Blogfinger

Herb Herbst passed away today June 6, 2017. Mr. Herbst was the Founder and CEO of the Jersey Shore Arts Center.

A long time Ocean Grover he was instrumental along with his colleagues in the Home Owners Association of the 1980s and 1990s in turning around a bad situation in this town.

There will likely be an obit. in the Asbury Park Press.  If we receive  any further information, you can find it here.

June 09, long piece about Herb in the Coaster, front page.

NOTES FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH HERB HERBST ON TWO TOPICS.   JANUARY 6, 2009 AT JERSEY SHORE ARTS CENTER. Look for some interesting insights in these notes. This was 6 months before Blogfinger was founded.

By Paul Goldfinger, Ocean Grove Record writer

Herb moved to OG in the 1950’s. He recalls when there were only two houses on Franklin Ave.

JERSEY SHORE ARTS CENTER:   The process began in 1994 with Herb and State Senator Joe Palaia; This is a historic building, and that historic designation helped.

The property was owned by the Neptune Board of Education; details will be available in Herb’s forthcoming book (which never materialized.)  Ideas at the time included a mental clinic, flea market or low income housing.

To be an arts center, it had to be used for education or the arts; otherwise it would revert back to the CMA, the original owner of the property.

A highly placed Trenton connection helped the JSAC corporation get the tax exemption.   They raised $1.8 million;

Herb’s group got the nonprofit tax exempt status by partnering for one month with the OG Fishing Club. The HOA and the OGHS refused to help him.

The HSOG could have used part of the building for their museum; they were on board, but later they changed their mind; he doesn’t know why.  Herb credits the Chamber of Commerce and the CMA with being supportive.

The yearly “nut” is $174,000; The Ladies Auxiliary helps raise money. They also get funding from State programs. The Ocean Grove Historic Society is the parent company which manages the facility; He is Pres. and CEO. There is a board of trustees.

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; they 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.