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Posts Tagged ‘Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’

OG TidBits: Scooping Up Sand While Waiting for FEMA

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on January 28, 2013 | 2 Comments »

1. Rabies clinics:    Neptune City on March 9 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Public Works–W. Sylvania Ave.  (732 776 7224).

Also Neptune Township Public Works on May 4.  9 am-11 am. 2201 Heck Avenue.

2. Grovers can expect to see Neptune Township workers and equipment clearing sand from the streets and lawns in the coming days. The sand that was blown inland by the hurricane will be sifted and then returned to the beach. “I think we’ll see a concerted effort in the next week to take that next step in the cleanup,” Bascom said.

3. We have heard from Rip Bush of  Keer and Heyer in Pt.Pleasant Beach.  He says that FEMA will be remapping Ocean Grove in the future.  He says,”It’s coming our way.”

He suggests two links for those who are interested:

FEMA remapping

FEMA Maps

4.  Jan 30; From Liz:” Two fire calls to the Warrington this week. Monday and Tuesday night— both false alarms”

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After a Rocky Start, Ocean Grove Groups Come Together

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , , , on January 23, 2013 | 8 Comments »

CMA Director of Operations Bill Bailey shows photos of storm damage. Ralph delCampo (left" and Dale Whilden look on. Photos by Mary Walton

Camp Meeting Director of Operations Bill Bailey shows photos of storm damage. Ralph delCampo (left) and Dale Whilden look on. Photos by Mary Walton (Left click to see the photos enlarged)

By Charles Layton

A new spirit of good will and cooperation blossomed on Tuesday night, when leaders of the Camp Meeting Association and all of Ocean Grove’s major civic groups met to discuss storm recovery.

It falls to the Camp Meeting, as owner of the beach, to raise money and plan and execute the work of repairing the boardwalk and beach facilities.

However, others have a major stake, and up to now some of them had felt isolated, uninformed and frustrated. Merchants had complained because neighboring towns seemed to be moving ahead with rebuilding plans much faster than Ocean Grove. Other local groups said they wanted to help raise money for the beach and boardwalk, but their members hesitated for fear that donations for storm relief would be commingled with the Camp Meeting’s other funds and activities.

Camp Meeting officials organized Tuesday night’s meeting with those concerns fully in mind. “We’re all in the boat together and we all need to row in the same direction,” said Ralph delCampo, the Camp Meeting’s interim administrator. He and Camp Meeting president Dale Whilden pledged to keep everyone fully informed going forward. They also asked for everyone’s input, including their criticisms. But no criticisms were voiced on Tuesday night.

Those present included leaders of the Home Owners Association, the Historical Society, Ocean Grove United, the Fishing Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Ocean Grove Beautification Project.

In laying out their plans for this year’s fund-raising campaign, DelCampo and other Camp Meeting officials stressed again and again that funds for the boardwalk and beachfront will be “totally separated” from all other funds. (Contributors can write “Boardwalk & Beach Front” in the memo field of their checks to have the donations routed to that separate account.)

The Camp Meeting officials said the entire beach will be open by Memorial Day and that most of the boardwalk will be operational, as will the beach office, bathrooms and changing rooms. And they discussed engineering issues in considerable detail. Bill Bailey, the Camp Meeting’s director of operations, used aerial photos of the beachfront to explain how different types of dune structures, bulkheads and barriers had functioned during Hurricane Sandy, and which of those might best prevent damage in future storms.

At the end of the meeting, Rich Lepore of the Chamber of Commerce expressed optimism about the summer season. “We’re going to do everything we possibly can do to drive home the fact that Ocean Grove is open,” he said.

Gail Shaffer of the Historical Society suggested that all of the organizations present should state on their websites that the OG beach will be open this summer. Others talked about plans to help with fund raising. Connie Ogden of OG Beautification said “We intend to go full blast” in providing decorative plantings along the boardwalk and elsewhere. Luisa Paster of Ocean Grove United suggested sending news releases to The Coaster on a regular basis.

Camp Meeting development officer Karen Adams began the meeting with an explanation of this year’s fund-raising campaign. She said the Camp Meeting normally needs to raise about $1 million, but this year the need is much greater. The cost of fixing the boardwalk and beachfront is estimated at $3 million, she said. Assuming that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides 75 percent of that amount, the Camp Meeting would need to raise another $750,000. Thornley Chapel is also in need of $500,000 worth of renovation (not related to the hurricane), and $100,000 must be raised for repairs to the storm-damaged auditorium roof. Insurance will cover the rest of the auditorium costs.

Karen Adams (center) describes the fund-raising campaign. Listening are Carol Woidt (left) of OG Beautification and Mary Ellen Tellefsen of the Chamber of Commerce.

Karen Adams (center) describes the fund-raising campaign. Listening are Carol Woidt (left) of OG Beautification and Mary Ellen Tellefsen of the Chamber of Commerce.

Ordinarily, the Camp Meeting would simply put donations for all those projects into a single fund. However, Whilden said, “We fully realize that probably the majority of the community is primarily interested in the boardwalk,” and therefore “there will be no commingling of funds. They’re completely different funds.”

Whilden said the Camp Meeting has already raised $190,000.

