Colts Neck Township Committee votes to hire Giuliani's firm, passes NOPE resolution

With absolutely no fanfare and in a sadly, near-empty town hall last night, Colts Neck's Township Committee voted 4-1 in favor of hiring Giuliani Partners as a consultant on security matters pertaining to the township's lawsuit to prevent the Department of Navy from housing civilians at Weapons Station Earle as soon as next September, and otherwise unanimously passed a resolution in support of NOPE's continued grassroots efforts.

Fortunately, people in Colts Neck (and those that never or feel it is a waste of time to attend council meetings in neighboring Tinton Falls and elsewhere) have NOPE watching their backs.

The hiring of Rudy Giuliani's consultancy, in our view, is not only a major headline for the township (missed yet again by the Asbury Park Press and the Star-Ledger), but also a potentially significant game-changer for NOPE in publicizing our community's objection to a recipe for disaster that will come with civilian housing within the fence line of a major U.S. weapons storage facility.

Reiterating yesterday's blog, the introduction of Giuliani Partners to this case should attract national media attention to the Earle-civilian housing issue and gives Colts Neck Township some ammunition (i.e. a credible counterterrorism expert) in its lawsuit against the Department of Navy and Laurelwood Homes, LLC and its owner Teri Fischer.

Interestingly, what we also learned last night is that a) the Department of Navy has until tomorrow (Oct. 16) to respond to the suit and b) Mrs. Fischer is trying to be exempted as a party to that lawsuit (it seems unlikely to happen).

We'll keep you posted on the lawsuit and include it as part of our RALLY presentation on Tuesday night, October 27 at 730p at Colts Neck High. DO NOT MISS THE RALLY.

Potential Game Changer in Weapons Station Earle housing battle: Colts Neck to vote tonight on hiring Rudy Giuliani's firm as security consultants

In our regular scan of area township committee meetings, the tentative agenda for tonight's Township Committee meeting in Colts Neck has two resolutions worth following, namely 2009-132 to confirm the appointment of Giuliani Security and Safety, LLC of New York as "Security Consultants". The other, 2009-133 explicitly "supports NOPE." We would encourage NOPE supporters to attend tonight.

(If the above link does not go direct to the agenda, go to "Info & Documents" on the left bar, then "Meeting Minutes Online," "Township Committee Minutes," "2009 Upcoming Agenda" and the October 14, 2009 PDF.)

The hiring of former NYC mayor and U.S. presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani's firm is, in our view, presumably, 1) ammunition in Colts Neck's lawsuit to prevent the Department of Navy plan to let civilians live at Laurelwood military housing units from 2010-2040, but also 2) a potential game-changer from a media publicity perspective.

On the latter (and likely to the Department of Navy's dismay), the hiring is almost certain to broaden media attention (i.e. state and national) to NOPE's case against the Navy's ill-hatched plan to build an unimpeded access route through Earle (a few hundred yards south of the Rt. 34 main gate, which is soon to be rebuilt at a cost of up to $10 million to enhance security and is now out for bids) and let any civilian live within the Earle's fence line - not the smartest move while trying to operating a massive weapons depot amid growing terror threats against U.S. military installations.

Giuliani Security and Safety, according to the company's website, is headed by Pasquale D'Amuro, an internationally recognized expert on counterterrorism and head of the FBI's investigation into the 9/11 attacks. Mr. D'Amura also contributed to or led probes into the 1998 Embassy bombings in East Africa and the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen...obviously high-profile events.

Tomorrow, we will follow up on Wednesday night's meeting - 730pm, Colts Neck Town Hall.

Beck-Casagrande-O'Scanlan invite to Oct. 27 NOPE RALLY suggests no DEP, DOT permit filings by Navy

Within State Senator Beck's invitation to Governor Corzine, U.S. Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg (which should be expanded to include every N.J. politician), to NOPE's October 27 rally (730p @ Colts Neck High School), we learned that neither the N.J. Departments of Transportation nor Environmental Protection have received the required permit applications from the Department of Navy in its effort to build an unimpeded civilian access road from Route 34 to the Laurelwood housing complex at NWS Earle.

This is pretty surprising, in that (from what we understand) the DOT and DEP backlog of applications is typically deep and slow-moving, and NOPE has been promised all along that neither department would fast-track an apparent Navy obligation as it races to an April 30, 2010 deadline to comply with the road-building phase of the 30-year civilian renter portion of the Navy's original housing contract w/private builder Laurelwood Homes, LLC of Washington.

NOPE remains in contact with each agency and will pass on any details as they arise.

Also, with two weeks to go until our major rally, we encourage residents throughout the area communities to keep their eyes open this Saturday and next for NOPE volunteers passing out flyers within Colts Neck and Tinton Falls from 9a-12p. If anyone would like to help us distribute these flyers and spread the word, contact us at globalinfo1@verizon.net, billholobowski@verizon.net or njNOPE@gmail.com.