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TUESDAY 05.31.16
Congressman
does battle for
victims of chronic
Lyme disease.
Healthy Living, 1D

MIDDLETOWN DEVELOPMENT

TOWN CENTER
BATTLE IS BACK

New proposal for homes, shopping, theater sets

sites neighbors in opposition to foolhardy plan

340K

The Middletown development is being touted

as a premier 340,000square-foot town
center featuring a
specialty grocery store,
upscale retail brands
and restaurants, local
boutique shops and a
luxury cinema with a
dine-in theater experience.

1,752

Another
Christie
nominee is
in trouble
BOB JORDAN @BOBJORDANAPP

TRENTON - Gov. Chris Christies plan to award tenure to state Superior Court Judge Paul Escandon is in
trouble after the Monmouth County jurist couldnt give
a good explanation to lawmakers on why he gave a confessed mob killer custody of the killers three kids.
Escandons renomination hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee lasted close to three hours
only five of the 13 panel members stayed until the end
with extensive vetting of his judicial record since being appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Jon Corzine in
2009. The vote on Escandon was tabled.
Escandons rationale in awarding custody of children to wise guy Nicholas P.J. Pisciotti who in a different case testified he and an associate probably
killed Bonanno associate Richard Guiga in a bar fight in
the mid-1990s didnt fly with lawmakers.
I cant predict exacly how its going to fall out when
we resume this, but I can tell you I am going to vote no
on this nomination, said Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen, on Friday. It seems to me Judge Escandon made
See ESCANDON, Page 10A

Final plans show the

movie theater abutting
Kings Highway East,
with 1,752 parking
spaces, five restaurants
encircling five retail
buildings.

350

Number of residential
units to be built behind
the proposed shopping
center. The proposal
was filed last week by
Toll Bros., a luxury
home builder from
Pennsylvania.

TANYA BREEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Alyssa Lego, 13, of Toms River is the 2016 USA National Miss
New Jersey Jr. Teen and the founder of Hello, My Name Is...

THOMAS P. COSTELLO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Tagged trees along Kings Highway East in Middletown border the area where a developer is proposing a 340,000-squarefoot shopping center that would be paired with 350 residential units and a movie theater.

RUSS ZIMMER @RUSSZIMMER

MIDDLETOWN - Long-dormant plans to bring a

commercial and residential town center to Middletown are back in the forefront again.
The idea for a town center has been germinating
for a generation. A public revolt and then a worsening economy killed those prior proposals before
they got out of the planning stages. Now, a New York
developer pitching a slimmed-down design is close to
winning final township approvals.
Nonetheless, it appears a showdown between National Realty & Development Corp. and the town centers opponents residents who are loath to see another strip mall in town is coming to the township
Planning Board meeting Wednesday.
A second, separate development application for
350 residential units to be built behind the proposed
shopping center was filed last week by Toll Bros., a
luxury home builder from Pennsylvania. Seventy of

Toms River
beauty queen
fights labels
AMANDA OGLESBY @OGLESBYAPP

to change crime rate, traffic, quality of life, everything.

TOMS RIVER - Alyssa Lego, reigning USA National

Miss Junior Teen New Jersey, knows all about bullying.
Lego, a 14-year-old student at Toms River Intermediate School North, has been bullied for participating in
beauty pageants. Now, she is working to help others
who are targeted because they are different.
The aspiring actress wants to change a status quo
that she says reduces people, especially those with special needs, to limiting labels. Lego founded a charity
last year called Hello, My Name Is, which she hopes
will remove some of the social barriers facing children
with special needs. She is in seventh grade.
I actually have a brother Michael whos a child with
special needs, she said. Every day, I see how he faces
adversity, and when I found a statistic that children
with special needs are five times more likely to experience bullying than their typically-developing peers, I
wanted to change that.

PAULINE HYNES,

See ALYSSA, Page 10A

FILE PHOTO

Calico the clown, originally built to advertise a Food Circus

store, would be protected under the town center plans.

See CENTER, Page 10A

Trying to make a mini-Monmouth Mall on this site is foolhardy. ... It is going

A MIDDLETOWN RESIDENT WHO IS FIRMLY AGAINST THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMERCIAL-RESIDENTIAL TOWN CENTER

St. John Vianney senior Kelly Campbell led the Lancers to a

Shore Conference and overall Tournament of Champions
title.
Join Campbell and Giants quarterback Eli Manning on
June 13 at the Jersey Shore Sports Awards. Student-athletes being honored and others wishing to attend must
RSVP by June 8. Info: on.app.com/sportsawardstickets.

Iraqi forces roll into Fallujah

in push to drive out Islamic
State militants. Page 1B

ADVICE
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
HEALTHY LIVING
LOCAL

7D
8D
6D
1D
3A

OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
TECH TUESDAY
WEATHER

8A
11A
1C
6A
8C

VOLUME 137
NUMBER 130
SINCE 1879