Early evening (7:45 pm) on New Jersey Avenue. Paul Goldfinger photo. 8/9/17. Ocean Grove, NJ.
Teens play ball in Auditorium Square Park. 8/9/17. 7:20 pm. Shortly after they headed to the Youth Temple. Paul Goldfinger photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor @Blogfinger. 2017. Re-post Labor Day 2024.
The summer evenings have been beautiful lately. Many people are out and about tonight: there is an organ recital and a Summer Band concert. The soloist in the Great Auditorium was practicing at 7 pm, and all the doors were open—what a treat! At 7:30 the audience wandered in.
Lots of bikers are zipping around since it is still light out. Dog walkers abound–nothing good goes unsniffed. Porch life is peaking. Carl tells us that his favorite time of year here is when it’s the “locals’ summer”—September. Carl is an artist and a bonafide and well known old timer in the Grove.
We met Janice whose family has been tenting here for 4 generations. She said that their tent burned down two years ago, and now they are back with a thoroughly modern looking interior including AC and a frame-less glass shower.
Janice is a nurse who once worked with me at Dover General Medical Center. I hadn’t seen her for about 40 years, and then she pops up while I’m recording the organ rehearsal. We talk and she invites me in for a peek. It’s beautiful–looks like a condo inside. It was great to see her again.
What does it sound like inside the Great Auditorium at 7 pm when there are no people inside, other than an organ soloist who is practicing for a concert scheduled to start at 7:30 pm?
The organ music reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera. But actually it is as if, with the room empty, the Hope-Jones organ with Gordon Turk can stretch it all out to get every nuance to the far corners of that amazing concert hall.
We are still receiving high quality tomatoes from New Jersey farms. Eileen Goldfinger photo.
These are Eileen’s ingredients for her delicious tomato sandwiches. :
a. These field grown Jerseys were purchased at Delicious Orchards in Colt’s Neck on Rt 34. We should have good tomatoes well into September. Look for fruits that are red all the way to the stem. They should have a slight give when ready to eat. They can become over-ripe quickly, so try to buy them when they aren’t quite ready.
Here’s a link about a tomato surprise we found last year at Delicious Orchards:
b. Hellman’s mayonnaise has soybean oil which is mostly polyunsaturated fat. It also has eggs.
c. The basil is from her OG garden, but you can buy fresh basil in most stores around here.
d. The bread is toasted. It is Wegman’s 7 seed organic whole wheat bread. Seeds are considered to be heart healthy.
e. Brie cheese, from France, is soft and can be spread on the toast. It is made from cows milk and is ripened in caves. Wegmans offers 3 different degrees: mild, medium and intense.
f. There is room for individual variations: Here are some optional choices: avocados, Vidalia raw onions, sliced cheese, sliced hard boil eggs, lettuce, and sliced meats.
THE NIGHTHAWKS. From the Broadway show. “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” is by George and Ira Gershwin for a movie called Shall We Dance.
Evie-Rose’s first birthday 8/30/24. Photos by Mom and Dad.
By Pop-Pops Goldfinger. Blogfinger.net
Noah and Evie-Rose have moved back to the USA after living in the Caribbean for a few years thanks to Dad’s job. So now they are in Georgia. Evie-Rose was one year old on 8/30/24
Noah is 6 years old and he has signed up for flag football. Their first game is in 3 days. I’m told that for kids that age, it is a running game since throwing is less likely. But Noah proved that he can throw, (see video below) so he may start as a quarterback.
He is throwing passes now, but ten years hence he will be making passes at girls who love footballers.
I made the freshman football team in high school, but I was so bad that they ran out of face masks when I reached the front of the line, and my helmet was like Knute Rockne wore; leather and lopsided.
Noah starts first grade.
Little Evie-Rose turned one yesterday. I mailed her a special small French doggie. See photo below.
She walks and dances, and she makes noises as if she were talking.
Evie-Rose with her French doggie. 8/30/24 Her Pop-Pops sent her a new friend for her first birthday. She’s reading the label.
Noah is turning out to be a gentle and caring big brother:
Watching the “White Whale” fire developing at the OG North End. Photographs by Paul Goldfinger. April 13, 2019.
Grovers chatting while gazing north watching the fire. Paul Goldfinger
Everyone at the beach is looking north. Paul Goldfinger photo
Smoke billows from the ocean side. Not long later, the entire “White Whale” was enveloped with fire, and many fire engines roared into town. Some were immobile on Ocean Avenue. Paul Goldfinger
Here is a link to another Blogfinger post about this tragic fire:
Salvation Army New York Staff Band. Internet photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net. 8/30/2024
If you love exceptional brass bands, be sure to experience the Salvation Army Weekend in OG sponsored by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. The Salvation Army New York Staff Band will be visiting us.
