Block the Block

Decades of Environmental Damage, Political Power, and County Influence Raise New Questions About Today's Cell Tower and Data Center Plans. After Portash's debacles as Town Administrator, after decades of lack of oversight, should we trust "The Block" as our current Town Administrator

A Township With a Memory

Subscribe

Manchester Township is a place where history never fully fades. Residents who lived through corruption scandals, environmental disasters, and county-driven development say the past still shapes every new proposal — especially the controversial data center and cell tower now under consideration ask if today's town administrator will prove in the end to be as corrupt or dangerous to environment as the notorious Joseph Portash?

To many, these projects, the proposed cellphone tower in Fox Hollow and the data center behind Renaissance Village, are not isolated decisions. They are part of a long pattern: powerful administrators, weakened oversight, and a community left to absorb the consequences.

You might ask, where does it all start—bribery and Leisure Village.

Joseph Portash's rise and fall remains one of Ocean County's most notorious political stories. As a county freeholder, Portash was convicted of accepting a bribe from developer Robert Schmertz, owner of Leisure Technology and the Boston Celtics. Schmertz's company built age-restricted communities like Leisure Village West, tying county politics directly to Manchester's development boom. Allegations and ties to county officials, too powerful for the FBI to follow, after Portash's theft left the townships penniless.

Portash's conviction of bribery and its reversal made Supreme Court precedent, to the township's fall.

Portash's legal troubles reached the U.S. Supreme Court in New Jersey v. Portash (1979). The court ruled that his immunized grand jury testimony — compelled under state law — could not be used against him later, even to challenge his credibility at trial.The ruling established a major evidentiary principle:

Coerced or immunized testimony cannot be used against a defendant in a criminal case. This shield limited how far prosecutors could go in pursuing Portash.

How did he run the town into total abject poverty— running Manchester through "Weak Mayors"

As the town administrator, with his wife being the first after his conviction. The first of a series of rubber-stamp mayors. After his conviction, Portash could not legally serve as mayor again. Yet he became town administrator with control over the township's checkbook…

Block "The Block"

When a series of mayors stood trial after his corruption was found out—they all reported Alzheimer's or other incapacities that tarnished their memories as the state and FBI investigated their complicity after Portash's death a few weeks after President Reagan was found out to have had Alzheimer's during the Oliver North trial. During the trials, a judge jumped over the bench to grab canceled checks, from a township employee, paid to various people in the county Portash bribed with the township coffers.

It was found after Portash's death in Bridgton, Maine with a town veterinarian signing his death certificate, with only township employees verifying his closed casket funeral, he had stolen around twenty million dollars over two decades, leaving the town broke, and in receivership, as casinos in Atlantic City came banging on the township's door for payment

Can we gamble the township's future and health on the current town administrator with ties to a convicted felon, pardoned by Trump, who is head of the county Republican Party? With the toxic waste history of the township, can we trust the current town administrator with the health of us Republicans and Democrats, United, with the decision to put up cellphone towers and data centers?

Remember the town United once to create a nonpartisan government, stretching across both Republican and Democrats to get clean water, so future children in the township would not be forced to freeze their sperm for future procreation before they had to be castrated to save their lives after showering within the township.

It got that bad.

Should Republicans then have trusted Portash, who was a Democrat serving under the infamous Mayor Hague in Jersey City before moving to Manchester? Portash is like some Republican president, who started out as a Democrat.

The FBI Investigation

When residents demanded help during the Pine Lake Park water contamination crisis, they discovered millions missing from township accounts. The FBI placed Manchester in receivership, investigating allegations that Portash had siphoned funds over two decades. By now, rumors had spread in town that Joe's twin brother was seen walking around Long Lake in Maine, where Stephen King was his neighbor.

Strange, but true.

My memory recalls that the investigation stopped when federal agents uncovered potential county-level involvement. No full accounting was ever released.

Whether fact or folklore, these details remain part of Manchester's political DNA. Should we trust another town administrator with county ties to Trump-pardoned payroll tax cheat George Gilmore?

Block "The Block"

Environmental Scars That Still Shape the Township. Manchester's environmental history is not abstract — it is lived reality.

