Council Votes to Waive Tire Disposal Fees for Lakehurst House Fire Victim

Lakehurst's has made good on its pledge to help out a family after having fallen on hard times.

After hearing from Richard Peer and his neighbor last month, the borough council on Thursday night approved a resolution waiving the disposal fee for tires on the property after the homeowner was ticketed for storing them on his land.

Peer's Lakeshore home . Following the blaze, the over 30-year borough resident said that he received over $1,000 in tickets from borough code enforcement, which were ultimately dismissed by Chief of Police Eric Higgins. 

Part of the issue was the 23 tires on his property which need to be removed to avoid another ticket. To help out, the borough's disposal fee of $2 per tire has been waived for Peer, provided that they are brought to the public works department without rims.

A neighbor accompanied Peer to last month's meeting to request that the fee be waived. The council said that they could help, and borough attorney Sean Gertner asked that something be submitted in writing so that the governing body could take action.

At the time, Peer expressed concerns that borough code enforcement was not being handled properly. Peer said that he was not given any notice before receiving the tickets and had not been able to clean his property since it had not been released by the authorities who were investigating the fire.

"I feel like I try to abide by the rules," Peer said at the time. "I feel like I'm being kicked when I'm down."

Mayor Harry Robbins said that the governing body will review code enforcement.

"The personnel committee will discuss this further," he said last month.

At Thursday night's meeting, council member Glenn McComas said that it appeared as though Peer's property was being cleaned.

After the December blaze which displaced the Peer and the home's occupants, Lakehurst's fire department organized a clothing drive, something for which Peer said he was grateful.