Bailey led a technical discussion of beach barriers and dunes. He said the Camp Meeting believes the reason the portion of the boardwalk from the pavilion to Seaview Avenue held up so well was because the dunes along that stretch of beach were constructed on top of a rubble wall buried beneath the sand. This rubble wall had been installed following a 1953 nor’easter. It has performed so well that the Camp Meeting would like to use that same type of structure along the entire length of the beach. However, “ultimately, it’s going to be all about the money,” Bailey said, “and those rubble walls are expensive.”

The Camp Meeting also discovered that a sheet steel bulkhead in front of the boardwalk at the south end had provided good protection there. Engineers have been helping the Camp Meeting study these and other options for rebuilding.

Bailey said the reason Ocean Grove did not announce its rebuilding plans as quickly as other towns was that the Camp Meeting wanted to first determine which structures will best prevent damage in future storms. “We’ve got to get this right,” he said. “We’re investing a lot of money. We’ve got to study it.”

DelCampo said Ocean Grove needs to avoid what happened in Spring Lake, where the boardwalk was damaged by Hurricane Irene in 2011, the town rebuilt it immediately, and then it was destroyed again just one year later by Hurricane Sandy.

According to Bailey, here is what visitors to Ocean Grove can expect by Memorial Day:

  • The beach will be open in its entirety.
  • The south end boardwalk – from the beach office to Bradley Beach — will be restored.
  • From just north of the beach office to just north of McClintock Street the boardwalk will not be in place, but beach access points will be provided.
  • From the pavilion to the north end the boardwalk will be in place.

Still unanswered is the question of access to Asbury Park. As a temporary fix. there may just be an asphalt pathway.

Also, before summer, the Camp Meeting will send volunteer rescue divers out to retrieve submerged offshore debris.

The Camp Meeting officials said they still had no word as to whether FEMA will agree to provide any funds for restoring the boardwalk. Neither do they know when FEMA might announce that decision. For background on that, see this previous story.

Bailey uses aerial photos to illustrate the performance of a boardwalk bulkhead

Bailey points to an aerial photo showing how the beachfront looked before the storm

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UPDATE: Ocean Grove’s Uphill Struggle for FEMA Funds

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on January 16, 2013 | 13 Comments »

By Charles Layton and Mary Walton

Two and a half months after Hurricane Sandy, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association still hasn’t been told whether it is eligible to apply for FEMA funds for its boardwalk.

Until FEMA answers that basic question, the Camp Meeting cannot even submit an application for such funding.

And because time is of the essence, Camp Meeting administrator Ralph delCampo said Wednesday that the association will need to take out a loan for the repairs it must make in time for the summer beach season. If FEMA money does eventually come through, it could be used to repay that loan.

“As an organization we’re stretched financially,” he said in an interview.

In 2011, after Hurricane Irene damaged Ocean Grove’s fishing pier, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) ruled that the Camp Meeting, which owns both the pier and the boardwalk, was ineligible to apply for storm damage reimbursement.

Neptune Township CFO Michael Bascom, who has worked closely with the Camp Meeting on storm relief issues, said this week that he thinks FEMA will probably reverse its 2011 ruling. (Unlike the damage from Sandy, the 2011 damage was to an area of the pier not open to the general public.)

But even if FEMA does declare the Camp Meeting an eligible applicant now, the association will still face tougher-than-usual obstacles to having its application for funding approved. That’s because the rules are different for private, non-profit organizations than they are for municipalities. Ocean Grove is unique in having its boardwalk and beach owned by a private entity.

DelCampo said that the Camp Meeting’s plans to restore a large portion of the beach and boardwalk in time for Memorial Day could cost in the neighborhood of $1 million. That is in addition to other expenses, including a $100,000 insurance deductible the Camp Meeting must lay out for repairs to the damaged roof of the Great Auditorium. A temporary roof was quickly laid in place immediately after the storm, but now a permanent one of specially fabricated stainless steel is required. The Camp Meeting’s total damage costs – including work on the boardwalk, pier, beach and dunes – will come to between $3 million and $4 million, delCampo said. “That’s a very preliminary number.” The Camp Meeting’s entire annual budget is normally around $5 million.

DelCampo said the Camp Meeting is launching a fund-raising drive. He also said that the Camp Meeting will apply not only to FEMA but “to other agencies, any other governmental agencies.”

Bascom suggested in a separate interview that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development may have funding available for Sandy-related repairs. DelCampo said the Camp Meeting intends to apply to HUD. The association is working with a professional in the field of grant applications to federal agencies.

Bascom said the Camp Meeting should have an easier time qualifying for FEMA funding for the sand dunes than for the boardwalk. That’s because the sand dunes can be seen as a form of “hazard mitigation” – i.e., the dunes protect beachfront properties from storm surges.

The legal problem with funding for Ocean Grove’s boardwalk is that FEMA classifies the boardwalk as a recreational facility. And while, under FEMA’s rules, local governments can be reimbursed for damage to recreational facilities, private non-profits such as the Camp Meeting usually cannot.

Bascom, Township Business Administrator Vito Gadaleta and Camp Meeting representatives Bill Bailey and Jack Green met in Trenton last week with a representative of the governor’s office to discuss, among other things, this very obstacle, which other New Jersey beach towns do not face.

