Jean Bredin ©. Ocean Grove Beach. November 17, 2018. Blogfinger.net
a. Blogfinger has 173 bloggers who follow us through WordPress. 600 visits on March 6. That day we had 10 foreign countries including Antigua and Barbuda, China, Norway. and Spain. I would like to visit Barbuda where the Barbudians like to go caving. And, they have a sanctuary for frigate birds.
b. Bartender of the Week in Ocean Grove. We will accept nominations once the new North End Hotel opens.
c. Wesley Lake update
—The Wesley Lake Commission last met in October 2018. Their last set of posted minutes is from then. We received an email copy yesterday that seems to indicate that some members of the Commission may be finally waking up to a few new concepts and realities about the Lake, some of which we have been hammering at Blogfinger for some time.
In that email from Douglas McQueen to the Wesley Lake Commission Chair Gail Rosewater, he made a few points which interested us at Blogfinger: The entire email is not reproduced here; just portions.
——“If we allow mismanaged lakes to consequently pollute our beaches, we would have killed our golden goose.”
—–“When formulating recommendations for the long term management of the coastal lakes and ponds of Monmouth County, emphasis has to be given to the control of stormwater runoff. This is the key to the sustainable improvement of the County’s lakes.”
No kidding!
—— He also repeated something which we have emphasized for some time on Blogfinger. He said,”Many of these lakes are indeed riparian waters.“
d. on March 5, Neptune Twp. organized a “Tidelands Presentation”. This was a sort of infomercial where two OG lawyers (the Beekman Law Firm) and a title company presented information at the Shark River Marina regarding title issues having to do with riparian land rights.
It’s interesting that the focus was on homeowners at the Shark River area. But what about our homeowners, two lakes and the ocean?
We had a reporter present and we will have more to say about this subject next week.
Here is a link to an article which we posted in May, 2016 regarding the ecology and history of Wesley Lake:
d. Note that the new Governor and his DEP are taking an interest in the New Jersey Coastal waterways. Monmouth University has an Urban Coastal Institute. They are having a “summit” this month, but we have no details. Evidently the Wesley Lake Commission Chair will address that meeting on March 15.
e. Township approves fireworks on the beach at 9 pm on July 6.
f. The Township has not seen a street closure that it doesn’t like. They have approved multiple dates, and the closures are often granted all day, 9 to 10. on Saturdays In addition to the usual closures, such as for dancing in the streets at Chamber events, three extra dates were added on Saturdays July 6, July 27, and August 10, for all day, 9am 10 pm. (150th anniversary events.) Those extra street closures will multiply the chaos of summer Saturdays this season. And this doesn’t even take into consideration the beach activities which are the norm in all Jersey Shore towns.
If you want to get a feel for the summer activities sponsored by the CMA alone, go to Oceangrove.org and click on “events.” Between the extra congestion due to Asbury Park and the congestion in the Grove, we will have gridlock on just about every Saturday in the summer. This situation often becomes unbearable for residents of the Grove.
No other shore town has the volume of gridlocked special events that we do. I doubt that even Bourbon Street has nearly as many. Why should the people who live here have to endure such tourist crowds and chaos during prime season.
From Woody’s movie Everyone Says I Love You:
Kevin, you are correct. Several years ago the idea of a ‘living shoreline ‘ for Wesley Lake was floated by one member of the Wesley Lake Commission, but his idea was inconsistent with the Township ‘s position that the Lake is a ‘Detention Basin’ used to treat polluted street water runoff.
So much for ‘home rule.’
Though NJ residents are very strong on home rule, it is time that the state remove these fools who are in control of our waterways and lakes. The walls at the east end of Wesley lake should never have been permitted to be rebuilt but instead, that land should have been regraded down to the waters edge as it was originally. When you have public boards working for developers instead of the public good, all lose.
Kevin chambers