It was a night of promotions at the latest Mantua Township Committee meeting on Sept. 16.
The meeting room at the Mantua Township Municipal Building was filled with law enforcement officers and their families.
They were there to either accept or witness promotions within the police department.
The committee appointed Det. James Hagerty to the rank of sergeant, Patrolman Jason Lipsett to the rank of corporal, Patrolman Brian Hauss to the rank of corporal, Patrolman Robert Layton to the rank of corporal and Ed Kiermeier as a special law enforcement officer class III.
The officers were sworn in by Mayor Pete Scirrotto.
“I’m really excited to move on, get these guys in their positions, and see what they can do,” said Chief Darren White about the promotions during his police report to the committee.
After being sworn in, Kiermeier will be “getting up and running” in the township’s schools as quickly as possible, according to White. He will be qualifying on Sept. 17, getting a measure for uniforms and doing some training throughout the week. He is expected to start in the schools the following week.
According to White, school officers generally rotate throughout schools in the district.
The department has several interested candidates for its open class II position that it will interview during the week. The report states the department is anxious to fill the open position, as it recently lost its remaining class II officer when he was sworn in as a patrolman.
In other news:
- Some concerns were recently brought up that resulted in the police department evaluating its ability to interact with those who are deaf or hard of hearing. After conducting an evaluation, it has instituted a new policy, hung some informational posters and will be installing a TTY phone in the vestibule for after-hours communication with the county dispatch center.
- The township received an NJDOT Local Aid grant for the 2019 fiscal year in the amount of $196,000 for the reconstruction of East Warren Avenue. Design plans are complete, according to the engineer’s report released at the meeting. The report also says the bid opening was held on Aug. 31, in which South State Inc was the apparent low bidder with a bid of $168,706.25. As of the day of the meeting, contracts have been forwarded to the contractor and are awaiting the return of contract bonds and insurance documents.
