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Neptune Township Mayor Eric Houghtaling Speaks to Blogfinger

Posted in Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged on February 3, 2013| 8 Comments »

OG boardwalk---exploring all directions. By Paul Goldfinger.

OG boardwalk—exploring all directions. By Paul Goldfinger.

By Paul Goldfinger

On January 26, Blogfinger posted a piece  about Mayor Houghtaling’s views on a variety of topics including taxes, boardwalk and Broadway.

Link re: the Mayor’s views

Today, February 3, we gave the new mayor an opportunity to offer some more thoughts about issues which he discussed last week and also  a surprise or two that you have not heard about.

He opened his remarks by saying, “We are at the very beginning of great things for Neptune, and although we have sustained major damage to our town, we will come back.”

BOARDWALK:  In our last piece, Mayor Houghtaling said, “We’re going to do everything we can to restore that boardwalk.”

But today, he added this: “The boardwalk is important, however those who decide on funding say that it is only important for recreation. But we all know differently, and the Township is reaching out to anyone who will listen to plead our case regarding how important the Boardwalk is, not only to Ocean Grove, but also to the surrounding communities. It is an economic engine (a great term and very truthful) and it must be restored. We will work with the CMA and get the required funding.”

BROADWAY:  In the last article, the Mayor was said to feel that the drainage work had been disappointing. He said, “We’re not going to walk away from those problems.”

Now he adds, “We think of the Broadway project as an improvement, but some say that the work has made the flooding worse. This has caused a lot of anger towards the town and it certainly is not the result we were after. We will continue to correct obvious problems and our work will eventually be completed. We will then see how it is taken by residents along Broadway.”

Regarding the lighting on Broadway, last week we learned that new street lights will be installed. Today the mayor adds, “All lights will be the same, which we do not have now.”

In the last post, we were told that the entire street will be repaved.  But the new mayor now speaks of  a more colorful vision:  “I am hoping that a beautification project along this road will take place as well— to add a little color to this major road into the Grove.”

SURPRISE:  “I will keep you informed and tell you when our Governor comes to town to see for himself the problems which we have been dealing with.  We have formally invited him,  but we will have to find out when he puts us on his calendar.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY:   “Blogfinger is an important source of local information plus great casual reading.”

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After a Rocky Start, Ocean Grove Groups Come Together

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , , , on January 23, 2013| 8 Comments »

CMA Director of Operations Bill Bailey shows photos of storm damage. Ralph delCampo (left" and Dale Whilden look on. Photos by Mary Walton

Camp Meeting Director of Operations Bill Bailey shows photos of storm damage. Ralph delCampo (left) and Dale Whilden look on. Photos by Mary Walton (Left click to see the photos enlarged)

By Charles Layton

A new spirit of good will and cooperation blossomed on Tuesday night, when leaders of the Camp Meeting Association and all of Ocean Grove’s major civic groups met to discuss storm recovery.

It falls to the Camp Meeting, as owner of the beach, to raise money and plan and execute the work of repairing the boardwalk and beach facilities.

However, others have a major stake, and up to now some of them had felt isolated, uninformed and frustrated. Merchants had complained because neighboring towns seemed to be moving ahead with rebuilding plans much faster than Ocean Grove. Other local groups said they wanted to help raise money for the beach and boardwalk, but their members hesitated for fear that donations for storm relief would be commingled with the Camp Meeting’s other funds and activities.

Camp Meeting officials organized Tuesday night’s meeting with those concerns fully in mind. “We’re all in the boat together and we all need to row in the same direction,” said Ralph delCampo, the Camp Meeting’s interim administrator. He and Camp Meeting president Dale Whilden pledged to keep everyone fully informed going forward. They also asked for everyone’s input, including their criticisms. But no criticisms were voiced on Tuesday night.

Those present included leaders of the Home Owners Association, the Historical Society, Ocean Grove United, the Fishing Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Ocean Grove Beautification Project.

In laying out their plans for this year’s fund-raising campaign, DelCampo and other Camp Meeting officials stressed again and again that funds for the boardwalk and beachfront will be “totally separated” from all other funds. (Contributors can write “Boardwalk & Beach Front” in the memo field of their checks to have the donations routed to that separate account.)

The Camp Meeting officials said the entire beach will be open by Memorial Day and that most of the boardwalk will be operational, as will the beach office, bathrooms and changing rooms. And they discussed engineering issues in considerable detail. Bill Bailey, the Camp Meeting’s director of operations, used aerial photos of the beachfront to explain how different types of dune structures, bulkheads and barriers had functioned during Hurricane Sandy, and which of those might best prevent damage in future storms.

At the end of the meeting, Rich Lepore of the Chamber of Commerce expressed optimism about the summer season. “We’re going to do everything we possibly can do to drive home the fact that Ocean Grove is open,” he said.

Gail Shaffer of the Historical Society suggested that all of the organizations present should state on their websites that the OG beach will be open this summer. Others talked about plans to help with fund raising. Connie Ogden of OG Beautification said “We intend to go full blast” in providing decorative plantings along the boardwalk and elsewhere. Luisa Paster of Ocean Grove United suggested sending news releases to The Coaster on a regular basis.

