Sent by Estella: 1904 “..was up and down the boardwalk until 9:30 o’clock.”
On June 3, Frank S., a resident of Ocean Grove, commented regarding our failure to obtain FEMA funding. He said, “Could OGCMA place a special assessment of $250 to $500 on its approximately 3000 homeowners/tenants ??”
No one reacted to his suggestion, even though the idea could have produced $1.5 million. Now we see that there is a precedent going back to 1885.
Rich Amole, amateur OG history sleuth, found this news item in a long out-of-print book called “The Story of Ocean Grove…1869-1919.” The book was copyright in 1919 by the author Morris Daniels, a trustee of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.
Rich says, “That paragraph is on page 265 and relates to a storm of 11/25/1885.”
The book goes on to say that the citizens responded with “spirit” and that “the responses were a great encouragement to the Association.” The assessments were voluntary. The total expense, including the repairs to the sewer amounted to $6,500.00 with the remaining $1,500.00 paid by the CMA.
J.H. Thornley, one of the members of the Executive Committee and D.H. Brown, Esq, the treasurer, “drove the nails next to the last, and the president the last in the the new boardwalk at 11:40 am, June 18 1885. …..refreshments and general congratulations followed.”
As many of you know, there were quite a few destructive storms that clobbered the Grove over the ensuing years, and there were a number of boardwalks and piers that were rebuilt by the OGCMA and perhaps the citizens as well.
At no time, until 1992, did the Federal government (FEMA) ever help with rebuilding a boardwalk here. At that time, the government had decided that it was its responsibility to help communities after bad storms, and that n’oreaster caused horrid damage to the beachfront.
In 1993 the rules were changed, and we have now been excluded by FEMA because of a technicality. FEMA has focused on the ownership of the boardwalk instead of focusing on our citizens who deserve to have their very public boardwalk restored by FEMA, so as to provide us with the same economic, safety, emergency, life style and access advantages that other neighboring towns have.
In addition, the CMA, in 1885, recognized that a boardwalk improved the financial value of all the homes in the Grove. Those of you homeowners in town who cheered FEMA for denying help to the CMA are out of step with history, with fair logic and with your own financial interest.
—Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Annette Hanshaw–“It All Depends on You.”