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.
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.”
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