Woodbridge Mayor Defends Keasbey Fire District Dissolution As Plan Advances After False Start
The council voted Tuesday unanimously to redo the ordinance dissolving Keasbey Fire District Number Four. The mayor laid out his fullest public case yet for the merger. A Keasbey firefighter's family member pushed back with a personal story about a fire that spared her family's home.
Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac delivered remarks during a special council meeting to advance a measure that would dissolve the Keasbey Fire District. (Source: Woodbridge TV via YouTube)
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Chris Howell | July 29, 2026
The Woodbridge Township Council held a special meeting Tuesday night to formally restart its effort to dissolve Keasbey Fire District Number Four and merge it into Fords Fire District Number Seven. Both items on the agenda passed without discussion from the council itself, setting up a decisive August 12 session in which the state Local Finance Board is expected to weigh in that morning, and the council plans to hold a final vote that evening.
The council first voted to officially undo everything it had done at two earlier meetings in June and July, which were invalidated due to a notice error. It then introduced a revised version of the dissolution ordinance on first reading. Mayor John McCormac said the new ordinance differs slightly from the one introduced in June, though he did not detail every change.
McCormac spent close to ten minutes walking through the state’s findings and the township’s reasoning, in some of his most detailed public remarks on the issue to date.
He said the state Division of Fire Safety found a declining volunteer base, no permanent on-duty supervisor, heavy reliance on a shared services agreement that has since ended, and no formal plan for recruiting or retaining staff. He said the district averages just 10 to 12 calls a month.
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McCormac also addressed a dispute that has played out publicly for weeks, over whether laid-off Keasbey firefighters would have jobs waiting for them. He said Fords has agreed to hire up to five, Woodbridge Fire District Number One has agreed to hire two, and Port Reading Fire District Number Two has agreed to hire one, covering all eight current and incoming Keasbey firefighters. He said he personally called officials at all three districts and confirmed the offers again as recently as Monday.
“Keasbey officials have been saying in the media that they know of no plans for their employees to be offered jobs, but it is a fact, and they can confirm it by contacting each of the three presidents,” McCormac said.
McCormac also disputed a claim from Keasbey’s side that the district maintains three firefighters in the firehouse at all times. Using a breakdown of standard work hours, he argued that eight firefighters working without heavy overtime could only cover about 60 percent of the hours needed for round-the-clock three-person staffing, and that closing the gap would require each firefighter to work an extra 24 hours a week in overtime.
On cost, McCormac said Keasbey homeowners pay an average of $2,395 a year in fire district taxes in 2026, the highest of any district in the township, compared with $1,837 in the next highest district and $1,312 as the township-wide average. He said that figure has nearly tripled since 2021.
The Keasbey Fire District Number Four firehouse in Woodbridge Township. The township is moving to dissolve the district and shift its coverage to Fords Fire District Number Seven. (The Central Jerseyan)
Lisa Manna, who said her family has five decades of history with the Keasbey Fire Department, described a fire that broke out at 182 and 184 Judy Drive on April 9, 2025, and spread to the neighboring house at 186 and 188 Judy Drive, her godparents’ home. Manna’s own family lived one house away.
“I smelled smoke at 1:30 in the morning,” she said. She credited a rapid response from Keasbey and mutual aid crews with sparing her home. “If you close Keasbey, these houses will go up like tinderboxes before anybody in the district would respond,” she said.
Ms. Manna pressed the mayor on what will happen to Keasbey’s fire trucks and equipment, which residents paid for through bond votes, if the district is dissolved. McCormac said all of the district’s assets would transfer to Fords along with its tax base, meaning Keasbey residents would still benefit from them and any potential sales as members of the merged district.
Keasbey Fire Chief John Manna spoke after the mayor, defending his department’s leadership and training. He said the district’s officers have close to 100 years of combined service, and that the department trains monthly on every piece of apparatus it owns.
The fire chief said the response time would be faster if Smith Street were fully repaired and reopened. A stretch of the road has been closed for months, and the detours have slowed the fire district’s response times, he said.
Chief Manna also defended the district’s finances, saying its budgets go through state approval and a taxpayer vote every year, and have for decades. He said several current council members have personal or family ties to local fire departments.
“If it happens to us, it could happen to any of you,” the fire chief said.
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.