The Coaster

Coaster Photo

The owners of Giamanos restaurant in Bradley Beach and a potential developer there are hoping to get approval to demolish the building and redevelop the property.
Developer Steve Howe presented a preliminary plan for the redevelopment of the property on Main Street to the Bradley Beach Borough Council this week. He was also joined by a planner and architect who explained the merits of the project design.
“We went before the Planning Board and they referred numerous times that we should be before you,” Howe said to the council before revealing the preliminary rendering of the project, titled “Empire Lofts at Bradley Beach, LLC.”

Neptune officials believe they have found the recipe for success that will spur development at the former Garden State Hi-Tech site which straddles Route 18 at Route 66.
Three high-rise condominium units, a hotel and office and retail space will be allowed to be built at the site under an ordinance adopted by the Township Committee Monday night.
The amendment for residential to the redevelopment plan, which originally called for only office and high-technology industries, was approved by the Planning Board last month.

Candidates are already emerging in the upcoming race for mayor in Bradley Beach, although the deadline for filing is still a month away.

Among the hopefuls are two current Borough Council members, Gary Engelstad and Julie Schreck.
Mayor Stephen Schueler announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election after serving four terms as mayor.

Engelstad is in his second term as a councilman, having won the most votes in each of his elections. He said he feels this experience and support make him a prime candidate to take over the borough’s top position.

Coaster Photos by Tom Cardinale Thanks to the city’s Urban Enterprise Zone program the Asbury Park Police Department has three new cars in its fleet. UEZ representative Tom Gilmour said the three brand new Dodge Charger squad cars are “very different from anything we’ve had before.” The $80,000 price tag for the cars was funded by the UEZ.

By DON STINE
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association has been ordered to pay about $20,000 in rollback property taxes for their boardwalk pavilion after state officials determined the property is not tax exempt.
Neptune Tax Assessor Bernard Haney said the tax due is about $6,500 for each of the years 2005 through 2007.
This is an estimated amount, plus or minus, he said.
The Ocean Grove beach, boardwalk and open-air pavilion were part of the state Green Acres program that made it tax exempt.

Vincent G. Buttiglieri will begin working March 10

Vincent G. Buttiglieri

By DON STINE
Vincent G. Buttiglieri, the current municipal clerk of South Plainfield, was sworn in last Friday as the new Township Clerk of Ocean Township, winning the job from a field of about 70 applicants.
He replaces outgoing clerk Deborah J. Smith, who is retiring at the end of the month after working in the township for 32 years.
I am very excited to be here. Debbie has laid a lot of the ground work and I hope to step in and continue her good work here. I am looking forward to it, Buttiglieri, 43, said.
This seems to be a community that is very involved and is everything a township should be, he said.

The PBA Local 6, which includes members from the Asbury Park and Interlaken Police Departments, is offering a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the suspect who fired at a uniformed Asbury Park police officer on Feb. 7.
At approximately 4:30 a.m. the officer was exiting an apartment building at the corner of Deal Lake Drive and Kingsley Street when an unknown subject fired multiple shots at him, shattering the glass door to the apartment building.

The officer was not hit and didn’t return fire and the suspect fled the scene and could not be located.

Coaster Photo Larry Cross is retiring as a bus driver for the Ocean Township school district after almost 20 years

By TOM CARDINALE
A familiar face will soon be missing from Ocean Township students’ morning commute.
Veteran township bus driver Larry Cross plans to retire at the end of the month after almost 20 years of service.
Cross, 61, of Neptune City, began his career as a bus driver in 1988 after retiring from his first career in banking.
“I was a branch manager at a bank. I retired from that after 20 years,” he said.
“I was looking for something to do and a friend of mine suggested I try this,” he continued. “He retired a long time ago but he got me into it.”