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Ocean Grovers overflowed the Community Room for an update on storm recovery. Janet Whritner, right, greeted arrivals and gave out name tags. Photos by Mary Walton

By Charles Layton

Michael Bascom, Neptune’s chief financial officer, said Saturday that Neptune is recovering from Hurricane Sandy faster than most other Jersey shore towns, and that the storm’s impact on local taxes should be minimal.

“I still don’t see the tax impact of this storm being much more than a penny” per $100 of assessed value, Bascom told the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association at its monthly membership meeting.

He said the total cost of Neptune’s response to and recovery from the hurricane will be between $5 million and $7 million and that FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) will reimburse the Township for at least 75 percent. Insurance on Township facilities will also help. Whatever expenses aren’t reimbursed will be apportioned over the next five years’ municipal budgets.

“We are in full recovery mode in Neptune at this point,” said Bascom, who coordinated the preparations and response as director of the town’s Office of Emergency Management. He said all Township employees — including librarians, code enforcement and construction officials, tax officials, engineering and public works employees — became emergency response workers in the wake of the storm.

Although Sandy was extraordinarily destructive, impacting “properties that had never been impacted before by a storm,” Neptune was better prepared than most other towns, he said, and therefore recovered faster than most.

The flooding was “exactly where we thought it would be,” which allowed police, fire and EMS officials to go door to door in advance, warning those in danger to get out. They were rescuing people “right up to the last minute, until it was unsafe to do so,” he said.

Neptune was able to clear streets and roads faster than most places, which made it possible for the electric company to move in and restore power faster. At one point, he said, Township supervisors became truck drivers in order to give their employees a few hours of rest.

No one in Neptune died as a result of the storm, although two people were severely injured, due to a blown-out gas pilot light, when they returned to their damaged home prematurely. “When they drove their car in the garage their house exploded,” he said.

He said 772 homes in Neptune suffered significant damage from the storm, including 18 in Ocean Grove. Seven Ocean Grove homes were deemed unsafe. In Neptune as a whole, 121 homes were deemed uninhabitable — most of them in Shark River Hills. Shark River Hills also had “probably 100 boats” blown onto people’s lawns or into their houses, he said.

At least 400 trees were down following the storm, and more than 100 of those were entangled with electrical wires, which hampered the town’s ability to clear them off streets. This, along with gas and water leaks, made streets unsafe to navigate for several days.

Michael Bascom: “We are in full recovery mode”

Bascom said the biggest expense of the cleanup is the enormous amount of brush that has to be removed, processed and disposed of, at a total cost of about $2 million. He said about two-thirds of that brush disposal work still remains to be done.

Mayor Randy Bishop, who introduced Bascom, gave lavish praise to all of the Township’s employees. He also said the Township was especially well-prepared in advance of the storm. Home Owners president Ann Horan and various members of the audience also complimented the Township on its well-organized response.

Horan said that after the storm Bishop and Bascom were on the phone daily with her and with leaders of other residents organizations throughout Neptune, keeping them informed. The problem, she said, was that, with power out, the Home Owners Association had limited ability to pass on information from the Township to the residents. For the future, she said the Home Owners Assocation intends to organize an emergency information system based on volunteers on each block going door to door.

Bascom and others also made these points:

• The dunes along the Ocean Grove beach proved to be far better protection against the storm surge than dune systems in most other towns on the Jersey coast.
• The Township expects FEMA to approve repairs to the Wesley Lake wall at the North End, which was already damaged and suffered further deterioration from the storm. Bascom said as soon as FEMA gives authorization the Township will begin repairs.
• Neptune officials have been helping the Camp Meeting Association apply for FEMA’s help in repairing the boardwalk.
• The lakes to the north and south of Ocean Grove are silted up and will need to be dredged to mitigate future storms.
• Neptune schools reopened sooner than those in most other towns, partly because Neptune managed to clear its roads more quickly.
• Neptune suffered no looting problems after the storm. Bascom said police had an especially strong presence in those neighborhoods that had the worst damage and were therefore most susceptible to looting.
• No one in Neptune is living in shelters now. “We feel we’re ahead of everybody else in recovery,” Bascom said.
• If anyone would like to volunteer their time and skills to help with recovery, Neptune has a volunteer coordinator — Monique Burger. She can be reached at 732-988-5200, extension 298. She can be emailed at mburger@neptunetownship.org.
• The Township is still accepting donations for storm victims. It has a donations center at 1924 Heck Avenue, although it is not open full hours. Tax assessor Bernard Haney is in charge of receiving and distributing donations.
• Neptune has hired part-time employees, under a federal grant, to help with cleanup and with expediting the approval of applications for construction permits. Also, until December 11, as part of the recovery action plan, fees for building permits have been waived.