Camp Meeting development officer Karen Adams began the meeting with an explanation of this year’s fund-raising campaign. She said the Camp Meeting normally needs to raise about $1 million, but this year the need is much greater. The cost of fixing the boardwalk and beachfront is estimated at $3 million, she said. Assuming that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides 75 percent of that amount, the Camp Meeting would need to raise another $750,000. Thornley Chapel is also in need of $500,000 worth of renovation (not related to the hurricane), and $100,000 must be raised for repairs to the storm-damaged auditorium roof. Insurance will cover the rest of the auditorium costs.

Karen Adams (center) describes the fund-raising campaign. Listening are Carol Woidt (left) of OG Beautification and Mary Ellen Tellefsen of the Chamber of Commerce.

Karen Adams (center) describes the fund-raising campaign. Listening are Carol Woidt (left) of OG Beautification and Mary Ellen Tellefsen of the Chamber of Commerce.

Ordinarily, the Camp Meeting would simply put donations for all those projects into a single fund. However, Whilden said, “We fully realize that probably the majority of the community is primarily interested in the boardwalk,” and therefore “there will be no commingling of funds. They’re completely different funds.”

Whilden said the Camp Meeting has already raised $190,000.

Bailey led a technical discussion of beach barriers and dunes. He said the Camp Meeting believes the reason the portion of the boardwalk from the pavilion to Seaview Avenue held up so well was because the dunes along that stretch of beach were constructed on top of a rubble wall buried beneath the sand. This rubble wall had been installed following a 1953 nor’easter. It has performed so well that the Camp Meeting would like to use that same type of structure along the entire length of the beach. However, “ultimately, it’s going to be all about the money,” Bailey said, “and those rubble walls are expensive.”

The Camp Meeting also discovered that a sheet steel bulkhead in front of the boardwalk at the south end had provided good protection there. Engineers have been helping the Camp Meeting study these and other options for rebuilding.

Bailey said the reason Ocean Grove did not announce its rebuilding plans as quickly as other towns was that the Camp Meeting wanted to first determine which structures will best prevent damage in future storms. “We’ve got to get this right,” he said. “We’re investing a lot of money. We’ve got to study it.”

DelCampo said Ocean Grove needs to avoid what happened in Spring Lake, where the boardwalk was damaged by Hurricane Irene in 2011, the town rebuilt it immediately, and then it was destroyed again just one year later by Hurricane Sandy.

According to Bailey, here is what visitors to Ocean Grove can expect by Memorial Day:

  • The beach will be open in its entirety.
  • The south end boardwalk – from the beach office to Bradley Beach — will be restored.
  • From just north of the beach office to just north of McClintock Street the boardwalk will not be in place, but beach access points will be provided.
  • From the pavilion to the north end the boardwalk will be in place.

Still unanswered is the question of access to Asbury Park. As a temporary fix. there may just be an asphalt pathway.

Also, before summer, the Camp Meeting will send volunteer rescue divers out to retrieve submerged offshore debris.

The Camp Meeting officials said they still had no word as to whether FEMA will agree to provide any funds for restoring the boardwalk. Neither do they know when FEMA might announce that decision. For background on that, see this previous story.

Bailey uses aerial photos to illustrate the performance of a boardwalk bulkhead

Bailey points to an aerial photo showing how the beachfront looked before the storm

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Disassembling the Boardwalk: Showing Up, Pitching In

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on January 19, 2013| 5 Comments »

This is how we move wood from the debris pile to the dumpster -- hand to hand. Photos by Mary Walton

This is how to move wood from the debris pile to the dumpster — hand to hand. Photos by Mary Walton (left click to enlarge)

By Charles Layton

On this crispy-cold Saturday morning we found approximately 40 volunteers down at the beach, divided into two work gangs – one at the foot of Main Avenue, the other at the Pavilion.

Both were performing similar tasks, tearing up the broken boardwalk and using human chains – bucket brigade style – to load the wood into dumpsters. We’re told a third group was working at the South End.

“We’ve been trying to find places where we could volunteer,” said Gina Voorhees, a kindergarten teacher at Presbyterian Church at New Providence. She and others at her church discovered Ocean Grove via the Facebook page of another volunteer group, Calvary Relief, which does cleanup operations all along the Jersey Shore.

Voorhees put a note about Saturday’s Ocean Grove cleanup on her church’s own Facebook page, and that’s where Karen Lawler of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, found out about it. So on Saturday she was out there too.

One thing we’ve learned from Hurricane Sandy is how many people, like Lawler and Voorhees, are eager to volunteer for the massive ongoing cleanup efforts. “Our goal is to try to do something two Saturdays a month,” Voorhees told us, speaking for the New Providence group.

Another thing we’ve learned is the important role that social media play in coordinating these efforts. For instance, Calvary Relief’s website had a posting on Friday that said, “Join in Ocean Grove tomorrow morning to continue work on the boardwalk! No need to call, just meet us in the Youth Temple at 9:00 a.m.!!!”

