11.01.22
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Council approves retail cannabis businesses in Metuchen, sets restrictions

Nov. 1, 2022: The weed store will be coming to Metuchen. 

But don’t expect stoners hanging out getting high on every corner, and long lines of crazed hippies lining Main Street. 

Borough Council passed an ordinance, after a public hearing Oct. 24, allowing for wholesale and retail cannabis businesses in Metuchen. The decision came after Council last year essentially put a decision on hold allowing retail cannabis businesses in the borough pending further study of the issue. 

Metuchen’s decision comes in the wake of a ballot question in 2020 in which around 70 percent of borough voters approved legalizing recreational cannabis. State-wide, around 67 percent of voters approved such use. The state legislature in early 2021 legalized recreational cannabis use, and then gave municipalities a deadline to figure out what kinds of cannabis businesses would be allowed within their borders. 

Metuchen’s plan was borne out of this process. Council approved issuing two wholesale, and three retail licenses for the borough. This is apparently less than other municipalities in New Jersey that have issued similar ordinances, some of which have no limit on the number of licenses, according to Council President Jason Delia, who made a presentation of the borough’s plan, at the meeting. 

Other cannabis business uses are prohibited, including delivery businesses (though resident consumers can still have cannabis delivered to their homes), cultivators, manufacturers and distributors. 

The ordinance grants the licenses on “conditional” use, meaning when a business applies for one of the licenses, it will have to go before the planning commission, neighbors will be notified and will be subject to a public hearing. “We wanted to make sure the public had plenty of opportunity to weigh in on the potential new cannabis businesses,” Delia said. 

The wholesale businesses would be restricted to an area in the northwest section of town, near Liberty Street, that is zoned for light industrial. Retail businesses are restricted to what are known as “highway” retail areas, which are less concentrated spaces that typically include on-site parking. These would be areas off of Route 27, and Central and Amboy Avenues, Delia said. 

Delia made a point in stressing the plan doesn’t allow for retail cannabis businesses along Main Street. 

Fees for the licenses are: $2,500 application fee, and a $15,000 annual license fee. Taxes on the license classes are: 1 percent for wholesale license and 2 percent for retail license. 

It’s too early to tell what kind of revenue these fees will generate but Delia said they could prove to be significant revenue generators. The ordinance points out the additional revenues could help keep seniors in town who are having trouble paying their property taxes. It’s like, legal weed to keep people in their homes, what a concept!

The plan “has the potential to provide a significant source of additional revenue to the borough annually to offset the current reliance on property taxes. Said additional revenue will assist the borough in providing tax relief, including relief for senior residents that would like to remain in the borough but face challenges due to the burden of real property taxes.”

Not a free-for-all

Council’s plan comes with many restrictions, which should prevent some of the more egregious violations imagined in the minds of those who can’t imagine weed ever being legal.  

For example, the rules do not allow for on-site consumption, even though that could have been allowed under the state law. “We decided that wasn’t for Metuchen,” Delia said. 

There are restrictions on businesses allowing long lines to form outside. They either have to have enough space to accommodate heavy queuing, or put in place a reservation system. 

Hours of operations will be from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; the businesses can’t be within 200 feet of a K -12th grade school; and no cannabis or paraphernalia is allowed to be visible from the street. 

The businesses also must have security plans in place, including video monitoring systems and on-site security personnel during operating hours, according to the ordinance.

10.04.21
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Opinion: Public officials’ personal connections to development projects are fair game

Oct. 4, 2021: There seems to be some confusion on the part of elected officials about the nature of their jobs.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of pushback against the at-times aggressive language used by some community members opposing the idea of closing New Street from Main to Pearl and turning it into a pedestrian center.

Specifically, officials are warning against invoking family and friends when disparaging the idea of shutting down one of only three streets to get from Main Street to Lake Avenue (or, in other words, from one side of town to the other). And of course, any normally functioning human can sympathize. Why drag innocents into the fray?

What they’re forgetting, however, is the nature of their roles, and the vital belief that personal connections, and even the appearance of conflict in public development, should be highlighted, trumpeted and disclosed to the public.

