City Businesses Hear Details of Revitalized Urban Enterprise Zone
By ED SALVAS Asbury Park has a lot to gain from participation in the state’s Urban Enterprise Zone Program. That was the message this week delivered to about 45 members of the business community at breakfast meeting held by the Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce with Sen. Vin Gopal and James Simmons, Business Development Representative for the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Program, part of the state Department of Community Affairs. Asbury Park was active in the former UEZ program which ran from 1983 until it was closed down n 2010 by the Christie Administration. It was revitalized by legislation…
Family-Owned Neptune Insurance Agency Marks 40 Years
By ED SALVAS When Ruston “Rus” Sitren opens the Dirus, Inc. Insurance Agency on June 1, it will mark the start of the 41st year in business for Sitren and his wife Diane. The agency they started in 1978 continues to operate at the same location, 1142 Corlies Ave, Rte. 33 in Neptune. Rus Sitren had been working for another agency when he had an opportunity to buy his own business and took it. His wife was working for a chemical company and they needed the steady paycheck, so she didn’t join the family business until four years…
Fire Marshal Giberson Receiving Spirit of Asbury Park Award
By ED SALVAS Asbury Park Fire Marshal Garrett Giberson has been named recipient of the 2018 Chamber of Commerce Spirit of Asbury Park Carousel Award. Giberson will receive the award at a Gala Dinner on May 11 in Convention Hall. His immediate response on learning about his selection was how honored he is to receive the award especially because it is named for Joan Flatley, the former Chamber Executive Director, who has been a friend for more than 30 years. Giberson explained that at one time Flatley shared an office with his father, Beach Director Garrett Giberson, Sr. across from the…
Biergarten Owner to Receive Chamber’s Visionary Award
By ED SALVAS Jennifer Lampert says she is a true “Jersey Girl,” but her career has taken her from the Garden State to many places around the world before she settled in Asbury Park as the managing owner of the Asbury Festhalle and Biergarten. Lampert will receive the Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce Visionary Award at the annual Carousel Awards Gala May 11 for her work as the managing owner of the Lake Avenue establishment that opened in February of 2015. Formerly called Economic Development, the visionary name fits Lampert and her partners who have created one of the city’s most…
City Business Owner Named One of the Best Women in Business
By ED SALVAS Jennifer Schulman, president of Fortune Web Marketing in Asbury Park, has been named one of the Best 50 Women in Business in the Garden State by NJBIZ.com. Schulman is head of the ten-year-old company that has grown from a two-person web design firm into a major Internet business with a staff of 16 and a suite of offices in the historic Asbury Park Press building on Mattison Avenue. Fortune Web Marketing has a client list extending from the Jersey Shore to California and across the globe, including an office in the Los Angeles area. Schulman began…
In Ocean: Residents Angry Over Proposed Development
By ED SALVAS The Mon., Nov. 27 meeting of the Ocean Township Planning Board drew a near capacity crowd anticipating the board’s review of an ordinance amending the township Master Plan which would allow for the development of a large property at Route 35 and Deal Road. The meeting was held in the large meeting room because of the anticipated large audience. The property in question, 28 acres including some designated wetlands, is the last remaining privately owned land on Route 35 where the owner, Paramount Realty, proposes building a 112-room Marriott Hotel and a Wawa gas station and…
Triumphant Life Church Leaves City, New Congregation Moves In
By ED SALVAS Asbury Park is known for its many houses of worship, large and small, and has recently seen a change take place at one of them. Triumphant Life Assembly of God, led by Pastor Lyddale Akins and his wife, Traci Akins, has left Asbury Park and moved to a new location at Fort Monmouth. The church has purchased the former post chapel and expanded their reach into several new communities. At the same time, the newly formed Boardwalk Vineyard Church has moved into their old church at 1003 Asbury Ave. The smaller Boardwalk Vineyard had been holding…
Sunset Lake Park Conservatory Makes Plans for the Future
By ED SALVAS A new organization formed to make Asbury Park’s Sunset Lake Park a year-round recreational and environmental habitat has begun making plans to carry out its mission. The Sunset Lake Park Conservancy held its first fundraiser at the home of Celia Morrissette and Keith Johnson and raised about $3,400 dollars to get started on what will be an ongoing project to preserve the lake and park. Sunset Lake and park are located between Fifth and Sunset Avenues and from Webb Street to Main Street. That includes St. John’s Island which is a park within the park with…
Asbury Park’s Director of Communications Leaving Post
By ED SALVAS Hannah Walker, Director of Communications for Asbury Park, has announced she’s leaving after 18-months to take a job at the Two River Theater in Red Bank. Walker said she’s leaving to join the Two River Theater as Institutional Marketing Manager, a newly-created position, and will be responsible for the theater’s subscription and group sales, event rentals, the summer camp and classes offered at the theater. Walker became Asbury Park’s Director of Communications in January of 2016, filling a newly-created position to manage the city’s website, social media and press relations. She also writes the “Greetings from…
Asbury Park Footbridge to Open
By ED SALVAS One of the last reminders of the damage caused by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 is about to disappear as replacement of the footbridge over Sunset Lake in Asbury Park nears completion. Work to replace the 280-foot pedestrian bridge across Sunset Lake between Fifth and Sunset Avenues has been underway since late November of last year and all that remains is the installation of railings, according to Jason Harzold, of T & M Associates, the City’s Engineer. “We hope to have the bridge open by the second week of June, hopefully before that,” Harzold said. He added…
