Crash on Agress Rd. takes life of local man
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

MILLSTONE - A township resident who is believed to have suffered a heart attack while driving on Agress Road on the afternoon of Oct. 20 was pronounced dead later that same day.

Michael Gatto, 50, of the Perrineville section of town, was driving his Ford F250 pickup northbound on Agress Road when he apparently suffered from cardiac arrest, which caused him to swerve and crash into a fence located on the property of 8 Agress Road, according to the New Jersey State Police.

According to police, weather conditions were rainy and the road was wet at the time of the single-vehicle accident.

The Millstone Township First Aid Squad arrived at the scene of the accident and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Gatto, according to police.

The first aid squad transported Gatto to CentraState Medical Center in Freehold Township, where he was pronounced dead at 12:19 p.m., according to police.

The state police notified the Monmouth County Medical Examiner's and Prosecutor's offices about the accident, according to officials. However, no autopsy will be performed, police said.

Gatto was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and had lived in Marlboro before moving to Perrineville 11 years ago. He had been married to his wife, Georgette, for 24 years. The couple has four children, Domenic, Maria, Phillip and Gabrielle.

Gatto was a self-employed entrepreneur who was part of Manalapan Retail Realty Partners, a single-purpose organization formed by Gatto, Richard J. Brunelli, of Holmdel, and Phillip Rizzuti, of Colts Neck, to create The Village at Manalapan, a 135-acre mixed-use commercial center at the intersection of Route 33 and Millhurst Road on the south side of Manalapan.

The $90 million project is expected to include a downtown center with a Main Street area, a community shopping area, an entertainment area with a restaurant row and a number of public places, with areas of open space, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, tennis courts and possibly a tennis facility.

A funeral liturgy for Gatto was offered at 10 a.m. on Oct. 24 at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Perrineville, where Gatto was a communicant. Entombment followed at St. Gabriel's Mausoleum, Marlboro.