MORRIS COUNTY — A federally required annual county of homeless persons in New Jersey, including breakouts for Morris County and all 20 other counties in the state, has found a slight decrease in homeless numbers, according to a snapshot taken statewide in January of this year.

In a report released this week, #NJCounts 2019 found 8,864 men, women and children, in 6,748 households, experienced homelessness across New Jersey.  This number decreased by 439 persons of 5 percent from 2018.

In Morris County, on a count taken on the night of January 22, a total of 288 households, including 388 individuals were found to experiencing homelessness, according to the 2019 Point-InTime Count, which was done by a host of county and local social services representatives and volunteers. The numbers show an overall increase of 4 persons, or 1 percent, from 2015 to 2019.

Of those Morris County residents counted this year, 65 persons were identified as chronically homeless and 42 were not sheltered on the night of the count.

Over this five-year period there was a five percent increase in persons staying in emergency shelter and a 24 percent increase in unsheltered persons, but there was a ten percent decrease in persons staying in transitional housing between 2015 and 2019. The report also found that 36 percent of the homeless household respondents in Morris County in 2019 reported that their last permanent address prior to becoming homeless was outside of the county.

The full statewide report and county by county reports are available by <a href=”https://monarchhousing.org/njcounts-2019/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>clicking here</a>.

Some key statewide findings of the NJCounts 2019 as compared to NJCounts 2018 include:
<ul>
<li>1,462 persons, in 1,351 households, were identified as chronically homeless, representing 16.5 of the total homeless population, an increase of 174 persons, or 13.5 percent, from 2018;</li>
<li>1,482 persons were living without shelter, showing a decrease of 141 persons of 9 percent;</li>
<li>992 households were counted as families, showing a 6 percent decrease in family homelessness (a family is defined as a household with at least one child under the age of 18 and one adult);</li>
<li>34 unaccompanied youth under age 18 were identified in the count, which represents a 3 percent decrease in the number of unaccompanied homeless youth households.</li>
</ul>
“The count provides a consistent benchmark from which we can evaluate the effectiveness of strategies being implemented, the quality of data collection within communities, and the impact of larger societal factors,” said Taiisa Kelly, CEO of Monarch Housing Associates.

Counties across the state annually conduct NJCounts as required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to secure federal funding for programs serving persons experiencing homelessness.

Commissioned by the N.J. Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, Monarch Housing Associates coordinates NJCounts activities and completes analysis of data collected from the Point-in-Time survey.

MORRIS COUNTY — Morris County residents interested in serving on the County College of Morris (CCM) Board of Trustees are invited to send their resumes to a special trustee search committee of the Morris County Board of Freeholders.

Resumes must be received by the search committee by Friday, September 6. The committee will review all of the applications and then submit recommendations to the Board of Freeholders, who will make the appointments this fall.

Three four-year terms of freeholder-appointed trustees expire at the end of October. Those sitting trustees must reapply by the Friday, Sept. 6 deadline if they wish to be considered for reappointment.

To qualify for consideration by the search committee, a candidate must be a resident of Morris County for at least four years, and may not hold a current elected office in Morris County or be an employee of Morris County government or CCM.

Applicants must be able to demonstrate independent judgment, distinction in their profession, knowledge of higher education, and a firm commitment to serving the college. A candidate must be willing to commit at least 15-20 hours a month to his or duties as a college trustee to be considered for appointment.

Duties of trustees include appointing, supporting and evaluating the college president; clarifying and, if necessary, revising the college’s mission statement; ratifying long term plans; approving the college’s educational program; insuring fiscal viability; and maintaining the college’s physical plant.

The CCM search committee requests a resume and a background statement from each applicant outlining why he or she wishes to serve as a trustee and what specific skills the applicant would bring to the board.

Applicants must send one copy of their resume and a brief background statement to the Office of the Morris County Counsel, County of Morris, P.O. Box 900, Morristown, N.J. 07963-0900.

The County College of Morris Board of Trustees is composed of eleven Morris County residents from business, education, law and other professional fields, who volunteer their services in four-year terms.

By statute, eight members are appointed by the Morris County Board of Freeholders, and two members are appointed by the Governor. The Morris County Superintendent of Schools is also a member of the Board by statute. One non-voting CCM graduate member is elected for a one-year term by each year’s graduating class. In addition, the CCM President serves as an ex-officio member.

The Board of Trustees sets policy and has final authority over budgets and expenditures, and the President is responsible for internal administrative operations.

