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by Phil Stilton

JACKSON-Over 1,200 readers voted in November in the inaugural JTOWN Magazine “People’s Choice Awards”.

Over 40 individuals, businesses and charities were nominated by the public in our online Facebook page, Jackson,NJ (Over 5,400 members). Of those 40, four were chosen by our readers.
After Maureen Olsen lost her son Chase Ryan to cancer, she become devoted to supporting childhood cancer charities and awareness around Jackson. She started the Chase Ryan Olsen Foundation in memory of her son.

She was the driving force behind Jackson’s “Paint the Town Gold” initiative that has raised awareness of childhood cancer in the township exponentially. Sports teams across Jackson wear gold ribbons, shoe laces, socks to raise money for cancer based charities and to keep the memory of those children the township has lost alive.
Mayor Michael Reina has served as Jackson’s mayor for 8 years and has been one of the town’s most liked mayors in recent history. Reina has been open in his support of everything that is Jackson from veterans to childhood illness awareness to youth sports programs. Reina is a fixture at many community events and has been a hands on mayor when it comes to being part of the community since before he took office.

Reina and his wife Laura take the efforts of charities such as the Chase Ryan Olsen Foundation personally as their own granddaughter Angelina has been battling childhood cancer for several years.

Farley’s Ice Cream was chosen as business of the year. Owner John Burnetsky is a long time community supporter, president of the Jackson Liberty Band Association and a member of the Jackson School Board.

The James Volpe Foundation is another foundation that had its start after a tragedy. After Jackson Memorial student James Volpe died in a car crash, his father Anthony, mother Christine and brother Justin, along with family and friends began raising money in James’ name to support James’ most passionate interest, youth sports and baseball. The foundation raises money to help sports teams and has donated a driving simulator to promote safe driving among students learning to drive in the school. The foundation helps fund sports equipment for volunteer and school teams and assists under privileged athletes pay for sports fees when needed.

The poll was conducted by JTOWN Magazine and the Shore News Network. The poll application software was managed by Code Rubik, Inc. a third party application developer based out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

LAKEWOOD-Over the past year, racial and religious tensions between Lakewood’s predominantly Orthodox Jewish population and residents in surrounding towns have escalated, culminating in violence for the first time this week.

As Lakewood Township runs out of open space to build sufficient housing for its exploding Orthodox population, community leaders last year encouraged Orthodox Jewish families in Lakewood and Brooklyn to consider moving beyond the borders of Lakewood.   Rabbi Schmuel Lefkowitz advised at a conference of Agudath Israel of America that land investors and families looking to join the population boom in Lakewood, to invest in properties and buy homes in the surrounding towns of Jackson, Brick, Howell and Toms River.

Over the next few months, gold fever struck realtors and land prospectors, now referred to as “Schtick [little] Pioneers” by Lefkowitz.   Realtors from from agencies that cater to the Orthodox population went fast and furious, relentlessly knocking on doors, buying foreclosures and open land in those neighboring towns.    Many residents in those towns complained about realtors knocking on their doors for days on end, asking them to sell them home.    Jackson Township Councilman Rob Nixon said those real estate buyers were engaging in “panic peddling“.

Eventually the towns of Toms River, Jackson and Brick established no-knock registries as a quality of life control measure to regulate the volume of real estate door knocking.  Toms River went as far as a complete ban on real estate soliciting in some neighborhoods bordering Lakewood.  Most residents supported the measure.  Realtors would now have to list the neighborhoods they wanted to canvass.

Facebook pages popped up just as quickly as for sale signs in neighboring towns.  Jackson Strong, Toms River Strong and others, where angry residents could communicate their frustrations with each other and talk about their now changing communities as homes in their neighborhoods were being purchased at a high rate by Orthodox families, many seeking to escape their urban lifestyles in Lakewood and New York City, others, hiding behind LLC’s, purchasing homes and land as rental investment properties.

For decades, the five communities, co-existed peacefully.  Since the middle of the twentieth century, Lakewood has been home to the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva and has since grown into one of the largest Orthodox Jewish population centers outside of Israel.   Most still coexist peacefully.

In the 2000 census, Lakewood, a mixed community with a large Hispanic and African American population, was home to 60,000 people.

