By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
Officials in Tinton Falls are going all out for the Paint the Town Pink campaign taking place throughout the shore area during the month of May.
The campaign is sponsored by Meridian Health to remind women to get regular mammograms and to raise money to provide the test to those without health insurance.
The entrance to the Municipal Center was adorned with ribbons and a large sign across the front with the website paintthetownpink.com
As a show of support Mayor Jerry Turning wore one of the pink T-shirts being sold for $10 as part of the program.
At this week’s Borough Council meeting Borough Administrative Analyst Elizabeth Morris, who is managing the campaign for the borough, presented a slide show of all the pink items decorating the town. Police vehicles were painted with slogans while public works plows were painted pink, and the fire department strung it’s evergreen tree with pink lights. Pink bows and pompoms can now be seen on street signs and lining the halls of borough schools.
Councilman Gary Baldwin thanked Morris for her efforts.
“Every part of town has come together, it’s been really, really great,” Morris said.
Councilwoman Nancyanne Fama said the presentation was “awesome.”
“Our pink presence is better than Red Bank,” she said.
Turning said two good friends of his have had breast cancer.
“If we can’t do this little bit to show people the importance of a mammogram, we are not doing our job as government,” he said.
In a related matter Turning said Monmouth Regional High School will be hosting a Relay for Life event sponsored by the American Cancer Society Fri., May 8.
“They have raised $10,000 so far, and I will be there,” he said.
Turning also read a proclamation declaring May 3 to May 9 Municipal Clerk’s Week in the borough and congratulated clerk Maureen Murphy for all the vital services she performs and on a “job well done.”
In his report Borough Engineer David Marks reported that the long awaited county road project including the paving of Asbury Avenue, Essex Road and Pine Street will be completed this week. Marks said while the project is completed, road closures will be posted on the borough’s website.
Baldwin, a resident of Seabrook, said residents there will be happy that the roads will finally be repaved.
“Seabrook residents have been waiting for that intersection to be made safe, all these years it been a dangerous intersection and now it’s (will be) complete and safe,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin recalled that efforts to have the project completed began in 2002. A street light was installed at the site in 2005, but progress since then has been slow.
Councilman Christopher Pak, liaison to the Board of Education, reported that the school budget was approved, but that the average school tax decrease will only be $30, not $34 as previously reported. He said the change is due to a rise in insurance costs.
Pak also said the full day kindergarten program was approved as part of the budget.
During the workshop session council agreed to pass a resolution supporting a proposed bill, The Transparent Tax Act of 2015, that would make the tax appeal process more transparent.
Chief Finance Director Thomas Fallon said if passed the bill would simplify and clarify the process.
“It would spread the burden of tax appeals to other tax entities,” he said, referring to the county and school district.
Fallon said the new billing would give taxpayers a better idea of where their tax dollars are going.
Baldwin recommended creating a resolution of support for the bill, which is now in the state assembly.
“This does a better job, we can send them out incrementally and get them more accurate,” he said.
