2023-0297
Date Received: 2/22/2023
Status: Under Review
Applicant: B Mermelstein
Information Requested: This is a request for public records made
under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required
to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this
message.
Records requested:

I am requesting any of the following permits that were pulled/
granted between August 2020 and December 2020 for work done on
10th street between Madison Avenue and Clifton Avenue:

Street/ Road Opening Permits
Repaving Permits
Utility Permits
Milling Permits
by the township, New Jersey American Water, or by or through a
third party vendor

and any inspections and correspondence between New Jersey American
Water and township officials and/ or engineers regarding such
work.

Response: The Township of Lakewood received your Open Public
Records Act (OPRA) request on 2/22/2023. As such, the seven (7)
business day deadline to respond to your request is 3/3/2023. This
response to your request is being provided to you before the 1st
business day after the custodian's receipt of said request.

Please be advised that OPRA is a request for a specific government
record. A proper request under OPRA must identify with reasonable
clarity those documents that are desired, and a party cannot
satisfy this requirement by simply requesting all of an agency's
documents on a given topic. See Bent v. Stafford Police
Department, 381 N.J.Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005). OPRA is not a
research tool to force government entities to identify and siphon
off information.See Bent v. Stafford Police Department, 381
N.J.Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005). Your request does not identify
a specific government records but rather picks a topic and then
asks the Township to research whether or not any of these records
exist. As such, your request is an invalid OPRA request. When a
request is "complex" because it fails to specifically identify the
documents sought, then that request is not "encompassed" by OPRA.
See New Jersey Builders Association v. New Jersey Council on
Affordable Housing, 390 N.J.Super. 166, 180 (App. Div. 2007).

In regards to "any inspections and correspondence between New
Jersey American Water and township officials and/ or engineers
regarding such work.." in accordance with Elcavage v. West Milford
Twp (Passaic) your request is invalid. In order to specifically
identify the record please specify the following four (4)
characteristics:
(1) the content and/or subject of the correspondence
(2) the specific date or range of dates during which
correspondence was transmitted or the correspondence were
transmitted
(3) must identify the sender (by name or Title)
(4) must identify the recipient (by name or Title)

As previously noted, Township's are not required to conduct
research.

[1]SDL Portal page for OPRA Request
Spatial Data Logic 2021

References

Visible links
1. https://u131632.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click...

2023-0297
Date Received: 2/22/2023
Status: Under Review
Applicant: B Mermelstein
Information Requested: This is a request for public records made
under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required
to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this
message.
Records requested:

I am requesting any of the following permits that were pulled/
granted between August 2020 and December 2020 for work done on
10th street between Madison Avenue and Clifton Avenue:

Street/ Road Opening Permits
Repaving Permits
Utility Permits
Milling Permits
by the township, New Jersey American Water, or by or through a
third party vendor

and any inspections and correspondence between New Jersey American
Water and township officials and/ or engineers regarding such
work.

The Township of Lakewood received your Open Public Records Act
(OPRA) request on 2/22/2023. As such, the seven (7) business day
deadline to respond to your request is 3/3/2023. This response to
your request is being provided to you on the 4th business day
after the custodian's receipt of said request.

At this time, we request additional clarification of your OPRA
request. Please respond in writing and identify the specific
adresses, block and lot you are seeking government records for so
that we may process your request.
Spatial Data Logic 2021

2023-0297
Date Received: 2/22/2023
Status: Under Review
Applicant: B Mermelstein
Information Requested: This is a request for public records made
under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required
to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this
message.
Records requested:

I am requesting any of the following permits that were pulled/
granted between August 2020 and December 2020 for work done on
10th street between Madison Avenue and Clifton Avenue:

Street/ Road Opening Permits
Repaving Permits
Utility Permits
Milling Permits
by the township, New Jersey American Water, or by or through a
third party vendor

and any inspections and correspondence between New Jersey American
Water and township officials and/ or engineers regarding such
work.

The Township had requested clarification of your request on
2/22/2023 with no response. At this time, your OPRA request is
deemed concluded since we did not receive the requested
clarification.

If you are still seeking additonal records, please re-submit with
the requested information.
Spatial Data Logic 2021