If you go to “PCNP Hurricane Sandy Relief” you’ll see how that group in New Providence spreads the word to its followers.

Most Grovers probably have little idea how much our town and others benefit from perfect strangers who read such postings, show up, pitch in, and ask absolutely nothing in return.

Most of the volunteers in the Main Avenue work gang on Saturday seemed to be from New Providence and from Calvary Relief. Members of the latter group are headquartered at the Youth Temple in Ocean Grove and can often be found at work on our beachfront, especially on weekends. (To read our previous story about them, go here.)

But native Ocean Grovers were out there, too. Liz Saunders of Ocean Grove told us she had been looking for ways to help with the cleanup. So she just showed up at the beach on Saturday morning. “The lady in charge said to me, ‘You looking for a job?’ and I said yes.”

Simple as that.

Doing her bit, Zlë Walters, 8, with the Calvary Relief group, sweeps the sand off the memorial plaque at the base of the flagpole.

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Seeing Ourselves as Australia Sees Us

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , on January 18, 2013|

Carol and Dale Whilden and son Jordan outside the offices of The Ocean Grove Voice.

Trading Places: Carol and Dale Whilden and son Jordan outside the offices of the Australian paper The Ocean Grove Voice. Its editor, on that day, happened to be in Ocean Grove, N.J.

By Charles Layton

My cyberspace pen pal, Alan Barber, edits the local newspaper in our sister city, Ocean Grove, Australia. He just sent me a link to an article he published this week. It describes his visit to our town in mid-December.

As we reported earlier, Barber stopped by here during a vacation in the U.S. And just by coincidence two of our townsfolk, Dale and Carol Whilden, along with their son, Jordan, were on that same day visiting Barber’s town on Australia’s southern coast.

While there, the Whildens showed up at the office of Barber’s paper, the Ocean Grove Voice. One of the staffers there took their picture.

We’ve already posted a story telling you what the Whildens thought about the Australian Ocean Grove. So now I thought I’d let you read Barber’s account of his visit here. We seem to have made a favorable impression. He devoted a great deal of space to his article about us, including a generous display of photos — of the Barbaric Bean, the Great Auditorium, our damaged beachfront and more.

Alan Barber. Photo by Mary Walton

Alan Barber. Photo by Mary Walton at the Barbaric Bean

He concluded by writing that “in a short time I learnt that although we live so far away we certainly share one really important trait — both Ocean Groves are friendly, welcoming and really interesting towns… I’ll certainly return to visit.”

Come back any time, Alan.

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To read his article, go to http://www.oceangrovevoice.com. When you get there, click on the “our latest edition” box at the top right corner and use the side arrows to navigate to pages 12 and 13. You’ll have to left click on the pages to enlarge them enough to read.

To see our previous article about Barber and his visit with us, click here.

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UPDATE: Ocean Grove’s Uphill Struggle for FEMA Funds

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on January 16, 2013| 13 Comments »

By Charles Layton and Mary Walton

Two and a half months after Hurricane Sandy, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association still hasn’t been told whether it is eligible to apply for FEMA funds for its boardwalk.

Until FEMA answers that basic question, the Camp Meeting cannot even submit an application for such funding.

And because time is of the essence, Camp Meeting administrator Ralph delCampo said Wednesday that the association will need to take out a loan for the repairs it must make in time for the summer beach season. If FEMA money does eventually come through, it could be used to repay that loan.

“As an organization we’re stretched financially,” he said in an interview.

In 2011, after Hurricane Irene damaged Ocean Grove’s fishing pier, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) ruled that the Camp Meeting, which owns both the pier and the boardwalk, was ineligible to apply for storm damage reimbursement.

Neptune Township CFO Michael Bascom, who has worked closely with the Camp Meeting on storm relief issues, said this week that he thinks FEMA will probably reverse its 2011 ruling. (Unlike the damage from Sandy, the 2011 damage was to an area of the pier not open to the general public.)

But even if FEMA does declare the Camp Meeting an eligible applicant now, the association will still face tougher-than-usual obstacles to having its application for funding approved. That’s because the rules are different for private, non-profit organizations than they are for municipalities. Ocean Grove is unique in having its boardwalk and beach owned by a private entity.

DelCampo said that the Camp Meeting’s plans to restore a large portion of the beach and boardwalk in time for Memorial Day could cost in the neighborhood of $1 million. That is in addition to other expenses, including a $100,000 insurance deductible the Camp Meeting must lay out for repairs to the damaged roof of the Great Auditorium. A temporary roof was quickly laid in place immediately after the storm, but now a permanent one of specially fabricated stainless steel is required. The Camp Meeting’s total damage costs – including work on the boardwalk, pier, beach and dunes – will come to between $3 million and $4 million, delCampo said. “That’s a very preliminary number.” The Camp Meeting’s entire annual budget is normally around $5 million.

