By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Mr. Gadaleta is a hometown Neptuner, having graduated from Middle School and High School at the Great Auditorium. He came to his current post working for Neptune Township about a year ago. Given his title of Chief Administrative Officer (and Business Administrator,) he has to know something about everything.
So today I went to his office at the Municipal Building to discuss a small list of questions. The visit was mostly prompted by the Blogfinger comments regarding the desilting of Wesley Lake and the concerns that the job wasn’t done.
It turns out that the desilting workers are not AWOL—they are ALL finished. Desilting was accomplished along the entire Neptune side of the Lake, removing large amounts of gunk and taking those loads to a landfill. The goal of desilting is to restore the Lake back to life by improving the ecology in all respects including water quality, fish and plant life.
He said that some additional work was approved by the Township Committee last night which will soon be done to clean up the mess at the west end of the Lake just as soon as our contractor, Precise Co., finishes desilting Fletcher Lake.
West end of Wesley Lake, OG side. Blogfinger photo. June 10, 2014 ©
Desilting Fletcher Lake. June 10, 2014 ©
Regarding garbage (aka “debris”) throughout Wesley Lake, that is a different story from desilting . It is very difficult to get the tires, bottles, bodies, whatever from the Lake bottom because the wall around the periphery offers no place to stand, so it is more difficult than walking along the Ocean beach and picking up Coney Island whitefish. But the Township will continue to look for funding to apply certain cleaning methods using the in-house Dept. of Public Works. Keeping the Lake nice is difficult because it and Fletcher Lake receive regular run off from the roads and areas nearby.
Note that the wall on the Neptune side has been completed to the extent that was budgeted. It runs from the east side of Founders’ Park to Beach Avenue. There is a nice white wide cement walkway adjacent, but the areas at both ends will have to be done later.
New wall and walkway as seen from the edge of Founders’ Park along Wesley Lake. This phase of the job is complete. ©
Because of a conversation on Blogfinger regarding the Jersey Shore Arts Center, I asked Mr. G. who owns that building. I learned that the Arts Center is owned by a private non-profit organization called the Ocean Grove Historic Preservation Society, so I guess nobody is going to be bulldozing that historic building soon. At least the pink banners came down.
But let’s move on to another subject. The “full blown re-evaluation” of all properties in Monmouth County has already begun throughout Neptune Twp including Ocean Grove, and the evaluators can come into your home. This process is different from a reassessment in which an exterior snapshot is obtained to make sure that you haven’t opened a White Castle in your house since the last checkup. At the end of this process, 100% of the properties in Monmouth will be fully reevaluated, and this is, according to Mr. G. a very good and fair result. Explaining this new re-evaluation project in more detail to OG homeowners would be a good project for the HOA.
I asked him about the bond which Neptune has obtained to finance the boardwalk project until FEMA forks over the funds. He says that Neptune is not nervous about the situation. He says the “process” will take awhile, and meanwhile there will be some interest earned by Neptune from the CMA. He says it won’t effect our taxes. (That’s it! Meeting adjourned)
So we cleared up a few questions thanks to Mr. Vito Gadaleta at Neptune Township.
PETER ALLEN:
The western part of Wesley Lake was once the show.
As noted in the article, the plan to send the contractor back for further cleanup work at the west end of Wesley Lake was just approved, so we will see improvement once they finish with Fletcher Lake.
How many 1 million dollar homes are strictly second homes in Ocean Grove? Very few in my mind. And if someone can afford a $1M “part-time” home they can afford 100% of the tax levy against the home to support the infrastructure and neighborhood.
Re: desilting of Wesley Lake, west end. “I live on the Lake at the west side and I have not seen any work being done on the west side of the lake. None whatsoever.”
Not sure the tax valuation will lead to a “very good and fair result” for all, as described by Mr. G., especially in locations as diverse in demographics and use as is Monmouth. The inhabitants of a $1M home are unlikely to use more public resources than the inhabitants of a $200,000 home. In fact, the owner of the $1M home in OG is unlikely to use the local school system or any of the year-round services (e.g., garbage removal, roadways, etc.) since it is likely a summer home and thus they are likely to consume fewer resources on an annual basis – yet they will have to pay 5 times the property taxes to fund local needs that the owners of the $200,000 Neptune house must pay.
The current property tax system and revaluation is also at odds with community improvement goals, such as they are. The owners of 80 Main benefit. The businessman that owns the Park View benefits. Look at the odd couple posting. Financial smarts on his part – understanding the rules and ensuring the application to his own favor. Is that good and fair? I guess it is a matter of perspective: Do you live in house on the left hand side of the photo or the house on the right hand side of the photo?
I live on the western end of Wesley Lake. Here is the amount of work done on the Neptune side for the western half: ZERO. Not so much as a dude in a hard-hat stolling to get coffee at Dunkin Donuts. NO de-silting, no clean-up.