MANCHESTER – The topic of assisting the township’s many seniors was the focus of officials and residents during a recent council meeting.
Council Vice President James Vaccaro once again brought up the need for the governing body to investigate the creation of a senior center for residents of the township.
“I would like our council members to discuss the need of a future senior community center to be established in Manchester Township and the exploration of available grants. This will require administration and council discussions,” he added.
Judy Noonan, who serves as senior liaison and confidential aide to the mayor spoke up during the public comment period of that council meeting, about a senior matter during the meeting. “I would like the council to write a letter to the governor as hundreds of people have not received their ANCHOR checks.”
The ANCHOR program provides property tax relief to New Jersey residents who own or rent property in the state as their principal residence and meet certain income limits. The current filing season for the ANCHOR benefit is based on 2020 residency, income, and age.
“They promise something they cannot deliver. I had to call legislators to get their checks. I’m going way back to August, September and October. I was at a meeting today with a group of people who again said they had a problem. It is outrageous they don’t answer the phone on Fridays. I, personally, could not get a check. People have called and have asked for help as they are not getting their checks,” Noonan added.
Resident Gail Apgar echoed her frustrations. “I’m with Judy on this. The ANCHOR program turned out to be a disaster. I called constantly. You couldn’t get through and that was the trouble so I called the governor’s office and talked to many people to say could you please get with it.”
“I thought that they would extend the date. They did that one time in the past with the Homestead Rebate but they did not do that this time. It just said you had to get an application,” she added. She described the process and how it can be complicated for some people.
She suggested that the Whiting Senior Services office include a sign because “people drive right past it. They don’t know that it is there.”
“We have made that request to the County Board of Commissioners and they have verbally told us that they plan to install a sign so the county will pay for it. I will follow up and find out where they are on that,” Mayor Robert Arace said.
Leisure Village West resident Karen Perry thanked the governing body for the presentation explaining the township’s reassessment process. “I want to thank the council and the tax department for the presentation at our trustee meeting which I believe was wonderful.”
“It was very informative and it answered a lot of questions that the residents had. I think it was a great hat the tax department was going out to the community. As you know the township is probably 85% seniors who are on a limited income and they had a lot of questions,” Perry added.
In other news, Township Council members discussed tolls and other topics of interest to the community.
“The public has been advised that the tolls are scheduled to be increased on the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike effective in March. I now ask council members to consider to adopt a resolution to oppose tolls and for the governor of New Jersey to veto the scheduled toll increases to prevent yet another increase in the cost of living and doing business in New Jersey,” Vaccaro added.
Councilwoman Michele Zolezi noted that volunteer fire companies had recently “commissioned new personnel so congratulations to all of them across the board and as always we thank all our volunteers and all our services volunteer and paid firemen and our police department who do a great job.”
Council President Roxy Conniff said she attended a recent fire department installation dinner where new officers were sworn in. “It was very well attended. Our firemen are the best in the county and best in the state. It was a really great event. Our fire, EMS all our emergency services are great.”
