Great Auditorium sign before Sandy hit Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Today, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association received word from Congressman Chris Smith’s office that the CMA has been awarded a $2,377,329.00 grant by FEMA toward the reconstruction of our boardwalk. It appears that these funds are primarily for the Phase 1 project involving the Middle Beach which stretches from the beach office by Embury, north to the Boardwalk Pavilion.
Officials of the CMA will meet with FEMA next week to discuss the exact parameters of this grant.
Dale Whilden, President of the CMA, said tonight that this announcement represents Congressional approval of the funding and that it is one of a number of final steps that have to be taken in this process.
Dr. Whilden said, in a statement tonight, that “we are grateful for the ongoing assistance and advocacy of Congressman Chris Smith, Governor Chris Christie, Mark Ferzan (Exec. Director of the Governor’s Office of Recovery and Rebuilding,) Ocean Grove’s state legislators State Sen. Jennifer Beck, Assemblywomen Caroline Casagrande and Mary Pat Angelini, Neptune Township Committeepersons specifically Mayors Randy Bishop and Eric Houghtaling, as well as Neptune Township official Mike Bascom, Rich Cuttrell and Vito Gadaleta.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank you to CMA President Dale Whilden for allowing Blogfinger to post this happy announcement ahead of other media. Rep. Chris Smith is obviously helping us to achieve our reconstruction goals here in Ocean Grove, but maybe he can find an opportunity to come to the Grove, visit the construction site, and meet some of our citizens.
The same for the Governor who has yet to go down to the ocean and see our construction site. He will probably be in town for the Law Enforcement Memorial on May 20. Perhaps he will take the time to walk down to the beachfront in view of all the visits he has made to nearby beach towns which were hit by Sandy, as we were. —-PG
Sal: Of course the school board race and budget issues are important, but what you don’t seem to appreciate is that reporting on that stuff is not my job. I am not a newspaper, so I pick and choose the topics that interest me.
As for the politics of the school board race, there were those who wanted to have an exposé on Blogfinger regarding a member of the Township Committee, but I am not going to go there, especially when the agitators don’t even use their real names, and the only one whose real name is out there is mine.
So I think that you would like BF better if you didn’t expect it to be political. On those rare occasions when we might veer in that direction, it will be my choice and no one else’s.
Exactly my point Paul. This article is no more political than covering the school board race and making OG residents aware of what’s happening with the $80M expense budget they manage.
BTW, I completely appreciate the FEMA funding to repair our boardwalk. I’ll thank every politician / local advocate personally without belittling them about visiting the site. I’ll take the money over a photo op any day.
I for one am thrilled to have a complete boardwalk when I visit OG next October. I’m also looking forward to a lobster roll at Sea Grass.
—–Weeder Girl (no longer a resident but still a fan of Blogfinger)
I thought we needed $3.5 million for repairs??? Are we getting shortchanged?? I appreciate the $2.3, don’t get me wrong, but it’s weird how we are having our funds dolled out in dribs and drabs, with all kinds of delays, while every other town just got their money straight up. Yes, we needed to get special approval for FEMA money due to the special ownership structure of our Boardwalk — but now that is done, we should not have this sort of delay and stepwise approvals. Maybe I’m missing something???
Sal. Where are the politics here? There are Democrats and Republicans mentioned in this article. And why are you focusing on this pathetic topic when the Feds just agreed to give us nearly $2.4 million? How about a smile and a word of appreciation for this good news? —-Paul
So politics are fine for BF posts when they involve receiving government subsidies but not when discussing real local issues when the residents are the ones putting up the money. I get it.