Main Street Bradley Beach. Near the train station in Riley Park. Blogfinger photo.
Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor Blogfinger.net
June 16, 2021. Firemen’s Park. Ocean Grove, NJ
We have a neighbor Reenie with a huge but lovable German Shepherd named Zeus. She walks Zeus everyday in OG’s Firemen’s Park, and this day she was so upset and nearly in tears because Zeus got a snout-full of painful horrid needles from the shrubs around the Ocean Grove Firemen’s bell .
She exclaimed, “Something has to be done about this ugly and risky park! That fence and shrubs are offensive. The people should raise money to bring in a landscape architect to make this park beautiful and to remove the fence and the shrubs. ”
I was on my porch when Reenie walked by and vented.
I told her that Neptune should do something, but the Neptune Comedy never comes into town except for parades. The CMA owns the park, but they would never pick up this tab.
Maybe the residents can muster up a petition. But a citizens fund drive?
There is a precedent because neighbors around the park have paid for trees, pruning, flower barrels and flowers, fertilizer for trees, wood for the benches, and decorative bricks at the bases of trees. But an all out re-do of that ugly park would be very expensive.
Meanwhile we will continue to complain about this issue and we will continue our search for Firemen’s bells without a fence or with a fence.
Maybe we are the only town with such a fence. Maybe that fence and sticker bushes cannot be justified if investigated, so why not remove it if it cannot be justified. It’s dangerous, obnoxious, annoying and ugly. Is that what we want to greet visitors to the Grove? And while they are at it, they can remove all the tombstones and memorials to the dead.
We recently reported on Asbury Park’s beautiful and well-cared-for fence-less bell on Main Street.
Also we will continue to press for a dog park/beach in the Grove. We have more dogs per square inch than any other place in America except for the Westminster Kennel Club competition in NYC. (This is a fictitious stat, but probably true.)
And, we notice that Santa will be arriving on Dec. 4 for festivities at Auditorium Square Park. Does this mean that Santa won’t come to Firemen’s Park on Christmas Eve? It’s not mentioned in the CMA program booklet.
Will Santa’s GPS have to be adjusted?
Lovely black metal fence and lock. Ocean Grove’s locked-down Firemen’s Park. © Blogfinger photo
JOSIE DEGUZMAN Broadway cast of Guys and Dolls.
A fence is presently being considered for the restored fountain in Founders Park. This will not be so much a physical barrier as an indication of where one should not go. People stepping on the mound have destroyed the plantings and damaged an irrigation system. A man was found soaking his feet in the fountain and another scooped up water to bless himself. Early on, the fountain had a pipe railing around it as did the Stokes statue.
Ocean Grove is a different place now compared to 1973. Look at the Bradley Beach bell, and that is what the OG bell will look like if they take down that horrid fence and shrubbery. Asbury Park has a higher rate of crime than we, and their bell looks terrific now.
We can think highly enough of ourselves now to not worry about the crap that is described in that 1973 quote.
The fence was installed as part of a general refurbishment of Firemen’s Park in 1973. “Graffiti, trash; paint, and crayons mark the bell and the memorial as it now stands. Dying trees surround it and dogs find a haven among the shrubbery.”