Fair Haven Mourns Councilman Borough Koch

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By John Burton
FAIR HAVEN – The late Jerome Koch is being remembered as a man who gave much to his hometown of nearly 40 years, always seeking to better it and help its residents.
“He cared about Fair Haven,” said Mayor Benjamin Lucarelli. “He had an incredible wit, a remarkable sense of humor, which was highly valued by everyone on the governing body.”
But what sticks with the mayor most about Koch was his dedication of “treating people right.”
Elected officials, employees, residents and business owners are remembering and offering their perspective of the life and work of Borough Councilman Jerome A. Koch, who died suddenly last weekend.
“The mayor the council members, the staff at borough hall have been inundated with calls and emails by those who interacted with him over the years,” said borough administrator Theresa Casagrande, “who thought of him as a gentleman and a very bright man and certainly someone who they enjoyed knowing and working with.”
“People are truly saddened by this and it’s a tragic loss for the whole community, as well as for his family,” Casagrande added.
Koch, 63, was riding his bicycle westbound on River Road on Saturday, when at approximately 3:25 p.m., according to police, he was struck in the area of Elm Place by a vehicle traveling in the same direction. He was flown by helicopter to Jersey Shore University Medical, Neptune, but succumbed to his injuries dying at approximately 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The borough police, with the assistance of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Serious Collision Analysis Response Team (SCART), are continuing the investigation, according to a police spokesman.

Lucarelli stressed that going back to even before being elected to borough council, when Koch served on the borough planning board, “Whenever we had a discussion it was ‘What does this mean to the common man?’” Lucarelli said. “He was always about what this meant for the people who lived here.”
Koch and his wife, Elizabeth, known as Betsy, who teaches at Fair Haven’s Knollwood School, moved to the borough in 1975, raising their four children.
He worked in the family business, Karl Koch Erecting Company, a steel construction firm originally of Carteret and now located in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York. After retiring from the firm Koch gave his time to serving the community. He had served on the planning board and was completing his third three-year term as a Republican member of the borough council.
Koch had recently taken up bicycling. “I was pleased when he took up bike riding. It was such good exercise for him,” offered Ruth Blaser, a River Road resident who has regularly attended borough council meetings for many years, serving as a self-appointed gadfly and readily offering her criticism of local government.
“He was very charming,” Blaser said of Koch, who on occasion even agreed with Blaser. “He was interesting and spoke his mind.”
Michel Berger, president of the Fair Haven Business Association, local business owner and borough resident, said, “I found him to be a fair guy, very nice, very open.” Berger had dealt with Koch since the councilman was on the planning board.
“You always knew exactly where he stood on the issues,” Berger continued. “Each time I approached him, I must say, he listened and he did something about it.”
Koch would like to ride his bicycle to keep in touch with the community, according to Lucarelli, regularly stopping to pick up litter he found along the way, one way he put to work his passion for protecting the environment and encouraging recycling. “He would ride around town and if things weren’t right he would let us know,” the mayor said. “He was really good that way.”
“I thought that was a wonderful thing for him to do,” Berger offered about Koch’s dedication to keeping the community clean.
“In my job, Jerome was my eyes on the street,” as he traveled around the borough, said Casagrande, calling or emailing the administrator about something that required attention.
“He liked the town looking good and wanted to make sure every was doing what they could to make that happen.”
Koch is survived by his wife, four children and a granddaughter.