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By Charles Layton

At it’s meeting on Monday, the Neptune Township committee plans to authorize $5.1 million in bonds to pay for hurricane expenses.

Mayor Randy Bishop said in an interview that he thinks this amount will cover most of the Township’s costs incurred during the storm and for the cleanup afterward. He said he expects most of that money to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and by insurance. “I believe that we will get a significant amount back,” he said.

But because the Township wants to proceed with cleanup and repairs now, it is willing to borrow the money in the short term.

The bonds to be issued include $1 million for the heavily-damaged marina at Shark River Hills, $500,000 for the Township’s Sewer Authority and $3.6 million for other emergency expenses. One of the biggest expenses is the clearing of massive amounts of debris — discarded household items, downed trees and other refuse. “We have, as of today, picked up as much debris from this storm as we do in one year’s time,” Bishop said.

He said FEMA normally pays 75 percent of damages incurred by a municipality, but in the case of Hurricane Sandy negotiations are underway at the state and federal level to increase that percentage, perhaps as high as 90 percent. And because Neptune has acted more quickly than many other towns, Bishop said, it has gotten better funding matches. “A portion of early funding is [reimbursed] 100 percent.”

The mayor also said FEMA may continue to help the Township long after its immediate needs have been met. It is possible that FEMA will help fund projects designed to make the Township less vulnerable to flooding in the future. “So you’ll see things that FEMA will be with us on for a number of years,” he said.

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Expense of debris removal predicted to be “astronomical.” Photo, Main Avenue in Ocean Grove, by Mary Walton

By Charles Layton

Neptune Township has appropriated $1.4 million for its storm-related expenses, but Mayor Randy Bishop thinks that may not be enough.

The tipping fees alone (money paid for disposal of trash and debris) “is going to be astronomical,” Bishop said. On the up side, he said he thinks some of the Township’s expenses will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The Township Committee passed several measures last week designed to make life a bit easier for residents afflicted by Hurricane Sandy. It has waived construction fees for storm-related damages, and Bishop said that although the normal building permit requirements won’t be waived, officials are working on ways to cut through the red tape.

As an example, Bishop said, “I am very concerned about people who have to put a new roof on their house because of the storm.” Ordinarily one might need a survey of the property, but “it’s added expense and time, and it’s not necessary,” he said. “They’re just replacing something that was there.” Officials will be working on these sorts of problems during the coming week, he said.

Although most Township offices will be closed on Monday for Veterans Day, the Code and Construction Departments will be open from 8 a.m. to 12 noon to help people needing permits.

The Township Committee has extended the deadline for residents to make their 4th quarter property tax payments. The new deadline is Wednesday, November 21, and it applies to all property owners, not just those who suffered damage. “So many of our residents have been distracted, and that’s probably putting it mildly,” Bishop said. “We didn’t want to inconvenience people trying to get their kids back in school, trying to get back in their homes…”

“We are still working at debris collection, it is massive,” he said, and includes, besides household items, enormous quantities of tree limbs.

Bishop said that although most of the Township now has power, “there are small pockets that don’t yet.” Both Township officials and ordinary citizens have been frustrated — and even incensed — at the difficulty they’ve had in getting straight answers out of Jersey Central Power & Light. Bishop said officials are in daily contact with JCP&L. “They are very guarded about information,” the mayor said, “because they don’t want to set an expectation they cannot meet.” He said he can understand their attitude on a rational level, but that he, like others, find it “frustrating emotionally.”

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