POHATCONG TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A Pennsylvania gas station is helping its township police department reach out to the community. A Quick Chek station in Pohatcong Township and the Pohatcong police department recently partnered to provide an information center for customers, said The Express-Times.
The center includes a brochure rack with pamphlets on teenage drinking, domestic violence, bullying and identify theft and a bulletin board for wanted posters and community information, said the report.
The center was the idea of Donna Kane, [image-nocss] a store leader at the Pohatcong Quick Chek. It's pretty much designed to get information out to the citizens of the area, she told the paper. You're not going to feel intimidated picking one up. This is a way for people to get information without feeling embarrassed.
Kane, who has worked for the company for 15 years, started the information centers when she worked at a Fanwood, N.J., station. She created a center when she was transferred to a Quick Chek in Scotch Plains, N.J., and she said it was only natural she start a third center when she was transferred to the Pohatcong station in August.
She reached out to Pohatcong Township police officer Ted Garcia and a partnership evolved to create the center. It gave the police a way to help the community and it gave us a police presence, Kane said.
Garcia said the station was a good site because of its convenient location and high traffic of adults and teenagers at all times of the day. It was a no-brainer. It had to be there, he told the paper. People don't walk into a police station just because. [The racks] are the next step in community policing. It helps people figure out who to contact when they have a problem.
The Pohatcong information center has been up for a few weeks, and Kane said she hopes it becomes as popular as the ones at her previous stations.
The centers will not be stagnant, said the report. Pamphlets on seasonal topics will be included when appropriate, Garcia said, and new pamphlets will be added when new police issues emerge.
Kane said police have held safety classes in the Quick Chek parking lot in Fanwood, and she is thinking the same could be done in Pohatcong.
In other company news, a new Quick Chek store recently opened its doors in Rahway, N.J., that is the largest of three Quick Cheks now operating there, reported the Rahway Progress.
According to Laura Boyer, a spokesperson for the chain, the location is one of five Quick Cheks in New Jersey to offer gasoline along with the traditional convenience store features.
As Quick Chek expands to more locations, Boyer said the company is looking for areas in which gasoline facilities can be included in store designs. The new Rahway site is now home to the largest Quick Chek gas station in the state, she said.
From December 16 through January 13, the store will donate 25 cents to the Rahway Emergency Squad from every sandwich, sub and wrap sold, said the report.
The program was designed to better incorporate the stores into communities. Quick Chek feels very strongly that they want to be a part of the community and this is one of the ways that they do it, Boyer said.
Peter Pelissier, director of the Rahway Redevelopment Agency, told the paper that the new Quick Chek has come to an area that has seen overall improvement in the last few years. Once one of the city's most blighted areas, the corridor along routes 1 and 9 is seeing improvements with new redevelopment projects. He expects Quick Chek will be a good community neighbor and praised the company for its cooperation in this latest project.
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