A sports coach at a Gloucester Township high school was charged with having illegal sexual contact with a student, Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay said Thursday.
Joel Deanley Jr., 26, of Gloucester Township, worked at Timber Creek High School, where he was an assistant coach for girls spring track, as well as head coach for boys and girls winter track and an assistant coach for football, MacAulay said.
In a statement on Thursday, the Black Horse Pike Regional School District said it was cooperating with authorities in the case.
“The employee has been immediately removed from all duties involving students and barred from all District property,” the district said.
Deanley was charged with three counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, MacAulay said.
He was taken into custody Wednesday and was being held at the Camden County Correctional Facility pending a detention hearing.
On Tuesday, Gloucester Township police notified the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit that a female student at the high school “reported having a sexual relationship with Deanley,” the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Detectives determined that Deanley and the student were involved in illegal sexual contact between June and August, MacAulay said.
The student was the only victim identified in the case, but the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office will investigate any additional allegations, MacAulay said.
Anyone with information related to the case may call Detective Todd Jarrell of the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit at 856-225-8479 or Detective Daniel Szovati of the Gloucester Township Police Department at 856-228-4500, Ext. 3215. Tips can also be sent to CAMDEN.TIPS.
A conservative law firm is calling on New Jersey officials to repeal state guidance on parental notification when students question or attempt to change their gender at school.
The Liberty Justice Center, a Texas-based nonprofit that has waged such battles for free around the country, warned New Jersey Attorney General Jen Davenport in a letter Tuesday that keeping the guidance, known as Policy 5756, in place will lead to “federal investigations or lawsuits for the violation of federal civil rights.”
The center also sent letters to attorneys general in New York, Illinois, and Washington, where similar policies are in place. The effort comes a week after the Trump administration threatened two school districts in Maryland and Michigan with sanctions, including pulling their federal funding, if they don’t repeal their policies.
“By withholding information from parents regarding their children, these school districts are violating federal law, not to mention basic morality,” Timothy Snowball, a senior attorney at the center, said in a statement. “Parents have the fundamental right to direct their children’s upbringing, and these attorneys general must comply with federal law or face possible legal action.”
New Jersey’s policy, which the state Department of Education issued in 2018, prohibits the disclosure of a student’s gender identity without their consent unless “a specific and compelling need” obligates school officials to alert parents, such as health and safety concerns or a bias incident.
Several school districts and parents have challenged the policy in court, arguing it interferes with parents’ constitutional right to raise their children as they want. The state’s attorneys have countered that students have a constitutional right to privacy, disclosure risks harm to students whose parents aren’t supportive, and the policy is voluntary guidance districts don’t have to follow. Judges so far have let it stand.
It’s unclear how many of the state’s 600 districts have adopted the state guidance. The group Defending Education, which opposes such policies, estimates 130 districts have done so, but local advocates suspect that’s an undercount, as school boards typically act on state guidance.
Snowball said the U.S. Supreme Court’s March order in a California case known as Mirabelli v. Bonta should spur states with similar policies to reexamine and revoke them.
California’s law requires schools to support a child’s social transitioning and bars alerting parents without the child’s consent. After it was challenged, a trial court issued an injunction that blocked enforcement of the law, an appeals court stayed that injunction, and a split Supreme Court vacated the stay and returned the case to circuit court, saying parents claiming religious exemptions likely will prevail.
The Liberty Justice Center filed a brief supporting parents in the California case.
“The constitutional questions have now been squarely presented, and the legal issues are no longer theoretical. Your office should reevaluate the state’s current position to ensure that New Jersey’s policies and enforcement actions comply with parents’ federally protected rights before further litigation compels that result,” Snowball wrote to Davenport.
Spokespeople for Davenport and the New Jersey Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.