Camp Meeting and Township officials both argue that the Ocean Grove boardwalk serves much more than simply a recreational purpose. DelCampo said on Wednesday that the boardwalk acts as an economic engine for the entire town and provides interconnectivity between Ocean Grove and adjacent towns. It is unfair, he and others say, for FEMA to treat Ocean Grove’s boardwalk differently when it is functionally just the same as all the other ones.

DelCampo and Camp Meeting Director of Operations Bill Bailey, whom Blogfinger also interviewed on Wednesday, both expressed disappointment that some Ocean Grovers have criticized the Camp Meeting for being slow to act following the storm.

Bailey said Camp Meeting officials have worked diligently with technical consultants, engineers and other professionals to analyze the problems caused by the storm and to design solutions that would minimize damage from future storms.

 “We took the storm more seriously than most towns,” delCampo said, noting that the Camp Meeting built temporary dunes along the beach in the days and hours before the storm hit. “We were the most proactive of all the towns on the North Jersey shore.

“We’re committed to do everything we can,” he said, “but we have limitations.”

NOTE: For an account of the beachfront repairs the Camp Meeting has committed to make by Memorial Day, see our previous story here.

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OG’s Beach And Parts of Boardwalk To Be Ready By Summer — Comprehensive rebuilding plan is “on track,” Whilden Says

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on January 14, 2013 | 23 Comments »

The Ocean Grove beachfront, Monday morning. It should look different by summer. Photo by Mary Walton

The Ocean Grove beachfront, Monday morning. It should look different by summer. Photo by Mary Walton

By Charles Layton

In response to increasingly urgent questions about Ocean Grove’s beachfront, the Camp Meeting Association announced Monday that the beach and a large portion of the boardwalk will be open on schedule for the 2013 summer season.

In a press release, the association’s president, Dale C. Whilden, was quoted as saying, “We’re on track to implement a comprehensive beach and boardwalk restoration plan… Our beach will be open on Memorial Day weekend.”

While many towns along our section of the Jersey Shore — Asbury Park, Belmar, Avon and others — have been confidently announcing the commencement of boardwalk repairs, Ocean Grove has until now remained publicly silent about its plans.

Part of Ocean Grove’s reticence has been related to its peculiar ownership situation. While other towns’ beaches are owned by municipalities, Ocean Grove’s is probably the only one in New Jersey that is owned by a private non-profit entity, the Camp Meeting. This places Ocean Grove in a different category for FEMA funding. Indeed, as of this writing it is unclear whether the Camp Meeting will receive any FEMA funding at all for the Ocean Grove boardwalk.

Even so, the Camp Meeting’s Monday announcement said beachgoers can expect the following this summer:

  • At the south end, the boardwalk will be fully repaired and operational from Bradley Beach to Ocean Grove’s beachfront office/bathhouse complex at the foot of Embury Avenue.
  • From the office/bathhouse complex to the boardwalk pavilion, damaged boardwalk sections will be removed and temporary beach access points will be created.
  • Extending from the pavilion to Seaview Avenue, the boardwalk will be fully functional. This area sustained minimal hurricane damage because it was protected by dunes that were reinforced by an underground rubble wall.
  • At the North End, from Seaview to Asbury Park, the announcement said, “the potential for a temporary walkway is being evaluated.”

The Camp Meeting statement said that although it considers the rebuilding of the destroyed fishing pier to be important, “greater emphasis is being placed on re-establishing the boardwalk first.”

As other towns made visible progress in fund-raising and boardwalk repair preparations, many in the Ocean Grove community have been concerned that Ocean Grove was lagging behind, to the possible detriment of the town’s summer tourist economy.  Camp Meeting officials had said earlier than they did not expect to have the boardwalk repaired by the 2013 summer, although the beach would be open.

Last Thursday representatives from most of the major civic organizations in Ocean Grove held a meeting to discuss ways to foster more communication and cooperation between themselves and the Camp Meeting. That meeting, organized by the Home Owners Association and Ocean Grove United, included representatives from those two groups and also from the Chamber of Commerce, the Historical Society and the Fishing Club. Attendees at that meeting said the Camp Meeting came in for criticism, in part for its failure to explain to merchants and to the general public about its plans and its prospects for receiving FEMA funding.

Monday’s press release made some effort to answer those concerns. Since the storm, it said, the Camp Meeting “has actively engaged professionals, technical consultants and engineers with expertise in boardwalk and beach reconstruction to develop a three-phased restoration plan. The Camp Meeting has also drawn on a vast array of local expertise, including individuals involved in past rebuildings of the boardwalk, specialists in beachfront maintenance, and an authority on beach dunes who was instrumental in developing the original emplacements.”

The press release shed no new light on prospects for FEMA funding, without which the Camp Meeting presumably will face daunting financial questions.

The question of FEMA funding remains up in the air. Officials of Neptune Township and the Camp Meeting met with state officials in Trenton last week to try to make the case that the Camp Meeting should be declared eligible for FEMA funding for the boardwalk and dunes.

A major problem peculiar to Ocean Grove is the fact that the boardwalk’s owner is the Camp Meeting rather than a municipality. Under FEMA’s rules, as a private non-profit the Camp Meeting is not entitled to funding to restore “recreational” facilities, which is how FEMA classifies the boardwalk. Boardwalks owned by municipalities do not face this obstacle. Neptune and Camp Meeting officials have been trying to offer arguments that would get around this problem. Because the boardwalk is so important to the town’s business interests, “We feel it should fit under an economic category,” Neptune’s CFO, Michael Bascom, told Blogfinger on Monday.

