Meters Planned for City Parking Garage
By DON STINE The state-owned parking garage on Bangs Avenue in Asbury Park (pictured above) will eventually have pay-to–park meters installed, similar to ones already in place in the downtown area and at the beachfront. “Let’s keep moving forward (on providing new parking in the city). This is a good idea so let’s do it,” said Councilman John Loffredo, who is also a member of the city’s parking committee. The garage, at the intersection with Emory Street, has more than 200 parking spaces that are used primarily by state workers employed at a nearby building on weekdays. On Fridays…
3 Candidates Seeking GOP Support in Interlaken Primary
By DON STINE Three Interlaken Republicans and one Democrat are seeking their party’s nod in the June 3 primary to run for two, three-year terms on the Borough Council in this November’s general election. Former Mayor Robert Wolf III, John Gunn and Mindy Horowitz are running in the GOP primary. Incumbent Councilman Robert Napoli is the only candidate running as a Democrat so he is guaranteed a spot on the November ballot. One of the three GOP primary candidates will also not be on the ballot after votes are cast June 3. The question is: which one? One of…
After 114 Years Clayton Press Closing Its Doors
Above – David Roszel, owner of The Clayton Press in Asbury Park, said he is closing next month after 114 years in the city. – Coaster Photo By DON STINE One of Asbury Park’s oldest businesses will be closing at the end of May and with it goes a way of printing that served the city well for more than a century. The Clayton Press, at 412 Bond St., is going out of business. Founded in 1900, the print shop has served people from Asbury Park founder James A. Bradley, through the Great Depression and two World Wars, up…
Neptune City School Budget Features Tax Rate Increase
By DON STINE Neptune City residents will see a 4.9 cent increase in their 2014/2015 school tax rate under a budget introduced on March 25. The total $8,369,442 budget is down $64,455 from last year’s $8,433,897 total budget. The public hearing is scheduled for April 29. School Business Administrator Bill Folk said the total budget is down because the district saw less revenue in the new budget. “Revenues drive appropriations and the less revenue, the less appropriations we can have,” he said. The tax levy, or the amount to be raised through taxation, has increase to $5,566,358, up $211,658…
City Woman Hospitalized After Fire
By DON STINE A 76-year-old woman was hospitalized March 27 after a fire broke out in her fifth-floor apartment in the Munroe Towers in Asbury Park. Fire department spokesperson Garrett Giberson said that Jessie Wise was rescued from her apartment by Asbury Park firefighters Paul Annunziata and Brett Nielson. Wise was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune for smoke inhalation and evaluation. Wise was found under the bed covers in her bedroom in unit 5-N. The fire call came in at 10:47 a.m. and residents on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of the 15-story residential…
Residents Concerned About Deal Lake Project
By DON STINE Concerned residents, environmentalists and sportsmen said they will continue to pressure the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over a controversial beach replenishment project that may clog the Deal Lake flume in Asbury Park and prevent fishing from spawning. The Army Corps also wants to notch around six jetties between Asbury Park and Long Branch. About 100 people attended a rally March 2 at Deal Lake to protest plans to replenish a 3.5-mile section of beach stretching from Lake Takanassee in the Elberon section of Long Branch to Deal Lake. “Our main concern is a free-flowing flume…
Residents, Agencies to Rally for Saving Deal Lake
By DON STINE Deal Lake will experience increased flooding and fish will be prevented from spawning under a plan being pursued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, local officials and environmentalists said this week. “The flume from the lake will be plugged up with sand and the only way to get water out of the lake will be by pumping it out- which is crazy,” said Joseph Pallotto president of the Asbury Park Fishing Club, the oldest such club in America. A protest will be held at 5 p.m. Fri., March 21 at the Eighth Avenue jetty in Asbury…
Shark River Dredging Hits Dead End
By DON STINE Plans to dredge the Shark River hit a dead end last week after state officials said a proposed dewatering site for dredge project was not a viable economic option. In a March 6 letter, state Sen. Jennifer Beck and Monmouth County Freeholder Thomas Arnone advised the Monmouth County Park System that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) said it will not fund placing dredge spoils on a 16-acre tract on the river’s edge at the county’s Shark River Park, off Old Corlies Avenue. The letter said that the DOT ruled that the use of the park…
Building a better Asbury Park through redesign
By DON STINE So many people turned out in Asbury Park March 4 to hear more about Rebuild by Design, a federally-funded competition seeking to design permanent solutions to minimize damage caused by future severe storms, that another presentation was added. A standing-room-only crowd packed the first 7 p.m. session in the main viewing room at the Showroom on Cookman Avenue. Tuesday’s presentations were to garner public comment about the program. “Community feedback is a major criteria,” said Alexis Taylor, a project manager for the design competition. Ten teams, from Connecticut to New Jersey, are part of the Rebuild…
Vote Next Week on Shark River Dredging Plan
By DON STINE The future of the Shark River will probably be determined on Mon., March 10 by the Monmouth County Board of Recreation Commissioners, which will vote on moving approvals forward on a controversial 16-acre dewatering site for the proposed river dredging project. Proponents and opponents of the project attended the recreation commissioner’s meeting on Feb. 24 at Thompson Park in Lincroft. Another meeting, also at the park, will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 10 when a vote will be taken on moving the recommendation to use a dewatering site in Neptune on to the…