But Robert Kim, executive director of the Education Law Center, said Davenport and the other attorneys general shouldn’t change course because of the California decision, which was not a final ruling on the case’s merits but instead just a preliminary order issued in response to an emergency application — meaning there were no oral arguments, briefs filed, or extended opinion written.
“It is a very limited window into this emerging area of law,” Kim said.
The Liberty Justice Center’s letter-writing campaign adds “fuel to the fire that’s stemming from this pattern of disturbing behavior by the Trump administration, this fixation to aggressively target a small portion of the student population, the transgender community, for disfavored treatment by the federal government,” Kim said.
Michael Gottesman, founder of the New Jersey Public Education Coalition, also doesn’t think the California decision should sway policymakers here, noting that California’s policy is mandatory while New Jersey’s is voluntary.
The policy’s critics also ignore that the state’s Law Against Discrimination protects people from being forcibly outed, Gottesman added.
“The policy basically sets up a process which recognizes the fact that parents have rights, but students do too,” Gottesman said. “There’s a whole line of cases in the Supreme Court on parents’ rights, but there’s also a whole line of cases in the Supreme Court about students’ privacy rights.”
Opponents have mischaracterized the policy, which balances parental notification with student privacy, said Dillon Reisman, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.
“Our state’s policies have never required schools to lie to parents when a parent asks about their student’s gender identity. The policy already recognizes that health and safety concerns or harassment, intimidation, and bullying laws might require schools to affirmatively notify parents of a student’s gender identity if it’s relevant,” Reisman said. “Those are two things that already meet the U.S. Supreme Court standard from Mirabelli v. Bonta.”
Last week’s newsletter highlighting the band Three and One getting the hook midway through their outdoor 6 to 10 p.m. set at Gully’s in Avalon prompted a lot of soul-searching.
Even though Avalon liquor licenses have limited outdoor music past 8 p.m. for years (not far behind is Sea Isle, where outdoor bars end music at 9 p.m.), many people felt that it illustrated something essential, and frustrating, about Avalon and the Shore’s changing identity.
Meanwhile, in Strathmere this week, the Deauville Inn said it was canceling its annual luau because a neighbor had complained before the event.
“Apparently tropical vibes are louder than we thought,” the historic inn wrote on Facebook, citing a “premature noise complaint” from a neighbor who is “not a fan of live music, fun or people enjoying themselves.”
The luau, sponsored by Kona Big Wave, was due to begin at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday; tickets for dinner and the show were listed as $117.23 plus tax. A Kona Big Wave Luau at Congress Hall on Aug. 20 in Cape May (no tickets required) looks like a go. (Deauville events director Judy Brenna Felicetta declined further comment).
What is the future of the freewheeling bar and music scene that has defined summers down the Shore, in Asbury Park legendarily, of course, but also in Avalon and elsewhere? Have things become too tightly controlled by the demands of wealthy homeowners who have scooped up real estate and turned the islands into noise-canceled enclaves?
Saw your piece on Gully’s and was reminded of our walk a while back where we saw the changes in Avalon. This year, like a breath of fresh air, a new venue tries to rekindle the soul of old Avalon, but new Avalon slaps it down and says that’s enough out of you!
Mike Hudome wrote:
What’s really going on here is people are searching for the Avalon of the ’70’s and ’80’s that no longer exists. They’ll never find it, and it is impossible to replicate.
Ira Dosovitz wrote:
I’ve been coming to Avalon for 40 years, and have seen the place transition from a somewhat casual, family-oriented beach town to a more corporate vibe destination. Having said that, I still feel that Avalon is right to place strictures on the music at Gully’s. Avalon is still a family town, and that should be respected.
📮 What is the future of music down the Shore? Has there been a culture shift? Where do you go to hear music? (I’m a fan of the free music series on the A.C. Boardwalk at Kennedy Plaza, where jazz returns this week.) Related, is $117.23 per person too much for a dinner and luau performance? Let me know what you think by replying to this email and I’ll include your most interesting responses.
