Forked River, New Jersey

Murray Grove is a Unitarian Universalist retreat and conference center in the Lanoka Harbor section of Lacey Township, New Jersey United States, traditionally considered the site where Universalism in America began. In 1770, Thomas Potter, an unlettered but inspired Universalist landowner living in what was then called Good Luck, New Jersey, encountered John Murray after Murray's vessel was grounded in nearby Barnegat Bay. Learning that Murray was both a Universalist and a preacher, Potter prevailed on him to preach the gospel of universal love in the meetinghouse Potter had built for that express purpose ten years earlier. Despite serious misgivings and initial resistance, Murray gave his first Universalist sermon on the North American continent on September 30, 1770. Taking the experience as a sign that God wanted him to dedicate his life to preaching Universalism, he went on to minister to the first Universalist congregation in the United States, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and later to be centrally involved in the founding of the Universalist Church of America. Universalist pilgrims began trekking to Good Luck in the 1830s. Unable to purchase the meetinghouse, they created what they called Murray Grove and, over time, erected the Potter Memorial Chapel for worship services and Murray Grove House for accommodations. It has been a national center of Universalism for over a century and, since the merger of the Universalists with the Unitarians in 1960 as Unitarian Universalism, remains a vital and active Unitarian Universalist gathering and pilgrimage site. Murray Grove offers historical tours as well as space for groups to hold their own retreats and conferences. Regular programs are presented, especially including the Homecoming celebration the last Saturday of each September.

Lacey Township High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in the Lanoka Harbor section of Lacey Township, in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which operates as part of the Lacey Township School District. The school is overseen by the New Jersey Department of Education and has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1983.As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,256 students and 92.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.7:1. There were 200 students (15.9% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 52 (4.1% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.The school's mascot is a lion, the symbol is a paw, for the "Lacey Lions." The school's colors are navy blue, silver, and cardinal Lacey Township High School has implemented a random drug testing policy. Students participating in any extracurricular activities including after school sports, clubs or any school event must sign a waiver that allows them to be drug tested randomly. The first offense includes suspension from all after school activities for 10 days.

The Lacey Township School District is a comprehensive community public school district serving students in kindergarten through twelfth grade from Lacey Township, in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located in South Jersey along the state's Jersey Shore.As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised of six schools, had an enrollment of 3,864 students and 334.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.6:1.The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "DE", the fifth-highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.The school district includes six schools. Cedar Creek School (CCS), Lanoka Harbor School (LHS) and Forked River School (FRS) serve grades 1-5. Mill Pond serves grades Preschool-K. Lacey Township Middle School (LTMS) is an intermediate school for grades 6-8 and is located behind the high school. Lacey Township High School (LTHS) has served grades 9-12 since its creation in 1981.

Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Station was a single unit 636 MWe boiling water reactor power plant in the United States. The plant is located on an 800-acre (3.2 km2) site adjacent to Oyster Creek in the Forked River section of Lacey Township in Ocean County, New Jersey. At the time of its closure, the facility was owned by Exelon Corporation and, along with unit 1 at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station, was the oldest operating commercial nuclear power plant in the United States. The plant first started commercial operation on December 23, 1969, and is licensed to operate until April 9, 2029, but Oyster Creek was permanently shut down in September 2018. The plant got its cooling water from Barnegat Bay, a brackish estuary that empties into the Atlantic Ocean through the Barnegat Inlet. At the time of shutdown, Oyster Creek was one of four licensed nuclear power reactors in New Jersey. The others are the two units at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, and the one unit at Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. As of January 1, 2005, New Jersey ranked 9th among the 31 states with nuclear capacity for total MWe generated. In 2003, nuclear power generated over one half of the electricity in the state.In 1999, GPU agreed to sell the Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant to AmerGen Energy for $10 million. AmerGen was later purchased by Exelon in 2003. Exelon fully integrated AmerGen's former assets, including Oyster Creek, in early 2009.The reactor was shut down on September 17, 2018.In September 2019, Ocean Wind, a proposed 1,100 MWe offshore wind farm, with the approval of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, secured the capacity interconnection rights to bring the power generated by the wind farm on-shore at Oyster Creek. It can use the existing power infrastructure of the plant, after some upgrades, to connect to the regional transmission grid.In January 2021, Holtec suggested that a "new generation" nuclear plant might be built at the location.

