March 19, 2018 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

There was another meeting of the Middletown Township Committee this week. If you weren't there, take a few minutes and watch the video below. The videos are always entertaining and you just might learn a thing or two about your local government.

Here are a few highlights:

• The CEO introduced the 2018 budget.
• The Township Committee presented Gerry Scharfenberger with accolades and awards for his years of service.
• Proclamations were read into the record declaring April National Alcohol Awareness and Autism Awareness month.
• The annual shared service agreement to share health services was presented.
• A contract was awarded to hire a company to staff recreation programs.
• Protective fire clothing was authorized to be purchased.
• An online auction was approved to sell 10,000 cu, yds of leaf compost
• Approval was granted to allocate funds to pay for bills and a performance bond was released to Atlantic Pier Company.

As always you can download a copy of the Meeting Agenda that contains the discussion items and the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars.

April 17, 2017 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

There were 10 proclamations presented during this meeting. Among them were designating April as Autism Awareness Month, Volunteer Month and Alcohol Awareness Month. Others included May as Buddy Poppy Month, Older Americans Month, designating May 14-20 as Police Week and 7-13 as Municipal Clerk's Week.

Ordinances to amend the 2017 Salary Ordinance an ordinance to amend the Township Code Governing Judges were adopted.

A public hearing was held on the 2017 Municipal Budget and will be voted for approval during the May 1 meeting.

All ordinances and resolutions were approved unanimously, except for resolution 17-141 authorizing the township for self examination of the budget, which was removed from the agenda.

As always, you can download a copy of the Meeting Agenda that contains the discussion items and the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars.

March 21, 2016 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

While I was "away" there was a Township Committee meeting that took place on March 21 st. It was rather uneventful but proclamations were presented for Autism Awareness Month, Galactosemia Awareness Day and to T&M Engineering for 50 years in business.



As always, you can download a copy of the Meeting Agenda that contains the discussion items and the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars.

Thankfully I Didn't Over React When An Autistic Kid Wondered Into My Home

Earlier this morning, I was sitting all by myself in my office surfing the web, my had just walked out the door for school. No sooner does he walk out the door, someone grabs the mail out of the mailbox and walks into the house.

I'm not thinking much about it, I figure it was my wife coming home early from her Weight Watchers meeting. When I call out her name and got no response other than some heavy breathing (could I be getting lucky? Ha ha, I thought), I walked out of my office to see a really BIG KID wearing sweats with no shoes or socks on, wondering around the house!

I notice right away that this kid had some kind of problem and recognized it as autism I asked him his name and if he lived in the area, when I didn't get a response I dialed 911.

After following this poor kid around my house, upstairs and down for what seemed like an eternity but was no more than 5 minutes or so, two Middletown Police officers (who were great and very professional, I wish I would have gotten their names) arrived and started trying to figure out where this kid belonged and who he was.

While trying to figure out this kids identity, he had no identification on him and was non-verbal, a guy comes pounding on my front door. It was the kids father, all out of breath and acting like he was about to go into cardiac arrest.

The father explained that he had left the house for a few minutes with his son safely locked inside to run a quick errand. When he drove by my house on his way back home, he noticed the two police cars outside my house but didn't think anything of it. After returning home however, he noticed the back door to the house open and the backyard gate open to the street. He then ran immediately to my house hoping to all hell that his son was here. Sure enough, he was!

The father was very shaken and apologized profusely. I told him all was good and not to worry, I understood what he was going through since I had an extended family member who suffers from non-verbal autism herself and seeing what her parents went through everyday I understood what he was going through. It took the kids father about 5-10 minutes to get his son out of the house and back on the road to his. I felt bad for the guy.

It was a scary experience and I'm glad that I recognized the kids problem and didn't overreact. I actually think this kid was lucky that he walked into my house and not someone elses. There could have been a totally different outcome if that had happened and the kid, instead of being somewhat docile, had been aggressive or violent. It could have ended tragically.

Thank GOD everything worked out (and my wife wasn't home ).