OCEAN COUNTY, NJ - Ocean County officials announced that 15 employees will no longer be granted use of take-home vehicles. That leaves 302 county employees with take-home privileges, according to Asbury Park Press. County officials continue to insist that vehicles assigned for 24-hour use — each fully fueled, insured, and maintained — are needed to maintain the county's level of service. The county's criterion for take-home vehicles — off-hours service to the more than 550,000 resi-dents of the state's second-largest county in area — is applied to too many employees, reported the Asbury Park Press. Ocean should use the more specific standard for the privilege developed in Monmouth County after the Press exposed similar abuses there: those involved in public health and welfare, the Press report stated. County Administrator Alan W. Avery said that most of the 15 who lost their county vehicles were taking them home only now and then. But others who meet with citizens' groups off-hours or make presentations at evening municipal meetings get to keep their county vehicles. Avery also said that by assigning take-home vehicles to members of the construction inspection department, the county provides better service and saves time by having them go straight from home rather than from their office. Avery said the cost savings of removing the 15 vehicles will be “minimal” because the cost of the take-homes was minimal.