“The cost to rebuild will be extensive,” the Camp Meeting press release said, “and the Camp Meeting will be counting on assistance from FEMA and from the community. Anyone wishing to make a donation to the designated fund to assist with boardwalk rebuilding efforts should make their check payable to OGCMA with ‘Boardwalk & Beach Front’ in the memo line.”

This was the first time the Camp Meeting had mentioned a special “designated fund” for beachfront repairs. Previously, the Camp Meeting had said contributions for storm repairs would go into its “Now and Forever” account, which is a fund for a wide variety of Camp Meeting activities, including religious activities. However, some Ocean Grove individuals and organizations had complained that they were not comfortable contributing to that fund, but would contribute to a fund especially designated for storm damage repairs. Leaders of both the Home Owners and Ocean Grove United had expressed that concern to the Camp Meeting.

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The Whildens Discover the Australian Ocean Grove

Posted in Blogfinger News, Feature article, tagged , , , on January 8, 2013 |

The Jersey Shore it ain't. Photo of the beach at Ocean Grove, Australia, taken by Carol and Dale Whilden

The beach in Ocean Grove, Australia, is way different from the Jersey Shore.

By Mary Walton

When she was 10, as Carol Whilden tells the story, she had an Australian pen pal whose description of the country and its wildlife, especially those cuddly koalas, left a lifelong impression. Visiting Australia became “a long-time dream.”

That dream was the inspiration for a trip to Australia last month for Carol and her husband, local dentist and Camp Meeting Association president Dale Whilden. Their son Jordan, 22, who was on a break from his studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, also went along. Their travels took them not merely to Australia but to Ocean Grove in the state of Victoria, a sister colony founded as a camp meeting in 1887 by the same folks who brought you Ocean Grove, N.J. two decades earlier. 

On December 12, the Whildens arrived in what turned out to be a modern town of 12,000 located about 60 miles from Melbourne on Australia’s southern coast.

It looked nothing like their home town. “They had modernized everything,” Dale Whilden said. “I was a little surprised that there was nothing architecturally or measurably left of the original founding of Ocean Grove, Victoria, that we could detect.”

Dale Whilden headed for the town bookstore in search of a local history. He struck out there but did slightly better at the library, where a helpful librarian produced a paperback containing minor references to the Australian Ocean Grove, along with a few documents. It became clear to Whilden that the Rev. William Osborn’s tent settlement “had just sort of petered out” not long after its founding. He thinks the failure of a camp meeting to take root could be explained by its distance, at the time, from populated areas. Today, the Australian town’s only church is the Uniting Church, a union of three faiths, just one of which is Methodist.

Carol Whilden with her tee shirt from "down under." Photo by Mary Walton

Carol Whilden back home with her tee shirt from “down under.” Photo by Mary Walton

Meanwhile, Carol Whilden had gone in search of souvenirs. She hoped to find a tee shirt as a gift for a friend, but she was apparently out of luck. There seemed to be nothing in the shops. “I couldn’t find any tourist tchotchkes — no keys, no mugs.” Finally a clerk in the Ocean Grove Pharmacy steered her to the Surf Shop. (Yes, they have a Surf Shop, just as we did until it moved to the West Grove mall.) And there a shipment of tee shirts had arrived only two days earlier. They came in two colors, black and white, and had no fancy graphics, merely an all-purpose declaration that “Life’s Better in Ocean Grove.”

She bought a white one.

The Whildens got another surprise when they stopped in at the local newspaper, the bi-weekly Ocean Grove Voice. There they learned that the paper’s editor, Alan Barber, was at that very moment in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. He was interviewing and being interviewed by Blogfinger, among others. (You can read that story here.)

Now it was time to check out the town’s beach, a half mile distant. No boardwalk, no development and — could it really be? — no beach fees.

“We were surprised that there was no charge in the summer to go to the beautiful beach,” Dale Whilden said. As they strode onto the sand through a wooded area, they were attacked by biting sand flies. Unlike the New Jersey town’s founding ministers, who liked Ocean Grove for its absence of mosquitoes, the Australian contingent “apparently didn’t take into consideration biting insects,” Whilden concluded. Perhaps the presence of aggressive flies explained why the beach was notably empty, even though it was the start of the summer season.

Before leaving the area for the remainder of a two-week vacation that would include a day exploring the Great Barrier Reef and a side trip to New Zealand, Carol Whilden inquired at a visitors center about koalas. Turns out there was a stand of eucalyptus trees right down the road.

Koalas love eucalyptus leaves. An adult eats more than a pound a day.

“They were up in the trees,” Carol said. Adults and baby koalas, than which there is nothing much cuter. “Scores of them. I got a little crazy taking pictures.”

We asked her to send us one. Here it is.

The two OGs in contrast: They have koalas in eucalyptus trees. We don’t.

They have a pharmacy, we don't. Photo by the Whildens

We have historic architecture. They don’t.

The have wooded hills, we don't. Photos by the Whildens

They have beautiful wooded hills and bays. We don’t. Photos by the Whildens

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New Doubts About Ocean Grove Boardwalk Repairs

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on January 2, 2013 | 10 Comments »

By Charles Layton

An impasse in the U.S. House has cast new doubts on Ocean Grove’s prospects for federal funding of boardwalk and beach repairs.