MORRIS COUNTY — Morris County is embarking on a countywide upgrade to curve warning signs along county roads that are located within all of the county’s 39 municipalities to meet federal government standards.

Work is expected to begin in August and continue into December to upgrade a curve sign network that, in many cases, dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, and was installed by the state Department of Transportation.

Morris County has awarded a $297,953 contract to LC Equipment of Tuckahoe to remove 2,121 existing curve warning signs and install nearly 2,800 new signs and signposts at 870 horizontal curves located on county roads.

The project is required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which has set a nationwide compliance date of Dec. 31, 2019 to meet new curve sign standards. The project will be funded by county tax dollars.

To prepare a plan for the sign upgrade, the county previously hired a consultant, Greenman-Pedersen (GPI).

The $176,997 contract required GPI’s team to drive all of the county’s roads to assess curves and determine appropriate advisory speed and sign placement in accordance with the new federal standards.

Changes in roadway design and consideration of modern motor vehicles were key factors in the development of the new standards.

GPI also will oversee the sign removal and installation project and inventory the newly installed signs for the county.

To see which signs are being added or replaced in your town click here.

MORRIS COUNTY — Three Morris County Sheriff’s Office superior officers, two of whom helped probe some of the county’s most heinous or baffling crimes, retired as of Wednesday, July 31 with 75 years of experience between them.

The retirees, Sheriff’s Office Chief Edward Crooker, Detective Captain Bruce Dunn and Detective Lieutenant Philip DiGavero, all joined the Morris County Sheriff’s Office on July 18, 1994, as Corrections Officers who worked in the Correctional Facility and several years later transferred to the Bureau of Law Enforcement.

Chief Crooker spent nearly his entire career, 19 years, in the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Unit. Detective Captain Dunn worked in the Protective Services Division and for many years in CSI, the unit that is responsible for collecting and analyzing evidence amassed from crimes throughout Morris County’s 39 municipalities.

Detective Lieutenant DiGavero is credited with overseeing the Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit at one time, helping to electronically modernize evidence storage, and arranging with the Rockaway-based Prevention Is Key program (PIK) to have expired medication drop-off boxes at police departments that are collected, inventoried and destroyed by the Morris County Sheriff’s Office Evidence Unit.

“These three Morris County Sheriff’s Office superior officers have served the county and the office with class and distinction by pouring their minds, hearts and souls into investigations and serving the public with integrity.  I am proud to know them and to have worked beside them, and I wish them the best in the years ahead,” Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon said.

The three retirees all worked in the now-demolished Morris County jail that was replaced by a new facility that opened in Morris Township in 2000. Chief Crooker recalled how he also worked in the 1990s as a CSI detective in a dilapidated building on Washington Street in Morristown and then in another location before a state-of-the-art crime lab that today is the base of operations for CSI was opened in 2013.

Both Detective Captain Dunn and Chief Crooker worked in CSI on the investigation and successful prosecution of the killer of 10-year-old Walter Contreras Valenzuela in Morristown in May 2001.  Chief Crooker matched a garden cultivator found near the child’s body to wounds on his head while Detective Captain Dunn located multiple items of evidence at the crime scene that gave detectives insight into the child’s final moments.

A friend of the Valenzuela family wrote a moving letter in 2008 that praised then-Sergeant Dunn’s involvement in the probe and trial.

“I feel his work was phenomenal and done in such a professional manner that his investigation was never questioned. I cannot express in words how important he is to the Valenzuela family and those that love them.  Without his skills we know that perhaps there may have been a different outcome in the trial.  We are eternally grateful to him and feel very blessed to know that we are under the protection of the very competent Morris County Sheriff’s Department,” the friend wrote.

Detective Captain Dunn also had the ingenious idea of lifting fingerprints from a decayed body found in 2002 that involved soaking the skin in glycerol for 24 hours and placing the skin over a detective’s fingers and rolling for prints.  The prints of the deceased woman were on file in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which led to her identification.

“I’m very lucky to have had a good career,” Detective Captain Dunn said.

Besides cases of bank robberies, fatal crashes, robberies and other crimes, both Detective Captain Dunn and Chief Crooker worked on the high-profile 2002 double murders of Jeffrey Eresman and Erik Rewoldt at the Funcoland video game store in Roxbury, and assisted federal officials in executing search warrants after the largest mass murder through acts of terrorism in America on Sept. 11, 2001.