Have ideas or news tips about the Shore or this newsletter? Pet peeves for us to opine on? Send them to me here.
🌞 Forecasters said it would rain all week but except for Monday, it’s been lovely. So just come down already.
🎳 Avalon’s biggest home has been greenlit by borough and state officials: a whopping 17,694-square-foot house and carriage house to be built on Avalon’s high dunes at 5475 Dune Drive. In an intra-island twist, the builder is Eustace Mita, the developer who has proposed a luxury hotel on the site of Ocean City’s old Wonderland Pier.
Mita says the house is not for his personal use. He’s looking for a buyer who will appreciate amenities like a bowling alley, recording studio, golf simulator, and cold plunge. LeBron? Taylor? More on that house here.
🚀 Corson’s Inlet State Park was closed for about four hours this week after a rocket-assisted supply line launcher was found on the beach, state officials said.
🦀 Animal rights activists want Ocean City to use robot crabs instead of hermit crabs for its iconic Miss Crustacian Beauty Pageant and hermit crab races.
🎶 Atlantic City’s beloved summer Chicken Bone Beach free jazz on the Boardwalk series returns to Kennedy Plaza this week with Warren Wolf and Wolfpack and local artist Keith Hollis beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday. Full schedule here.
😋 In other water ice news, Ventnor’s North Beach Creamery is now offering a chocolate black cherry flavor. That’s chocolate with black cherries in one flavor.
😭 Visit the Wonderland Pier museum in the Promenade food court on the Ocean City Boardwalk through Aug. 9.
Shore snapshot
A variety of tomatoes on sale at the No Frills Farm tent at the West Cape May Farmers Market, on Tuesday, July 28, 2026.Vernon Ogrodnek / For The Inquirer
Vocab lesson: sea gorse
Not to be confused with seahorse, gorse (n) is a perennial, spiny shrub with green branches and shiny yellow flowers known to grow along coastlines, sometimes in an invasive fashion.
See the Shore memory below for its use in an ode to Avalon.
Ask Down the Shore: Ball playing
We asked our text group, The Shore Line, about etiquette around playing ball on the beach. Two texters said they’d been hit in the face with Frisbees, and one lost a tooth! My personal pet peeve is those who throw a football in the ocean over the heads of bathers, but I’m sure it’s fun.
Hello from Wildwood Crest! Our borough lifeguards maintain a very publicized posted rule about playing ball at the beach: only on the “Back Beach.”
I recently was sitting in a chair near the water’s edge and I got hit several times with either soccer balls or other throwable items. Most times the player apologized. It’s the beach, so you have to keep your head up and be on the defense at all times!
Many years ago a bunch of guys were playing Frisbee. The Frisbee hit me in the face along with the guy diving for it. I lost a tooth from the force of the hit and also needed root canal. They should be far from the crowds.
The beachgoer needs to relax. They are kids and we all did it as kids. It’s a public place and to expect kids not to be playing is ridiculous.
🧠 Trivia time
Reader Jacqui was first with the correct answer to last week’s water ice trivia question (Mento’s of course, which famously ended the free taste era with a sign: “Chocolate tastes like chocolate; lemon tastes like lemon.”
This week:
Bathhouses are vanishing at the Jersey Shore. Daytrippers, in North Wildwood, profiled by my colleague Jason Nark, charged just $5 for a shower in 2021.
Is the price for a shower in 2026:
A. $20 for adults, $5 for children under 42 inches.
Monroe Township officials are not budging their stance on data centers as they push for the dismissal of a $300 million lawsuit from a developer challenging the municipality’s recent ban.
And a judge tossed out the Cherry Hill Board of Education’s lawsuit against a journalist for filing too many public records requests.
Monroe Township is doubling down on its data center ban.
Officials recently requested to dismiss a $300 million lawsuit from Hexa Builders — a Princeton-based real estate developer that wants to build a 1 million-square-foot data center — that challenges the municipality’s ban.