We reported previously (here and here) on the uncertainties the Camp Meeting Association already faced in qualifying for FEMA disaster funds.

Those uncertainties increased on Tuesday evening when the House of Representatives balked at approving a $60.4 billion Hurricane Sandy relief bill that had already passed the Senate. The part of that bill that the House seemed reluctant to pass includes projects under the heading of hazard mitigation funding. As it happens, Ocean Grove’s boardwalk and dunes may well come under that heading, depending on how FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) interprets its eligibility rules.

Michael Bascom, Neptune Township’s chief financial officer, said on Wednesday that he still felt confident FEMA would approve the Camp Meeting’s application for funding to rebuild the damaged boardwalk and dunes. But he acknowledged that the current impasse in Congress is a matter of concern. For Congress to deny the hazard mitigation funding “would be precedent-setting,” he said. “I just can’t imagine they would do that to the Northeast part of the country that pays the highest taxes.”

This area’s Congressman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), complained on Tuesday that in 2005 Congress appropriated $62 billion for Hurricane Katrina victims “in a mere two weeks, and we are now past two months and still no Sandy relief bill.”

The fight in Congress does not appear to affect Neptune Township’s $5.1 million application to FEMA, which is unrelated to the Camp Meeting’s application. That money would reimburse the Township for some of its expenses in cleaning up after the storm, not for projects to prevent damage from future storms.

However, the Camp Meeting, which owns Ocean Grove’s beach including all beach facilities, faces an unusual problem in that it is a private non-profit entity rather than a governmental body. Private non-profits face a more exacting standard in qualifying for FEMA disaster relief.

According to Bascom, who has consulted with the Camp Meeting on its FEMA application, the main arguments being made in the FEMA application with regard to Ocean Grove’s beach area are twofold. For openers, the Camp Meeting is seeking recognition as a quasi-governmental body whose beach facilities are accessible to the public. This argument succeeded following the 1992 northeaster. At that time, FEMA reimbursed the Camp Meeting for damage to its pier out to the gate, which was the portion that was open to the general public. However, FEMA’s rules were changed following that storm, and now, according to statements from FEMA officials recently published on this blog, private non-profits no longer qualify for damage relief for recreational facilities such as, presumably, a pier or boardwalk.

The Camp Meeting’s second major argument is that its boardwalk and dunes should be eligible for funding because they are hazard mitigation projects – projects which protect the community from future floods and storms.

Even if the Camp Meeting does get FEMA funding, it would only be at a rate of 75 cents on the dollar.

On Tuesday, leaders in the U.S. House announced a plan to divide the Senate’s Sandy relief bill into two bills – a bill providing $27 billion in immediate relief to New Jersey, New York and other affected states, and a separate bill, to be voted on later, that would include $33 billion to cover other costs, including projects to protect against future storms.

The House, at that time, seemed very likely to pass the $27 billion part. However, the second part, dealing with the mitigation projects, was in doubt. Around midnight, to everyone’s surprise, the House leadership postponed votes on both parts. This appears to mean that the issue of storm relief legislation will fall to the next Congress, which is scheduled to be installed on Thursday and will then have to start the legislative process all over again on storm relief.

Congressman Smith was quoted as saying the delay in bringing up the bill would give him and other New Jersey and New York lawmakers more time to lobby their colleagues.

One fear was that if the House passes the $27 billion portion separately, it would lessen the chances for passage of the second portion, dealing with hazard mitigation, which is more unpopular with many Republican members.

In a floor speech on Tuesday, Smith told the House that the Senate’s entire $60 billion package was “critical” to people of his 4th congressional district. Which is us.

But here is a final caveat: Even if the House eventually does pass the Senate bill intact, that doesn’t mean FEMA will automatically approve the Camp Meeting’s application for funding. “It’s a complicated process,” Bascom noted.

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FEMA Comments Concerning Ocean Grove’s Boardwalk Damage — Is the Camp Meeting Eligible for Federal Relief?

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , , on December 27, 2012 | 19 Comments »

Ocean Grove, NJ. Dec. 9, 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo

Ocean Grove, NJ. Dec. 9, 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo. Left click to enlarge

EDITOR’S NOTE: Our December 23rd story on whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse Ocean Grove for repairs to our storm-damaged boardwalk raised as many questions as it answered.

Many Grovers are wondering why disaster relief for our boardwalk is in doubt while relief for damaged boardwalks in neighboring towns is not. The answer is that our boardwalk is owned not by a local government but by the Camp Meeting Association, a private, non-profit organization.

A FEMA official assigned to Monmouth County hurricane relief has been following our discussion of this issue. Today, she weighs in with an explanation of some of the main considerations on which FEMA’s decision will rest. Although she makes no prediction as to which way that decision will go, she frames the issue in some detail. We present her analysis here.

-0-

By Robin E. Smith, FEMA Media Relations

Public Assistance grants from FEMA may be given to state, local and tribal governments, as well as to certain qualifying private non-profit organizations, to cover 75 percent of the cost of disaster repairs.

The criteria for approving the grants, set by the Stafford Act, differ for governmental entities and private non-profits.

