OCEAN TOWNSHIP — True to his word, Councilman Christopher Siciliano, with the approval of the Township Council, has formed a new township-wide committee that will address the issues that residents often bring up during the twice-monthly Township Council meetings.

According to Siciliano, residents now have a committee dedicated to issues that affect the quality of life in town.

The committee will provide a dedicated setting for residents to voice their concerns and present their ideas without tying up council meetings with questions that the council is not prepared to address, he said.

Siciliano said the new entity, which will be called Citizens for Gracious Living, has seven members.

“We would like, eventually, to have 11 residents from all parts of town,” he said.

He added that he received a call from Paul Diment, director of community and government relations at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, who suggested that a student representative be on the committee.

Siciliano said he thought that was a good idea. “They can hear what people in the neighborhoods think about things.”

Diment, he said, suggested that “it would be wonderful to have student representation on the committee, because they are part of the community.”

According to Siciliano, the committee held its first meeting in November and has scheduled the next meeting for Feb. 2.

He explained that the idea for the committee came to him after he met with concerned residents of the area around the university that is affected by off-campus student rentals. He mentioned to the residents the idea of putting together a Quality of Life Committee, but he envisioned a committee that would be made up of residents from all sections of the town, not just the Oakhurst section.

“They went ahead and formed a committee and took the name, but they just want to focus on their part of town. I’m including all parts of town,” he said.

He explained in December that the Township Council went ahead and put together a resolution for a formal group for the entire township: Wayside, Wanamassa, Colonial Terrace, Shadow-lawn Manor, and Oakhurst.

“I’ll be their liaison directly to department heads,” he said. “People can talk about their concerns, whether it be roads, a lake, the golf course in West Allenhurst, whatever affects their quality of life.”

Siciliano said that residents interested in joining the committee will have to be nominated by him and approved by the council.