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Voters Make Historic Change, Setting Aside Dover For Toms River
By Jo Ann La Russo & Eric San Juan
TOMS RIVER - Manchester residents know the kind of confusion a name can cause. It was but a few years ago that the town successfully lobbied the post office to use a Manchester mailing address rather than Lakehurst, a small borough in the middle of, but not affiliated with, Manchester Township.
The confusion reaches out to Whiting, too, where some residents (and many outsiders) are a bit foggy on Whiting's status as a town. Whiting is not, in fact, a town of its own, despite having its own postal code. Whiting is just one section of Manchester.
For years, residents of Dover Township have experienced much the same confusion. Most people know the town as Toms River. It appears on the maps as Toms River. The post office refers to the town as Toms River. But technically, Toms River is only the downtown riverfront area of Dover Township, which stretches between Berkeley, Brick, Lakewood and Manchester townships.
If everyone says the town is called Toms River, why not make it official?
That's the question posed to voters in Toms River last week. And on Election Day, they said, "Yes. Change the name of our town from Dover Township to Toms River Township."
On Election Day, voters approved changing the town's official name from Dover Township to Toms River Township by a wide margin, 16,059 votes to 10,176.
Toms River Mayor Paul C. Brush, among those who spearheaded the name change campaign, along with Councilwoman Maria Maruca, said that township voters made the choice very clear.
"The people have spoken. Residents wanted the name of the town to be Toms River," said Brush, reached at his Florida home on Tuesday. "There is only one Toms River in the country.
Toms River Police Chief Michael Mastronardy joined in the celebration with handshakes all around.
"When I joined the department, the name Toms River was on all the police cars," he said . "Now, 32 years later, the Dover Township Police Department vehicles will bear the Toms River name again."
However, not all residents are happy to see the Dover name removed after 239 years.
"Of course I'm not happy about it," said Pauline 'Polly' Miller, Ocean County historian. "How else would I feel? The history of this town is what I care about."
Miller is an 11th generation American with distinguished ancestors and pioneer Americans in her family. She is a direct descendent of Dutch Captain Cornelius Hendrickson, a navigator who explored the New Jersey coast on the ship, Onrust, and who is said to be the first European explorer to set foot on Ocean County soil, in 1614. Hendrickson navigated the Toms River in a smaller boat and discovered the northern branch of the river, Miller said.
"Toms River has always been a historic village," said Miller. "If they wanted to make Dover Township into Toms River, they should call it something decent, such as the City of Toms River," she stated this week.
Now that the voters have spoken, on Tuesday, November 14, at 6 p.m. in a ceremony that promises to be full of pomp and circumstance, the township will officially be renamed Toms River Township.
And so the votes have decided the town you were calling Toms River anyway should get the name officially.
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