So, for example, when a member of borough staff has family connections to a business that would benefit from a project to turn the area of New Street/Main Street area into a pedestrian center, that should be a discussion point on the next borough council agenda. In this case, Jay Muldoon, director of special projects for the borough, has a relative who is a business owner along the stretch of New Street that would be turned into a pedestrian area. Muldoon also is the secretary (non-voting) of the Metuchen Downtown Alliance, the tax-payer and member-funded management organization for the borough’s special improvement district. (Muldoon hasn’t responded to questions I sent him over email last week).

This connection was brought to light in an acrimonious back-and-forth between Muldoon and former Metuchen Mirror owner Randy Splaingard on social media. You know, rather than simply disclosed during the actual public meeting, the perfect forum to bring to light anything that even might have a whiff of a conflict.

The chairman of the MDA, Eric Berger, is a founder and owner of a real estate company that owns a strip of properties right in the target zone along New Street that house a bunch of restaurants. These would benefit greatly from the area becoming a pedestrian center, and in fact, they have already enjoyed the MDA’s largesse, which provided them the use of outdoor dining tents funded through pandemic-relief grants (fully or in part, I’m not sure).

Berger has not been shy about making his connections public. He was the one, after all, who suggested, way back in October 2020, that the idea of closing New Street at Main Street should be explored as an option as part of the broader Main Street safety improvement plan. Borough Council President Linda Koskoski mentioned vaguely at the last council meeting that a member of the public brought up the idea at the 2020 meeting, only to confirm it was Berger after directly asked by a resident.

These kinds of connections shouldn’t be a secret or something whispered between residents like a conspiracy. I’d advocate posting them on large signs outside borough hall.

Who is benefitting? Are any officials, their friends or family members, poised to benefit from a particular project? Let’s understand the connections. Instead of sanctimonious finger wagging about civility, how about high-minded proclamations about the importance of transparency in government?

The project

As a reminder, there is an idea being batted around by the borough and the county to close New Street at the Main Street intersection as a way to make the area safer for pedestrians. The idea is part of a much broader safety enhancement plan over a 1.1 mile corridor along Main Street. The Main Street work will be funded by a $9.3 million federal grant, though any work to convert New Street to a pedestrian center would not be covered by the grant.

The planning group is asking for comments about the New Street idea by Oct. 5. Some members of Council seem to like the idea of closing New Street, which is considered one of the options for that intersection. The other option would be to leave New Street open while adding left-turn signals at the intersection and delayed signals to allow pedestrian crossings, among other things. (Get all the information about the plans and the project here).

Because remember, not every business is set to benefit from shutting down half of New Street, as has been made clear since the plan was first publicly discussed earlier this month. Certain businesses, like New Pearl Cleaners, fear their business will be destroyed by the change.

The answer is not, and cannot be, well, businesses that will be negatively impacted have time to change their business models since the project would take years to complete, as one interested party said during the public call with the NJTPA. That sort of antipathy to local business is not how the borough thrives.

09.22.21
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Make your voice heard: Boro solicits comments about perma-closing part of New Street

Sept. 22, 2021: The borough will be deciding over the next few months whether to permanently close a portion of New Street and turn it into some form of a pedestrian center.

This is a huge decision that will impact anyone who drives through the borough, not to mention residents and businesses in the downturn area. And the borough is moving quickly toward making a decision: the likelihood is that a decision on whether to do this or not will be made by year-end. (Go here for more information on where to send comments; or, send them to the local officials, you know who!)

The proposed plan would close New Street to vehicles from Main to Pearl Streets. The remainder of New Street to Lake Avenue would remain open to traffic. This would essentially cut the borough in half, forcing motorists to use either Middlesex Avenue (Route 27) or Amboy Avenue to get to Lake Avenue.

Metuchen would decide what to do with the New Street space; the cost of transforming the area into a pedestrian center would come out of the borough’s own coffers.

As of now, half of New Street is taken up by dining tents that appear to be for the sole use of only those restaurants on one side of New Street. The tents will stay up through the end of the year, Mayor Jonathan Busch said in a recent Facebook post.

The borough is seeking comments about the proposal by Oct. 5, according to Jay Muldoon, Metuchen’s director of special projects. Muldoon was part of a virtual meeting Monday night hosted by the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority.

Broader plan

The New Street idea is one option for the intersection, considered one of the most dangerous for pedestrians in the borough. It is part of a larger pedestrian safety plan being worked on by the borough, Middlesex County and the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority of the 1.1 mile corridor (including 20 intersections) from Talmadge Avenue to Brunswick Avenue. Work would be funded by $9.3 million in federal grant money the borough was awarded in 2018. NJTPA and the county are working with Michael Baker International on the design.

