Ocean Grove boardwalk. Oct. 30, 2012. 8:00 am. Paul Goldfinger photo © Click to enlarge.

By Paul Goldfinger, MD.  Editor. Blogfinger.net. August 18, 2022.

Superstorm Sandy. (10/12)  ruined parts of the OG boardwalk and parts of the Fishing Pier.  The Camp Meeting Association owns both structures, and the State of New Jersey knows these places as “PNP”—- ie  Private Non-Profits .

The CMA applied for public assistance on the grounds that some PNP entities might qualify for public assistance.

So, the CMA applied to the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency. (FEMA) in an appeal for public funds to rebuild , but on February 13, 2013, they were denied because “the facility is used for recreational purposes and does not provide essential governmental services.”

In April, 2013, the first appeal was made on the grounds that the boardwalk is  a “critical thoroughfare  for emergency services.”   But the appeal was denied.

A second appeal was made in September 2013, but, in a strange twist, the appeal was made “on behalf of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association” by the New Jersey Governor’s Office.  The CMA said that its boardwalk “serves as a critical public thoroughfare. between Bradley Beach  and Asbury Park”

Then in December 2013, in a letter to the Governors office, FEMA announced that “the Ocean Grove Boardwalk, which the Applicant owns and operates,  provides health and safety services of a governmental nature and is an eligible PNP facility.  Therefore,  the Applicant is an eligible PNP applicant  and its appeal is approved.”

This is a striking turnabout.

As part of those discussions, it was said that the State of NJ, in granting a charter to the CMA, called the CMA   a “private non-profit”

And, FEMA said, “The Applicant also evinces that the Boardwalk serves as a ‘public highway’ and has so since the County of Monmouth Board of Taxation designated it as such in 1908.” *

FEMA also said that “the Boardwalk is recognized by New Jersey as a public highway.”

None of these FEMA  discussions mentioned the role of the Boardwalk as a place for leisure and pleasurable activities which is what it is most of the time, despite the tricky CMA language in their 2nd appeal.

It sounds like FEMA  managed to change its mind the third time around.  Is that suspicious?

In reviewing these papers, I found one paragraph from FEMA to be intriguing:

“In assessing the eligibility of the OGCMA facility, consideration must be paid to the unique relationship between OGCMA and Neptune Township, the historic evolution of OGCMA, OGCMA’s property interest in the facility, the quasi governmental role it has played, the State of New Jersey’s designation of the facility as a public thoroughfare, and the role the facility plays in providing an essential governmental  service.  Moreover, it is noteworthy that OGCMA prohibits their  facility’s  use for commercial and recreational purposes.”  

( Editor: What???)

Anyway, FEMA was only interested in the boardwalk as a place for “essential health and safety service”s and they had no interest in what other activities which might be found there.

So it’s hard to find the FEMA ruling as a place to defend yoga, chess boards,  exercise and more.

Those defenses will have to be found in basic democratic freedoms which should be available in every public or pseudo- public (CMA)  park, beach and boardwalk locations in the Grove.

And the recurrent definition of the OG boardwalk as a “public highway or public thoroughfare,” FEMA aside, should back up the notion that our boardwalk is no place for promotion of any religions even though it is a “private non-profit” *

In my opinion, the boardwalk, admittedly defined by the CMA as a special sort of  PNP  eligible for public funds, should be religion-neutral, and that is the link between the FEMA discussion today and the plight of Yoga Man.

Here is a FEMA link thanks to David H. Fox for those of you who want to read this six page document entitled “Request for Public Assistance:”

www.fema.gov/ko/appeal/request-public-assistance-30

* From historian David H. Fox regarding the special designation of our boardwalk:

The designation of the boardwalk as a “public highway” predates 1908. The New York Times of June 4, 1907 mentions:

“By decision of the Monmouth County Board of Taxation handed down today, Ocean Grove’s $3,000,000 beach front, the property of the Camp Meeting Association, is to escape taxation. It was shown to the board by the association’s legal representative, Samuel A. Patterson, the valuable strip of land, with its board walk, had been dedicated years ago by the association as a public highway, and was not therefore subject to taxation.”

Editor:  So, being tax free, as per the Monmouth County Board of Taxation, is quite a benefit–a gift from we-the-people to the CMA, so surely they could adopt a “public stance” on the boardwalk and treat it as a public space with no religion and no hindrances to the freedoms of Grovers, including Yoga Man Fran Scalessa.   PG