Significant rain event on the way

Clouds are already building over much of the northern Mid Atlantic this afternoon in response to the increasing moisture from the Atlantic as the high pressure system that has produced great weather conditions the past few days now exits into the Atlantic.  A weak mid level disturbance was able to use some of this moisture advection to produce a few isolated showers along the New Jersey coast.  These showers will remain a threat along much of the coast through this evening.

The far reaching developing storm over the Plains is currently blocked from moving further east into the Great Lakes due to a strong upper low over the Canadian Maritimes.  This upper low is a direct result of the east based negative NAO pattern over much of the northern Atlantic. Read more

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Freehold Faces: Robby Mowla’s Hot Dog Truck

If you blink, you could miss it. It'll be parked behind the Freehold Tire Center on Center Street one second, and over at the Mr. Good Lube on Main Street the next, crowded out by swarms of mechanics, managers, and car salesman.

Glibert Rodriguez, left, helps owner Robby Mowla sell lunch to Goodyear employees on Wednesday afternoon.

It's Robby Mowla's Hot Dog Truck, a traveling restaurant dispatched from Mowla's home base-- Our House Restaurant in Farmingdale--to service auto dealers and repair shops around the Freehold area. Read more

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2 Lakewood residents arrested on suspicion of attempted burglary

Posted via APP.com:

Police arrested two Lakewood residents who they say broke the front door of a pharmacy on Route 9 North, but could not get inside.

Around 2 a.m. Monday, Officer Chris McCormack was on patrol when he saw a suspicious vehicle pulling out of the Chadwick Square Shopping Center, police said.
He began to follow the car, and around the same time, police were notified about an activated burglar alarm at Tony's Family Pharmacy in the same shopping center, said Detective Sgt Jerry Kiwit.
So McCormack followed the vehicle to McDonald's on Route 9 South, while another officer - Ralph Donato -- went to the pharmacy and found the front door smashed, the sergeant said.
Police said they arrested the two occupants -- Joseph McSulla Jr., 30, and Lauren
Pierce, 25, -- of the vehicle and found a hammer inside.
Police believe the pair tried to break into the pharmacy, but were deterred by the
lock on the door.
McSulla and Pierce were both charged with conspiracy, burglary, possession of
burglary tools and criminal mischief.
McSulla was sent to the Monmouth County Jail, Freehold Township, with bail set at $44,000; Pierce was processed and released.
Sgt. Daniel Pasquinucci and Detective William Holohan assisted in the investigation.

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Freehold Twp. school board accepts questions from public

Posted via APP.com:

Residents have until Friday to submit questions and concerns they want the township school board to address at a town hall meeting on March 16.

The meeting, planned to maintain open communication with the public, will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the West Freehold School, 100 Castronova Way.

Residents can submit their questions by visiting www.freeholdtwp.k12.nj.us and
clicking on the Town Hall Question button.

After these questions are answered, the floor will be opened to any additional
questions participants may have.

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Mr. 400: Patriots’ Sciarappa reaches milestone victory

Posted via APP.com:

There was a time when John Sciarappa was perhaps best known as the guy who fed Ed Zukowski for his 1,000th career point in a St. Rose High School basketball uniform.

"I was not that good," Sciarappa said. "I was the last guy on the bench, but we were ranked first in the Shore (by the Asbury Park Press). The only time I made the team was my senior year." Read more

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Candidate drops bid for Freehold school board seat

Posted via APP.com:

A candidate in the borough school board election has withdrawn, schools Business Administrator Patrick DeGeorge confirmed.

Challenger Tamara Tobin dropped out of the race Friday for personal reasons, DeGeorge said. Read more

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Reader-Submitted: Park Avenue School PTO Offers Full Day Scrapbooking Event

Posted via APP.com:

The PTO of Park Avenue Elementary School, Freehold, is hosting an all day scrapbooking event on Saturday, April 17th.

The event will be held at the school, located at 280 Park Avenue (Rt. 33) from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. $35 fee includes light breakfast, lunch and snacks/beverages throughout the day. Read more

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Enjoyable conditions coming to a rainy end

High pressure is currently to the east of the Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan area producing light and variable winds and relatively warm temperatures.  Comfortable conditions are expect through tomorrow afternoon with highs pushing well into the 50's for most locations for highs with the exception of the immediate coast where temperatures will hold in the upper 40's under the influence of the cold Atlantic.  However, even the warm March sun will keep most warm along the cooler coast.

However, trouble is brewing over the Plains as a complicated and moisture loaded low pressure system will develop along the western Gulf Coast and drive towards the northern Mid Atlantic for this weekend. Read more

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The Halfacre Interview Continued

Posted via MoreMonmouthMusings

Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre spent over an hour with me last week in a "job interview" for the "party lines" to be awarded this month by the various GOP county committees in the 12th Congressional district.

Since the mainstream media doesn't pay attention to this critical process, my intention is to provide those who will vote in the county conventions and screenings a fair vetting of the candidates. To give those who will decide who gets the official party support in the primary a look into who the candidates are, how they think, what they've accomplished and what their goals are independent of what the candidates themselves or their self-interested supporters tell us. The goal is for the convention/screening voters to be able to make a more informed choice.

I posted the first segment of Halfacre's interview yesterday. That segment was an introduction to the interview, Halfacre telling us why we wants to go to congress and sharing his record as a tax cutting Mayor in Fair Haven.

In the second segment, we continue to examine Halfacre's background. He tells us of his education, his early private sector legal career and his public sector legal career as a municipal prosecutor and Fair Haven Board of Education attorney. In this segment, Halfacre debunks the misinformation that Sipprelle supporters have been disseminating about his legal advice to the Fair Haven BoE regarding the Boys Scouts meeting on school property. You can view that segment here.