DelCampo said the Camp Meeting is launching a fund-raising drive. He also said that the Camp Meeting will apply not only to FEMA but “to other agencies, any other governmental agencies.”

Bascom suggested in a separate interview that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development may have funding available for Sandy-related repairs. DelCampo said the Camp Meeting intends to apply to HUD. The association is working with a professional in the field of grant applications to federal agencies.

Bascom said the Camp Meeting should have an easier time qualifying for FEMA funding for the sand dunes than for the boardwalk. That’s because the sand dunes can be seen as a form of “hazard mitigation” – i.e., the dunes protect beachfront properties from storm surges.

The legal problem with funding for Ocean Grove’s boardwalk is that FEMA classifies the boardwalk as a recreational facility. And while, under FEMA’s rules, local governments can be reimbursed for damage to recreational facilities, private non-profits such as the Camp Meeting usually cannot.

Bascom, Township Business Administrator Vito Gadaleta and Camp Meeting representatives Bill Bailey and Jack Green met in Trenton last week with a representative of the governor’s office to discuss, among other things, this very obstacle, which other New Jersey beach towns do not face.

Camp Meeting and Township officials both argue that the Ocean Grove boardwalk serves much more than simply a recreational purpose. DelCampo said on Wednesday that the boardwalk acts as an economic engine for the entire town and provides interconnectivity between Ocean Grove and adjacent towns. It is unfair, he and others say, for FEMA to treat Ocean Grove’s boardwalk differently when it is functionally just the same as all the other ones.

DelCampo and Camp Meeting Director of Operations Bill Bailey, whom Blogfinger also interviewed on Wednesday, both expressed disappointment that some Ocean Grovers have criticized the Camp Meeting for being slow to act following the storm.

Bailey said Camp Meeting officials have worked diligently with technical consultants, engineers and other professionals to analyze the problems caused by the storm and to design solutions that would minimize damage from future storms.

 “We took the storm more seriously than most towns,” delCampo said, noting that the Camp Meeting built temporary dunes along the beach in the days and hours before the storm hit. “We were the most proactive of all the towns on the North Jersey shore.

“We’re committed to do everything we can,” he said, “but we have limitations.”

NOTE: For an account of the beachfront repairs the Camp Meeting has committed to make by Memorial Day, see our previous story here.

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Street Light Watch: An Update

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged on January 7, 2013|

We’ve added a couple of new items to our list of burned-out street lights in the Grove. We’re also pleased to say that one light from our list has now been repaired by JCP&L.

The one that’s been repaired is at Mt.Hermon and Pennsylvania. The return of that light makes a huge difference at that corner.

The still-burned-out list includes these:

  • The northwest corner of New York and Mt. Carmel. We discovered this one on Sunday night and reported it to JCP&L.
  • Heck and Ocean Avenues.
  • The southwest corner of Main and Ocean.
  • On the east side of Ocean Avenue, by the flagpole.
  • On the central sidewalk on Ocean Pathway, near Beach Avenue
  • New Jersey at Lake by the footbridge. This was reported to us by one of our readers, who says it has been out since Hurricane Irene and is “very damaged.”
  • Corner of New Jersey and Abbott. Blogfinger reader Rich Lepore reports: “The top is also flipped open which now makes it a JCP&L rain gauge.”

If you know of others, please let us know and please report the problem to JCP&L’s parent company, FirstEnergy. To report by phone, call 800-662-3115. To talk to a human, say “Operator” at each prompt. You can also go to http://www.firstenergycorp.com. Click on “Report an Outage.” Then click “Report Streetlight Problem.”

— Charles Layton

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Grovers in Government

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news on January 4, 2013|

Quite a few Ocean Grovers appeared this week on the Township Committee’s list of 2013 appointments to local boards and committees. (These appointments are in addition to others appointed in past years whose terms have not expired.)

This year’s appointees include:

  • Ocean Grove Sewerage Authority, 5-year term: Mary Winkler
  • Zoning Board of Adjustment, 4-year term: Paul Dunlap
  • Neptune Recreation Committee, 1-year terms: Connie Ogden and Monica Kowalski
  • Senior Citizen Advisory Council, 1-year term: Angela Germann
  • Neptune Municipal Alliance Against Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, 1-year terms: Sherry Sotnikoff and Joyce Dawson
  • Fletcher Lake Commission, 1-year terms: Randy Bishop, Susan Roach and Cathy Rechlin
  • Economic Development Corporation, 1-year term: Len Steen
  • Local Emergency Planning Committee, 1-year term: David Shotwell
  • Neptune Planning Board, 4-year term: Joe Krimko
  • Historic Preservation Commission: Kennedy Buckley, 4-year term; Christopher Flynn, 1-year term, and Donna Spencer, 1-year term

Ed. note: If we have left anyone off this list, please let us know by filing a comment. Thanks. — CL

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Introducing Neptune’s New Mayor

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , on January 2, 2013|

Mayor Eric Houghtaling with grandson Ryker Butcher, 5 1/2; wife Linda and grandson Cade Butcher, 4. Photo by Mary Walton

Eric Houghtaling celebrates with grandson Ryker Butcher, 5 1/2; wife Linda and grandson Cade Butcher, 4. Photo by Mary Walton

By Mary Walton

You may have run into Eric Houghtaling pumping iron at the Jersey Shore Fitness Center, or atop a ladder in Wegman’s doing something complicated with wires. At Christmas he can be seen mounting an elaborate two-story lighting display on his Gables home. (He is, after all, an electrician.) These are some of Houghtaling’s everyday venues. But for the past two years, since taking the plunge into politics, he has occupied a seat on the Neptune Township Committee. He is a regular at meetings of homeowners in Neptune Township, including in Ocean Grove.

