Good afternoon, in case some of you are not aware, I wanted to share with you some information which was placed on the Holgate Update Facebook page by HTA Trustee, Marianne Hurley. The information was provided at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Commissioners convened on Friday, February 1st. I hesitated a bit in getting this information out to the members as some were telling me to quell my enthusiasm as the signed easements were not in hand. However, the Mayor stated at Friday’s meeting that there was only one remaining holdout, 4303 S. Long Beach Blvd. She also made some other very important comments that may be crucial for some Holgate homeowners. Below are Marianne’s comments:
The biThe bi-monthly township meeting was held today and there were about 35 people in attendance. The great news is that we are down to ONE HOLDOUT —- BUNNY (MARILYN) KAUFMAN. See my separate post on this please. Holgate will be the first to get beach replenishment when we get her on board, and Mayor Mancini and Commissioner Lattanzi are heading to D. C. this month to seek funds for the Island. He is asking for 135 million, and with the replenishment he also hopes to have two dredgers working. He has also spoken with the head man in Harry Reid’s office regarding FEMA and our insurance, and received a call from FEMA this morning, but he didn’t divulge what was said. They also hope to have the parking lot built by late Spring, but it might not be cement yet. They are also reminding people that house tear down trash is the home owner’s responsibility, and if they have to get it after 10 days, you will be fined and a tax lien put on your house in the amount of 18%. They also want all houses that are going to be demolished down by March 1st. If you are having problems getting your funds from insurance the township will “lend” you the money on a 75- 25% basis until the money arrives. Call his office for more details.
This past week my wife, Kathy, has been on the phone with Bunny Kaufman on several occasions. We were working with her and the Mayor to try to get them to speak with each other directly on the phone. The effort came to a screeching halt at the end of the week as Bunny would not make the call to the Mayor and insisted that we talk to her attorney, Ken Porro. As you may know Ken Porro, dubbed “Dune Buster”, was recently successful in persuading the Superior Court to dismiss a NJDEP lawsuit which sought the taking of private property without compensation in Surf City. Prior to that he won an Ocean City, New Jersey case which mandates that loss of ocean view and access is an “unconstitutional taking” unless the property owner is compensated. In our conversations with Bunny, she said she favored beach replenishment and it wasn’t about the money but she just wanted to make sure she had direct private access to the beach and she could see over the dunes. We had also spoken to Ken Porro on one occasion and basically he told us that the Township should do the “right thing” and condemn the property. The stated goal of the client and the client’s attorney do not appear to be the same. Nonetheless, even if we had 100% signed easements today, we have another Hurricane season to endure, which begins in only four months. Let us all pray that Mother Nature spares Holgate of another near direct hit as we will be hard pressed to withstand even a glancing blow in our current condition. You would think Bunny would have understood this as she viewed her house perched atop pilings with no sand under, in front of, behind and next to her house. Sandy demonstrated that the need to protect Holgate from a major storm was no longer a theoretical exercise.
Daniel Macone