State, tribe or local governments may apply for disaster-related damages to public facilities they own that provide flood control, navigation, irrigation, reclamation, public power, sewage treatment and collection, water supply and distribution, watershed development, or an airport facility. They may also apply for disaster-related damages to non-federally funded streets, roads or highways, and any other public building, structure, park or system, including those used for educational, recreational, or cultural purposes, that is owned by a state, tribe or local government.

In general, a private non-profit facility may qualify for FEMA Public Assistance grants if it provides educational, utility, irrigation, emergency, medical, rehabilitational, or custodial care resources to the community.

In certain cases, private non-profit organizations that provide essential, non-recreational services of a governmental nature to the general public may also be eligible. Examples include some museums, zoos, performing arts facilities, libraries, homeless shelters, senior citizen centers, and similarly purposed facilities.

For a form that helps determine the eligibility of private non-profits for FEMA Public Assistance grants, see http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2726. Additional information about FEMA Public Assistance grants for non-profit cultural institutions may be found at https://www.heritagepreservation.org/federal/index.html.

Ed. note: Of particular interest to Ocean Grovers is this link.

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Camp Meeting Association Seeking Funds to Rebuild — – Cost Could Be $3 Million. FEMA Money a Possibility.

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , , on December 4, 2012 | 11 Comments »

As planks are removed from the damaged boardwalk, they are saved in piles for possible reuse. Photo by Mary Walton

As planks are removed from the damaged boardwalk, they are being saved and evaluated for possible reuse. Photo by Mary Walton

By Mary Walton

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association estimates that it will cost roughly $3 million to restore the boardwalk and pier damaged by Hurricane Sandy, interim administrator Ralph delCampo said Tuesday.

The cost for the pier alone is estimated at $500,000 to $750,000. In addition, the insurance policy which covers the damaged roof of the Great Auditorium, now under repair, has a $100,000 deductible.

DelCampo emphasized that the estimates are preliminary, given many questions about how to proceed. “We want to enhance the kind of construction,” he said. “We do not simply want to replace the boardwalk. What did we learn from other towns?”

One thing they learned is not to follow the example of Spring Lake, he said. After last year’s Hurricane Irene demolished the boardwalk there, the town rebuilt it in nearly identical fashion, only to lose it to Sandy.

In fact, planks in the heavily damaged section of the Ocean Grove boardwalk between the south side of the pavilion and the beach office were recently replaced at a cost approaching $300,000. “All of that money just went to the ocean,” delCampo said. That section, known as the Middle Beach, now must be completely rebuilt.

In probing why the pavilion itself and the boardwalk north of Seaview Avenue survived almost intact, initial credit went to the dunes. No one is discounting their importance, but, in addition, the Camp Meeting discovered that a hidden bulwark of massive boulders and rubble lies beneath them. “We believe that’s what saved the boardwalk and dunes,” delCampo said.

Dale Whilden, president of the board of trustees, who joined delCampo in a conference call with Blogfinger, said the boulder wall was built in 1953 following a major storm. Post Sandy, he discovered drawings and documentation in his files. “I had forgotten,” he said. “A couple of trustees remembered it vaguely.”

Under discussion now is extending that bulwark south in tandem with new dunes. DelCampo said the Camp Meeting is working with consulting engineer Peter Avakian and with local contractors in designing a plan. At present, the Middle Beach boardwalk is being systematically dismantled and inspected for structural integrity, a process that will take about three months. “We will remove joists and planks and even some of the pilings and save them to be reused,” delCampo said.

At the same time, he said. the Camp Meeting has hired a consultant “to help us work through applications.” Topping the list of potential funders is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA will pay 75 percent of the cost of approved projects and up to 100 percent under certain circumstances. Gov. Christie has asked for the higher amount.

The Camp Meeting is also seeking private contributions from people in the community. delCampo said he was intrigued by Belmar’s “Buy a Board” campaign, which allows contributors to pay from $25 to $5,000 for individual planks, with their name and board level displayed at beach entrances.

The topic of private donations came up at meetings the Camp Meeting held last week with representatives of the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association and with Ocean Grove United. Both groups praised the meetings as positive but expressed reservations about a glossy fund-raising flyer titled “Let’s Rebuild” mailed to Ocean Grovers in late November. It stipulated that checks should be made payable to OGCMA “with ‘Now & Forever’ in the memo line.”

Home Owners president Ann Horan said her understanding is that the Camp Meeting’s “Now & Forever” fund is money that “they could take and use it for whatever they want. We think they should make it more specific.”

OGU raised a similer objection. The organization has a history of friction with the Camp Meeting, most recently over the speaking engagement of actor Kirk Cameron last summer for a Sunday worship service after Cameron had made anti-gay remarks in a television interview. Last week’s meeting between OGU and the Camp Meeting fulfilled a Camp Meeting pledge to improve communication between the two groups.

The flyer was a major topic at the meeting. “People are not comfortable giving to a general fund,” said OGU co-chair Harriet Bernstein. “They would certainly be willing to give to an earmarked fund with some accountability.” She and co-chair Luisa Paster told the Camp Meeting officials, “Everyone wants to help, but they want it dedicated to the replenishment of the beach and the boardwalk.”

Bernstein and Paster suggested that the Camp Meeting consider holding a fundraiser and also forming a coalition of community organizations to drum up financial support for rebuilding.