Chief Crooker worked on multiple major crimes, including the killing of Father Edward Hinds in 2009 in Chatham Borough, but he has never forgotten a simple event that ended well. He was called out to process the scene of what a homeowner thought was a burglary but Chief Crooker, then a CSI detective, was able to find the woman’s missing ring under a bed.

Chief Crooker thanked Sheriff James Gannon for his responsiveness and support of officers and detectives.

“The resources he gives us are second to none,” said Chief Crooker.

Detective Lieutenant DiGavero, who also worked in the Sheriff’s Office Warrants Section and Protective Services Division which oversees security at the Morris County courthouse, said he is honored to have worked with many exceptional people.

He said he is proud of helping to organize the storage of evidence from crime scenes, which is managed electronically through a program called BEAST, for Bar-Coded Evidence Analysis Statistical Tracking.

“I’ll miss everybody.  It’s been a real honor,” Detective Lieutenant DiGavero said.

MORRIS COuNTY — Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp, Morris County Prosecutor’s Office Acting Chief of Investigations Chris Kimker, Morris County Sheriff James Gannon and Public Safety Director Daniel DeGroot and Chief Anthony Smith of the Dover Police Department announce an investigation into a deceased person found in Dover.

On Thursday, August 1, law enforcement received information regarding a deceased male in a wooded area near a culdesac at the end of West Clinton Street in Dover.

Morris County Sheriff’s Crime Scene Investigation Unit processed the scene and the investigation confirmed that a deceased male’s body was located in the woods in close proximity to a homeless campsite. An autopsy was performed by the Morris County Medical Examiner’s Office.  The cause and manner of death are pending. The investigation remains ongoing and the identity of the individual will not be released at this time.

If anyone has any information related to this investigation, they are encouraged to call the Major Crimes Unit of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office at (973) 285-6200, or the Dover Police Department at (973) 539-0777.

Sheriff Gannon also reminds the public that information can also be reported anonymously to the Morris County Sheriff’s Crimestoppers at (973) 267-2255 or click here.

MORRIS COUNTY —For those who dream of building a business in the landscaping industry, County College of Morris (CCM) offers a number of pathways to make that possible through its Department of Landscape and Horticultural Technology (LHT).

Degrees and certificates are offered in Agribusiness, Landscape Management and Design, and Turf and Turfgrass Management. The Landscape Management and Design track is the most popular, according to Brian Oleksak, associate professor and chair of the LHT department.

An average of 85 students enroll in the department each year, keeping class sizes small and professor-student relationships close. “Many students in this department are working part-time landscaping jobs while enrolled,” notes Oleksak. “They tend to be the best students because they are applying what they are learning right away.”

A degree or certificate from CCM’s LHT department allows students to propel a small landscaping business to the next level. Education in cutting-edge technology and practices can transform a small business into one with multiple employees and a highly profitable income stream.

LHT students learn in a setting where science, sustainability and technology all come together. They study and work in a LEED Gold Certified Building in design labs using the latest programming tools. Included among the software students learn is DynaSCAPE, an industry recognized landscape business management program. LHT students also have access to two Kubota sub-compact tractors, a skid-steer and various small-to-mid sized equipment.

Fall Semester courses in the Department of Landscape and Horticulture Technology begin Wednesday, September 4. Classes being offered include Plant Science, Land Plant Identification, Management and Use, Horticulture Computer Application, Landscape Design and Planning I, Plant Pest Management, Landscape Construction and Equipment, and Arboriculture.

To view and register for courses click here.

For more information on LHT programs, courses and certificates, contact Brian Oleksak at [email protected], or (973) 328-5363.

Visit http://bit.ly/ccmland for details on how students can “Start Right . . . .Finish Strong” in the LHT department.

MORRIS PLAINS —  On Saturday, July 27, at approximately 6:45 p.m.  three  suspects were involved in cutting the power to the Aires Jewelry Store, 3 Harrison Avenue (located on the corner of Route 10 East).

On video, one male is seen checking out the rear of the business before another male and female return, cut the power box lock and shut down the power to the store.

The first male is seen on Harrison Avenue using his cell phone as an apparent lookout.

The suspects leave the property without any attempt to gain access to the store.

Anyone that may have information to contact The Morris County Sheriff’s CrimeStoppers at: www.copcall.org; or call 973-COP-CALL (or use the free “P3 Tips” app on any mobile device). No one will be asked their name. You could receive a reward of up to $1,000.00.