The saga continues as Hexa Builders pushes for the case to go back to state court instead of federal.
Meanwhile, Collingswood pursued its own ban through an ordinance that would amend the borough’s code.
Other South Jersey municipalities to consider and pass similar bans include Cherry Hill, Millville, and Medford.
Freelance journalist Benjamin Shore can file as many public records requests as he wants in South Jersey.
When the Cherry Hill Board of Education filed a 128-page lawsuit back in February, it claimed the “numerous, repeated, and vexatious” requests he filed under the state’s Open Public Records Act qualified as harassment.
Superior Court Judge Michael Mikulski disagreed. On July 31, the judge dismissed the case and stated the district failed to provide evidence of ill-intent.
Hackers targeted two New Jersey municipal water systems in a nationwide cyberattack. Three state officials, according to a report, said some analysts highly suspect the attack could be traced to Iran amid the ongoing war.
A teenager has been arrested and charged with attempted murder and other crimes after allegedly shooting at a family member while in a moving vehicle in Willingboro Township, according to officials.
The rehab work on Collings Avenue Bridge that would close it for three months is postponed until further notice. The bridge on the border of Gloucester City and Camden will remain fully operational until a new project date is determined, according to Camden County officials.
According to Gov. Mikie Sherrill, the best cheesesteaks are in Jersey at Donkey’s Place in Camden. She said they are better than the “million” she’s tried in Philadelphia.
🍽️Burlington County Restaurant Week: The county’s restaurant week ends on Saturday. Check out the list of participating restaurants for special discounts for the last few days. ⏰ Through Sat, Aug. 8 💵 Pay as you go📍Various locations.
🎶 Summer Street Feast: Go out tonight to this evening festival featuring live music, face painting, and treats from more than 10 food trucks. ⏰ Thursday, Aug. 6 4-8 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go📍Kings Highway, Haddonfield.
🦈 Sharks at the Park: The Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University will host a series of events about the prehistoric sea, including a foam party, a quarry shark tooth contest, and a trivia night. ⏰ Friday Aug. 7-Sunday, Aug. 16, various times 💵 Various prices 📍 66 Million Mosasaur Way, Mantua.
Right as work was set to begin on the Collings Avenue Bridge, Camden County announced Wednesday that the $2.5 million repair project is postponed until further notice.
The steel bridge over Newton Creek at the border of Gloucester and Camden cities will remain fully operational until a new project start date is determined, the county announced Wednesday.
The county is still waiting on some New Jersey Department of Transportation permits that have yet to be issued, a county spokesperson said.
A new start date for the project will be announced at a later time.
The bridge was previously scheduled to close for about three months starting on Tuesday for the repair project. Traffic headed towards the bridge was to be diverted to I-676 via Broadway and Morgan Boulevard.
The project includes replacing the concrete deck, sidewalks, and parapet, as well as refurbishing support beams and bearings.
“These improvements to the Collings Avenue Bridge are essential to keeping our infrastructure safe and reliable,” Camden County Commissioner Al Dyer, liaison to the Department of Public Works, previously said in a statement. “We want to thank our residents for their patience during the next few months and recommend that they give themselves extra time in their commute while detours are in place.”
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill dissed Philadelphia cheesesteaks earlier this summer, and she just doubled down.
“The best cheesesteaks actually aren’t in Philly,” she declares in a video posted to her social media Wednesday afternoon centered ona recent visit to Donkey’s Place in Camden. “They’re right here in Jersey, and we’re about to go have one.”
In the video, Sherrillleans against the bar next to a customer drinking a beer and sporting a Phillies cap. The first-term Democrat notes with a grin that a “real-life” Philadelphian is “here in Jersey, getting a cheesesteak!”
She noted in the post that a friend of hers from California had mentioned the cheesesteak place to her — showing that the acclaimed Haddon Avenue spot, founded in 1943, is known across the country. She said she “never doubted that New Jersey has the best cheesesteaks,” but had to visit Donkey’s to “confirm” for herself.
