Sayreville reports trauma kits for schools, stepped-up truck-parking enforcement; residents press JCP&L and raise email-blocking concerns

At the February 2025 Mayor and Borough Council meeting, officials reported several public-safety and infrastructure actions: the OEM (Office of Emergency Management) obtained and distributed 12 level-1 trauma kits to the borough’s public schools at no cost, the police department said it had been enforcing no-overnight-parking rules for tractor-trailers and was preparing recommendations for stricter penalties, and the water and sewer department reported ongoing maintenance and aging infrastructure work.

Councilman Colace (Public Safety) read a report that the Sayreville OEM obtained 12 level-1 trauma kits through Middlesex County OEM and distributed one to each public school, with training provided by two members of the Sayreville Police Department. Colace said OEM staff will attend the New Jersey State Emergency Preparedness Conference in April for updated training. He also read police updates from Chief Plumacher noting increased enforcement against tractor-trailer parking on Kennedy Drive and Bordentown Avenue, multiple summonses and several tows, and that Sergeant Braille was researching enhanced penalties.

Public comments during the meeting highlighted utility and communication problems. Councilwoman Novak flagged an anomalous electric charge — a roughly $25,705 electric bill for Morgan First Aid — and said the borough had just received 12 months of billing data and was investigating the anomaly. She asked whether the borough could stop paying for streetlights that are out for more than 30 days; the borough attorney said he was still reviewing the current agreement with the utility. Residents pressed for a JCP&L representative to attend a future meeting to answer questions about long-standing outages, an unsecured replacement pole on Pulaski Avenue, and a temporary substation trailer that residents said had remained for months.

Separately, multiple members of the public alleged a resident’s emails to borough officials had been blocked. Anthony Esposado told the council he believed a resident had been denied the ability to email elected leaders; the mayor responded that the borough’s IT manager had investigated and said the system’s AI spam filter had routed some messages and that the block was not a conscious act to silence a resident. The Business Administrator said printed copies and a review had resolved the specific instance noted in public comment.

Water and sewer: Councilman Sonarski reported the water department produced 150,000,000 gallons of potable water in January and said the borough will be examining wells and antiquated pipes once weather permits; he described planned inspections of pump stations and lift stations and replacements of burned pumps and failed check valves.

What this means: Officials presented actions to improve emergency readiness in schools and to enforce parking rules that residents say are causing traffic and safety problems. Ongoing investigations include high utility charges for volunteer first-aid squads and the status of multiple long-running utility repairs; residents asked the council to require a JCP&L representative to appear. The email-blocking allegation prompted officials to say the problem was a spam-filtering issue that has been corrected for the instance raised in public comment.

Attributions and caution: Quoted material above comes from council reports and public comment at the February 2025 meeting. Where the meeting did not provide firm outcomes (for example, the attorney’s review of streetlight billing or the JCP&L follow-up schedule) the article notes the matter is under review rather than resolved.