And on New Years Day he was sworn in for a one-year term as mayor, taking the reins from Randy Bishop, his 2010 running mate. In his inaugural speech, Houghtaling pledged to see that the Township continues to help homeowners and businesses recover from Hurricane Sandy damages. Topping his list is getting displaced residents back into their homes. “That saying is true,” he said. “There is no place like home, and we will make that happen.”

Ocean Grove’s Broadway project will be completed, he said, with the addition of new street lighting “desperately needed to replace the hodgepodge of lights currently in use.” And the Township will continue to challenge the owners of derelict properties “who would rather spend their money fighting the condition of their property rather than making the necessary improvements.”

The son of a maintenance man for Freedman’s Bakery, Houghtaling, 58, grew up in the Hamilton Gardens section of Neptune and attended township schools. He is married to the former Linda Deeves, a medical assistant to an Avon physican. They have three grown children and six grandchildren.

Houghtaling graduated from Neptune High without a clear idea of what he wanted to do, but a summer working with his father introduced him to electrical work. It took him four years and repeated applications to gain membership in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 440, a ticket to advanced electrical training and steady employment. Since then he has worked on projects in five states, including bridge maintenance for the state of New Jersey, and calibration, testing and start-up work on nuclear power plants. Since 2011 he has been employed by a contractor for Wegman’s, which has seven New Jersey locations. He enjoys the independence of moving from job to job. “I never really wanted a permanent job with a contractor.”

For 15 years he was a member of the Monmouth/Ocean Central Labor Council, where political issues often surfaced. He was appointed registrar for the local, a post that required him to give monthly motivational speeches, encouraging members to take an interest in politics. As it happened, Houghtaling himself got interested. He knew he’d have to start from scratch, never having been a fixture in Democratic politics nor a regular at committee meetings. “In my whole life here,” he said, “I’ve not been one to complain. That’s why I never got involved in Township meetings.”

To run as a Democrat for a Township Committee seat, he needed the endorsement of a majority of the Neptune party’s district leaders. The candidate they selected would be Bishop’s running mate, so Bishop’s vote was key. As it happened, the pair had met once before, when Houghtaling was president of Little League and a member of the Township’s recreation committee.

 “I was impressed with his earnestness and his dedication,” Bishop told Blogfinger. “I thought to myself, what a great guy.” When the pair met for a beer to discuss Houghtaling’s desire to run, Randy’s impression was ratified all over again. In the two years they have served together, the former mayor said, “He has been not only an incredible colleague but an incredible friend.” They will run for reelection together next November.

One thing Houghtaling is proud of is a plaque recently presented to Jose Cruz, a Township public works employee for 40 years. He ran into Cruz at the gym and was stunned to learn that he had retired with no fanfare, not even a ceremony. Houghtaling, the Township Committee liaison with the Public Works Department, put into place a procedure to recognize not just Cruz but all retiring Township employees with lengthy terms of service.

And today he recognizes the importance of complaints. “If you have a problem, let us know.”

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FEMA Comments Concerning Ocean Grove’s Boardwalk Damage — Is the Camp Meeting Eligible for Federal Relief?

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , , on December 27, 2012| 19 Comments »

Ocean Grove, NJ. Dec. 9, 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo

Ocean Grove, NJ. Dec. 9, 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo. Left click to enlarge

EDITOR’S NOTE: Our December 23rd story on whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse Ocean Grove for repairs to our storm-damaged boardwalk raised as many questions as it answered.

Many Grovers are wondering why disaster relief for our boardwalk is in doubt while relief for damaged boardwalks in neighboring towns is not. The answer is that our boardwalk is owned not by a local government but by the Camp Meeting Association, a private, non-profit organization.

A FEMA official assigned to Monmouth County hurricane relief has been following our discussion of this issue. Today, she weighs in with an explanation of some of the main considerations on which FEMA’s decision will rest. Although she makes no prediction as to which way that decision will go, she frames the issue in some detail. We present her analysis here.

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By Robin E. Smith, FEMA Media Relations

Public Assistance grants from FEMA may be given to state, local and tribal governments, as well as to certain qualifying private non-profit organizations, to cover 75 percent of the cost of disaster repairs.

The criteria for approving the grants, set by the Stafford Act, differ for governmental entities and private non-profits.

