Belmar, NJ – Councilman Says Rodent Complaint Near Yeshiva Unfounded

Belmar, NJ – Councilman Matthew J. Doherty, a Democrat, said that he spent the past several days going door to door in the neighborhood around Mesivta Keser Torah School on 11th Avenue. Doherty said he knocked on 101 doors and spoke to residents representing 53 households, over whether students at an Orthodox Jewish boarding school are clean enough.

"Thirty-seven stated they had no issues with the yeshiva and its students, 16 households stated that noise and/or litter was a public nuisance. Zero households stated they have ever seen rats or rodents in the neighborhood because of the yeshiva and its students," Doherty said.

The rat issue was one Victoria Renner, a florist who lives on D Street, and a Republican candidate for Borough Council, raised at the last council meeting when she said that rodents had resulted from poor sanitary conditions associated with the yeshiva's operation, among other complaints, as was reported at that time here on Vos Iz Neias.

"Ms. Renner's assertion that there are rats or rodents in the neighborhood because of the yeshiva and its students are completely false," Doherty said. "None of her neighbors, nor Ms. Renner, ever saw a rat, and the Monmouth County Health Department never found evidence of one on repeated inspections."

Mayor Kenneth E. Pringle said that he and Police Chief Jack Hill met with a rabbi from the school. Pringle said he plans to meet with older students who serve in supervisory roles to open lines of communication with the student body.

Pringle said there have been reports of roughhousing, parking issues, littering issues and late night basketball games — at St. Rose High School, a Catholic school on the opposite end of town, also in a residential neighborhood, though no one has come before the council to complain. [APP]