Improvements would include upgraded traffic signals and flashing pedestrian beacons, traffic calming curb extensions, sidewalk and drainage improvements, shared-lane bicycle treatment and electronic overheight vehicle detection system for the Amtrak (truck-eating) bridge, according to NJTPA information from last year.

Improvements for pedestrians would include countdown timers at signals, audible features, up to four new or upgraded flashing pedestrian beacons and high visibility crosswalks, NJTPA said.

More recently, the group explored the idea of permanently closing New Street at the Main Street intersection, which would eliminate most of the pedestrian safety vulnerabilities that currently exist at the intersection. NJTPA reported nine pedestrian strikes at the intersection over a five-year period.

Closing part of New Street is one of two official options for the New Street intersection: the other involves a combination of signal upgrades to give pedestrians more time to cross and providing more room for vehicles to pass, including left turn slots on Main Street. This would result in the loss of 15 parking spaces along Main Street. Read the plan here.

UPDATE: Helpful readers reminded me a potential third option was discussed at the virtual meeting that would keep New Street open from Main to Lake Avenue, though keeping one side of it for pedestrian use only. That wasn’t presented as part of the official plan, but Jay Muldoon said at the meeting the group would consider it.

UPDATE: Rob Donnan, chief of the Metuchen Volunteer Fire Department, said in a Facebook post the fire company does not support the idea of closing a portion of New Street. “New Street is not a “cut through” an alley or road to nowhere that can just be shut down. It is an important route which connects Lake Avenue (aka State Highway Rt 27) and Main Street (aka County Road 531). Since the partial closure of New Street during the COVID-19 pandemic, travel through and around our downtown has been noticeably impacted. Traffic on Middlesex Avenue (Rt27) seems to worsen every day and the ability to simply go around the closure sounds much easier than it is.” Read Donnan’s full message here.

The area that would be closed off to vehicle traffic has already been closed temporarily on weekends as outdoor dining tents were installed last year. The borough amended ordinances earlier this year to allow for outdoor structures like tents. Metuchen Downtown Alliance, which is partially funded by the borough to manage the downtown improvement district, purchased the tents using Covid relief grant money it received from Main Street New Jersey, according to MDA meeting minutes.

The buildings along the block are owned by US Real Estate Acquisitions, a company founded and led by Eric Berger, who is chairman of the Metuchen Downtown Alliance.

08.13.20
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Rev. Owens on police review commission: ‘We’re not here to find dirt on police department’

Aug. 13, 2020: Rev. Ronald Owens traces his history in Metuchen back to 1900, when his great-grandfather moved to the borough from Virginia to work as caretaker of the cemetery at the First Presbyterian Church.

Rev. Owens is senior pastor at New Hope Baptist Church of Metuchen. He also has served as chaplain to the Metuchen Police Department for 17 years. It is this resume Rev. Owens cites when he talks about his unique responsibility as head of a commission tasked by Mayor Jonathan Busch to review the police department’s use of force policies.

“There’s not much that Metuchen’s police department has to reform, if anything,” Owens told me in a recent interview. “It’s just that there’s some things that could make it more user-friendly to the community.

“We’re not here to find dirt on the police department,” Owens stressed.

The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck sparked nationwide protests. Floyd and other deaths such as Breonna Taylor has spurred hard questions about how much force is appropriate, especially when it comes to unarmed people.

Busch announced in June that he had signed the “Mayor’s Pledge” from My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, an initiative of former President Barack Obama’s Foundation. The pledge commits signers to review use of force policies, engage the community by including a range of perspectives as part of the review, make the findings public while seeking feedback and ultimately, reform use of force policies.

Busch also named the members of the commission, to be led by Rev. Owens.

Commission members are: David Alston, retired captain with the New Jersey State Police; Alan Johnson, software engineer manager with Better.com; Hazel-Anne M. Johnson, associate teaching professor at Rutgers in the Department of Human Resource Management; Chuck Lopez, music teacher with Edison School District; Deborah Mohammed-Spigner, assistant professor in the College of Business and Public Management and School of Criminal Justice and Public Administration at Kean University; Rabbi Eric Rosin of Neve Shalom; and Bobbie Theivakumaran, managing director with Citi.

