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The Asbury Park Harold Daley VFW Post 1333 hosted the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission’s [MVC] formal announcement that disabled veterans and Purple Heart recipients will no longer pay municipal parking fees.

“What we are doing here today is the result of a change of a law,” MVC Chair and Chief Administrator Raymond Martinez said during the 10:30 a.m. Thursday announcement. “Laws don’t change easily, they change because you have concerned individuals who make their voices known to their elected representatives.”

The change in law stems from an Assembly bill first introduced back in 2014 by Rep. Wayne P. DeAngelo [D-14]. Today, vehicles that bear a disabled veterans or Purple Heart license plate, or MVC placards can part at any state municipal meter for a 24 hour period.

“This placard honors the service and sacrifices these individuals have made in service to our country,”  Martinez said. “Eligible veterans will be able to obtain this placard free of charge at any MVC agency or by mail.”

The placards may only be used in vehicles owned by disabled veterans and Purple Heart recipients and will need to be renewed every three years, officials said.

Martinez said members of the military branches can participate in the ongoing redesign of personalized military branch licenses plates.

In attendance were Asbury Park’s Deputy Police Chief David Kelso and Capt. Guy Thompson, State Dept of Military and Veterans Affairs Deputy Commissioner Raymond Zawicki, State Military Order of the Purple Heart Commander Joe Belardo and National Senior Vice Commander Neil Van Ess, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno’s Legislative Liaison Barbara Horl, DeAngelo, and Pastor Shilo Frampton of the Disabled American Veterans order.

Disabled veterans and Purple Heart recipients in attendance were issued the first set of placards.

“This means a lot,” Ramon Gonzalez said of Tinton Falls and member of the Disabled American Veterans Fort Monmouth Chapter. “It gives some of the recognition I didn’t get when I came back from Vietnam.

Post commander Frank Brogna said he is proud to join the MVC in honoring those who endured personal sacrifice in service of the nation.

“From the earliest days of America’s founding our great nation has been blessed with generation after generation of patriots willing to lay down their lives in defense of freedom and our way life,” Brogna, an Afghan War veteran, said. “The freedoms we enjoy today have been paid for at the expense of the lives of American service members.”

For more information on how to obtain the placards and license plates, call 609-292-6500 or visit state.nj.us/mvc.

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