State, tribe or local governments may apply for disaster-related damages to public facilities they own that provide flood control, navigation, irrigation, reclamation, public power, sewage treatment and collection, water supply and distribution, watershed development, or an airport facility. They may also apply for disaster-related damages to non-federally funded streets, roads or highways, and any other public building, structure, park or system, including those used for educational, recreational, or cultural purposes, that is owned by a state, tribe or local government.

In general, a private non-profit facility may qualify for FEMA Public Assistance grants if it provides educational, utility, irrigation, emergency, medical, rehabilitational, or custodial care resources to the community.

In certain cases, private non-profit organizations that provide essential, non-recreational services of a governmental nature to the general public may also be eligible. Examples include some museums, zoos, performing arts facilities, libraries, homeless shelters, senior citizen centers, and similarly purposed facilities.

For a form that helps determine the eligibility of private non-profits for FEMA Public Assistance grants, see http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2726. Additional information about FEMA Public Assistance grants for non-profit cultural institutions may be found at https://www.heritagepreservation.org/federal/index.html.

Ed. note: Of particular interest to Ocean Grovers is this link.

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The Five Stages of Sandy

Posted in Blogfinger News, Feature article, Ocean Grove news, tagged on December 21, 2012| 1 Comment »

Beach Avenue on the night of the hurricane. Photo by Janet's daughter, Juliana Cavano

Beach Avenue on the night of the hurricane. Photo by Janet’s daughter, Julianna Cavano

EDITOR’S NOTE: As a new year approaches, Hurricane Sandy is history for those of us fortunate enough to have emerged unscathed. For others, the memories cling, unforgettable.

Janet Mazur

Janet Mazur

The writer Janet Mazur, who lives with her husband and two daughters in the second block of Abbott, was among those hardy souls who decided not to evacuate on the night Sandy struck. She wrote of the experience on her blog, iamnotwiththeband, describing how they watched the water cascade down the street, “like a horizontal Niagara falls,” climbing ever higher, covering planters, swallowing a car. “Foamy water, the wind lifting little blobs of bubbly foam and depositing them on the doors, the windows, the side of the house.” 

Next came redemption. “The waters receded. Slowly. And then the tops of the plants were visible in those hidden pots and more of that car on Beach Avenue appeared. By dawn, the street unveiled itself – a tangle of sea grass, heaps of boardwalk the size of a mini van randomly piled on a street corner, knee-high sand drifts and even tiny dead fish caught curbside. Meet the new world order. And the damage remains.”

After living without power for 11 days, she wrote afterward, “I will never look at a light switch the same way again.”

In the storm’s aftermath, she found herself thinking about the five stages of grief and how they apply to hurricane recovery. Here is Janet’s version as she looks back on events.

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One: Denial – The morning after the storm, I tried to sweep knee-high sand from Beach Avenue with a flimsy kitchen broom. Heaven forbid anyone drag sand onto our hardwood floors. Meanwhile, power lines are down all along the street, the governor has declared a state of emergency and the basement is full of water.

Two: Anger – With no traffic lights to guide them, more than one impatient driver navigating Rte 33 made obscene gestures or screamed at other drivers who barreled through an intersection. Does anyone remember the rules of the road? And why are we angry at each other? Sandy is no one’s fault.

Three: Bargaining –  Those with wrecked waterfront property promise to NEVER, ever build in the same spot, if only the insurance company, or FEMA or someone will just cover all the damages.

Four: Depression – So many locals are weepy for no reason, lack energy, and nurse an overall melancholy. No surprise considering that we’ve all been knee deep in a hugely traumatic event. We’ve lost more than just stuff — our sense of safety and security has been abruptly upended. Hurricanes happen in Hatteras. Or on the Gulf Coast. This wasn’t supposed to happen to us!

Five: Acceptance – Remembering that the boardwalk where we took long power walks or trained for the Spring Lake Five is no longer there, we adjust. Eventually we settle into a different route. We may even come to like it. Some day/Not just yet.

— Janet Mazur

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Yuck! All of Wesley Lake is One Big, Mucky Mess — — — — — Hurricane Sandy Has Ruined the Drainage Controls

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , on December 19, 2012| 16 Comments »

It's low tide on Wesley Lake, and not a pretty picture. Photos by Mary Walton

It’s low tide on Wesley Lake, and not a pretty sight. Photos by Mary Walton

By Charles Layton

The controls that normally maintain the water level in Wesley Lake are no longer working.

That is why you may have noticed that the water level is sometimes extremely low, exposing filthy mud, sand bars and old scraps of rusted junk on the bottom.

Leanne Hoffmann, Neptune Township’s director of engineering and planning, said Wednesday that the Township did two visual inspections of the lake following the hurricane and discovered that the water “seems to be bypassing, going under, that two-foot cutoff wall that’s in the lake — going under the existing concrete retaining wall on the south side of the lake, and then out to the ocean.”

What this appears to mean is that the lake water now flushes in and out with the tides. “The controls there currently are not working,” Hoffmann said. Furthermore, as the lake water drains underneath the retaining wall it is undermining that wall, creating an emergency situation.

