From the Blogfinger Editorial Board:
The HGA announced today that it has been awarded a Beersheba Award by the Historical Society of OG. They trumpeted this award by email today:
“This year, the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association is honored to receive a Beersheba Award for its work to improve access to parking for residents, and in forestalling a proposed increase in the ground rent paid by property owners in Ocean Grove.”
Folks, it’s a hoax! It’s fake news.
Let’s look at the facts:
—“Improved access to parking for residents.” A small number of dangerous diagonal slots have been made available by the Township. The HGA supposedly was pushing for permit parking, but that did not materialize. In fact they never publicly revealed their plan. What they did reveal was a ridiculous proposal to turn Lake Avenue, near Founders Park, into a free parking zone, with some of it on the lake. What kind of insanity is that?
The HGA has done nothing to improve parking for residents. This is truly gobbledygook, and the award is undeserved. In fact they should have received a condemnation, not a commendation from the residents of OG.
—-“Forestalled a proposed increase in ground rents paid by property owners in Ocean Grove.” Bull! All they did was spend $7,000 of homeowners money on a lawyer whose opinion they never shared publicly. And all they cared about was the fate of condo owners, only a few of which had experienced serious increases.
The solution to the concern was brought by the OG Camp Meeting Association in a letter from their COO. That letter is below.
The CMA deserves the Beersheba award for providing “certainty and clarity,” not the Groaners.
When Grovers heard about the award, this was their reaction:
The Historical Society has clearly lost its way and has been irrelevant for some time as far as promoting the Grove as a historic community.
It’s behaving like the Diva (Sara Ramirez) who lost her part in the production of Monty Python’s Spamalot:
She sings, “Whatever happened to my part?”
“It was exciting at the start
Now we’re halfway through Act II
And I’ve had nothing yet to do
I’ve been offstage for far too long
It’s ages since I had a song”
“The Diva’s Lament: What Ever Happened to My Part?”
Suggested by Ogrover: Joni Mitchell “Big Yellow Taxi”
“They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot”
Disheartening news on all sides.
I’m reminded of a line from a Joni Mitchell song, …’you don’t know what you have ’til it’s gone.’
Grover: I have added this song to this post. —PG
Paul, yes, the reasons for the award can be considered as ‘Fake News’.
however, your reporting makes it indisputable that the majority of our ‘Town Leaders’ now look down on Historic Preservation, and our Historic District as an outdated idea.
The letter from the OGCMA establishes that all variances granted within the community of OG have been granted in violation of law. The OGCMA letter establishes that the Planners reports have been submitted in violation of law and that the Attorney’s have been acting in violation of law. Again, until the Township brings its zoning into conformity with the law, it will continue to be acting contrary to and in violation of law at all future variance applications within OG.
Second, as a past trustee of the OGHOA and past President of the OGHS I am truly disgusted with the fact that the Historical Society would give an award to a group that has been promoting the violation of law. Enforcing the law is the first step of preservation. When the OGHOA promotes the violation of law, when it stands aside and permits the Township to violate the basic laws of this state that are put into place to protect the public, this is not preservation. This is lawlessness. This group is not deserving of this award and should refuse to accept it. Anything else would be a travesty to preservation in
OG and for those who have worked so hard for the preservation of this community.
Next year the Beersheba award will go to The Neptune Township Committee for all their good works in Ocean Grove.
Isn’t the Historical Society supposed to be concerned with all things historic? Why are they giving out civic awards regarding ground rents and parking?
It sounds like a set-up contrived to give a gift to an unsuccessful organization.
The HSOG has suffered a blow to its credibility with this award. It should have given an award to Blogfinger for pushing for a parking solution that would actually help residents and not encourage more crowds and ugly auto density.