Blogfinger

Candidates meeting of the OGHOA on October 27, 2012. PG photo

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor

In a recent letter, President Ann Horan of the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association encouraged nonmembers to join.  She pointed out  that the group has become very active in a number of important areas including derelict housing, emergency management, North End redevelopment and Sandy recovery.  The dues are only $10.00 per year. You can go to the web site for more information:  OGHOA web link

The OGHOA has been  revitalized by a number of new officers and members.  Pres. Horan and her activist team have formed committees to stay on top of important issues.  The organization has begun  to flex its muscles in town, such as their submission of a North End proposal as seen through the eyes of homeowners.  The OGHOA has potential clout by virtue of its large membership.  It has been difficult to get the exact numbers, but each home gets one vote, even though there may be more than one member in a home.  A conservative estimate is that they have over 500 members at this time.  The exact count is unclear because they  sometimes count the members who are not up-to-date on dues.

But regardless of the precise count, they could have even more influence if they were to  increase the membership.  Ideally every homeowner should belong to this advocacy group, and that could mean a membership of well over 1,000. Don’t forget how powerful they were in the ’80’s and ’90’s when they had their largest historic membership and when their political reach extended to Trenton.  You can read about that era in the Blogfinger timeline. *

The HOA meets on the 4th Saturday of each month in the Community Room.  They get about 60 Grovers at their meetings which are open to the public, but they will have to  change the venue if they want to get better attendance.  At the meetings, the policy has been to have a  guest speaker go on first,  leaving the business for the end.  It is the business component that tends to produce discussion about issues that concern the members, and sometimes people walk out just as those  debates begin.  Maybe they should skip the opening act and get on to the main course, or just reverse the order.

The HOA has a new web site which is still a work in progress in terms of content.   The President’s report, which was recently issued, is still not posted on their site. Because the members who come to meetings are relatively few, the group needs to work harder at disseminating their information including the workings of their board , which used to behave like a secret society.   There is an email list which you can join at their web site.

It seems clear that we are going to hear a great deal of constructive outrage and productive ideas coming out of the “new and improved” OGHOA v. 2.0.  That is good news for the Grove.

* NOTE: This excerpt from the BF Historic Timeline focuses on the part of our history where the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association, on steroids, made things happen to save the town of Ocean Grove:    timeline link

“By the 1980’s, the town is characterized by an overall “decrepitude,” including deterioration of buildings, declining tourism, crime, and a growing poor elderly population. (2)  Deinstitutionalized mental patients are housed in empty old hotels and rooming houses in Ocean Grove. The town becomes a “psychiatric ghetto” (NY Times, October 1988), and, by the 1980’s, 10% of the town’s population are mental cases who are not receiving appropriate services and are sometimes abused by landlords. The prognosis for Ocean Grove is dire.

“During this period, the Ocean Grove Homeowner’s Association (OGHOA) develops as a political and activist force that successfully begins the process of converting the town from decay to renaissance. (2f)

“1990’s:  OGHOA, led by Mr. Herb Herbst, Fran Paladino and others, fight for fair treatment in the allotment of the mentally ill around the state. The process is complex and difficult, but the numbers of “deinstitutionalized” in OG drops considerably.  The group also saw to the closing of many substandard boarding and rooming houses. The HOA presents Neptune with a “master plan” to protect the historic nature of OG and to rezone for the promotion of single family houses. OGHOA promotes secular tourism while working with CMA to increase religious tourism.  New people come into town to buy homes and invest in businesses.”

PAUL McCARTNEY: