The JACKSON Times Vol. 19 - No. 24
In This Week’s Edition
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM
Guitar Lessons At Elks Lodge Help Vets With PTSD
BREAKING NEWS @
jerseyshoreonline.com
Government Pages 7
Community News Pages 9-10
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 14
Inside The Law Page 17
─Photo by Bob Vosseller The LZ Jersey Band, made up mostly of Jackson Elks Lodge 2744 members, performed for vets. By Bob Vosseller JACKSON – A hot lunch, some friendly conversation and some music by a band made up of local veterans is all part of the comfortable atmosphere featured at the Jack-
son Elks Lodge each month. Elks Lodge 2744 Exalted Ruler Joe LaMonica said, “we started a new program for our veterans. First, we have a member, (Dennis Champ) who gives
free guitar lessons to vets. Then we have a luncheon we set up for them. They also get entertained by a band made up of all veterans and most are our members. They are called LZ Jersey.”
Champ of Toms River said, “I’m a member of the Elks club here. I started with the guitar class for vets nine or 10 years ago at the Vets Center in Lakewood. Charlie Worth was the (Vets - See Page 4)
Sheriff’s Officers Detail Border Crisis On Recent Assignment By Stephanie Faughnan TOMS RIVER – Two Ocean County Sheriff’s Department officers bringing a fugitive back to New Jersey participated in a unique training exercise on their way to Yuma, Arizona. “Knowing that one of the guys we were sending down speaks Spanish, I figured this was a
chance to give them the experience of going to the border,” said Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy. “I called up some of my Sheriff’s friends down there, Sheriff (Mark) Daniels in Cochise County and Yuma County Sheriff (Leon) Wilmont who I am on the Board of Directors with on the National Sheriff’s As-
sociation.” Mastronardy said he felt both Sheriff’s officers Juan Mercado and Geoff Hyatt would benefit from training related to what’s happening at the border. After flying into Phoenix on a Wednesday, Mercado and Hyat t drove southeast to Cochise County to spend the day with the Coch-
ise County Sheriff. A day later, the two officers met with Sheriff Wilmont to see a different view of the United States/Mexico border. That Friday, Mercado and Hyatt returned to New Jersey with the prisoner. “The border is so many miles and not enough law enforcement officers to cover
it,” summed up Mercado. “The amount of illegal people coming across is just overwhelming.” The Sheriff’s officers noticed people walking towards the border with their backpacks on in broad daylight. As early as 10 in the morning, Mercado and Hyatt watched as (Officers - See Page 5)
December 3, 2022
Officials Oppose Sex Ed, Grief Counseling By Bob Vosseller JACKSON – Members of the governing body gave support to a state assembly bill involving sex education and questioned different legislation that would mandate grief counseling in high schools. Councilman Nino Borrelli noted a township resolution that “supports Assembly Bill A- 4801 that is sponsored by our former council colleague 12 th District Assemblyman Alex Sauickie that directs the State Board of Education to rescind the graphic and perverse sex education and health and physical education standards which they adopted during the height of the pandemic.” The state’s Comprehensive Health and
Physical Educat ion guidelines are 66 pages long, and actually contain very little about sex ed. However, some expressed concern about things like anal and oral sex being mentioned – although districts had control over how little detail they would include. Politicians attacked the guidelines, asserting that introducing gay fictional characters or information about real LGBTQ+ people in history to children at a young age would turn children gay. Parents said these are conversations that belonged in the home. The state’s guideli nes can be fou nd here: nj.gov/education/ cccs/2020/2020%20 NJSLS-CHPE.pdf
(Officials - See Page 18)
Holiday Meals To Be Given, Thanks To Students
By Judy Smestad-Nunn BRICK - Some 3,000 of the needy in Ocean and Monmouth Counties will have a Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings due to the hard work of culinary arts students at the Brick center of Ocean County Vocational Technical School (OCVTS). No one is exactly sure when “Feed the Need” started - the best guess is somewhere around
25 to 30 years ago - but it began when a church group asked if the culinary arts students could prepare 25 meals, said vo-tech teacher, Chef Gary Lesniak. T he prog ram has grown and grown over the years as the need became g reater, he said, and they try not to turn anyone away. OCVTS partners with Fulfill Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean (Meals- See Page 6)
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