I never doubted that New Jersey has the best cheesesteaks, but I still had to stop by Donkey's Place in Camden earlier this summer to confirm it for myself. pic.twitter.com/48JV0PavJQ
— Governor Mikie Sherrill (@GovSherrillNJ) August 5, 2026
Anthony Bourdain felt similarly.
In 2015, Bourdain, who grew up in North Jersey, opined on an episode of his Parts Unknown show that finding the best cheesesteak in “the center of the cheesesteak universe” may require crossing the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The restaurant proudly displays his quote on its website: “The best cheesesteak in the area might well come from New Jersey.”
During her visit to Donkey’s, Sherrill got in on the cheesesteak action with owner Rob Lucas Jr., whose father, Bob Lucas, previously owned the restaurant. The younger Lucas’ grandfather, Olympic boxer Leon “Donkey” Lucas, was the founder.
Equipped with plastic gloves and a griddle spatula for each hand, the governor assists Lucas by shaking loads of seasoning on a pile of onions.
“Take three pieces of cheese, put it right on top of that,” he directs her in the video.
Sherrill noted she loves onions, in contrast to the three orders of “no onions” ahead of her.
Donkey’s steaks are endowed with white American cheese and come with fried onions on a poppy-seed kaiser roll.
“Guys, the verdict’s in, and you probably know I’ve been going to Army-Navy in Philly for years,” Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, proudly says, sitting with her creation. “I’ve had a million cheesesteaks. There is no better cheesesteak than here at Donkey’s.”
The historic Army-Navy football game was first played in Philadelphia in 1899 and it has been hosted in the City of Brotherly Love more times than any other city. The last time it was in Philly was in 2022, and it will be hosted by New Jersey, in East Rutherford, this year before returning to Pennsylvania’s largest cityin 2027.
Sherrill visited Donkey’s in late June the same day she visited Camden’s World Cup fan fest at Wiggins Waterfront Park just days before the deadline for her first New Jersey budget. During that appearance, local officials praised the governor for showing up for South Jersey.
During a speech on the fan fest stage, Sherrill boasted that as visitors flood to the region for the World Cup, “the best cheesesteaks are not across the river, they’re right here at Donkey’s.”
Freelance journalist Benjamin Shore will not have to stop filing public records requests in South Jersey after a judge dismissed Cherry Hill schools’ lawsuit alleging that his requests amounted to harassment.
The Cherry Hill Board of Education filed a 128-page lawsuit in Superior Court in February claiming that the “numerous, repeated and vexatious” requests that Shore filed under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act qualified as harassment and “substantially interrupted” school operations.
Shore operates the online outlet Shore Investigates, a news site focused on Cherry Hill. His brother Daniel was also named in the lawsuit.
The suit sought to bar Shore and his outlet from submitting requests for public documents for one year. It also sought to shut down an online portal that Shore created where the public can file requests instead of using the district’s website.
Journalist Ben Shore in front of the Cherry Hill Public Schools Board of Education headquarters in the Arthur Lewis Administration Building in Cherry Hill on Thursday April 2, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
“The Board tried to stop us from requesting records,” Benjamin Shore said in an email following the dismissal. “Instead, the case ended with its complaint dismissed with prejudice and its unsupported allegations rejected. Shore Investigates will continue following the records, asking difficult questions, and keeping the public informed.”
Cherry Hill Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The school board’s lawsuit specifically referenced 18 OPRA requests that Shore had filed over the course of a year and a half, averaging out to roughly one request per month.
The board claimed that as a result, district personnel, including the custodian of records, spent more than 100 hours reviewing and redacting documents and responding to Shore’s requests.
Shore argued that the amount and frequency of his requests is in line with standard journalistic practice.
