Think a lot is going on in Manalapan? Check out the news in the nearby towns!

Freehold

At a Borough Council meeting earlier this week, the council passed a resolution that backed the Borough Board of Education decision to pass the charter school legislation also known as Senate Bill 458. The bill now requires communities to vote on the building of charter school where before, the Commissioner of Education could force communities to support an unlimited number of Charter Schools.

Matawan-Aberdeen

A Monmouth County Jury voted to indict two Cliffwood men on almost thirty counts stemming from their alleged burglaries of 12 boats in Keyport, two boats in Aberdeen and four cars in Matawan at a hearing Tuesday, Feb. 7. The pair also face charges of unlawful possession of a weapon.

The owner and the manager of a Brick pet store that was shut down by authorities last month have been charged with a combined total of 42 counts of animal cruelty. Investigators with the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed the charges late last week against Maria De Santis, 57, of Old Bridge, and Nathan "Nat" Sladkin, 71, of Farmingdale. De Santis owned Puppies Galore in the Brick Mall shopping plaza on Hooper Avenue, and Sladkin was the store's manager, authorities said.

The Matawan Borough Council took a small step toward preserving their history at a meeting Tuesday night. The council approved a resolution directing the Historic Sites Commission, a volunteer committee, to catalog and inventory of buildings in the borough that are over 100-years-old. The purpose of creating the inventory is to give the borough an understanding of what buildings still stand today and why they are important, according to Mayor Paul Buccellato. It is the first step toward finding ways to preserve the buildings.

Marlboro

A development that was set to begin in the late 1980's is back before the Marlboro planning board, after the township's long battle with the Council on Affordable Housing. The 385 unit development, off of Lloyd Road on the Aberdeen border will have 85 units of affordable housing. An application for the Northpointe development was first presented to the planning board in 1990, but was never developed. In 2004, another application was denied. At the  Jan. 18 planning board meeting, several pieces of the plan were questioned by board members. Board members raised concerns that pieces of the development would require variances.

Holmdel

St. Benedict Church and School is going solar. Residents are holding a rally Saturday morning to defend picturesque Cross Farm, at Longbridge and Willow Brook Roads near Colts Neck, from a potential sale by the township. Best Market prepares for a Feb. 17 opening at the former site of Top Tomato, in the Holmdel Commons, and the story of Bruce Springsteen stopping in to visit a Holmdel High Student during her hospital stay is making the rounds.