Brick Township Municipal Building Open For Business

The municipal building is open for business today following an inspection and treatment for bedbugs. 

Mayor Steve Acropolis says an exterminator found no major infestation but there were three active spots in chairs of public areas in the Clerk's, Human resources and Tax Collectors office.  There was also an inactive area in a jail cell.

Acropolis says the exterminator will come back and do a walk through in a week with a bedbug detection dog and return once a month or so for about two months to monitor and treat the building.   He says following that, the building will be treated for bedbugs quarterly.

He sites that it's better to be proactive in these situations to protect the public and municipal employees..

The bloodsucking pests were spotted by employees Thursday morning. Administrators decided to turn the key at about 11 AM.

Subsequent probes by exterminators narrowed it to the Municipal Clerk's office and the Tax Office.

He adds that the move is a health- and safety-assurance move for visitors and employees. "We sent everybody home, we have a skeletal crew," he says, "to take care of immediate concerns."

Workers who were sent home are paid for the day, says the Mayor, and will be paid during the closure.

The immediate changes are as follows:

Property tax payments for the third quarter of 2012 that were due August 1 are not being collected until the building reopens. Township Police are headquartered in their Mobile Command unit in the municipal complex. Tonight's municipal court schedule is cancelled.

Recreation, Public Works, Senior Outreach and township beaches are not affected by the closure. All off-site events continue unabated.

Acropolis says that effective immediately, regular monthly exterminator visits loom as a likely procedure. "We're going to have a dog in once a month for the next six months to a year. Then, we'll have a regular exterminator come in probably once a month or once a quarter."

He says that some plush chairs that can hide bedbugs will be discarded in favor of lighter, more transparent mesh seats , and speculates that any extraneous costs will be covered through an emergency appropriation, possibly being drawn from budget surplus.