Superior Court Judge Michael Mikulski agreed, dismissing the suit on July 31 and stating that the district had failed to provide evidence of Shore’s ill intent.
Instead, the judge found that Shore actually displayed a “willingness to cooperate with the Board in making the requests less intrusive,” he wrote in the seven-page ruling.
“The Court finds the Board has failed to establish by clear and convincing evidence that Defendants filed their requests with the intent to disrupt agency operations,” the ruling concluded.
Journalist Ben Shore in front of the Cherry Hill Public Schools Board of Education headquarters in the Arthur Lewis Administration Building in Cherry Hill on Thursday April 2, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Mikulski determined that the suit met the requirements to be dismissed under New Jersey’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, which is meant to shield people from baseless lawsuits meant to silence political speech or engagement.
The law allows defendants to request an early, expedited dismissal of a lawsuit and to recover legal fees if the suit is ultimately tossed.
While Shore succeeded in getting the case thrown out, he said it still had its intended effect.
“The lawsuit nevertheless accomplished something before it was dismissed: it chilled our reporting. We paused records requests and held back stories because every new inquiry appeared to carry the threat of further litigation,” Shore said. “That is what it means to report with a target on your back.”
The new law enables governmental entities like the Cherry Hill Board of Education to sue someone seeking public information if they can prove the request amounts to harassment or substantially prevents them from doing their jobs.
The new law also no longer guarantees that people who successfully overturn record request denials in court can recoup their legal fees.
“We knew when they amended OPRA in 2024 to include this provision that it would sadly be weaponized to retaliate against people who seek public records,” Shore’s attorney, CJ Griffin, said in a statement. “But thankfully the trial court agreed this suit had no merit and that my clients were nothing but polite and had no intention of disrupting agency operations — they simply wanted government records to report on matters of public concern.”
“No one should be hauled into court for filing public records requests, especially not reporters who keep us informed about the public business,” Griffin said.
Monroe Township officials requested in late July to dismiss a $300 million lawsuit by Princeton-based real estate developer Hexa Builders challenging the municipality’s data center ban.
The Gloucester County case continues as other South Jersey municipalities consider and pass data center bans, including Cherry Hill, Millville, Medford, and, as of this week, Collingswood.
The request for dismissal came less than a month after Monroe pushed Hexa Builders’ complaint from state to federal court under the claim that some of Hexa’s allegations fell under the U.S. Constitution and should be addressed federally.
Some of the 20 counts alleged by Hexa include violations of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and freedom of speech under the First Amendment.
On July 28, Todd Gelfand, the attorney representing Monroe’s mayor and council, filed a four-page letter listing reasons that he said Hexa’s lawsuit against the data center ban is not valid.
Gelfand rejected Hexa’s constitutional arguments, cited a lack of a physical contract promising data centers to Hexa, and argued Monroe had a right to amend a zoning ordinance based on public objections.
“[The data center ban] does not regulate the content of speech, a speaker, a message, or Plaintiffs’ ability to engage in expressive activity. The fact that data centers support electronic communications does not transform a land-use regulation into a speech restriction,” Gelfand wrote.
In response, Jim Maley, the attorney representing Hexa Builders, requested on Monday to push the majority of Hexa’s complaint — the parts that are not based on the Constitution — back to New Jersey state court. The next day, he asked the federal judge currently overseeing the case to reject Monroe’s request for dismissal.
Maley said state courts have more expertise to consider the local land-use laws that affect Hexa Builders most, and Hexa’s federal claims should be considered second.
“To further the federal claims, the constitutional claims, there has to first be determination of whether there was a violation of the land-use laws,” Maley said. “If land use wasn’t violated, that will hurt [our] federal claims.”
U.S. District Judge Edward Kiel has not yet made official moves in reaction to the letters, which Maley said could take a while.
Sandra Graise, Monroe Township’s solicitor, declined to comment and said the township does not speak about pending litigation.