Fifteen years later, that population has nearly doubled to 100,000 making it the most populous town in Ocean County. The increase was mostly in the Orthodox Jewish demographic, causing a near overload and failure in the Lakewood public school system, which is now overseen by a state monitor in an attempt prevent a complete collapse.

Tensions between Lakewood’s Orthodox and non-Orthodox neighbors continue to escalate.

In 2016, residents in Toms River and Jackson complained after Lakewood Shomrim (An Orthodox founded community security force), called the Lakewood Civilian Safety Watch (LCSW) was accused of patrolling neighborhoods in those towns.    In Jackson, Mayor Michael Reina and the township ordered police Chief Matthew Kunz to advise the LCSW to not patrol their town.  Toms River followed suit, ordering an immediate cease and desist.

The orders resulted in then Lakewood Police Chief Robert Lawson to testify that LCSW does not patrol outside of Lakewood, despite several of photographs submitted by residents showing LCSW operating in Jackson and Toms River.  Lawson criticized the elected officials for their meddling saying they are politicians just worried about their political careers.   Lawson was not showing his cards though.  A month later, he retired from the Lakewood Police Department and was immediately hired to be the head of security at the BMG Yeshiva.

Chief Kunz in Jackson, according to an Asbury Park Press report defied local leaders and endorsed LCSW on the department’s Facebook page, prompting a disapproval response from Reina.

Coupled with aggressive real estate tactics and aggressive home buying by Orthodox families and what many perceive as an encroachment into their communities, the Jackson Township municipal council requested the State of New Jersey to investigate possible blockbusting in Jackson.  That request was denied by the state.

On social media residents in both communities have verbally battled, humiliated and mocked each other.

Toms River Mayor Thomas Kelaher called the growth of Orthodox Jewish families in his town, an invasion.  Lakewood Mayor Manashe Miller, a member of the Orthodox community demanded an apology by his Republican peer.  That was back in March.  Kelaher has yet to issue a formal apology.  Instead the 83 year old mayor and former U.S. Marine Corps  Reserve officer denied that his comment was anti-Semitic and said he maintains a good relationship with his Jewish residents.

Neither side is innocent in the back and forth.

Toms River Police earlier this year took issue with false reports claimed in Lakewood newspapers which misrepresented facts found by investigating officers in a possible bias crime incident.
On Purim, many Lakewood children dressed in redneck garb, wearing Jackson Strong shirts.      Many Orthodox on Lakewood websites and social media pages openly criticize residents of Jackson, referring to the community as ‘ignorant’ and ‘rednecks’.

Lakewood residents have openly called for Department of Justice investigations into what is described as “pure anti-Semitism” at Jackson Township council meetings.

An outreach meeting between mayors of Jackson, Howell, Lakewood and Manchester yielded no relief or plan to resolve the differences and problems that face those communities.

This past winter, a Jewish male made headlines when he paid a homeless man to pour a cup of hot coffee on his head.

Parks in Toms River and Howell have been defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti.

Police in all of the towns surrounding Lakewood aggressively investigated those crimes, some leading to charges.

This week, however, things began turning violent.

A woman in Howell has been accused of assaulting a young male in front of the local Wal-Mart.

In Lakewood, a black man from Jackson, Elijah Chandler was driving his vehicle in Lakewood when he was struck by an Orthodox man who he said ran a red light.   The Lakewood Orthodox population, like many others in New Jersey is notorious for bad driving etiquette and disregard for other drivers.    Leaders in the Orthodox community have said on several occasions this pattern of driving is attributed to the large number of former city dwellers who are not yet familiar with Ocean County’s open roads and high speed limits.

After the crash, Chandler exited his car, and according to witnesses, pulled the man from his car and engaged in a verbal argument with him and several other Orthodox men who had descended upon the crash site.

Chandler yelled bias slurs at the men, “Go back to your own country, you kike.”    One man off camera shouted, “Get out of here, coon!” to Chandler. A video of the incident can be found on Facebook.

He was subsequently arrested and charged with multiple offenses including bias crime, assault and harassment.

Lakewood Police did not say whether charges were filed against the offending driver or the man who rebutted Chandler’s hate speech with his own verbal racial assault.

As the tensions rise, few, if any religious or political leaders from Lakewood and surrounding towns have offered solutions on how to curb the rising tensions, which this week have escalated to violent acts and will most likely continue as the situation on the ground heats up here in “Four Towns”.