This band was founded in 1887 to “serve God through music.” But what you need to know is that this band is known for making superb music.
I don’t know the program, but, for no other reason, go hear them play outdoors and in the Great Auditorium on Saturday Sept. 7 in the Boardwalk Pavilion at 7 pm and during the Sunday morning worship at the GA Sept. 8 at 10:30 am .
I have heard them before in the Grove, so if you enjoy first rate musicianship, go hear them next week.
The most unique aspect of their appearance this summer is that they asked to have one of their concerts outdoors on our boards. These concerts are free. There is a rain date in the GA.
OMG Just received my new tax bill and 45.85% goes to Neptune School District that has some of the LOWEST test scores in the state and HIGHEST cost per pupil in the state!!! And NO representation for our taxation.
Its time for Ocean Grovers to wake up, smell the ocean breezes and take our town back before it is over over- built, taxes go up further after an ill advised reassessment, and continued violations of our zoning regulations by a greedy Township. CARPE DIEM! (tr: “Seize the day.”)
Light, air, and open space is what we want at the North End. Photo by Jean Bredin, Blogfinger staff in Ocean Grove, NJ.
By Jack Bredin, reporter/researcher and Paul Goldfinger, Editor. Blogfinger.net
Let’s review some of the background of the North End Redevelopment Plan and then bring us all up to date. At the heart of this post is the Township Committee meeting of October 22, 2018.
Redevelopment is a public project. A developer does not become a Redeveloper with the authority to develop an “area in need of redevelopment” until they have signed a contract with a Township called a Redevelopers Agreement. In Neptune Township there are “areas in need of redevelopment”, but there are no officially approved redevelopers. What went wrong, and how can this happen?
In 2005, and again in 2008, at a time after redevelopers were selected by the Township for two large projects, the Mayor’s Redevelopment Committee went into executive session behind closed doors to negotiate Redevelopment Agreements for:
West Lake Avenue in Midtown
North End in Ocean Grove
But the choice of redevelopers was done out of sequence in the Grove, and Redevelopers Agreements were ever finalized. The Township should have waited for the Township Attorney to first negotiate and have signed the Redevelopers Agreements before selecting anyone as a Redeveloper.
These agreements would have provided the Township Committee with guaranteed provisions to insure the timely construction of the redevelopment projects, the qualifications, and the financial capabilities and financial guarantees of the redeveloper (s) before the Committee selected a Redeveloper for either project.
Signing a Redevelopers Agreement would usually take place at a special 10 am meeting on the same day the Redeveloper is officially selected by resolution. In the event that a developer does not sign an agreement within 10 days of being selected, he should be dismissed.
Ten years ago, our Governing Body did not properly vet their Redeveloper friends for the North End of OG (CMA and WAVE,) and after being appointed as the only horses in a horse race, they never crossed the finish line due to the fact that they could not come up with the necessary money and then they all backed out. Thus the North End Plan was never implemented.
As a result of that failure, the Mayor’s Redevelopment Committee is technically still in executive session for all these years and that is why the Mayor’s Committee will not now reveal any information to the public. And thus there are still no Redevelopers for these two projects.
Now, after 10 years of nothing being developed through the redevelopment process, and while everything is being developed all around us by “general development,” Dr. Brantley said, “I think we have to review all the redevelopment projects,” and then the Township hired a “special redevelopment attorney” for the unenviable job of trying to pull these projects out of the mud.
Shortly after that, this past month, our new Mayor, Nicholas Williams, reports the following: “Thanks to the non-stop work of our Redevelopment Committee, residents will soon be hearing about two major investments that will transform our community for the better…..”
And then, like magic, there appears on the agenda of the October 22, 2018 Township Committee meeting, a Resolution, No. 18-369, regarding the West Lake Avenue project in Midtown. The Resolution was approved, appointing BAW Development, LLC, as a “Conditional Redeveloper” while also approving a “Pre-Redevelopers Agreement.” This agreement is for a 6 month period of time when a formal Redevelopment Agreement will be signed.
We believe that this so called “Pre-Redevelopment” process is not permitted by State Standards, Municipal Land Use Law, and Redevelopment Law. We think that this new process has been invented to find an end-run around the usual legal procedures to move such projects along and which have failed so far in Neptune Township. In addition, this maneuver will prevent any other developers from bidding on these projects while the Township dithers.
The new Redevelopment Attorney said at the meeting that they will use the same process with the North End project in OG. That is why we are extrapolating what was said about West Lake to what will likely happen for the North End.
We think that the Mayor’s Redevelopment Committee is failing we the people by remaining silent. Where is the transparency?
Ocean Grovers: Keep your eyes and ears open as this situation evolves—our local government seems to be placing the best interests of Grovers at the bottom of the pile.