Hexa filed the original lawsuit on June 5 in New Jersey Superior Court shortly after Monroe officials denied its application to build a 1 million-square-foot data center and a warehouse at 3043 Black Horse Pike, a property the company has sought to develop since 2022.
The denial followed months of public outcry at local government meetings after residents discovered that a change to Hexa’s redevelopment plan in early 2025 allowed the developer to propose a data center.
Collingswood considers ordinance on data centers
As the parties go back and forth, nearby municipalities have taken initiative to ban data centers before a proposal ever arrives.
At a Monday night meeting in Collingswood, the Camden County borough’s three commissioners considered an ordinance amending Collingswood’s code to ban data centers and “computing nodes,” which the borough defines as modular units installed at residential or small commercial properties that supply computing capacity to third parties in exchange for payment or credits to the property owner.
Maley, who represents Hexa in Monroe, is also a member of Collingswood’s board of commissioners.
Two residents who attended the borough meeting brought up Maley’s connection to the Hexa case and asked whether Maley would recuse himself from the vote based on his employment as a private attorney supporting a potential data center nearby.
In response, Collingswood solicitor Caitlin Harney Norcia said she could not find evidence that would disqualify Maley from voting under New Jersey’s Local Government Ethics Law, since Maley’s job as an attorney does not directly affect his work in Collingswood.
While Maley decided to abstain from the vote, he said the borough should have a six-month waiting period to allow the borough planner time to consider standards for data centers, called the move “a ban of reaction,” and said the borough does not have room for a data center anyway.
“We don’t prohibit airports. OK, that’s a permitted use. We don’t do that because there’s no place you can put an airport. There’s no place in this town you can put a data center,” Maley said in a live recording of the meeting on Facebook. “But the nodes are another issue.”
When reached for comment Wednesday, Maley said he did not have to abstain from the vote, but he still chose to for nonlegal reasons.
“Folks in the crowd, they’re working really hard to beat me up on a lot of different things. It’s a group that’s been against me for years. … Whatever my vote would have been, they would have been yelling and screaming about it and impacting my work,” Maley said.
Collingswood’s two other commissioners voted to approve the data center and computing node ban on its second reading. The ordinance took effect immediately.
Two New Jersey municipal water systems were targeted in a cyberattack that affected multiple local water agencies across the U.S. last week.
The FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency issued a public warning last Thursday to all critical infrastructure operators that hackers are targeting vulnerable internet-connected control systems responsible for delivering drinking water. At least seven states, including New Jersey, Georgia, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin, have reported cyber incidents to the FBI since July 27.
The two New Jersey municipal water systems targeted in the cyberattack have not been publicly disclosed.
“Both systems have since been secured with strengthened access controls,” said Christopher Thoresen, spokesperson for the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC), part of the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security. “The NJCCIC continues working with these utilities and with water systems statewide to reduce the risk of similar incidents going forward.”
A water tower is seen Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Plymouth, Minn. A cyberattack targeted the operating technology at over 30 water systems in Minnesota, including Plymouth’s, earlier this week, state officials said. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)Ellen Schmidt
Three state officials who were briefed on the cyberattack investigation told the New York Times last week that the methods used to exploit the water systems and the lack of a ransom demand had led some analysts to “tentatively conclude” that the cyberattack could be traced back to Iran, amid the U.S.-Iran war. However, federal investigators have not publicly linked Iran to the cyberattacks.
Hackers accessed the water systems by exploiting small internet-connected devices, called programmable logic controllers (PLCs), that are used to remotely monitor and control aspects of industrial equipment, according to the NJCCIC.
In July’s attack, hackers targeted logic controllers in municipal water systems that control the pumps and valves used to deliver drinking water. After accessing these devices, hackers changed IP addresses and set new passwords, locking water agencies out of remote monitoring capabilities.
In New Jersey’s incidents, the municipal water agencies sent out staff to operate the systems manually, leading to no disruption to service or access to drinking water, according to the NJCCIC.