The Camp Meeting also met with board members of the Ocean Grove Chamber of Commerce, but the “Now & Forever” issue did not come up at that meeting, said Chamber president Rich Lepore, owner of Smuggler’s Cove on Main Avenue. “I’ve heard it more from customers,” he said. “They want to give but they don’t quite know how.”

Whilden explained that the press of time was why people were asked to donate to a general fund rather than one earmarked for rebuilding. At the time the fund-raising flyer was sent out, he said, “We were planning an immediate response. We didn’t have a strong idea of where the money ought to go. We wanted flexibility to put donated funds where they needed to be.” He said that if donors specify a preference in the “For” line of their checks, such as “boardwalk” or “pier,” or specify the intended use in a letter, the Camp Meeting is legally obligated to use the money for that purpose.

Meanwhile, delCampo said, the Camp Meeting development committee is meeting Thursday and will be coming up with an alternative “for those who don’t want to give more broadly.” In addition to donations for beachfront damage, he added a plea for funds to help pay for the auditorium repair. “We cannot forget the auditorium. It is a central focus of the community as well,” he said.

 

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Letter to the Editor

Posted in Letter to the editor, tagged , , on November 6, 2012 |

TO THE EDITOR:

On behalf of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association,  this is a big THANK YOU to the estimated 700 volunteers who participated in last Saturday’s beach front clean up event!

Families and individuals of all ages from Ocean Grove and throughout the shore area removed tons of debris, retrieved scores of memorial benches and urns buried in the sand, and helped many of the people who were affected by the flooding. The accomplishments exceeded all our expectations, and the day was an amazing and beautiful example of a community working together.

DR. DALE C. WHILDEN                                                                                                                                                                                                                         President, Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association                                                                                                                                                                      Ocean Grove, New Jersey, November 6, 2012

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Camp Meeting Considering Whether to Appeal

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on October 26, 2012 | 4 Comments »

By Charles Layton

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association said Friday it has not yet decided whether to appeal this week’s decision that it unlawfully discriminated against a lesbian couple in 2007.

The Camp Meeting issued a brief statement, saying only that it “has received the decision of the director of the Division on Civil Rights. The board will be scheduling a meeting to review the decision and consider its options.”

The Division on Civil Rights, a state agency, issued a ruling on Tuesday in favor of Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster, who had complained of discrimination after the Camp Meeting refused to allow them to hold their civil union ceremony at the boardwalk pavilion, which the Camp Meeting owns.

The Camp Meeting has 45 days from the date of that decision either to appeal it to the Appellate Division of Superior Court or to let the decision stand unchallenged.

The Division decided in favor of Bernstein and Paster on grounds that the pavilion was a public accommodation under the law. However, it assessed no penalties against the Camp Meeting, nor had the couple asked for any.

For background, read our previous story by clicking here.

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Boardwalk Pavilion Case Closed. New Jersey Civil Rights Division Issues Its Final Decision

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on October 24, 2012 | 7 Comments »

By Charles Layton

The state’s Division on Civil Rights issued its final conclusion Tuesday in the Ocean Grove boardwalk pavilion case.

As had been expected, the agency’s director, Craig Sashihara, accepted without modification a January ruling by a state administrative law judge that the Camp Meeting Association discriminated unlawfully in denying an Ocean Grove couple permission for a same-sex civil ceremony at the pavilion.

Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster. Photo by Paul Goldfinger

The case of Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster attracted national attention over the conflict it presented between gay civil rights and religious beliefs espoused by the Camp Meeting. It can also be viewed as a socially transforming event in the recent history of Ocean Grove.

The issue awakened a sense of unity and activism on the part of what had been a sizable but until then rather quiescent local gay community. It sparked heated debate among members of the Home Owners Association. It brought into being Ocean Grove United, a local civil rights group. It is the reason one sees blue and yellow equality banners on numerous houses around town.

However, it never became a landmark Constitutional case, although at one point the Camp Meeting attempted, unsuccessfully, to take the matter into federal court. Instead, the issue remained within the domain of the state Division on Civil Rights after Bernstein and Paster filed a complaint with that agency in 2007.

The Camp Meeting, which owns the boardwalk and all its accoutrements, had a history of renting out the open-air, wood-framed pavilion for community events, including weddings. But when Bernstein and Paster applied for permission to hold their civil ceremony there in 2007, the Camp Meeting refused on religious grounds.

The case went from the Civil Rights Division to an administrative law judge, who concluded that the Camp Meeting had violated the state’s law against discrimination. The Civil Rights Division could then have adopted, modified or rejected that decision, but on Tuesday it upheld it.

Sashihara, in his opinion, wrote that the boardwalk pavilion was a public accommodation because the public had been invited to use it and the pavilion received direct tax support from the government — a tax exemption under the state’s Green Acres program. A condition of the tax exemption was that the property be open for public use by all “on an equal basis.” Sashihara’s reasoning echoed the earlier findings of the administrative law judge.

“We are thrilled,” Bernstein said. “They have lost on every level.”

The decision includes no award of damages to the plaintiffs, nor did Bernstein and Paster request any. In fact, as applied to them personally, the case is moot. Six months after filing their complaint, they conducted their civil ceremony on the fishing pier.

Tuesday’s decision does indeed bring this long, highly-emotional case to a close so far as the Civil Rights Division is concerned. However, under the law, the Camp Meeting could still choose to take an appeal to the state Superior Court, Appellate Division. Court rules require that such an appeal must be filed within 45 days from the date of the decision.

