Marlboro ex-football player gets $7.5 mil

Locals may remember Preston Plevretes as a standout Marlboro High School varsity receiver and quarterback.

Preston now needs 24-hour care and has difficulty walking even short distances. He has trouble speaking and usually communicates by typing.

Lawyers for the family this week announced the Plevretes received a $7.5 million settlement from La Salle University after he was severely brain damaged in a 2005 football game.

The Plevretes said La Salle cleared Preston, now 23, to play in the game, with Duquesne University, despite an earlier concussion.

Hope Hines Ward is paying attention.

Read more on this story here.

Kids credited with park’s extreme makeover

Committeewoman Michelle Roth, Mayor Richard Klauber and local Scouts unveil Scout Lake's new sign. Photo by Andy Kazmierski.

Holiday Lake in Manalapan is now Scout Lake, named after about 20 area Boy, Girl and Cub Scout troops who helped breathe new life into the surrounding Holiday Park.

The 13-acre park and lake, off Pease Road, were rededicated at a ceremony Saturday.

Scouts since March have been hard at work building benches and picnic tables for the dog-friendly park. The children and other local volunteers came out a week before the rededication for a cleanup that netted some 25 bags of trash.

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Students learn ropes after reorg

Spending the afternoon walking across tight-rope might not seem like the best way to get over first-week-of-school jitters. But it did the trick for students at Pine Brook School in Manalapan earlier this week.

Team-building activities, including the low-ropes obstacle course, helped break the ice for the school’s 650 students Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. More than 400 of the children were sent to Pine Brook this year, instead of their former fourth-through-sixth grade schools, as part of Manalapan-Englishtown district's money-saving restructuring.

Students said the fun eased the stress of first-day complications -- like late buses and figuring out how to open lockers for the very first time. 

See the APP’s photo gallery here and check Thursday’s Marlboro-Manalapan Community Reporter for the story.

Have a great weekend, all!

Marlboro boy growing up fast

I had the pleasure of meeting all-terrain vehicle racer, Andrew Ciccone, at his Marlboro home recently.

At 11 years old, the kid’s already bringing his work home with him: He’s got two racing ATVs in the garage, more than 200 amateur racing awards in his bedroom and the family den, and a bright blue cast on his hand – he earned the broken thumb in a tumble on the track.

In spite of the potential danger – including a concussion and two broken ribs he suffered during a 2007 race -- this pre-teen says he’s not giving up on his dream of getting to the pros.

We hope he makes it there in one piece. Read more here .

Police: Manalapan heist a hoax

Police say they have no idea why a Marlboro teen made up a story about someone stealing $250 from his car outside a Gulf gas station in Manalapan last Wednesday.

Ateer Patel, 19, claimed he saw someone enter his car and remove the cash while the vehicle, a Honda Civic, was parked at the Route 9 station. Patel called police, claiming he was in the car pursuing the suspect, Lt. Tom Barstow said. Patel claimed he was chasing the suspect off Route 9 into a townhome development off Craig Road.

But witness statements and a gas station surveillance video showed Patel simply left the store, got in his car and drove away. A vehicle for which Patel had given a license plate number and description belonged to an associate of Patel’s who had never been on the scene, police said.

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Go green, save greenbacks?

A Freehold-based start-up is campaigning to lease solar panels to municipalities, businesses and quasi-governmental agencies in Western Monmouth County – free of charge.

Sun Pacific Power would purchase the panels and provide them to commercial, municipal and water treatment sites at no cost, said Sun Pacific spokesman and owner Nick Campanella. The company presented its first pitch to Manalapan Township Committee at its Aug. 12 meeting (Campanella was there. Really. He just didn’t get much attention amidst the brouhaha over the police chief ).

So how does Campanella’s company make its money? He says the company will look to Solar Renewable Energy Certificates and federal and state grants for its funding.

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Marlboro to weigh in on Defino expansion

Students outside modular units at Defino School in Marlboro.

To expand or not to expand? That'll be the question in Marlboro Sept. 29.

That's when the district will put to a referendum vote the proposed expansion of Frank Defino Central School.

The K-8 Board of Education is looking at building a $2 million, six-classroom expansion at the Route 79 school. The expansion would replace four existing classrooms housed in modular units there, Superintendent of Schools David C. Abbott said in an earlier interview.

Board member Terry Spilken said the move would help fulfill the 2008 state mandate that districts statewide launch free, full-day preschool for income-eligible students within the next five years. It would also replace the 40-year-old modular units in which some Defino classes are currently held.

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Suspense over chief’s suspension in Manalapan

Is a one-day suspension without pay in Manalapan Police Chief Stuart Brown’s future? We may find out at tonight’s Township Committee meeting.

Brown is appealing the proposed suspension for alleged insubordination and has filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the township, Committeewoman Michelle Roth and Administrator Tara Lovrich. A Superior Court judge said the committee would have to vote on the suspension before he’ll hear the appeal.

Township Clerk Rose Ann Weeden said the committee will discuss the matter in closed session. If the committee decides to take action (as in, vote to uphold the suspension) they’ll discuss it in public, Weeden said. She said it’s possible that, if the committee doesn’t have enough votes in favor of suspending the chief, they will not discuss it at the public meeting at all.

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Freehold Township’s got talent!