CHRIS KELLY Students at Monmouth Regional High School, West Long Branch, rehearse for this weekend’s performances of Guys and Dolls.

The city of Long Branch Parking Authority has adopted a cash management plan identical to the same cash management the city adopted earlier this year. The authority has opened an interest-bearing account depositing $100,000 with the Monmouth Community Bank, Second Avenue. The interest that the account will earn is 1 percent. Other banks that the authority may do business with in the future are the Bank of New York, First Union/Wachovia, Fleet Bank, Investors Savings Bank, New Jersey State Cash Management Fund and New Jersey Asset Rebate Management Program.

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During the public portion of the Long Branch Parking Authority meeting, Mike Palughi of Pavilion Avenue chastised the commissioners that the newly adopted bylaws have no substance.

"I understand where you’re coming from, as fledglings," said Palughi, "but following bylaws established by another city, such as the bylaws I submitted to you before you adopted your own, should have been taken into consideration."

Palughi said the bylaws do not address the commissioners’ duties; bylaws should outline who enforces regulations, violation fees, collection of parking fees and ongoing redevelopment concerns. Chairman of the authority John Villipiano nodded and said that he agrees and that Palughi’s suggestions make a lot of sense.

"Big bucks will be coming through this authority soon," said Palughi, "and it all needs to be qualified."

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The League of Women Voters will sponsor an "Ocean Township Political Forum." The forum is a chance to meet the two teams and the independent candidate running for the council — The New Team for Ocean; Clean Ocean; and independent candidate Brian Lefferson.

The forum will be held on May 5 at 7 p.m. at the Ocean Township High School.

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The Youth Group of the First United Methodist Church, 103 Monmouth Road, Oakhurst, is have an outdoor spring flea market Saturday, May 10, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot. The cost is $15.00 per space. Rain date is the following Saturday, May 17. To reserve a spot, call (732) 531-7484.

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The Oakhurst Ladies Auxiliary will hold its annual craft and vendor show May 3 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Oakhurst Firehouse on Larkin Place. Spaces are available for the cost of $15 for 1 space, and $25 for 2 spaces; tables are $5. For more information, contact Betty at (732) 263-0640.

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The Oakhurst Ladies Auxiliary has scheduled a "Breakfast with the Bunny" on Sunday, April 13, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Oakhurst Firehouse on Larkin Place. The cost for adults is $4, and for children under 12 it’s $2.

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The Brookdale Learning Center, 213 Broadway, Long Branch, will host its fourth annual job fair on April 23 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Attending the event will be more than 40 companies as well as several recruiters.

The job fair is co-sponsored by the Long Branch Urban Enterprise Zone, the Hispanic Women’s Resource Center of Central Jersey, and Brookdale Community College. For more information call (732) 229-8440, ext. 3004.

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The Firemen’s Mutual Benevolent Association Local 68, Long Branch, has scheduled its first annual golf tournament on May 12 at the Old Orchard Country Club, Eatontown, starting at 9 a.m.

Registration for the tournament will begin at 8 a.m. The fee of $125 per person includes a continental breakfast, lunch, a golf cart, greens fees and door prizes. Sponsors are also needed for tees, each costing $100. One 2002 Mercedes and one 2002 Corvette will be given to those who shoot a hole-in-one.

Proceeds of the event will be collected into the FMBA Local 68 Community Trust and disbursed at a later date to local charities, sporting teams and for scholarships.

For more information, contact Tim Somers at (732) 870-0207 or download an application from www.fmba68.com.

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The Township of Ocean Police Department will hold a public auction of accumulated property on April 12 at 10 a.m. at Joe Palaia Park on Whalepond Road.

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The City of Long Branch has announced a schedule of summertime events, beginning in May and running through August. The first event scheduled for May 24 is an annual "Art in the Park," which is sponsored by the Long Branch Historical Association. The event displaying more than 50 pieces of art work from a variety of artists will be held on Brighton Avenue from noon to 8 p.m. The rain date is May 25.

The highlight of the event will be television personality Suze Anderson, who will do free antique appraisals. The entire west-end business district will also have sidewalk sales.

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The Long Branch Historical Association is in the possession of old photographs from the 1940s and 1950s which were recently found at the Paramount Theater. The association needs help in identifying the photos, which were taken by local photographers Harry Trezoglow and R. Barry Kamm. One of the photos possibly identifies Ray Bolger, an actor who played the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. For more information, contact Joe Reale at (732) 2299-2396.

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The 14th annual Business and Retail Expo sponsored by the Greater Ocean Township Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Long Branch Chamber of Commerce will be held on May 29 at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center, Eatontown, from 5-8 p.m.

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The Long Branch Elks, 150 Garfield Ave., invites all to have breakfast with the Easter Bunny on Saturday, April 12, from 9-11 a.m. The cost is $4 for adults and $2 for children under 10 years of age. Proceeds will go to the Handicapped Children Committee.

Another event scheduled is a country-western dance on April 26 from 8 p.m. ’til the party ends. The cost is $10 per person and includes chicken, ribs and all the trimmings. To purchase tickets in advance, call the lodge at (732) 222-9742.

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Sgt. Pat’s 5K Race is scheduled for April 19 starting at the Windmill on Ocean Avenue in North Long Branch. Formerly the St. Patty’s race, the event will benefit Holiday Express and the Patrick King Scholarship Funds, PBA Local 10 and PBA Local 364. If you’re not up to running, you can opt for a two-mile fitness walk, and children can participate in the kids races. More information can be found at www.jsrc.org or by calling (732) 542-6090.

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A spaghetti dinner will be sponsored by the Long Branch Elks, the handicapped children’s committee, every second Friday of the month. Dinner will be served between 6-8 p.m. The price for all you can eat is $6, or $5 for the early bird special between 5-6 p.m. For more information call (732) 222-9742.