The Township has already sought proposals from contractors for a temporary, emergency repair, which should take no more than three or four days to complete once the contract is let, she said. Part of the repair involves draining down the water in the troublesome portion of the lake and filling in with grout the area that’s been undermined, to plug the leak. Once they’ve “dewatered” that portion of the lake, she said, they’ll be able to see the problem in better detail.

Here's the up side: the gulls now have little islands to stand on

Here’s the up side: the gulls now have little sandbar islands to stand on

Meanwhile, a part of the Ocean Grove retaining wall at the north end, which was already in danger of collapse, has now in fact collapsed as a result of the hurricane. “Thursday the insurance adjusters are coming out again, and they’ll see that,” Hoffmann said. The Township is still working with the insurers and with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to catalogue the full range of storm damage. This is in order to determine the amount of reimbursement for Neptune.

Hoffman said the north end portion of the lake wall will be repaired in early 2013, using $250,000 already received from the Monmouth County Open Space Fund. (To read more on that, go here.)

Until that north end wall is repaired, people would be wise not to go near it. “It’s very dangerous next to that wall,” our photographer, Mary Walton, reported on Wednesday. “I nearly fell into a sink hole.”

She wasn’t kidding.

The collapsed bulkhead wall

The collapsed portion of the wall

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A Visitor From the Other Ocean Grove — The One Down Under

Posted in Blogfinger News, Feature article, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on December 17, 2012| 1 Comment »

Alan Barber (left) admires the great auditorium as Lois Hetfield and Charles Layton tell how Woody Allen once made a movie there. Photo by Mary Walton

Australian journalist Alan Barber (left) admires the Great Auditorium as Lois Hetfield and Charles Layton tell him how Woody Allen once made a movie there. Photos by Mary Walton

By Charles Layton

Alan Barber, who runs the newspaper in Ocean Grove, Australia, turned up in our town on Monday. Lois Hetfield, the Chamber of Commerce’s administrator, showed him the Great Auditorium, and then the two of them, plus a couple of Blogfinger staffers, settled in for some coffee and chit-chat at the Barbaric Bean.

While we were talking Mayor Randy Bishop dropped in, and he and Barber proceeded to swap stories and make comparisons between the two namesake towns at opposite ends of the planet.

Barber is vacationing in New York City. Since he was so close by, he said he couldn’t resist seeing his “sister city,” so he hopped on the North Jersey Coast Line and came on down.

He explained that Australia’s Ocean Grove, southwest of Melbourne, was founded in the 19th century by Methodists from our own Ocean Grove. The coastal area where they established a camp meeting, based on the one in New Jersey, was the domain of Aboriginal Australians at the time.

Barber’s newspaper, the Ocean Grove Voice, is a bi-weekly, or “fortnightly” as they say down under. He was born in South Africa, grew up in the United Kingdom, where he became a newspaper photographer, and moved nine years ago to Australia, where he had friends and a brother. He settled in the area of Melbourne, which he considers Australia’s most interesting city, and then “discovered Ocean Grove by chance, really.”

The spot of land where the first Australian Grovers settled, next to a beach, is now a park, but the Camp Meeting Association still survives there, although it isn’t the dominating presence it is here.

The Australian Ocean Grove was originally a dry town, under a covenant that is still sometimes cited when someone wants to prevent a business from acquiring a license to sell liquor. Still, alcohol is now served in that town’s restaurants and bars, and Barber said the local coffee shop, The Olive Pit, just got a liquor license as well.

That’s not the only difference between here and there. Barber said the beach area there has no sidewalks and no boardwalk, just dunes. The town has two business districts with a total of 60 or 70 shops, plus there is a big shopping mall. A second mall is in the works, he said.

Ocean Grove, Australia, has about 12,000 residents now, but Barber expects it to grow to 25,000 in the next 15 years “because there’s a growth area at the north that’s developing.” Bishop told him that our Ocean Grove has between 5,800 and 6,000 people, but that our population can swell to as many as 21,000 on a busy weekend, counting day trippers and hotel guests. (Hetfield said we have about 500 hotel rooms now.)

Mayor Randy Bishop of Ocean Grove gets the low-down from Alan Barber of Ocean Grove

Barber told Randy Bishop (left) that The Barbaric Bean reminded him of The Olive Pit in Australia. One difference: The Olive Pit just got a liquor license.

Barber was especially impressed by our Great Auditorium, with its seating capacity of 6,500. He said the only performance space in his Ocean Grove is in a little place called The Piping Hot Chicken Shop, which features local blues bands and an occasional visiting band from Melbourne. Bishop wanted to know whether any of the street names in Australia matched those in our town, so we all started ticking off the names of our local streets — Lawrence, Cookman, Heck, Abbott… There was only one match: Ocean Grove, Australia, has an “Inskip,” Barber said.

According to Barber, his Ocean Grove has had a much harder time preserving its historic buildings. Development “is almost a free-for-all at the moment,” he said. People are leveling older structures and building “square boxes,” and there is no historical protection under the law. He said there was a local uprising that managed to keep a McDonald’s from moving in, but the town has allowed a KFC and a couple of smaller chain businesses.

