By Charles Layton
I was gratified to watch some of our fellow Grovers pitching in on this website to solve some of the mysteries of 69 Webb Avenue.
I first wrote about the run-down condition of the abandoned house at that address on January 4, but quickly thereafter others took an interest and moved the story forward. Kathy Arlt tipped me off to the fact that the house was in foreclosure. Then Committeewoman Mary Beth Jahn suggested to me that the owner, Charles Jackson, might possibly be deceased.
After I wrote about that possibility (here) another reader, Carol L, did some online sleuthing and discovered that, indeed, Mr. Jackson was deceased. She tracked down his obituary in a newspaper archive.
This is what we need more of: Ocean Grovers pooling their efforts and initiative to root out the truth of things. (The cool journalistic term for this is crowdsourcing.)
So here is what I propose. Let’s see if we can all emulate Carol and Kathy and teach ourselves to be online detectives. I suggest we start by sharing some of our favorite Internet sources.
Carol pinned down the information about the late Charles Jackson from two sites: The Monmouth County Open Public Records Search System, and an aggregation of newspaper obituary archives at http://www.legacy.com. Kathy also used the Monmouth County site to discover that mortagees had foreclosed on Jackson’s house.
I would particularly invite all interested Grovers to get familiar with this site. The address is http://oprs.co.monmouth.nj.us/OPRS/index.aspx. (Or, just go there by clicking here.)
The site is kind of a pain to use until you get the hang of it. On the home page you click on “County Clerk,” which gives you a menu. Then click on “property records.” Fill in the municipality and the block and lot numbers of the property you’re researching. Also fill in the relevant time period and then click “Search.” At the next page click “View” and then “Get Image.” Now you’re done. When the document comes up, you can click on each page via the “pages” list at the bottom.
As I say, the site makes you jump through hoops, but it’s worth learning, because what you’ll find there includes settlement notices, mortgages, deeds, tax information, foreclosure information — all such stuff. You might start by calling up info on your own house. Once you’re at the site, be sure to bookmark it.
Another good place for online sleuthing is the Asbury Park Press’s “datauniverse” service, which you’ll find at http://www.app.com/datauniverse. (Click here.) It’s an extremely rich source of info, and if you aren’t careful you can kill hours just playing around, tapping into such categories as property sales or Monmouth County jail inmates or school employee salaries. Under “Government Overtime” I clicked through “Monmouth County” and found myself at a page where I could look up the salaries and overtime of county employees, one by one. (It felt a little like privacy invasion until I reminded myself that those people work for me.) Under the category “Sex Offenders” I found eight persons listed as currently residing in Ocean Grove. Four of them were shown as living in the same building. That was interesting.
If you click on “Town Crime Reports” on that site and then plug in the county Monmouth, and the town Neptune and “All years” you’ll get a breakdown of crime stats from 1996 through 2010. You’ll learn, for instance, that during that span of time Neptune’s overall crime rate has risen, the rate of violent crimes has fallen, and the number of Neptune police officers (84) is unusually low by recent historical standards. Unfortunately for us, the crime stats don’t break out Ocean Grove from the rest of Neptune, but I’ve been told that the county is working on a new database that may provide finer area breakdowns in the future. But even as it is, you can do searches on any municipality in New Jersey, which means you can compare and contrast.
There are several real estate sites that every Ocean Grove snooper should know. Trulia.com lists a great many homes for sale or rent, and you can subdivide your search by the type of dwelling: condo, single family, houseboat etc. Pruzack.com is another one, but not quite as useful in my opinion. Zillow.com is yet another. It occasionally has little factoids that you won’t find elsewhere.
I’m sure many of you know of other ways to ferret out information online. So don’t keep those to yourself; send them in as comments to this article. Let’s share our techniques and hone our sleuthing skills together. It can be fun, and, as our experience with 69 Webb has shown us, it can also be useful.
John Shade,
Thank you for your well spoken comment. You said almost exactly what I have been too chicken to say for a while. If this really is a close knit community, we had better start acting like one.
Pehaps we can all do an “upward flare”… starting at the first house near the ocean each house west will go a story higher in order to keep light and views, Naturally, we will get permits and then just build whatever we want and get variances and forgivesness, after the fact. Sorry, neighbors. I think I am more important than any of you and will build whatever I want.
I hope that Mr. Solebello’s gracious consideration works out for him and the owners. It would be a shame for the HPC and building office to take advantage of the situation to create trouble for a homeowner that only wants to improve their property. It may be a big house. Maybe there should be more of them in Ocean Grove to replace uneconomical and dilapidated properties with good new construction and higher ratables.
References keep coming up on this comment string to the especially large house that’s under construction at 65 Abbott. I called Mike Solebello of Sawbucks Contracting today (Monday) and here is what he told me:
The HPC, the Neptune zoning office and the building department are looking into the height of the front porch. The issue, it seems, was brought up by neighbors, and so, says Solebello, “We’ve elected to stop work at this point out of courtesy to everyone.” He said a tech review has been scheduled with members of the HPC on Tuesday. He does not expect to have a problem with zoning because, he said, the height of the building itself is “well within the zoning height requirement.” It was designed, he said, “as a two-and-a-half story building with a tower” and also a habitable attic.
He said changes were made to the porch height during the course of construction because of elevation changes in the rear of the property –“It slopes off toward the front.” He also told me, “It’s going to be a beautiful buidling. But,” he acknowledged, “it’s big.”
Be careful what you wish for: the house at 65 Abbott used to be a little unkempt blue hovel last year!
Progress — That “second group” of yours is certainly where the most difficulty lies. We’ve only gone after the first group on this website — the 24 McClintocks and Park View Inns. Those are no-brainers. Frankly, I’m not sure how to handle places like the one on your block. The problem is, if the second-group buildings are allowed to go unattended, they’ll end up in the first group. Obviously, we need to keep that from happening. But how?