The Camp Meeting had no immediate comment.

UPDATE: The Camp Meeting issued a statement on Friday, October 26, saying its board of trustees would schedule a meeting to decide whether to appeal. For that, go here.

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EDITORIAL: Scale Back the North End Redevelopment

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on October 12, 2012 | 39 Comments »

Site of the North End project, looking north toward Asbury. Photo by Paul Goldfinger

By Charles Layton and Paul Goldfinger

We recently reported that the Camp Meeting Association hopes to conclude a redevelopment agreement with Neptune Township soon and then, in 2013, to break ground on its North End hotel and condominium project. Before that happens, we hope the Township officials and the citizens of Ocean Grove will give this project a sober, fresh look.

The area in question is the vacant space next to the boardwalk between Spray Avenue and Wesley Lake. The plan, as presently conceived, would allow for a five-story hotel with approximately 80 rooms, plus a condominium complex of more than 70 units, plus a few single-family homes.

If this is built, it will be the most massive construction project in Ocean Grove’s modern history. Its impact on all of us will be substantial, and that impact will begin at the opening gun, with the start of construction.

Try to visualize this. Ocean Grovers are already experiencing two much more modest construction projects — the replacement of the burned-out homes and hotel on Surf and Atlantic Avenues, and the drainage work on Broadway. Both those projects have brought us inconvenience, but they are trifling compared to what the North End will bring.

The North End project will likely disrupt just about all of Ocean Grove. It will mar our landscape with piles of construction materials, heavy equipment, mounds of excavated dirt, trash, traffic congestion and noise – everything that a construction site of that magnitude implies. These disturbances could persist for a very long time. And after all that grief, what will we have to show? Scores of new condominiums which Ocean Grove doesn’t need and which most Ocean Grovers almost certainly won’t like. And that’s before we even consider the impact on parking.

When this plan was hatched about five years ago, the land in question was zoned for single-family homes. The Neptune Township Master Plan explicitly prohibited condos there. The landowner – the Camp Meeting Association — got around that by having the area declared “in need of redevelopment,” a legal designation typically used to rescue blighted areas, slum properties and the like.

Although that designation solved the Camp Meeting’s zoning problem, the trade-off was that it gave the Neptune Township Committee the authority to guide the project, deciding such matters as its size, density, number of housing units, number of hotel rooms, amount of required off-street parking and so forth.

The Township Committee was originally friendly toward most everything the developers wanted to do. When Randy Bishop first became mayor in 2008, he succeeded in reducing the size of what had been proposed. However, Bishop was in a relatively weak position at that time, because some on the Township Committee seemed inclined to allow a truly massive development. On the night the Committee finally approved Bishop’s compromise plan, Bishop said he personally didn’t much like it but that he had been forced “to look for the middle ground.” In other words, it was the best deal he thought he could get.

That was then. Now, the Township Committee’s composition has changed. So, perhaps, has the mood of this community. (At a Home Owners meeting in June, Committeewoman Mary Beth Jahn got a rise from the audience when she spoke of a radical scaling back, including the total elimination of all the proposed condos.) It appears to us that three of the five current Committee members should be willing now to further reduce the size of this project. Those three would be Bishop, Jahn and Eric Houghtaling. As a majority, they have the power.

Leaders of the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association also appear to be of a mind to fight for a better deal. Last year the Home Owners’ standing committee on the North End made a set of very thoughtful suggestions, which the organization’s membership voted to approve.

One suggestion was that the Township should require that the hotel be built first, then the single-family homes, and then, if condos are to be built, they should come last. One fear is that the developer might build the condos first and then decide that, after all, the hotel isn’t feasible. Another fear is that if a large hotel is built, and if it then begins to lose money, the Camp Meeting might be impelled to convert it into yet more condos.

Another proposal by the Home Owners is that the condos should be built in blocks, and that each block of condos should be 75 percent sold before the next block could be started. This, it is argued, would help insure that we don’t end up with empty, partially-built structures, as has happened in Asbury Park.

The Home Owners’ position paper contains quite a few such ideas, intended to reduce adverse impacts on the town and avoid a potentially disastrous outcome. We suggest that everyone read this document.

Before the North End project can proceed, the developers and the Township Committee must negotiate a contract spelling out the details in considerable specificity. During these negotiations, everything is subject to reconsideration. Although the negotiations themselves will be conducted behind closed doors, their product will have to be made public and enacted into law before work can begin. So, eventually, there must be public input. The Home Owners position paper also suggests ways to make things more transparent on an on-going basis, such as having the Township publish on its website regular updates including the text of all reports on environmental impact, traffic impact, water table tests and the like.

We urge the people of Ocean Grove who care about preserving the charm, character and livability of this community to start paying attention to this process now. Attend the monthly Home Owners meetings and ask questions. Keep in touch with your Township Committee members. Be curious.

As Grovers come to understand the implications of this project, we hope they will push with all their might for a better – which is to say, much less massive – redevelopment plan.

NOTE: For an outline of basic facts about the North End plan, go here.  And also here.   To read the Home Owners’ position paper on the North End, go here.

The entire North End Redevelopment Plan is available on the Township’s website, but it is quite hard to find. Go here, then scroll way, way down and click on “Redevelopment Plan-OG North End.”

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