During the third segment we deal more in depth with Halfacre's record as Mayor of Fair Haven, his vote decided by a coin flip and his view of government's appropriate role in our personal lives. View segment 3 here.

In segment 4 we move behind Halfacre's background into the red meat of the interview. During this segment we get a preview of the type of campaign that Halfacre will wage against Rush Holt, should he win the nomination. Here is the 4th segment:

Stay tuned for segments 5, 6, 7 and 8. Halfacre has more to say about Holt, about Holt's predecessor Mike Pappas, about his position on Life, fundraising and why he thinks he is the best candidate to beat Holt. There are a few surprises.

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Monmouth County Freeholder John Culrey Says More Cuts are Needed

Posted via MoreMonmouthMusings

As a businessman and Monmouth County Freeholder, John Curley is gravely concerned over the dire economic climate in New Jersey and Monmouth County. The Freeholder states, “the reports from Trenton are discerning with dramatic cuts in state aid to counties and municipalities being cut by as much as 15%.”

The Freeholder believes that under the present operation of most counties including Monmouth that sustainability of services will become impossible. The state pension system is bankrupt having been robbed and not properly funded over the decades.

As financially difficult as it is for employees “my goal” states Freeholder Curley “is to protect existing jobs and benefit programs. I take great pride in our County workforce and am committed to keeping jobs and benefit packages intact.”

As a business person committed to Governor Christies plan to revamp government, Freeholder Curley believes that in good and bad times we must act quickly and effectively to change the way business is conducted.

Monmouth County must work harder and more effectively to serve the need of the taxpayers.

- Department heads report directly to the Freeholders and Administrator.

- Learn to live within caps, my no vote on raising budget caps stands

- Continue 5% across the board reductions with the possibility of greater cuts

- Salary freeze for all non-civil service employees, while requesting the unions to give back their fair share to the taxpayers

- Cap management and non civil service salaries and provide a wage scale similar to state employees

- Maintain a hiring freeze (layoffs through attrition)

- Initiate furloughs on County employees until the County is on more fiscal footing

- Don’t balance budgets on grants that are non-recurring funds- This is a ponzi scheme

- Don’t create new positions or departments through grant funding. Those existing departments cannot and should not be sustained

- Keep the work week at 35 hours. All departments that have gone to 40 hours should now revert back to 35 hours.

- Utilize part-time employees for mandatory functions eliminating the financial drain of benefit packages

- Mandate that employees pay 1.5% of their health benefits

o Institute a heath benefits verification plan

o All participants in health benefits program must prove any member of their family who participates meets all eligibility criteria

- Freeze equipment purchases

- Freeze the $3 million of unnecessary IT updates

- Investigate outsourcing of departments such as IT. Realize the expense of salaries, pensions, and health benefits we provide for 39 employees.

- Halt 3rd floor renovations in the Hall of Records

- Delay prosecutors building construction on Jerseyville Ave. When your income is down you don’t build a new house.

- Pass a resolution rejecting unfunded mandates from the state. The County is at the mercy of the courts and prosecutors office with mandated financial responsibility and no structural or administrative purview.

- Sheriffs Blue Ribbon panel on privatizing the County Jail, should consist of financial professionals who are qualified to do real cost benefit analysis

- Provide benefit analysis of our care facilities to determine their economic viability

- Provide a comparative analysis of park housing and private rentals to ascertain a fair and equitable compensation.

- Eliminating the extra layer of middle management bureaucracy that is now in place.

- Eliminate shared services that create deficits for the county

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Significant heavy rain threat expected this weekend

A significant rainfall event is expected to begin late on Thursday and is expected to continue through early next week.  All model guidance is coming into strong agreement on the development of a long duration rain event for all of the northern Mid Atlantic. Read more

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South Street Business Makes National Health Insurance News

APP Business writer Michael Diamond was caught by surprise while watching a recent pro-health care reform advertisement. A business in Freehold was spotlighted for a 60% increase in health insurance premiums--the biggest number in the nationally-aired commercial.

Diamond went on the trail of the commercial to find out the cause behind the increase, landing on the front door step of B&E Locksmith on South Street.

Read the excerpt from Diamond's research below, or check out the full article and TV spot on his APP blog here. Read more

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Blood Drive for Congregant at Reformed Church

Main Street's churches have long been bedrocks for the Freehold community, and now, the congregation at the Reformed Church at 67 W. Main is rallying to support one of their own.

Reformed Church Co-Chair Irma Krohn and Pastor Chris Jacobson inside the Reformed Church.STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER/BRYAN FERREIRA

On March 28, the Church will hold a blood drive in the Church's fellowship room in honor of Carol Jean Biddle, a congregant who suffers from arteriovenous malformation--a defect of the circulatory system--and requires blood frequently. Read more

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Spring Photo Contest

In celebration of this week's sunshine and warm breezes, Freehold InJersey is kicking off its Spring Photo Contest a big two weeks before the calendar declares it officially Spring.

In the fall, we ran an awesome photo contest of Freehold people, animals, and places. Now it's time for some bright, sunny photos of spring signifiers around town. Read more

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Jewish Heritage Museum Springs Into Action with Cultural Offerings

Music, art, and theater are on the bill this month for the Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County.

The cultural bastion of Western Monmouth will offer a variety of exhibits, speakers, and concerts during March, including a one-man performance entitled "Fat Selfish Bastard: Confessions of a Food Addict" on the Museum's Hayloft Stage. Read more

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