Cliffside Park police: Report of drinking on recreation bus trip unfounded

ONLY ON CLIFFVIEW PILOT: Three part-time counselors with the Cliffside Park Recreation Department have been cleared of any wrongdoing in a children’s bus trip during which one of them claimed online that they’d been drinking.

Photo Credit: *Cliffview Pilot File Photo*

Jerry DeMarco

07/19/2013 3:16 p.m.

Borough officials responded quickly to the Instagram post (above), docking each of the three a day’s pay and shifting them to other borough programs for a week while police investigated the July 8 waterpark trip, spokesman Bill Maer told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“The police department acted quickly and decisively,” Maer said. “They did a thorough investigation that found there was no drinking or improper activity.”

In the end, it was nothing more than young people “bragging about something they didn’t do in an attempt to impress their friends,” he said.

The 7-week summer program run by the borough Department of Recreation is held at West Grantwood Park on Oakdene Avenue next to School No. 6, Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

There are arts and crafts, various sports, games and trips, along with lunch, for young participants form the 4^th through 8^th grade. It costs parents $55 per child and $50 for each additional youngster.

The three counselors involved in the dustup are all over 18 but under the legal drinking age limit of 21.

Each of them wrote letters of apology to the Mayor and Council, Maer told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“What they did was wrong, as it relates to saying something occurred that didn’t,” he said. “However, we feel very confident that it didn’t occur.

“We consider this a closed issue.”

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