An Essex County home inspector has built a free website that lets anyone look up the public records behind a New Jersey property &mdash; building permits, flood zones, fire history, oil tanks and contamination sites, property taxes, and more &mdash; by typing in an address.
The site, <a href="https://oprasearch.app/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Permit &amp; Parcel</a>, covers all 564 New Jersey municipalities and brings together records from official sources, including state and county databases, FEMA flood maps, and the towns&rsquo; own municipal codes. No account or email is required, and there&rsquo;s no cost. Since launching this spring it has handled more than 18,000 searches from every county in the state.
&ldquo;I kept watching buyers fall in love with a house before anyone checked the paper trail &mdash; the open permits, the flood zone, what the town actually requires when a home changes hands,&rdquo; said Leo Betancor, a Certified Master Inspector based in Cedar Grove and the founder of the site. &ldquo;All of that is public record. It just wasn&rsquo;t in one place anyone could actually use.&rdquo;
&ldquo;And it isn&rsquo;t only for buyers,&rdquo; Betancor added. &ldquo;With rates where they are, a lot of people are staying put. The house you already own has a paper trail too &mdash; an old oil tank, a flood zone change, a lead service line &mdash; and most owners have never seen it.&rdquo;
Alongside the main lookup, the site includes free single-purpose tools: a <a href="https://oprasearch.app/tools/contamination/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">contamination and tank lookup</a> showing known spill sites and registered tanks near any address, a <a href="https://oprasearch.app/tools/lead-pipes/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">lead water pipe check</a>, a <a href="https://oprasearch.app/tools/lead-safe/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">lead-safe inspection lookup</a> showing which of the two state-required inspection methods each town uses under New Jersey&rsquo;s lead paint law, a searchable <a href="https://oprasearch.app/lead-contractors/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">directory of DCA-certified lead evaluation and abatement contractors</a> sorted by distance, a <a href="https://oprasearch.app/tools/fire/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">fire-incident map</a> built from more than 40 years of state fire records, and a <a href="https://oprasearch.app/tools/radon/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">radon map</a> covering every municipality.
Homeowners can also <a href="https://oprasearch.app/tools/tax/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">look up property taxes and assessments</a>, <a href="https://oprasearch.app/tools/hvac-age/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">check the age of a furnace, air conditioner or water heater</a>using its serial number, and <a href="https://oprasearch.app/tools/co/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">find their town&rsquo;s certificate-of-occupancy requirements</a> before selling or renting a home.
A companion site, <a href="https://njflood.zone/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">njflood.zone</a>, gives instant FEMA flood-zone answers for any New Jersey address &mdash; built after the federal government shutdown left FEMA&rsquo;s own map site unreliable &mdash; running on the site&rsquo;s own servers with the complete flood map data for the state loaded locally.
Permit &amp; Parcel carries no advertising and is funded entirely by Smart Choice Inspections, Betancor&rsquo;s Cedar Grove home inspection company. Readers who find the site useful and need an inspection can claim <a href="https://callsmartchoice.com/patch" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">$100 off a qualifying home inspection</a>, or learn more on <a href="https://callsmartchoice.com/leobetancor/?gift=credit100&amp;campaign=patch" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Betancor&rsquo;s page</a>.
The project was recently featured in <a href="https://www.tapinto.net/towns/east-hanover-slash-florham-park/columns/at-home-with-holly/articles/deep-dive-conversations-what-the-house-won-t-tell-you" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">TAPinto</a>. Both sites are free at <a href="https://oprasearch.app/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">oprasearch.app</a> and <a href="https://njflood.zone/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">njflood.zone</a>.

Essex County

Eric Kiefer

New York City Metropolitan Area

Montclair

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Pursuant to P.L. 2025, c. 72/S-4654, the Washington Township Public Library provides its official public and legal notices directly on the website, under "Legal Notices."&nbsp;&nbsp;
Questions should be directed to Jacqueline Zuzzi, Library Director<a href="https://wtpl.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">wtpl.org/</a>

Washington Township Public Library Public...

