Great Auditorium sign before Sandy hit Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Today, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association received word from Congressman Chris Smith’s office that the CMA has been awarded a $2,377,329.00 grant by FEMA toward the reconstruction of our boardwalk. It appears that these funds are primarily for the Phase 1 project involving the Middle Beach which stretches from the beach office by Embury, north to the Boardwalk Pavilion.
Officials of the CMA will meet with FEMA next week to discuss the exact parameters of this grant.
Dale Whilden, President of the CMA, said tonight that this announcement represents Congressional approval of the funding and that it is one of a number of final steps that have to be taken in this process.
Dr. Whilden said, in a statement tonight, that “we are grateful for the ongoing assistance and advocacy of Congressman Chris Smith, Governor Chris Christie, Mark Ferzan (Exec. Director of the Governor’s Office of Recovery and Rebuilding,) Ocean Grove’s state legislators State Sen. Jennifer Beck, Assemblywomen Caroline Casagrande and Mary Pat Angelini, Neptune Township Committeepersons specifically Mayors Randy Bishop and Eric Houghtaling, as well as Neptune Township official Mike Bascom, Rich Cuttrell and Vito Gadaleta.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank you to CMA President Dale Whilden for allowing Blogfinger to post this happy announcement ahead of other media. Rep. Chris Smith is obviously helping us to achieve our reconstruction goals here in Ocean Grove, but maybe he can find an opportunity to come to the Grove, visit the construction site, and meet some of our citizens.
The same for the Governor who has yet to go down to the ocean and see our construction site. He will probably be in town for the Law Enforcement Memorial on May 20. Perhaps he will take the time to walk down to the beachfront in view of all the visits he has made to nearby beach towns which were hit by Sandy, as we were. —-PG