 

Records obtained from Jackson Township show that Jackson’s new no-knock ordinance removed several components of the original 1995 ordinance that regulated peddling and door-to-door solicitation in the township that are now being requested by township residents.

In particular, the requirement of township issued identification and criminal background checks have been removed from the new ordinance, after being the law for the pasts 30 years.

Back in 1995, to combat the persistent door-to-door peddling the township council then enacted an ordinance to license and regulate peddlers, vendors and solicitors in residential neighborhoods.

That ordinance required solicitors to go through a vigorous registration process that required them to pay a $100 fee to the township and submit a more detailed application.

Applicants had to provide in writing each individual solicitor’s name and address, a physical description of the applicant, the applicant’s places of residents for the past 5 year period, a complete description of the services offered, complete description of the vehicles to be used including the make, model, color and license plate, the same as the amended ordinance passed in 2015.

Additionally the applicant had to certify that they had never been denied a peddler’s license and that if they did, their license had never been revoked.

Unlike the new ordinance,  a criminal background check was also part of the process.

All solicitors were required to provide the township proof of a New Jersey license and an insurance policy that included damages to property and persons, including death.  That policy should cover $100,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.

A township issued ID card was to be worn by all solicitors, visible to residents while they scoured the neighborhoods.

Under the old ordinance, the peddler’s license could be revoked by the township in the event of fraud, public nuisance or if the township felt the vendor’s activities were a risk to public health and safety.

Soliciting was permitted only between the hours of 7am and 9pm.    Violations under the old ordinance were capped at a $500 fine and up to 90 days in prison.

Fast forward 30 years to 2015.

A new ordinance enacted by the township council was passed to address the new concerns of aggressive real estate buyers and rumors of religious blockbusting and bullying tactics by those realtors.

In that new ordinance, there were no requirements for criminal background checks and the township no longer required solicitors to wear the township issued ID badge.

Similarly, both ordinances require the names and addresses of the solicitors, their past 5 years of residence, past denials, insurance and business license.

The new ordinance forces the applicant to narrow down their target area by street and further limits the hours to 10-6pm Monday through Saturday and 12-2pm on Sunday.

The 1995 ordinance specifically declared that it superceded any previous similar ordinance, but the 2015 ordinance does not specify, but township administrator Helene Schlegel said the new ordinance supersedes the 1995 ordinance.

While the amended ordinance added language to address blockbusting, a no-knock registry and attempted to curb unethical real-estate practices, it did effectively dropped the requirement for criminal background checks and the requirement of township issued identification cards to be worn by those approved to solicit in the town’s neighborhoods.

At the last township council meeting, Councilman Rob Nixon requested the township attorney to look into adding language for criminal background checks.

The next township council meeting is scheduled for tonight, discussion of the no-knock ordinance, nor amendments to the ordinance have been proposed.

 

 

In an online poll by the Shore News Network with 770 readers, 86.9%  of our readers said they approve of the performance of Toms River Mayor Tom Kelaher and the township council’s cease and desist order against residential soliciting by real estate agents in the North Dover section of town.

11.3% of those polled said the council’s decision did not change their views of the mayor and council in any way, but just 1.9% disagreed with the action and expressed disapproval in the poll.

Toms River residents have been pressuring the township council since late 2015 to take action against what they feel are overly aggressive real estate tactics, mostly in the North Dover section.

Last Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to ban real estate soliciting in portions of North Dover, bordering Lakewood Township.

A few days later, Toms River police reported they had charged a man for trespassing in an abandoned and foreclosed home.  The man entered the house illegally, but claimed he was a potential buyer and was acting upon the guidance of a realtor in Lakewood.

Toms River police, unable to corroborate the man’s story, issued  Israel Feldbrand, of Lakewood a summons for trespassing.

Mayor Thomas F. Kelaher stated, “The arrest of Mr. Feldbrand is further proof of the type of conduct taking place in Toms River by unscrupulous individuals and realtors. This type of behavior will not be tolerated and is added justification for the cease and desist ordinance unanimously approved by the Township Council.”

“This is the kind of behavior our residents have repeatedly complained about which is the reason the cease and desist ordinance was enacted,” council president Brian Kubiel said. “Residents should remain vigilant about the safety and security of their residences and report any suspicious activity to the Police.”

Photo by Lakewood Scoop.