Barnegat Officials Nix Plans For Police Substation

Barnegat officials have decided to sell a vacant building they bought for $60,000 last year to use as a police substation, and beef up patrols in Settler's Landing, according to The Sandpaper.

The public hearing on a ordinance to put the building up for sale is slated for 6:30 p.m. at the next Township Committee meeting on June 14.

“With our financial situation, to be putting up a new building did not seem too feasible,” Mayor John Novak said at a recent meeting. “The purpose of the substation would have been to enhance police presence in an area where there have been crime problems. With these patrols, we can still have a police presence, even though we won’t have that building.”

Novak said police officers would watch for illegal activity, but also do community policing.

“They would be available to talk to residents and reach out to the community,” the mayor said. “While we’ve had crime problems there, those neighborhoods also have a lot of good people living there who perhaps had never come in contact with our officers.”

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