PFAS Contamination

Fire-retardant disposal at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst introduced forever chemicals (PFAS) into the watershed. Residents reported:

• Testicular cancer clusters

• Contaminated wells

• Replacement city water that was also polluted

Pine Lake Pollution

Pine Lake, a flooded asphalt pit, once a recreational centerpiece, became a symbol of neglect as contamination concerns grew, as many dead seagulls had piled up.

Ciba-Geigy

Toms River's infamous chemical dumping — toxic barrels, groundwater contamination, and a pipeline to the ocean — affected the broader region's aquifer.

Heritage Minerals

The Heritage Minerals site contains uranium, thorium, and chemical waste. Developers continue to push for massive housing projects rather than a full cleanup amidst over three decades of dodging state orders. With Crystal Lake and its crumbling shoreline claiming more deaths than a Friday the Thirteenth movie, is that a place people would want to raise their families at the end of Bone Hill Road?

BOMARC Missile Accident

The 1960 plutonium fire at the BOMARC missile site near Lakehurst remains one of New Jersey's most serious Cold War contamination events that damaged our watershed and aquifers for over forty years before its removal.

High-Tension Lines Through Senior Villages

Residents have long protested the placement of high-voltage transmission lines near dense senior communities. I recall a man I worked with in the 80s who bought a brand new IROC Z28 Camaro from a settlement from an electric company for the cancers they caused in his Jackson Twp neighborhood from their high-tension wires. How many people in Crestwood die of cancer each year? How many never realize the wires might be killing them? Do rich people have high-tension wires over their houses? Why?

Cell Tower Near the Kindergarten

A cell tower placed near a kindergarten raises concerns about:

• RF exposure

• Long-term health risks for children

Remember, doctors told pregnant women drinking was safe, and that smoking was good for you. Do you want to wait to find out if cellphone towers are safe, as other voices of authority like the current CEO of Exxon/Mobile admitted they knew since the 50s how oil products were leading to global warming? Remember that CEOs claim it's your fault for believing the oil companies' lies and using their product the next time you make a phone call. Have you read the legal notes on your phone?

Hess Landfill

The residents of Holly Acres were surprised by the odors and environmental concerns that arose the first summer they lived in their new homes. Local allegations claim that toxic waste from New York City was dumped there, tied to figures like Joe Parisi, who reportedly held influence in NYC's garbage unions and was investigated for the murder of a waste management owner in Yonkers. Parisi and his brother Frank, according to deeds found in the Ocean County clerk's office, used to own the Heritage Mineral site.

Is it safe to build a data center going against the Pinelands Commission's warning against our water? They have repeatedly documented:

• Dropping water tables

• Disappearing creeks

• Stress on the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer

• Wetlands losing flow

• Increased pumping from development

• Impervious surfaces accelerating runoff

Anyone can see the empty ponds and swamps leading from the dry springs in Roosevelt's City behind the township's jeweled Harry Wright Lake where they held Manchester Day every 4th of July season. Do we need to drop the water table further? For pregnant women drinking with abandon and you pack-a-day smokers, according to a good deal of software engineers reporting on The Future of Life Institute podcast, we have less that 15 years before the AI the data centers are creating before our extermination as a race. Learn from Exxon/Mobil's CEO's recent statement.

It's in your power—Block "The Block"

Manchester sits on the edge of this fragile system. A data center, with its heavy water and energy demands, could worsen aquifer decline. A cell tower, with its health risks, grading, access roads, and soil disturbance, adds further stress. Like an opera singer shattering a glass and sonic waves blasting gallstones in your body, it's not the heat from radio waves doing the cell damage, but the frequency

Is "The Block" leading us by the nose as a list of mayors quit midterm or resemble bobbing heads? Should we allow him, Us United Republicans and Democrats that got together after Portash's destruction of the township, who care for our children's health, to push through an agenda that a few council members rubber stamp while many members abstain or are absent during the proposals? How far does the corruption lead into the county level? Should we trust a "Town Administrator" with ties to a convicted, then pardoned county administrator?

Should we block "The Block", before we find out he sold the township away like Portash, leaving us in another, of many, toxic waste zones?

Can Manchester afford more infrastructure that strains its already-vulnerable environment?

Block "The Block" Now!

Or are you profiting by his decisions?