Busch and Owens have both said Metuchen police department ranks low in arrests by force compared to the rest of the state.

revowens

Rev. Ronald Owens, senior pastor of New Hope Baptist Church

According to Force Report compiled by NJ Advance Media, Metuchen police reported 47 uses of force from 2012 to 2016, a lower rate than 375 police departments (out of 468) around the state. (Use of force includes any time an officer used force during an arrest and filled out a use-of-force form).

During this time frame, the subjects of force arrests were 62.1 percent white, 17.2 percent black, 6.9 percent Hispanic and 10.3 percent Asian, according to the database.

A weapon was fired twice during the time period, with two incidents in 2013 and 2014 listed as “deadly” force. For both officers who used “deadly” force, the number of subjects injured is listed as zero. Read more here.

The goal for Metuchen police will likely focus more on enhancing its exposure to the community, Owens said. One idea would be to designate an officer to focus on public relations. The officer “would do certain police appearances … in schools, talking about safety, security, all the things that our police department feels are important to know,” Owens said.

The commission will also consider ways to provide more access to counseling for individuals under “domestic stress,” Owens said. As chaplain with the police department, Owens said he travels with officers to scenes of domestic violence or emotional distress. “I’m in the car with police officers on the way to those sites, to bring comfort,” he said. “So I’m talking as someone who carries a badge.”

The commission answers to the mayor and Borough Council. Owens said he would like the commission to make some of its findings public so the community can respond.

 

07.28.20
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Here’s details of why Kahn’s Crossing bridge needs replacement

July 28, 2020: The terminal condition of Kahn’s Crossing pedestrian bridge stems from deterioration along one of the support beams from water infiltration, according to May 2018 report from borough engineer Maser Consulting.

Brainy Boro Blog obtained the report through an open records request.

Maser recommended closure of the bridge and complete replacement, rather than repair, based on the inspection report. The borough closed the bridge in 2018 and has since been applying for Department of Transportation grants to help fund the $190,000 to replace the bridge.

The cost appears to only include the same type of bridge with galvanized and painted steel, but not removal, erection and installation, the Maser report said.

So what went wrong?

Water was able to infiltrate inside the east support beam which runs under the platform, called a stringer, which did not have closure plates, the report said. That resulted in internal rusting along the length of the east stringer, as well as at the center splice connection along the bottom of the stringer, including on splice plates and splice plate bolts, the report said.

Kahn Pedestrian Bridge Structural Follow-up Report – 5.15.18

Inspectors also found external rusting and deterioration along the west stringer, which was less significant than the internal decay on the east beam, the report said. Though here as well, inspectors found deterioration at the center splice connection.

The original manufacturer of the bridge, Contech Engineered Solutions LLC, also assessed the state of the bridge and came to the same conclusion as Maser.

“Since the rust is occurring on the inside of a closed tube steel, the full extent and degree of the rust cannot be completely seen nor definitively determined,” the report said. “The unknown amount of deterioration and rust on the inside of the stringer’s bottom chord has made the bridge’s structural stability extremely uncertain.”

I’m still not clear what exactly happened to allow water inside the east stringer. Was there a design flaw, construction mistake, simply wear and tear over time? We’ll keep digging.

BTW, there’s apparently been a bridge at the end of Graham Avenue since the 19th Century, after the Lehigh Valley Railroad cut out the land for its railroad. David Thomas, the owner of a large plot of the southwest section of the borough at the time, had the first bridge built at Graham Avenue for his convenience, according to the summer 2007 issue of Nannygoats, the newsletter of the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society.

07.15.20
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Metuchen cuts $94k in budget requests in pandemic-battered economy

July 15, 2020: Metuchen borough staff took an ax to the budget this year to control costs as revenues dried up in the pandemic downturn.

A budget was ready in March, but once covid-19 hit, it had to been done over, and over again. The result was cuts of $8,000 from Metuchen Media, $14,000 from the fire department, $25,000 from the police department, $10,000 from streets and roads and buildings and grounds, $16,000 from sewers and $11,200 from forestry.

Ultimately, the borough cut about $94,000 from the original budget to adjust to the battered economy.

In the end, Metuchen staff presented its 2020 fiscal year budget at the council meeting this week that calls for a property tax increase for residents of 4.5 to 4.6 tax points. For a property valued at $200,000 in the borough, the tax increase, including borough and school taxes, would be $284, according to Borough Administrator Melissa Perilstein, who made the budget presentation Monday.