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Each picture is 25" high x 19.5" wide in gold frame - $60.00 for all 3

3 English Golf Scene Pictures 

Each picture is 25" high x 19.5" wide in gold frame - $60.00 for all 3

Looking for a way to support the Washington Township Public Library and your community? Please consider becoming a Friend of the Library member! 
The non-profit Friends organization supports the library through various activities including: Museum Passes, Lifetime Learning programs, monthly BookPage magazine subscription, Summer Reading Club Prizes, and the February Love Your Library (Pink Tree) fundraiser, just to name a few. An example of our community assistance is the end of year Giving Tree in support of the local food bank. This past year the Friends also funded an audiovisual upgrade in the library&rsquo;s large meeting room and purchased new folding tables for use at library activities.
Stop by the Friends table at the library on Monday, October 19th or Tuesday, October 20th between 10AM and 7:30PM to learn more about the Friends and renew or become a new member. Membership sign-up forms are also available at the library&rsquo;s circulation desk. These forms can be picked up and dropped off anytime during regular library operation hours.
Additional information and a membership form can be found on the WTPL Friends page, <a href="https://wtpl.org/friends-of-the-library/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://wtpl.org/friends-of-the-library/</a>

National Friends of the Library Week is October...

Looking for a way to support the Washington Township Public Library and your community? Please consider becoming a Friend of the Library member! ...

National Friends of the Library Week is October 18-24, 2026

Solid cherry corner cabinet in excellent condition for $150.00. The cabinet measure 7' high x 4' wide x 2.5' deep with 3 shelves. Great for library piece, clothing storage, game or TV console, etc.

Cherry Wood Corner Cabinet

Solid cherry corner cabinet in excellent condition for $150.00. The cabinet measure 7' high x 4' wide x 2.5' deep with 3 shelves. Great for library...

Fallen leaves hold nutrients that the trees, plants, and soil in your yard need. They provide shelter for the insects and wildlife need to survive. Plus, leaves make a great replacement for hardwood mulch. So, this year, skip the blower and leave the leaves for a healthier yard and community! 
The Benefits of Fallen Leaves
Pollinators Benefit
The vast majority of butterflies and moths overwinter in the landscape as an egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, or adult. Bumble bees, spiders, snails, worms, beetles, millipedes, mites, and more also rely on leaf litter for protection. These animals, in turn, are food for chipmunks, turtles, birds, and amphibians. Leaves are integral to sustaining the natural web of life. 
Plants Benefit
Leaves provide valuable organic matter when they break down. They help build up healthy soil to support all of the plants in your garden, from your trees to your turf. In soil, organic matter helps to increase biodiversity, increase water retention, improve water quality, and improve soil aeration. 
Pocketbooks Benefit
Fallen leaves have the same weed suppression and moisture retention properties of shredded wood mulch&mdash;and they're free. 
The practice of leaving leaves may not align with every homeowner&rsquo;s desire for a neat and tidy yard. It may be habitual, a matter of social conditioning, or a holdover of outdated gardening practices from year&rsquo;s past, but every fall many people rake, mow, blow, or hire someone to take away a bit of nature. You can save time and money by taking a different approach.
Where to Leave the Leaves
To mimic the natural ecosystem an animal needs, a layer of leaves needs to be at least a couple of inches thick. While this would be too much of a good thing for turf grass to handle, leaves can be collected in planting beds around ornamental trees, shrubs, and perennials, or turned into a pile in a corner of your yard. When moving leaves, opt for raking or using a leaf vacuum to capture whole leaves, rather than shredding them with a mower. While shredding leaves is certainly a more environmentally friendly practice than bagging leaves and sending them to the landfill&mdash;shredded leaves do not provide the same cover as leaving them whole, and eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalis may be destroyed when shredding.
If You Leave the Leaves
Tell your neighbors what you&rsquo;re doing so they know you&rsquo;re not just being lazy, share what you know about winter cover for wildlife, and remember your leaves allow you to have a yard for you, your family, and all of the animals with which we share this planet.
If you decide to clean-up the garden and remove the leaves in spring, make sure you wait until late in the season so as not to destroy all the life you&rsquo;ve worked to protect.

The Washington Township Green Team supports ...

Fallen leaves hold nutrients that the trees, plants, and soil in your yard need. They provide shelter for the insects and wildlife need to survive....

The Washington Township Green Team supports “Leave the Leaves”

Excellent condition cherry wood Queen Anne Style Gooseneck Armchair - $200.00.&nbsp;

Queen Anne Style Gooseneck Cherry Wood Armchair 

Excellent condition cherry wood Queen Anne Style Gooseneck Armchair - $200.00. 

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