Lakewood - News Tidbits 3/3/06

Making Route 9 wider? APP: A petition to widen Route 9 has just gained another signature: the Township Committee.The township agreed to support the petition -- pushed by Len Colica, chairman of the Committee to Widen Route 9 -- at last week's committee meeting. Colica, a Dover Township Planning Board member, has said he will now update the petition to include Lakewood.The petition asks the state Department of Transportation to widen Route 9, which is one lane in each direction from the Garden State Parkway interchange in Dover to Route 88 in Lakewood.The petition is available online at www.widen9now.com, although Colica has yet to update the site. He plans to today, he said this morning."If you would include us in that petition, we would be quite grateful,'' Lakewood Mayor Meir Lichtenstein said. ------------------------------------------------------- Judge unsure....Lakewood Police Officer vs civilian: APP: An Ocean County jury is trying to determine whom to believe. Their choices are a Lakewood man who claims a police officer struck him in the head with his police radio during a traffic stop in 2004, or the officer, who claims the driver rolled up a car window on his arm and dragged him 10 feet. The jury began deliberations in the case Thursday afternoon. In the morning, the panel listed to the defendant, Douglas Green, 30, give his version of the events of Feb. 26, 2004. Green is on trial before Superior Court Judge James N. Citta. He is charged with two counts of aggravated assault on Lakewood Officer Christopher Spagnuolo, aggravated assault on Lakewood Sgt. James Van deZilver, who was recently promoted to that rank, as well as eluding police and resisting arrest. The jury heard the police officers' side of the story on Wednesday......