(County, municipal and school budget costs determine the amount of property tax to be paid. A town’s general tax rate is calculated by dividing the total dollar amount it needs to raise to meet local budget expenses by the total assessed value of all its taxable property. An individual’s property taxes are then calculated by multiplying that general tax rate by the assessed value of his particular property. Because of New Jersey’s strong “home rule” concept of government, the State does not participate in the making of local budgets, nor does it receive any of the property taxes collected.

From Borough Finance Officer Rebecca Cuthbert: To calculate a tax point: Municipal total rate x total ratables /100 as compared to municipal total rate + .01 x total ratables /100. A tax point is the amount that a .01 increase in the tax rate equates in dollars.)

The budget is proposed at $22.25 million, a decrease of $492,784 from last year. Borough Council will hold a public hearing on the budget at the Aug. 24 meeting.

“This was  collective effort,” Perilstein said. “We went back to everyone and said, ‘please look at your budgets another time and let [us] know what you can do without. We’re lean and mean for sure.”

The tax increase will be offset by the borough using $1.6 million in surplus funds, the same amount of money used last year. This will leave the borough with about $3.5 million in surplus, said Cuthbert.

Metuchen also is getting an infusion of $500,000 from the Parking Authority, down from $1 million last year. The borough is budgeting $1.4 million in state aid, which is still a question. “From everything our CFO is hearing … the state is not looking to touch aid at this point,” Perilstein said.

Revenues are also being anticipated in the form of $662,264 for fees, permits and licenses, $600,000 in delinquent tax collection and $368,148 in grants and other sources of funding.

The borough, like probably every municipality in New Jersey, was hit with unanticipated pandemic-related costs, Perilstein said. Metuchen spent around $102,000 on covid-19 related expenses for things like building sanitization, cleaning products and infrastructure upgrades to better protect employees such as plastic partitions. The borough is hoping for reimbursement from Middlesex County for such pandemic related costs, Perilstein said.

Municipal Court revenues are expected to decrease $175,000 to $200,000, according to the budget document.

The largest slice of the budget flows to salaries and wages for police and public works. Money also flows to things like debt service (15 percent of the total budget), sewage treatment, pension costs and professional services.

“We were very cognizant of the fact [that] these are tough times, we wanted to maintain services, maintain what people have come to expect … and be cognizant of the fact there was a major economic event that occurred, which impacted our revenues,” Perilstein said. “That was a big piece of how do we maintain this equilibrium with appropriations versus revenues, because you’ve got to come out even somehow, costs are still increasing even though our revenues decreased.”

Updated July 16 with information about how tax points are calculated. 

07.08.20
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Boro applies for grant to replace Kahn’s Crossing pedestrian bridge

July 8, 2020: Metuchen government has proven its dedication over the years to making the borough a more pedestrian friendly place. Officials have long sought and received money through grants and other funding sources to help make borough streets safer for walkers.

With this kind of dedication to pedestrian safety, it’s unfortunate, and curious, that one of the borough’s premier pedestrian bridges remains closed after being judged unsafe during an inspection in 2018.

Kahn’s Crossing connects Graham Avenue across the Greenway trail gap. Graham is one of the most historically significant streets in Metuchen and attracts pedestrians strolling the neighborhood or heading to the train station from the southwest section of the borough.

(Full disclosure, I walked Kahn’s Crossing daily as a train commuter to NYC).

 

kahnscrossing

The borough engineer in 2018 found during a routine inspection that the bridge had rusted through, according to Mayor Jonathan Busch. The engineer determined the bridge was not repairable and needed replacement, Busch told me over email.

Complete bridge replacement would cost $190,000, Melissa Perilstein, borough administrator, said. For the third year in a row, Metuchen applied for a state Department of Transportation grant to fund a portion of the cost to replace the bridge, Perilstein said.

In March 2018, the borough awarded Maser Consulting (the borough engineering firm) $9,500 to design a repair plan for the bridge, according to minutes from the March 19 2018 borough council meeting.

Later that year, the borough applied for the state Department of Transportation grant for the bridge reconstruction project. The borough submitted the same grant in July 2019.

This is not the first time the bridge has closed, apparently. I’m no historian, but some simple internet research found that the bridge was named for a former environmental commission member Donald Kahn, who died in 2006. Kahn worked to have the bridge re-opened and was honored for his efforts by having the bridge named after him, according to a 2006 issue of Nannygoats, the newsletter of the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society.

