We recently posted a piece criticizing the OGCA for taking credit for the initiatives in the ’80’s and ‘9os that culminated in saving the town from a case of progressive decrepitude.
Herb Herbst was the Grover who led the efforts, and I had the opportunity to interview him in 2017, before his death. Aside from his heroism then, he also was the person who led the idea of turning the old Neptune High School into an arts center.
He enjoyed telling his story. He sat at his desk in the Arts Center when we spoke. He mentioned that he would write a book but he evidently ran out of time.
1990’s: TURN AROUND IN OCEAN GROVE:
Herb says that many people helped including a judge who lived in town, Gov Whitman’s office and Sen. Bill Bradley who Herb approached on the beach. Herb decided to get involved after a mental patient attacked a young girl in front of Nagle’s and knocked out her teeth.
The most important thing which Herb accomplished was to deal with the deinstitutionalized patients and the rooming and boarding houses (about 26 of them) which were in bad shape, dangerous, unsafe, unsanitary;
In the 1970’s the process of “dumping” mental cases in OG began and peaked in the 1980’s and 1990’s; the Palaia Bill slowed down the addition of new boarding homes;
The Whitman “Shore Easy Plan” resulted in closing down some of those places; the State bought 3 or 4 of the hotels; the south end was designated “wet lands” and that prevented development. Some people wanted miniature golf, etc on the south side; They got the tennis courts; playground, etc.
Herb’s group went to Green Acres to get funds for the beach front. They argued that the Sunday morning beach ban would allow people to enjoy the natural beauty of beach once per week; The Greenies agreed;
There was a plan to put parking garages on the north end, but it was turned down.
OG received an exemption to NJ parking rules which allowed head on parking (diagonal) to get more spaces ; Kevin Chambers is fighting that.
Herb credits the OG Camp Police (founded by Ben Douglas) with contributing to the success.
And here is a BF link regarding this topic:
From the Man of La Mancha