A gray sky over Tent Village. Paul Goldfinger photograph.
There’s something rotten in Neptune. Why is the Neptune Comedy failing to close the boardwalk on behalf of the health and safety of the Ocean Grove community? Where are the police when they should be enforcing distancing and inappropriate crowd mayhem? Who is looking out for protecting the people of Ocean Grove?
Isn’t our local governance responsible for our protection from a vicious epidemic threat?
The silence emanating from Pitman Avenue and the Mother Ship is deafening.
As for the Camp Meeting Association, why have they not spoken out publicly and done anything about closing the boardwalk? But we will not speculate in the hopes that the CMA will make a public statement to the people of Ocean Grove about its silence. After all, when parking was the issue, Pres. Badger lost no time in blabbing to the newspapers about his parking plans.
You may recall when Sandy hit (2012), the CMA immediately asked for volunteers and financial support from the locals and from the feds, but not from Neptune Township which did nothing to help deal with the mess and the reconstruction at the ocean front. It seems that the Neptuners felt no responsibility to help because they saw the boardwalk and the beach as private property.
But, if you had been at the Shark River, as I was, you would have seen the Township all over that situation including a command post, aid for residents, hugs from the Mayor and immediate demolition and reconstruction of buildings, marina, piers and landscaping. It seems that taxpayers over there were entitled, but Ocean Grove taxpayers were not through no fault of their own.
This strange situation where the CMA, which owns the boardwalk, a public thoroughfare as they claimed to FEMA, fails to jump into this Corona threat, and the Township, which collects taxes from the Grove, fails to provide needed pandemic services to protect the public, such as security for closing the boardwalk and enforcing that need, testing services, health department presence, and risk management.
We cannot even get a summary accounting of testing, infections and death rates apart from Neptune. It seems that the CMA and the Township take no responsibility for the welfare of those who live in the Grove.
We wrote about this “fairness dilemma” in the past. Here is a link:
Renee Fleming and Garrison Keillor with Bob Dylan’s “Hard Times Come Again No More.”
Roe, call Gov. Murphy for an explanation.
In the meantime, today the HOA reported in their e-mail that the CMA owns the beach in OG.
If that is true, the latest subdivision of beach property was for the North End Pavilion property (Block 101, Lot 6) and a copy of the subdivision and the deed must be on file with the County, and the Township.
According to a request for public records that I filed, “The documents do not exist.”
And so, I believe the CMA does not own the beach, but rather the State does.
After all, the State does claim ownership.
The HOA should publish a copy of the deed’s cover page if they are correct.
Everything else is hearsay….
Jack:
The Governor ordered all state owned beaches and parks closed a long time ago.
If you are correct about ownership then all beaches should be closed including board walks.
Explain Jack
Editor’s note: Beach and boardwalk closures around here are controlled by local governments.
OG’s beach and boardwalk are open, but most of the rest of the shore towns around here have closed their boardwalks while keeping the beaches open—so far.
The ‘Power’ to close the Boardwalk comes from the State to the Municipality.
In OG the CMA owns the Boardwalk, but lacks the ‘Municipal Power’ to close it.
The State owns the entire beach along the Jersey Shore.
Both Bradley Beach, and AP, like the rest of the towns on the Jersey Shore own their own Boardwalk and have the Municipal Power to close them.
Neptune does not own the OG Boardwalk, but can enforce social distancing and masks on the Boardwalk.
Only the State DEP can close it.