National Geographic 2001 cover story about our zip code. You can see what they focused on during their visit. Blogfinger.net
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net. April 22, 2022.
Today, 4/22/23, the OGHOA conducted a meeting. (live and ZOOM). having to do with beach issues including such topics as beach badges and the Public Trust Doctrine. (See our coverage below)
Blogfinger was covering these topics and related matters years ago. Much of it was nothing new.
However one subject of perpetual interest has to do with the Sunday morning beach closures, and that was addressed today:
During the Q & A, a woman named Pam Valentine took the microphone and made a statement—a disclosure. She has kept this story secret until now.
Ms. Valentine wanted to challenge the Sunday beach closures, so one Sunday morning (I believe it was last year) she went to the OG beach and went into the water. The CMA jumped onto the situation and ordered her out. She refused, so they threatened to call the police. She stayed in the water, and a Neptune cop showed up. So did Michael Badger. (I may not have the sequence exactly right because none of us present expected that this was coming. I was on ZOOM, and the sound system sucked.).
The police did nothing, but Badger took over. He is the President of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.
Pam was determined, so Badger made her an offer that she didn’t refuse. He promised that she could go on the beach on Sunday mornings, but she would have to be escorted by him or someone of the CMA. In exchange he made her promise to say nothing about this incident or his offer.
For reasons which I missed, she decided to offer this disclosure today. We did not get to interview her, but if she wants to discuss it further here, she can contact me via email at Blogfinger@verizon.net.
As for Badger, he, as always, can offer his side on BF, but he never responds to articles about the CMA on Blogfinger. He seems to prefer canned press releases for the Coaster . That usually gets him on the front page.
I don’t know if he heard Ms. Valentine’s bombshell because he left early.
ANNE MURRAY. “I’m Confessin'”
Dave: They should have shipped her for half time at the Harvard game.
Originally, Sabbath restrictions closed many things in OG. I remember when the beach was closed for the entire day. It has since been liberalize. I suppose closing it on Sunday mornings might encourage church attendance. Some lifeguards serve as ushers in the Auditorium.
Many years ago, a woman was caught swimming in Carnegie Lake, Princeton, in the nude. The police charged her with “loitering in a public waterway.”
Realistically, what could the OGCMA do if hundreds of people showed up on any given Sunday and entered the beach and ocean before noon? They can call the Neptune Police, and the responding officers could issue a summons or perhaps even arrest anyone who declines to vacate the beach. But if the sheer numbers of swimmers make that unfeasible, what could they plausibly do? It’s difficult to believe that the local prosecutor has nothing better to do than to actually file charges for this type of offense.
Perhaps some civil disobedience is called for.