Sparta woman honored for volunteer work

Marie Morro of Sparta was recognized as the Sussex County Municipal Alliance Volunteer of the Year at the Dec. 13 meeting of the Board of County Commissioners.

“Ms. Morro is constantly going above and beyond to support the growth of the alliance as well as the audience within the community they serve,” the proclamation says.

“Her excellent work ethic and organizational skills are vital to the success of events like LEAD and National Night Out, which she coordinated, and all of the work of the Sparta Alliance. She perfectly exemplifies, through her actions, the qualities and characteristics needed to be an effective, engaged member of the alliance.”

L.E.A.D., or Law Enforcement Against Drugs, is a program in which police officers teach an anti-drug curriculum in schools.

Food pantry donations

Commissioner Bill Hayden said he researched donations totaling almost $2.4 million to the county food pantry from a private foundation in the past few years. He requested receipts showing how the money was spent and received receipts that “do not come close to what was supposedly donated.” “That creates a problem.”

Hayden suggested that the commissioners request a full accounting of the donations and recommended that a nonprofit organization be created to accept donations for the pantry.

”I think the way we’re doing it is improper. It’s sloppy bookkeeping, and it just leads to a lot of questions we don’t need,” he said.

Later, he said he doesn’t believe that the county is doing anything wrong. “I just think it doesn’t look right.”

He pointed out that other governments have nonprofits that run their food pantries.

The Sussex County food pantry is staffed by volunteers and operated out of the county administration building.

Board director Chris Carney endorsed the idea of a nonprofit running the pantry. “That’s something that we need to look at,” he said, adding that officials need to talk to the volunteers about who would run it.

Commissioner Jill Space thanked the food pantry volunteers as well as an “angel donor” who donates large amounts of food all year. “If we didn’t have this ‘angel donor,’ we would be adding a line item into the budget because we would never be able to feed the amount of residents that this food pantry feeds.”

The county pantry provided food to more than 20,000 residents in 2023 and helped supply local pantries, schools and organizations such as Catholic Charities, Project Self-Sufficiency, Benny’s Bodega and Harvest House, she said.

COVID-19 outbreaks

Space also reported COVID-19 outbreaks at three long-term-care facilities, one COVID-19 outbreak in a school, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) outbreaks in one long-term-care facility and one nursery school.

Twenty-four COVID-19 patients were in the hospital in September, 49 in October and 33 in November, she said.

The commissioners reappointed Elke Yetter to a three-year term as county treasurer and county finance officer. The combined salary for both positions is $155,969.

They also reappointed Robert Heiden to the Sussex County Technical School Board of Education for a four-year term.