive at the Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library (MAPL). The Independent, the newspaper of record for the Bayshore section of Monmouth County, has been digitized from March 1972 through March 2000 on the MAPL website. “It’s fully operational and it’s…

  • Twp. Committee says goodbye to Janet Berk

    Twp. government will reorganize on Jan. 3 BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer Janet Berk HOLMDEL — After serving seven years on the Township Committee, the governing body bid farewell to Committeewoman Janet Berk. Berk, a three-term Democrat, was presented with a plaque honoring her service with the township on Dec. 9. She lost a reelection…

  • Aberdeen to Afghanistan, help for soldiers in need

    Help Us, Help Them collecting donations for care packages BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer ABERDEEN — Township resident Kathy MacCutcheon is a mom on a mission. Her 21-year-old son Christopher Mac- Cutcheon graduated from basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., and was deployed to Afghanistan, 10 miles away from the Pakistan border, in April. “When…

  • Photo

    Jake Geniton, along with the rest of the kindergarten angels, heads for the stage to perform in “The First Leon,” the annual Christmas pageant held at St. Benedict School in Holmdel on Dec. 16. More photos, page 25 and at gmnews.com.

  • Twp. trades bow-and-arrow hunt for birth control

    BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer HOLMDEL — After shooting down a bow-and-arrow deer hunt earlier in the year, township officials have selected two alternative nonlethal methods to manage the local deer population. Mayor Serena DiMaso, a member of the township’s Traffic and Public Safety Subcommittee, announced on Dec. 9 that the township wants to pursue…

  • Photo

    Students at Bayshore Middle School in Middletown welcome back Justin Mayer, a physical education teacher who returned Dec. 6 from deployment in Iraq with the U.S. Navy Reserve Seabees. Story on page 3; more photos at gmnews.com. JEFF GRANIT staff

  • Holmdel transfers Laurel Ave. roadwork to county

    Reconstruction of railroad bridge a $15M project BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer HOLMDEL — Federal funding for the replacement of the Laurel Avenue railroad bridge will be transferred to Monmouth County, township officials announced Dec. 9. The Township Committee unanimously passed a resolution formally transferring to the county the jurisdiction of a federal funding earmark…

  • Middletown acts to stem tax appeals

    Work to begin soon to avoid high volume of tax appeals BY ANDREW DAVISON Staff Writer The Middletown Township Committee unanimously voted to introduce an ordinance appropriating $400,000 for a local assessor to reassess township properties, at its Dec. 6 meeting. Officials indicated that the dramatic changes in the housing market and the current year’s…