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The Township of Ocean School District will present an overview of the preschool disabilities program on May 16 at the Wayside School from 1-2:30 p.m. The program is intended for 3- and 4-year-old children who experience difficulties with speech, behavior, coordination or getting along with others.

For more information call (732) 531-5600, ext. 3300.

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Crafters and vendors are wanted for the IAMA craft show scheduled for Saturday, April 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine. Table donations are $20. For information call Chris at (732) 229-1450 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., or Ceil (732) 229-3135 between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

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There’s a vacancy on the Eatontown Board of Education. Michael McDonnell has resigned because he’s moving out of the state. The board is now soliciting résumés from borough residents and will select a new member from among the applications. The deadline for submit­ting a résumé is April 21. Board mem­bers will be provided copies of the résumés in their packet of materials for the April 28 school board meeting and plan to appoint a successor to McDon­nell at their May 12 meeting. Board At­torney Dennis Collins said McDonnell’s resignation became effective as of the last board meeting March 26 and the board has 65 days from that date in which to appoint a replacement. If it fails to act within that time, he ex­plained, the Monmouth County superin­tendent of schools will appoint someone. Collins said the board members will first interview the candidates at a public meeting of the board and then they can meet in closed session to deliberate on the choices before making their ap­pointment.

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The Eatontown Board of Education made its annual teachers of the year awards on March 26 to the persons se­lected as the most outstanding teacher at each of the district’s four schools. The winners this year were Mimi Lichter at the Memorial School, Kim McKenna at the Meadowbrook School, Nancy Massa at the Woodmere School, Sally Welch at the Margaret L. Vetter School. A spe­cial award was made posthumously to a non-instructional staffer, Marianna Rosado, who worked as a learning dis­abilities specialist. The teachers of the year will be honored at a luncheon in May and each was given a $500 stipend to expand on their work in the class­room.

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West Long Branch Councilman William R. Deisinger reported at the April 2 Borough Council meeting that the only bill the borough has received so far from the Fire Department in connec­tion with the St. Patrick’s Day fire that destroyed a home on DeForrest Place was $31.68 for Poland Spring bottled water. "So I think the residents of West Long Branch are getting a real bargain from their volunteers," he said. Deisinger, long a proponent of providing some kind of compensation to the volun­teer firefighters, who are now unpaid, has said if all goes well, a pension for them will be on the ballot in November.

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Reps. Frank J. Pallone Jr. and Rush Holt, both D-N.J., announced they have requested $8.15 million in federal fund­ing for projects at Fort Monmouth. The two congressmen asked for $4 million to continue the process of overhauling the Army’s Communications and Electron­ics Command’s (CECOM) infrastructure at Fort Monmouth. Last year, they se­cured $4 million to begin this modern­ization project. CECOM, they noted, plays a leading role in equipping the Army for the 21st century through its advanced telecommunications and digi­tized war-fighting efforts. The project is estimated to cost $11.5 million when complete, Pallone and Holt said.

The two congressmen also have re­quested $4.15 million to construct a bat­tery test facility at Camp Charles Wood in Fort Monmouth. The proposal calls for construction of a 20,000-square-foot facility to meet the increased needs of testing for digitized battlefields. Pallone and Holt said that later this spring the House Appropriations Defense and Mili­tary Constructions Subcommittee will determine funding levels for these and other projects.

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The Monmouth Beach Fire Company will hold its seventh annual Easter Flower Sale on April 12, 13, 18, 19 and 20. The sale will take place between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the firehouse on Beach Road and also at a new, ex­panded location at the Monmouth Beach Bathing Pavilion on Ocean Av­enue.

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The Monmouth Beach School asks anyone with a child, ages 3 through 14, who may be experiencing physical, sen­sory, communication, cognitive or so­cial difficulties to call the school at (732) 222-6139 to arrange for an ap­pointment and/or referral to the child study team. The school district said it is responsible to locate, identify and eval­uate all children in that age group who may be disabled. Included in the distric­t’s "child find" are public and nonpublic children from 3 to 5 years of age in preschool and children who are highly mobile such as migrant and homeless students.

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The Monmouth Beach School also urges anyone who has not registered a child for the 2003-04 kindergarten class to call the school office as soon as pos­sible at (732) 222-6139. The Board of Education has put a question on the bal­lot for the April 15 school elections on whether to have an all-day kindergarten.

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Grab your running shoes and sign up for the Michael W. Thorne Scholarship 4-Mile run on Sunday, May 18, in West Long Branch. The 4 Mile run/walk be­ings at 9 a.m. at Franklin Lake, while kids’ races begin at 10 a.m. The entry fee for adults is $18 until May 11 and $20 thereafter. For children 14 and un­der, the fee is $5 until May 11 and $8 thereafter. The course is fast and mostly flat through the neighborhoods of the borough. It is a USATF-certified 4-miler. T-shirts are guaranteed for all pre-regis­tered runners and walkers. For more in­formation call Mindy Brady at (732) 222-0725 or Joanne Wilkes (732) 747-8907.

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St. Dorothea’s Church, Eatontown, is presenting the dramatization The Living Last Supper, based on Leonardo DaVin­ci’s painting, at 7:30 p.m. April 14, 15 and 16 in the church. For more informa­tion, call the parish office at (732) 542-0148.

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The Monmouth Branch of the Lupus Foundation of America Inc. will hold its monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 14, at the Eatontown Public Li­brary, 33 Broad St. Members, families, friends and the general public are all in­vited to attend. Lupus is a chronic, in­flammatory disease which afflicts and estimated 2 million Americans. The meeting is free and open to the public. For more information abut the meeting or about lupus, contact the foundation office in Elmwood Park at (201) 791-7868.