Lanoka Harbor is an unincorporated community located within Lacey Township, in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Lanoka Harbor and Murray Grove were established in the mid-18th century and are representative of the typical bay town, often referred to as the "Barnegat Bay resorts." The communities fronting the bay relied on the products of forest trade and sea, including a substantial oyster industry, long before the railroad brought resort trade. Murray Grove is further renowned as the "birthplace of Universalism in America," where the first Universalist sermon in the United States was preached. The Unitarian influence remained in the community, with the establishment of the Murray Grove Universalist and Unitarian Retreat and Conference Center in the early 1800s. The community of Lanoka Harbor was named after the abundance of oak trees located along George Lane; with the original name being "Lanes Oaks", which was eventually shortened to "Lanoka". In 1924, Samuel Rogers added "Harbor" in an attempt to attract tourism to the shore community. Located within Lanoka Harbor is the Lacey Township School District; which includes Lacey Township High School, Lanoka Harbor Elementary School, Mill Pond Elementary School, and Cedar Creek Elementary School. Lanoka Harbor receives emergency services from Lanoka Harbor EMS (Squad 26), Lanoka Harbor Fire Company (Station 61), Lacey Township Underwater Rescue and Recovery (Squad 47) and the Lacey Township Police Department.

The Forked River Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed nuclear power plant in Lacey Township in Ocean County, New Jersey. It was proposed as a single 1,070 MW reactor in 1969 to be built by Combustion Engineering and operated by Jersey Central Power and Light. The facility would have been located on a site between JCP&L's existing Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and the Garden State Parkway. Unlike the Oyster Creek Plant, the Forked River Plant would have a cooling tower to prevent the release of hot water into Oyster Creek and Barnegat Bay.Construction of the plant was halted in 1974 due to financial cut-backs and environmental protests, but was resumed in 1976. The plant's construction was ultimately canceled in 1980, when General Public Utilities (the parent company of JCP&L) halted construction "because of financial difficulties stemming from the accident at its Three Mile Island facility", as well as uncertainty over whether the NRC would grant a license or possibly institute other costly regulations. In addition, community fears and a construction accident that killed one worker helped end the plant's construction.

WOBM-FM (92.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station known as "92.7 WOBM", licensed to Toms River and serving Ocean County, New Jersey. It airs an adult contemporary radio format. The station is owned by Townsquare Media, as part of its Shore Group, along with WJLK (1160 AM), WJLK-FM (94.3), WCHR-FM (105.7) and WOBM (1310 AM). Shore Group studios are in Toms River, and WOBM-FM's transmitter is in Bayville, New Jersey. Its programming is also simulcast on WOBM, along with FM translator W244EE (96.7), in Asbury Park.

WJRZ-FM (100.1 MHz, "100.1 WJRZ") is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Manahawkin, New Jersey. The station is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group through licensee Beasley Media Group, LLC, and broadcasts a classic hits format. The station's studios are located on Beach Avenue in Stafford Township and its broadcast tower is located in Waretown, New Jersey at (39°47′54.0″N 74°12′9.0″W).

Waretown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located on the Jersey Shore within Ocean Township, in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 1,483, a decrease of 86 (5.5%) from the 1,589 recorded at the 2010 United States Census, which in turn had decreased by 13 (-0.8%) from the 1,582 counted at the 2000 census. Waretown is home to Albert Music Hall.

The Ocean Township School District is a community public school district that serves students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade from Ocean Township, in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States.As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, comprising two schools, had an enrollment of 510 students and 53.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 9.5:1.The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "CD", the sixth-highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.For seventh through twelfth grades, public school students attend the schools of the Southern Regional School District, which serves the five municipalities in the Long Beach Island Consolidated School District — Barnegat Light, Harvey Cedars, Long Beach Township, Ship Bottom and Surf City — along with students from Beach Haven and Stafford Township, together with the students from Ocean Township who attend as part of a sending/receiving relationship. Schools in the district (with 2018–19 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Southern Regional Middle School with 934 students in grades 7–8 and Southern Regional High School with 1,952 students in grades 9–12. Both schools are in the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township.

The Central Regional School District is a regional public school district in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, which serves students in seventh through twelfth grades from the municipalities of Berkeley Township, Island Heights, Ocean Gate, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park.As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised of two schools, had an enrollment of 2,414 students and 177.2 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.6:1.The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "B", the second-lowest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.

Ocean Township is a township located on the Jersey Shore in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 8,835, its largest ever decennial count and an increase of 503 (+6.0%) from the 2010 census count of 8,332, which in turn reflected an increase of 1,882 (+29.2%) from the 6,450 counted in the 2000 census.