Ready or not, Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit starting Monday. Make sure you receive vital information about the storm by following Patch. We'll be in touch with the local police departments, offices of emergency management and the school districts in order to bring you the latest details. Get Patched in: Get breaking news alerts in your e-mail Get updates on your Facebook newsfeed Bookmark Toms River Patch's Hurricane Sandy page And don't forget to tell your neighbors what you are seeing: Add photos to our community gallery Write a blog about what you see

Toms River Patch welcomes your letters to the editor. For letters addressing the November ballot, submit your letter no later than 11 p.m. Friday Nov. 2. Letters received after the deadline cannot be considered. To submit a letter to the editor, email your letter to tomsriver@patch.com.

Would you like to post events, announcements and blogs to Patch? Keep this article handy each time there is something you'd like to share with our community. To post events to the site for free: navigate to the Events page and click “Add an Event” on the right side of the page. Tell us all the details about your upcoming event, then click “post my event” at the bottom of the page. That puts the event directly on our calendar. The end result is the same as if a Patch staffer had posted it for you. The only difference is, when you post it, it goes up right away. If you send it to us, you might …

Need a job? Toms River Patch has hundreds of listings posted just waiting for you to click through and find the right one. Visit  http://tomsriver.patch.com/classifieds/jobs  to see all the listings, which are powered by the Indeed.com job search engine, which pulls from employers' sites as well as job listing sites. 1. Search by distance. The default is set to search from within 25 mile of Toms River's 08753 ZIP code. 2. Search for other ZIP codes using the Where box to isolate another area. As October begins, the search for jobs within 25 miles of 08753 has more than 6,000 results. Click …

Grocery Specials is a new section launched Monday that allows readers to browse local grocery coupons and weekly specials.  Similar to the weekly circulars found in print newspapers by each local retailer, the Grocery Special section has hundreds of retailers’ specials in one place.  This section uses a third-party (Grocery Server) to deliver local grocery data.  Some features: Find grocery specials in local grocery stores Add specials and coupons to a list Print coupons Print a list of specials Email a list of specials to yourself or another person To Access Grocery Specials: On the homepage…

No, you're not losing it! Patch looks different today. We did a quick visual nip-and-tuck to the homepage to make it even more user-friendly. And we've moved a couple pieces of furniture. For those keeping score: 1. We tweaked some words in our navigation bar to save space (e.g., "Traffic & Gas" is now "Commute") 2. We moved the weather icon next to the Patch branding so you can find it more quickly! 3. We moved, well, YOU closer to the top! (Our "shout stream" is now front and center to show all your comments off.)  4. And of course we prettified a few things. While the site might look a …

When Patch launched, editors and freelancers ventured to local businesses to collect information for our directory. Now, Patch Places is a resource where users can find descriptions, hours, accepted payment methods and much more for merchants around town. All users can add events taking place at local businesses, can rate the business on a scale of one to five stars and can offer a review. But owners of local businesses get extra bonuses when they claim a listing. Owners or managers should search for their business listing and select "claim your listing" in order to make updates to the page. …

Do you want to enhance your presence online this year and reach new customers for your local business? Well, Patch is here to help — and we can offer you a few perks for taking the time to connect with your community online. Every local business has a space on Patch. We've already done the legwork to create it for you. If you haven't seen it, we'd be happy to show it to you. If you claim it, you have more control over how your business is presented online. Do you have a Facebook page, a Twitter account or a Foursquare mayorship? If not, we can show you how to create them. If you do, we can …

The NETS are leaving New Jersey after this season to move to Brooklyn, but they want to thank their local fans with some special events. Next Wednesday, Feb. 15, when the NETS play the Memphis Grizzlies, will be Union, Ocean and Middlesex County Appreciation Night, and Patch is working with the Nets to offer our readers steep discounts on tickets. Tickets in the lower level that are normally $35 to $65 are available for only $15 each, and tickets in the Level 100 seating, normally $20-$25, are only $10. It's a great chance to take the whole family for an evening of basketball. Click here to …