An Ocean Grove family returns from Asbury Park on a summer evening. 2012. By Paul Goldfinger. ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association is facing a cost of over 3 million dollars to fix the Sandy mess. The denial of aid by FEMA was a shock because, even though the ocean front is privately owned, the public functions there are no different than any other town. If the OG boardwalk is not rebuilt, it will have a negative impact on the entire region including neighboring places like Bradley Beach and Asbury Park.
These communities connect to each other via the boardwalk which is used by tourists and residents as they walk or bike from town to town. Without the continuity of the Grove’s boardwalk, people may choose to wander into the Grove rather than to find some alternate route into Asbury or Bradley, especially at night, or they might ignore the area altogether.
The failure of the Asbury Park Council to support Ocean Grove’s FEMA appeal has the potential to harm all the citizens and businesses in the Grove as well as in Asbury. It also creates a divide between two communities that have so much in common as neighbors and, ideally, as friends. The Council’s decision is self defeating and impossible to understand. The right thing to do for their citizens would have been to approve the resolution unanimously.
The people of Asbury Park need to pressure their elected officials to reconsider this bizarre decision.
LET’S BRING THE MAGIC BACK TO THE SHORE AND SUPPORT OCEAN GROVE’S RENEWAL