We attended both the executive session and the regular session of the Board of Commissioners this past week. In addition to reporting on the information presented at these meetings, we also want to let you all know about the following upcoming events:
Tom Beaty announced that there will be a second presentation of “Beach Replenishment 101” at the Beach Haven Volunteer Fire House on Wednesday, October 9th at 6:00 PM. This will be a similar presentation to the one in July at Tom’s home in Holgate, with additional discussion/participation by the US Army Corp of Engineers. If you live/own in Holgate or Beach Haven, please plan on attending. Dan Barone’s presentation alone is worth it. The physical changes that LBI has undergone in a visual time lapse are amazing.
A dune grass planting event is scheduled for Saturday, October 12th. Anyone interested in participating and helping the community is encouraged to meet in the south end Holgate parking lot at 10:30 am. Bring your dune grass planting tools with you. The dune grass planting that occurred on April 6th was very successful. We think that watering the plants was very valuable in this regard. If you have watering cans, bring them also.
A fall clean-up of all of Holgate is planned for Saturday, October 26th. Jersey Cares has 5,000 volunteers scheduled to help all the communities along the Jersey shore to acknowledge the one year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. One-hundred volunteers are available to Holgate. Tom Beaty and Bill Hutson will co-coordinate the morning’s activities. If you are interested in participating in another event designed to improve our community, please let us know. We are in the process of setting up the clean-up areas. If you have a preference as to where you would like to be assigned or know of a particular area of concern, let us know that also. More information will be forthcoming as to starting time and areas. We had an immensely successful clean-up on May 4th and look forward to having another one.
Board of Commissions Meetings:
Lattanzi
The Health Department is offering flu shots Monday through Friday from October 21st until November 1st. Flu shots are given from 10:00 am to noon at the ACME Parking Lot trailer. The Health Department is also offering free cancer screenings. Please refer to the Township web page for further details.
Bayard
Recycling materials should not be put in plastic bags. The County has reported that the plastic is jamming their equipment. Recyclables in plastic bags will not be picked up in the future.
Mancini
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Commissioners is scheduled for Friday, October 18th at 4:00 pm. The Mayor asked that all men plan on attending wear pink in acknowledgment of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The next meeting of the Land Use Board is scheduled for Wednesday, October 9th in the multi-purpose room.
The lights on the boulevard will be turned off on Monday, October 7th. He also mentioned that the Police Department will be enforcing the Keep Right – Pass Left law.
The 18 mile run sponsored by St. Francis and the Jewish Center will take place on Sunday, October 13th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
The Office of Emergency Management announced the postponement of the annual nuclear power plant drill scheduled for October 8th until further notice due to government shutdown.
The Mayor stated that he had met with a three star general from the ACE (Army Corps. of Engineers) and that he now expected that the reauthorization of the beach replenishment projects will be completed toward the end of the year. He stated that the beach replenishment project will begin in March as all properties would have been properly prepared for eminent domain to the satisfaction of the ACE.
We attended the executive session of the Board of Commissions on Monday. We brought up two issues; first the severe erosion of the dune at Beach One and the difficulty senior citizens were having gaining access to the beaches. The Township was well aware of the beach erosion issue and the Mayor asked Commissioner Bayard to address the problem. This week the Township has been working on the beach installing geo-tubes and pushing sand. This is a stopgap measure to protect the area until the beach replenishment project is completed. In regards to the beach access issue for seniors, this is the second time we raised this issue at a meeting. We had received a couple of e-mails from residents in the Susan Avenue area. We feel this problem will not be addressed before the beaches are replenished. One issue that is weighing heavily on the finances of the Township was stated at the executive session. Right now the Township has received only $859,000 of the $10,000,000 FEMA claim for clean-up and repairs almost one year after the storm. In the meantime, the Township had borrowed the money to finance the work and is incurring interest charges on the debt obligation. Getting the remaining work done in the south parking lot (rebuilding the bathhouse etc.) and repairing the park area at the Bond’s Life Saving Station are delayed so as to avoid additional debt that taxpayers would pay. With the government shutdown now for five days and with no end in sight, it’s anyone’s guess as to when the funds will be forthcoming.