I have a few questions: what happened to the bridge? Why did it fall into disrepair and was that the result of some sort of design flaw or construction error? If so, who was responsible? I put the questions out and if I get answers I’ll update the blog.

If you know anything, hit me up here or on the Facebook page.

06.23.20
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Metuchen to review police use of force policies

June 23, 2020: Metuchen is forming a commission to study the police department’s use of force policies as part of a broader, national push to push back against law enforcement violence and racism.

Mayor Jonathan Busch announced the formation of the commission at the board meeting Monday. The commission will be led by Rev. Ronald Owens, senior pastor of New Hope Baptist Church.

“We’re grateful that here in Metuchen our police department is one of the best in the state with respect to its record, the statistics show it as well, and certainly when you compare it locally to other departments, there’s not even a comparison,” Busch said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t still look at ourselves and take a hard look at what we do.”

motorcyclepolice

Torrance Police Department motorcycle officers roll out.

As part of the effort, Busch signed the “Mayor’s Pledge” from My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, an initiative of former President Barack Obama’s Foundation. The pledge commits signers to review use of force policies, engage the community by including a range of perspectives as part of the review, make the findings public while seeking feedback and ultimately, reform use of force policies.

Other details of the commission were not available. Busch said other members of the commission, as well as its specific focus, will be disclosed over the next few weeks.

Metuchen is forming the commission as the nation takes a hard look at its law enforcement and the disproportionate violence visited by police on the black community.

The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck sparked nationwide protests. Floyd and other deaths such as Breonna Taylor has spurred hard questions about how much force is appropriate, especially when it comes to unarmed people.

Owens and Metuchen police Chief David Irizarry did not return requests for comment Tuesday.

 

11.26.18
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NJ revenue/expense gap worst in US

Nov. 26, 2018: New Jersey’s finances are deplorable, as has been the case for many years — even worse than Illinois, which is saying something.

According to fresh recent from Pew Charitable Trusts, NJ pulled in revenues of about $60.3 billion and spent about $71.7 billion in fiscal 2017. This deficit is not unusual for the Garden State, which has run a deficit for 15 years, the study said.

Add this to the fact that NJ Transit is literally crumbling before our eyes, and it doesn’t bode well for the future. Check out the article here.

The comprehensive review by the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts places New Jersey dead last among the states when it comes to maintaining fiscal balance, which is raising enough revenue on an annual basis to cover expenses for the same given year.

12.13.17
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Parking Authority board fires employee for alleged theft

Dec. 13, 2017: Metuchen Parking Authority Commissioners on Tuesday terminated the job of employee Arthur Mohr Jr. for alleged theft, Vice Chairman Ed O’Brien said.

The parking authority held an emergency meeting Tuesday night to discuss operations and a personnel issue. The board of commissioners went into closed session. Afterward, O’Brien explained the board’s decision.

He said Mohr has been accused of theft of funds and time. The board next week will review a plan to improve procedures and address Mohr’s former responsibilities. Mohr was a full-time employee responsible for maintenance of parking lots, meters and equipment and enforcement of stickers in parking lots and meter collection, Borough Administrator Jay Muldoon told BBB.

Details of the accusations against Mohr are unclear. I contacted Metuchen PD and will update when and if more information becomes available.

UPDATE: Police Chief David Irizarry declined to comment citing an ongoing investigation. Parking Authority released a statement today:

The Metuchen Parking Authority announced today that one of their employees has been arrested and charged with two counts of theft from the parking authority.

Arthur Mohr, 53, of Spotswood, who was employed by the MPA since 2007, was charged with two counts of theft for working an extensive amount of time less than he was required as a full time employee and for stealing US currency coins, which belonged to the MPA.

Edmund O’Brien, Vice Chairman of the Metuchen Parking Authority, immediately suspended Mohr without pay from his employment with the Parking Authority. Mr. Mohr was terminated as a result of the actions by the Metuchen Parking Authority at the special meeting held on December 12, 2017.

The Parking Authority has been shrinking since transferring many operational responsibilities to Nexus Parking Systems, which runs the Pearl Street parking facility. Earlier this year, Council approved removing full-time Parking Authority Executive Director Thomas Crownover for a part-time business manager. The Authority shrunk from five employees to three.