While very run down houses with absentee owners are the first priority, there are a number of houses that are occupied but have been very neglected for an extended period — to the point where they are an eyesore and negatively impact neighbors’ valuations/ability to sell their homes. This second group of homes deserves some significant scrutiny too. There is one on my block and it just keeps getting worse each year.
The point seems to be lost again. The greater argument and discussion is not about yearly upkeep, nor should it be. It’s about obviously abandoned, unoccupied structures that have been vacant for a long time, several years in many cases. You don’t have to be a ‘snoop’ to see broken windows, rotting porches, overgrown foliage, etc., just stroll by these places. Unfortunately, a fire in Ocean Grove is a concern for all. As has been demonstrated, fire spreads rapidly because of how close the houses are to each other. The last two major fires started in one building and destroyed 6 or 7 around it while damaging several more. Putting aside aesthetics, it is and will be a COMMUNITY-wide safety issue first and foremost, not about nosey neighbors.
Thank you, John Shade. That was an extremely eloquent response with positive, practical solutions. My thoughts exactly and I support those efforts wholeheartedly. I have shown up with cookies and offered help on different occasions to different people. It has generally been well received. How about using Blogfinger for some positive action instead of negative redress?
Thank you MB…I appreciate the fact that you have addressed it. I’ve just been looking for a little guidance…just in case there is something that can be done. I would hate to dig up my property only to find out later that there was some other recourse.
L, I received your letter about the growth from your neighbor’s property. It isn’t being ignored; we have a number of residents experiencing the same issue in every neighborhood in town. Unfortunately, your issue is not a property-maintenance or code issue; it’s generally considered a civil, destruction-of-property issue where you would have to file suit against your neighbor to either have the judge issue an order to fix or, if you choose to do so, pay to have the work done and sue for reimbursement. Given the land lease arrangement in Ocean Grove that is unique from everywhere else in Neptune, I pulled your letter a little over a week ago as I was doing follow-ups and resent it to the Township attorney to see if the land lease had any effect on your situation. I can’t promise that it will, but I will let you know.
If you can see a problem from the street, such as broken windows, lack of paint, that’s not snooping. To be concerned about a house slipping into disrepair, that’s not un-Christian.
Houses fall into disrepair over years. Once they are in bad shape, it becomes hard to sell them. I am more than willing to help out neighbors and love the notion of a community effort to help out selected houses. The sad truth is that the economy is not going to be much different in the next 3 years or even longer. This is the new normal. Thus, using it as a rationale for not maintaining property is not a sustainable argument.
Thank you John Shade for your intelligent and kind commentary. I agree.
People keep posting the comment “move if you don’t like it here” or “move if you can’t maintain your property”…since when is it so easy to just pick up and move? My neighbor put his own blood, sweat and tears into renovating his house and it took him 2 1/2 years to sell it. He lost a ton of money and almost went bankrupt. I have another neighbor whose property growth is destroying MY property and there’s nothing I can do about it (In spite of writing to the township about it… only to have my letters IGNORED!). There’s my 2 cents for what it’s worth.
just seems so strange to me, is all– is “snooping” then to be seen as an activity a small society inevitably will participate in? Is this behavior included when you move into a neighborhood of a certain economic status, or is it a learned behavior borne from boredom and misplaced low-brow suspicion? It’s easy to understand people desiring a sense of safety or solidarity in their homes and communities, but there’s a definite moral limit… When does an intent of affirming safety and holding people accountable in the community congeal into backbiting slander, gossip, and divisive rumors?
Why not organize fundraisers and community service projects to help refurbish the facades and foundations of the houses you condemn as unkempt and hazardous? Why not reach out as a community to the occupants with a helping hand and offer relief in the form of benevolent action before turning to legal alternatives and advocating armchair sleuthing to remedy the problem of accountability at hand? Do you not realize that taking such an indirect route results in not only a longer period of time for your problem to be resolved but also adds trouble to the already troubled who own these ocean grove houses?
I am not advocating an ignorance of the problem houses, nor am I making a generalization that every problem house contains an owner that is suffering tough economic times or the wear of old age which is the cause of their house falling into disrepair.
I’m saying be human. There is no need to be a detective if you’re a concerned neighbor– you and maybe even a group of those you know can simply knock on the door and gauge the situation for yourself. Some occupants may ignore you, some houses may not have anyone in them at all. Some people may even answer the door and refuse your offers of help. Of course, some baked goods might help persuade people to be receptive to neighborly concern, but I digress…
You always capture moments of definitive O.G. beauty, Paul– your photography, partly from your own status as a member of the town, more often than not contains the essence of Ocean Grove’s collective pneuma and radiates the shimmering halcyon that is reflective of the Grove’s rich historic teleology. Those who have attempted to mar its’ beauty, through indirect lack of household upkeep or direct criminal action will never be able to affect that underlying beauty.
I know this is your blog and that the beliefs you express in your posts are valid, but I think you should test your potential for making a direct positive impact on those who read your work rather than breeding suspicion and advocating amateur forms of mass surveillance.
We’re not talking about snooping. We’re talking about holding people accountable for maintaining their property.
Nothing cementing your feet or tires to the ground to keep you in Ocean Grove, George – there’s plenty of other neighborhoods in Neptune from which you can choose to live. (Just be advised that the residents in those neighborhoods “snoop” just as much as Ocean Grove; they just don’t have a blog where they share their complaints. The Code and Construction phones ring off the hook every business day with neighbors from every part of town complaining about the condition of homes in their neighborhood.)
The Town That Snoops Together? Yeah, that’s where I would want to live. NOT!