Prosecutor: Fort closure will tax local police
Valentin: Host towns will take on more police functions
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

Luis A. Valentin

EATONTOWN - When Fort Monmouth's gates close in September 2011, police in the base's three host communities can expect to be much busier, according to the county's top law enforcer.

Though the guards at the gates will be among the last to leave their posts when the U.S. Army installation shuts down, police in Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport need to be ready and able to protect their newly expanded jurisdictions, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin.

Valentin, a guest speaker at the Sept. 26 meeting of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA), predicted that local law enforcement will see higher call volumes once the fort is vacated.

No matter how the authority ultimately decides to redevelop the 89-year-old base, all three police forces will see higher workloads, Valentin said.

"I'm not here to take a position on the redevelopment," Valentin told the authority and about 70 persons in attendance. "I'm here to state the glaring truth: There will be a tremendous impact on law enforcement concerns."

Though most of the calls to police will likely be for traffic-related matters or routine problems, homeland security ought to remain a priority with local and county law enforcement, Valentin said.

The prosecutor urged the authority and the elected leaders of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport to throw their support behind their police departments.

"There has to be a sincere and honest dialogue and an appreciation of the current resources available to these departments," Valentin said. "The contiguous communities and the Prosecutor's Office will see the difference."

The Prosecutor's Office, the three police departments, municipal officials and the authority need to work together for the protection of area residents, he said.

"Our residents deserve nothing less," Valentin said. "I hope that the current resources available at Fort Monmouth will be used to achieve our goals."

When the fort closes down as scheduled under the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, the host communities will inherit the base's network of roads, its buildings, and three separate fire houses said Fort Monmouth Garrison Cmdr. Ricki L. Sullivan.

"In five years, they'll be five years older," Sullivan said of the fort's facilities.

Under a mutual aid agreement, the base's fire, police and first aid units have always worked with nearby communities' first responders with much success, Sullivan noted.

A nonvoting member of the public-private authority, Sullivan also advised the host communities to prepare now for the day when most of the fort's civilian and military personnel have moved to other locations.

"Those people that guard the gates will go late," Sullivan said. [But] when the bulk of the [employees] have departed, it would no longer be wise not to open the gates up."

Even without having to patrol the fort property, local police departments are "stretched to their limits" patrolling the jurisdictions they oversee now, said Eatontown Police Chief George Jackson.

Speaking also on behalf of Tinton Falls Police Chief Gerald Turning and Oceanport Police Chief Harold Sutton, Jackson asked the authority to consider not only the staffing needs of its law enforcement agencies, but also of the communities' firefighters and first aid squads.

"They are stretched to the limit as well," Jackson said.

Sullivan agreed that the job of all first responders could become harder without having the fort's emergency personnel to rely on.

"My concern is fires," he said.

Fort Monmouth's first responders are often "the first on the scene" in a disaster as they were in March 2005 soon after the gas explosion at the former Petco store in the borough took place, said Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo.

Eatontown will see its territory grow by about 17 percent, and could also see a jump in its population after Fort Monmouth closes, said Tarantolo, who had invited the authority to his community's borough hall for the meeting.

An authority member as well, Tarantolo advised the fort reuse panel to keep law enforcement in the loop as it pursues plans for the base property after it is closed and open for public use.

"When you take the fences down, you will no longer see Fort Monmouth, but rather you will see a continuation of Eatontown, Oceanport and Tinton Falls," Tarantolo said.

During public comment on the matter, Gene Stabulis, a Fort Monmouth firefighter, asked authority Chairman Robert Lucky to consider putting some of his squad members on a committee dedicated to public safety.

"We have some ideas," Stabulis said. "Please put us on a future agenda."

Another speaker, John Hazel, director of emergency services at Fort Monmouth, pledged the support of his department when the local municipalities take over the jurisdiction.

Of Fort Monmouth's total acreage, Eatontown hosts about 453 acres, Oceanport holds 419 acres, and, Tinton Falls hosts about 254, according to information previously released by base officials.

The state-sanctioned authority has been charged with finding new uses for the fort property and attracting new jobs to replace more than 5,000 that will be relocated when the post moves its operations to the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground in 2011.