A water tower in Flint, Mich., Aug. 20, 2020. Michigan and Minnesota are among at least seven states coping with cyberattacks aimed at disrupting water systems nationwide. (Erin Kirkland/The New York Times)ERIN KIRKLAND
Cyberattacks were also reported in Minnesota, where 30 water-system facilities were targeted, and in Michigan, where nine were attacked. Similar to New Jersey, state officials said at no point during the attacks was drinking water unsafe.
To protect from future cyberattacks, the FBI is advising all critical infrastructure operators to remove direct internet connections from PLCs through secure firewalls, stronger passwords, and more secure authorized communication.
In July’s cyberattack, hackers exploited the MicroLogix 1100 and 1400 series of Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley PLCs, but the FBI warned that other branded devices can be vulnerable as well.
Mita says the 17,694-square-foot home at 5475 Dune Drive is not for his personal use, but rather a house built by his Achristavest construction company that will be offered for sale. There is no designated buyer yet, he said.
“This is a spec home,” he said by telephone. “Is it the biggest home in Avalon? Yes, absolutely. It’s not just one big home. It’s a home with a carriage house.”
Construction will require additional sand trucked in to fortify the dune for the property, which will include a 14,000-square-foot main house connected to a 3,000-square-foot carriage house.
Mita said he will continue to personally use a home on the beach in Ocean City, at 28th and Wesley.
Two stories in the new house will be subterranean and three will be above ground, he said. The below-ground floors will include a bowling alley, golf simulator, indoor pool, home theater, recording studio, and cold plunge.
He said has secured state environmental proposals and emphasized that the house, because it will occupy the same footprint as the existing house, did not need a zoning variance from Avalon borough.
Avalon’s impressively high and vast dune system has 11 homes. The largest existing house in the dunes is at 5299 Dune Drive and owned by the heirs to the Utz potato chip family business. It is 12,631 square feet.
In Mita’s case, the Avalon planning and zoning board approved the plans June 9, with the only notes being that the sand brought in should be “clean, uncontaminated, and free of hazardous substances.”
At the July borough council meeting, several residents expressed concern about the size of the project and its impact on the dunes.
Mita said the additional sand was requested by state environmental officials to fortify the dunes and will be placed on the street side near the retaining wall, not “onto the dunes” as some residents feared.
“I didn’t even need variances,” he said. “The renderings make it look overpowering.”
The additional sand, he said, was mandated by CAFRA (Coastal Area Facility Review Act) regulations.
“I can’t build one inch into the existing toe of the dunes,” he said. “I have to build a retaining wall as to not to encroach on the dune. It preserves the integrity.”
Eustace Mita, arriving at the Ocean City Music Pier for a city planning board meeting on Jan. 7, 2026, about the old Wonderland Pier site he owns.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
Residents expressed concerns at a recent Avalon council meeting.
“It’s just a ruin, a ruin of the dunes,” said Elaine Scattergood, who said borough officials were being misled by claims that the property would stay within the footprint and elevation of the existing house. “If the dunes were a child, I think the protective agency would have taken it away from us.”
In Ocean City, those engaged in the back and forth over the Wonderland site also had a lot to say about Mita’s plan for Avalon’s high dunes.
“His home looks bigger than the hotel he wants to build in O.C.,” said one Facebook commenter.
“Barge the old home up to the Wonderland site,” said another. “Problem solved.”
Mita said his company is currently building three beachfront spec homes at 77th in Avalon, and three beachfront homes at 116th Street in Stone Harbor.
He said building a spec home of this size and expected sale price in the many tens of millions was “so risky.”
Who would be a potential buyer?
“LeBron James,” he mused. “Or Taylor Swift. She spent summers in Stone Harbor. There’s a recording studio. You can’t even buy a beach block lot in Avalon or Stone Harbor for $5 million.”
