Story on emergency radio causes static on council
BY SHERRY CONOHAN
Staff Writer

SHREWSBURY — Mayor Emilia M. Siciliano took Councilman William Kelleher to task for not informing her and the Borough Council about his conversations on the establishment of an emergency radio station to serve the borough and Little Silver and Red Bank.

Siciliano said she was embarrassed to learn about the proposal through a newspaper article and to have no information to share with residents who inquired about it.

She said she was concerned about the cost as the borough goes into drafting the budget for next year.

Kelleher, the emergency management coordinator for the borough, said he hadn’t made any report to the mayor and council because he wasn’t ready to make a recommendation as to whether the borough should proceed in participating in the emergency radio station.

He noted the borough already has a reverse 911 emergency alert system and called it a redundancy.

"When I am ready to make a recommendation or a non-recommendation, I will let you know," he told the mayor.

Siciliano asked Kelleher to please let her and the council know in the future of any proposal under consideration for emergency management.

Kelleher said, in his defense, that the only meeting he had on the proposed emergency radio station was with Shrewsbury Police Chief John Wilson III and Red Bank Police Chief Mark Fitzgerald when they went to look at the anticipated site for the station’s transmitter.

Councilman Terel Cooperhouse told Kelleher the issue is that the article in the newspaper (The Hub) let people think Shrewsbury was involved and nobody on the governing body — except him — knew about it.

News of the radio station came out of a Little Silver Borough Council workshop meeting where Little Silver Mayor Suzanne S. Castleman reported an emergency radio station would be established with the cost of operating it shared by Little Silver, Shrewsbury and Red Bank. She said the transmitter would be located on top of the water tower on Hilltop Terrace in Red Bank.

The location of the transmitter will allow it to reach all three towns, she said.

Castleman said the one-time cost of setting up the radio station would be between $18,000 and $21,000, which would be split three ways.

Little Silver Borough Administrator Michael D. Biehl said the station is expected to operate much like the one in Monmouth Beach, providing local information as needed in broadcasts during emergencies and running the national weather service broadcast, with regional weather reports, the rest of the time.