Cedar Run Group Home, 1992
Press of Atlantic City 8 Dec 1992
Committeeman Louis Amato Jr. says the Cedar Run Group Home does not have proper security, is financially inefficient and should not be located in a residential area. Local officials, dissatisfied with a state plan for a citizens advisory panel to discuss public concerns over a Bamber Lake reform school, insist the facility should be closed. "I'm still dead-set against the facility out there. I'm still set on having it closed," Committeeman Louis Amato Jr. said.
Amato claims the Cedar Run Group Home, in the pinelands near Carriage Road, does not have proper security, is financially inefficient for the state to operate and should not be located in the residential area. The committee members are also concerned the state might look to expand services at the facility as it is forced to find places to house juveniles who might be apprehended during crackdowns on carjacking.
Amato, who is police commissioner here, and other members of the Township Committee have called on the state to close the non-residential center following a recent event where two youths escaped from the minimum-security facility and stole a car from a nearby home.
The state proposed forming the advisory committee during a meeting between the committeeman and the superintendent of the Ocean Residential Group Center at the state Game Farm off Route 9. Juveniles who spend the day at the unfenced Bamber Lake facility spend the night at the game farm.
The committee - comprised of a representative of the committee, the local police department, the neighboring homes, the community at large and the state - would discuss issues relating to both centers.
But while members of the Township Committee agreed to form an advisory committee to discuss concerns over the game farm facility - which has been in the town for about three decades - they said the group should not discuss the Bamber facility.
"I think we should move full blast toward getting it closed before it expands," said Mayor Russell Palumbo.
But Jerry Van Dyke, administrative director of the division of Juvenile Services, said the group home provides a needed service in the local area.
The facility provides services for youths aged 13 to 15 while the game farm site handles older adolescents. Both groups are screened before being sent to the facilities to assure they would not pose a security threat, Van Dyke said. "This provides a better atmosphere for the younger kids," Van Dyke said of the group home, which usually handles no more than 10 children.
"When you consider it from a cost-effective point, it might be true the per bed cost for that facility is higher than if you put the kids into a larger institution," Van Dyke said. "But that has to be weighed out against the potential damage that could be done to these kids, and what it might cost in later years if they keep coming back and moving through the system."
An advisory committee would give residents a chance to make the state aware of their concerns while also helping the community understand and appreciate how the center helps troubled local youths, Van Dyke said.
"We would like to get some understanding with the community in terms of what would be best for these kids and the local homeowners," he said
Committeeman Louis Amato Jr. says the Cedar Run Group Home does not have proper security, is financially inefficient and should not be located in a residential area. Local officials, dissatisfied with a state plan for a citizens advisory panel to discuss public concerns over a Bamber Lake reform school, insist the facility should be closed. "I'm still dead-set against the facility out there. I'm still set on having it closed," Committeeman Louis Amato Jr. said.
Amato claims the Cedar Run Group Home, in the pinelands near Carriage Road, does not have proper security, is financially inefficient for the state to operate and should not be located in the residential area. The committee members are also concerned the state might look to expand services at the facility as it is forced to find places to house juveniles who might be apprehended during crackdowns on carjacking.
Amato, who is police commissioner here, and other members of the Township Committee have called on the state to close the non-residential center following a recent event where two youths escaped from the minimum-security facility and stole a car from a nearby home.
The state proposed forming the advisory committee during a meeting between the committeeman and the superintendent of the Ocean Residential Group Center at the state Game Farm off Route 9. Juveniles who spend the day at the unfenced Bamber Lake facility spend the night at the game farm.
The committee - comprised of a representative of the committee, the local police department, the neighboring homes, the community at large and the state - would discuss issues relating to both centers.
But while members of the Township Committee agreed to form an advisory committee to discuss concerns over the game farm facility - which has been in the town for about three decades - they said the group should not discuss the Bamber facility.
"I think we should move full blast toward getting it closed before it expands," said Mayor Russell Palumbo.
But Jerry Van Dyke, administrative director of the division of Juvenile Services, said the group home provides a needed service in the local area.
The facility provides services for youths aged 13 to 15 while the game farm site handles older adolescents. Both groups are screened before being sent to the facilities to assure they would not pose a security threat, Van Dyke said. "This provides a better atmosphere for the younger kids," Van Dyke said of the group home, which usually handles no more than 10 children.
"When you consider it from a cost-effective point, it might be true the per bed cost for that facility is higher than if you put the kids into a larger institution," Van Dyke said. "But that has to be weighed out against the potential damage that could be done to these kids, and what it might cost in later years if they keep coming back and moving through the system."
An advisory committee would give residents a chance to make the state aware of their concerns while also helping the community understand and appreciate how the center helps troubled local youths, Van Dyke said.
"We would like to get some understanding with the community in terms of what would be best for these kids and the local homeowners," he said
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