The latest filings from the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission – the body that is tasked with regulating campaign contributions in New Jersey – do not come with any big surprises. The township's well-funded regular Republican organization boasts the heaviest war chest for the primary season – wealth that can eventually be used in the general election if it's not all spent before June 4. The regular Republicans, who have endorsed mayoral candidate Joseph Sangiovanni in a primary battle against fellow GOP township council member Dan Toth, reported $43,775 in campaign contributions so …

Summonses may be up, but injuries from accidents are down at Brick's intersections equipped with red light violation cameras. Data from the township's three intersections equipped with the cameras was shared at a special budget meeting of the township council Tuesday night. Officials have tallied up the numbers from 2012 and found net revenue from the cameras was up 36 percent – spurred by the addition of the third equipped intersection – but right-angle, or T-bone, style accidents were down 66.67 percent since the inception of the program. In all, the number of recorded violations increased …

Ocean County’s aging bridges are in need of repair, but the cost to do the work would exceed $326 million, a new report released Monday showed.  Of the county’s 290 bridges, about 6 percent have been rated structurally deficient, according to a report from NJ Spotlight.   Additionally, 13 percent of the bridges in the county – which include those owned by municipalities, the county itself as well as the state – are considered to be functionally obsolete and not in line with current lane and shoulder standards, or occasionally flood, according to National Bridge Inventory data. The average age…

Out of an estimated 4,000 and 5,000 Brick homeowners who must raise their houses to avoid monstrous flood insurance premiums, how many have filed paperwork with the township to do so? Ten. The staggeringly-low figure represents the number of house raising permits issued by the township so far this year, spokesman Keith Rella said. In mathematical terms, that's two-tenths of one percent of the estimated total. "It's going to take a long time," said Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis, who is becoming more frustrated with the lack of funding available to help all coastal residents – not just those who …

Some of the data on Brick Township's high schools in a new report out from the state Department of Education could be seen as troubling, but new superintendent Dr. Walter Uszenski said this week that he has already put reforms and programs in place to improve student achievement. The state's new School Performance Report, which replaces the long-used School Report Cards as part of national common core standards, places extra emphasis on student achievement in college and beyond secondary school. The new reports also do away with district factor groups – large groupings of school districts …

In New Jersey, Brick sustained among the largest number of damaged housing units from Superstorm Sandy, with about 2,280 affected, according to an interactive map of destruction compiled by njspotlight.com. Of those homes in Brick, 744 were severely damaged — meaning they were impacted by more than $28,800, according to data provided by the state Department of Community Affairs. 2,280 total homes were damaged — nine homes had minor damage; 1,527 had major damage; 744 severe. There were 378 total rental units with damage — 211 minor; 132 major; 35 severe. 2,693 businesses were impacted. Major …

School buses are inspected twice each year and must pass muster with the state Motor Vehicle Commission before your children can board them on their way to school. But sometimes, a bus won't make the grade. A check of state records shows Brick's fleet of school buses beat the statewide average in terms of the number of buses temporarily taken out of service. Each year, the state's biannual, 180-point inspections result in approximately 47 percent of school vehicles being temporarily placed out-of service, with 12 percent being issued 30-day rejection stickers. Violations can range from …

Assaults and fights between students in Brick Township schools were down during the 2011-12 school year, but the district led the county in the number of Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) reports it sent to the state. Violence and Vandalism report data was released by the state Department of Education Tuesday. The report showed Brick – Ocean County's second-largest school district – only led the county in the HIB category. In most other categories, the number of incidents was relatively small given the district's large size of 9,748 students. In all, the number of assaults district-…

Brick's lifeguards will call it a season this Sunday, after a summer that resulted in many lives saved and even more protected from the dangers that lurk within a day at the beach. According to statistics compiled by township officials this week, township lifeguards completed 69 rescues, 43 water assists and 128 calls for medical aid this season. Overall, the summer of 2012 produced 19 EMT calls, 19 administrations of oxygen to patients, 14 lost persons and five reports of disorderly conduct at the beach. Police were called to the beach 33 times in all, statistics show. Two needles were also …

The telltale signs that local residents are struggling range from the mino - perhaps keeping an older car a year or two longer than planned – to the catastrophic, losing one's home and the middle class lifestyle that came with it. Regardless of one's view on whether the "Great Recession" is in a state of recovery or still raging on, there is no question that local residents have been greatly affected and continue to struggle, a report released last week shows. United Way recently released the report, five years in the making, to document the number, location and experiences of New Jersey …

State data on school districts released late last week shows Brick trailed the state average in per-pupil costs. For the 2010-11 school year, the year for which data was recently released, Brick spent a total of $14,733 per student, about $3,000 below the state average of $17,469. The total cost per pupil includes services such as transportation, as well as the cost of private school tuition for special education students and certain facilities costs that were not included in state "report cards" released in previous years. This year's report card recalculated previous annual data based on …

Brick's outstanding obligations to pay out unused sick and vacation time to employees as they retire have decreased in the past year, budget documents show. According to the 2012 township budget, Brick's compensated absence liabilities – the technical name for unused sick and vacation time owed to employees – currently totals $6,729,539. When the 2011 budget was approved last year, the total obligations were $7,299,391. Those figures include only employees of the municipal government; school district employees and employees of the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority fall under …