As darkness was falling, Barber caught a train back to New York. He flies home to Australia on Thursday. He invited us to come and visit any time.

Oh, but here is a coincidence. Barber told us that while he was visiting here, the president of our Camp Meeting Association, Dale Whilden, and his family just happened to be visiting Ocean Grove, Australia. Barber said he was told the Whildens had dropped by his newspaper’s office to say hello.

If you want to read Barber’s newspaper, go to http://www.oceangrovevoice.com.

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Rock Throwing Vandals Will Pay $117,895 in Restitution — “Maybe they’ll learn something,” one of their victims says

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , on December 14, 2012| 11 Comments »

Rock throwers (l to r) James Turetzkin, Philip Williams and Lauren Magaw in the jury box, waiting for their hearing to begin. Photos by Mary Walton

Rock throwers (l to r) James Turetzkin, Philip Williams and Lauren Magaw in the jury box, waiting for their hearing to begin. Photos by Mary Walton

By Charles Layton

All four adult defendants in the rock-throwing vandalism case agreed on Friday to a three-year schedule of payments to 180 victims throughout Monmouth County, including many in Ocean Grove.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Scully told each of the four that if they make good on their payment obligations, perform 75 hours of supervised community service and fulfill some other conditions imposed by the court, they can avoid the normal fines and prison terms prescribed for third-degree criminal mischief. All four had pleaded guilty to that offense on August 23 as part of a negotiated plea bargain.

If any defendant fails to meet the conditions set forth by the Prosecutor’s Office and Judge Scully, all deals would be off and that defendant would then be subject to a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

As outlined in court on Friday by Scully and Assistant Prosecutor Kathleen Bycsek, the defendants agreed to pay a total of $117,895.34 in restitution — to victims and to their insurance companies –according to the following schedule:

— $5,000 to be paid immediately by each defendant.

— $679.83 per month to be paid by each defendant for a period of 36 months.

The defendants — Philip Williams, 25; Lauren Magaw, 21; James Turetzkin, 20, and Tyler Emmons, 18 — have all admitted participating in a months-long rampage of rock-throwing vandalism spread over 17 different Monmouth County towns, including Neptune Township. Police have said that 33 of those acts occurred in Ocean Grove from January through March of this year. The defendants would ride around in an SUV late at night tossing large stones through the windows of houses and parked cars. Police in Spring Lake arrested the group shortly after midnight on April 13 after receiving reports that windows were being broken. The defendants confessed to the entire vandalism spree at the police station that night.

Defendant Emmons stands in the jury box. Prosecutor Bycsek is in foreground

Defendant Emmons stands in the jury box. Prosecutor Bycsek is in the foreground

Three of the defendants live in Neptune Township; Turetzkin lives in Neptune City. The name of a fifth defendant has not been released because he was 17 at the time of the arrests; he is being treated as a juvenile.

During Friday’s hearing, Cliff and Barbara Bandstra of Wall Township sat in the courtroom observing the proceedings. The couple told Blogfinger that they were on the list to receive restitution. They said they arrived home one Friday evening to find that the large paladium window in their entry foyer had been smashed. Replacing it cost more than $4,000, they said. The vandals had also hurled large stones against the stucco of the house and done other damage.

Asked why they were attending the hearing, Cliff Bandstra said, “I was just curious to see what they looked like.”

“And what kind of people would do this,” his wife said.

They said they also have a home in Ocean Grove, but were surprised when told that many Ocean Grovers had also been victims of the rock throwing.

The defendants said little — beyond “yes, your honor” — as Judge Scully outlined the conditions of their probation. They were called to stand before the judge one at a time and verify that they understood the nature of the deal they were entering into. During the next three years, the judge explained, they will be supervised under Monmouth County’s Pretrial Intervention program, which is designed for first-time offenders. They must abide by the normal terms of criminal probation, including mandatory drug monitoring as determined by the probation officer.

Scully explained that the amount of the restitution is owed by the four defendants “equally and severally,” meaning that if one defendant fails to pay his share the others must assume that liability.

Lawyers for the defendants noted that the case of the fifth defendant, in juvenile court, is not yet resolved. They asked Scully whether, if that juvenile defendant is ordered to pay restitution as well, that might reduce the amounts owed by the four adult defendants. Scully said he had no influence over the juvenile proceeding, but that such an outcome might be possible.

After the hearing, Cliff and Barbara Bandstra said they were not sure the restitution money they’ll receive will cover all of their losses, but they thought it would come close. Both also said they thought the punishments the defendants received seemed “pretty fair.”

“If they actually come through with it, and live up to it” Barbara Bandstra said of the defendants, “maybe they’ll learn something.”

Cliff and Barbara Bandstra chat with Kathleen Bycsek before the hearing. The Bandstras had a $4,000 window smashed by the defendants

Cliff and Barbara Bandstra chat with prosecutor Kathleen Bycsek before the hearing. The Bandstras had a $4,000 window smashed by the vandals

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