Christie will hold Town Hall Meeting in Belmar, Weds, July 30

The next stop on Governor Chris Christie’s “No Pain, No Gain” tour on the Jersey Shore will be held in Belmar next Wednesday, 3PM, at the  Huisman Gazebo, 500 Ocean Ave.

Christie kicked off the tour in Long Beach Island on Tuesday where he said he would be proposing a plan to save New Jersey from bankruptcy by the end of this summer. The work-in-progress plan will focus on reducing pensions and benefits for public workers.

“There are going to be some really difficult things,” Christie said. “There’s not a lot of places left to do things except to look at a whole different variety of ways to reduce benefits or to increase contributions by employees.”

Residents can RSVP for the Belmar event to TownHall.Belmar@gov.state.nj.us

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Preserve Bradley Cove? Why? For Who?

Lots of Open Space at Bradley Cove, July 23, 2014

There was a great deal of Open Space on the beach at Bradley Cove in Asbury Park yesterday afternoon. Yesterday was a gorgeous beach day.

Just to the north in Loch Arbour and Allenhurst, there was a lot less Open Space.

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend, July 25-27, 2014

By Greg Kelly

Friday, July 25

• Toby Keith at PNC Bank Arts Center (Holmdel) – MORE INFO

• Monmouth County Fair – MORE INFO

• Oklahoma! at Algonquin Arts Theatre (Manasquan) – MORE INFO

• A Few Good Men at Duncan Smith Theatre (Holmdel) – MORE INFO

• Seining at the Bayshore (Port Monmouth) – MORE INFO

• Summer Sidewalk Sale at Pier Village (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Red Bank Sidewalk Sale – MORE INFO

• Roving Park System Naturalist at Perrineville Lake Park (Millstone) – MORE INFO

• Apps and Games Workshop (Middletown) – MORE INFO

• Uncle Funky (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• Littoral Learners on Sandy Hook – MORE INFO

• Outdoor Stargazing (Bradley Beach) – MORE INFO

• Canoeing in Sandy Hook Bay – MORE INFO

• Crustacean of the Day in Sandy Hook Bay – MORE INFO

• Life’s Funny That Way: An Evening of Music Theater (Middletown) – MORE INFO

• Joes vs. Jocks Mini Golf Festival at Monmouth Park (Oceanport) – MORE INFO

• Flight of the Monarch Butterfly (Middletown) – MORE INFO

• Wayland at The Saint (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• Cheers Elephant at The Wonder Bar (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• Beatlemania Stage Show (WLB) – MORE INFO

• DC Comics Fan Day (Holmdel) – MORE INFO

• Book Sale at Freehold Public Library – MORE INFO

• Shakespeare by the Sea (Spring Lake) – MORE INFO

• Shakespeare at the Beach (Bradley Beach) – MORE INFO

• Bluegrass Mini Golf at Monmouth Park (Oceanport) – MORE INFO

• D-Day Exhibit at NJ National Guard Militia Museum (Sea Girt) – MORE INFO

• Martha’s Vineyard Weekend Trip via Seastreak (Highlands) – MORE INFO

• Sin, Sex and the CIA at First Ave Playhouse (Atlantic Highlands) – MORE INFO

• The Last 5 Years at ReVision Theatre (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• Crazy For You at Spring Lake Community Theatre – MORE INFO

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Monmouth Dems mimick Pallone’s squinting

Devoid of ideas of how to improve Monmouth County’s government and running on so called “issues” that have failed in the last few campaigns, the Monmouth County Democratic Freeholder candidates, Larry Luttrell and Joe Grillo are apparently hoping they can win in November by mimicking Congressman Frank Pallone’s odd facial expressions.  Even their campaign volunteers are doing it.

Luttrell and Grillo have been handing out literature that blame Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and Deputy Director Gary Rich for the misdeeds of Peter Burnham at Brookdale Community College and Andrew Lucas’s alleged misdeeds in the the sale of development rights to a farm that he owns to the farmland preservation program.

That’s like blaming Derek Jeter for A-Rod using steroids. Monmouth County voters didn’t fall for it last year and won’t likely fall for it this year, leaving Luttrell and Grillo to do the Pallone squint.

Pallone is kicking off his campaign with a BB-Q on Sunday afternoon.  It won’t be on Greg’s List, but click here if you want to RSVP to eat Frank’s free food.

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Spend $500, get a FREE Pound of Butter

I like butter.

Maybe the Azzolina and Scaduto families that run Food Circus-Foodtown bought a marketing program that spits out rewards for products their customers like, but the “NOT COUPONS” I received the last couple of days are not motivating me to fill the freezer by Thursday by purchasing another $350.19 worth of groceries.

The four sticks of free butter if I spend $350.19 by Thursday doesn’t make me feel appreciated either.

That their staff greets with me a smile and some of them know me by name makes me feel appreciated.   The gift cards, free turkeys or hams, at Thanksgiving and Christmas make me feel appreciated.  But I would shop there even if they didn’t do those giveaways.

That Food Circus-Foodtown opened in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, before they had power, so that Bayshore residents could get non-perishable food, really makes me appreciate them.

Lou Scaduto and his team run a fine business.  They missed the mark with this promotion.

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A Shore Thing To Help Sandy Impacted Families

The Foundation to Save the Jersey Shore is hosting a “high-spirited, beach-casual” fundraiser at Windows on the Water, Thursday July 24 at 6 PM.  Tickets are only $75, almost all of which will go directly to families and individuals who are still displaced after Hurricane Sandy.  The food, alcohol and entertainment have all been donated.

Co-founded by businessmen Warren Diamond, NFL Veteran Phil Villapiano and Kevin Leahy after they personally witnessed the destruction of Sandy in their own and surrounding communities on the Jersey Shore, The Foundation to Save the Jersey Shore assists local families, businesses and municipal leaders in rebuilding. Click here to read some of what they have accomplished.

“The news media may have moved on from the devastation of Sandy, but we haven’t,” Diamond said, “Although much of the visual damage has been addressed through repair and demolition, we are looking at thousands of our neighbors who are still struggling to get back into their homes. They are committed and tenacious—they refuse to walk away, and that keeps us focused and inspired.”

Tickets to the event can be purchased here.

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Marlboro Council Passes Political Sign Restrictions

Over the objections of citizens who urged them not to restrict their 1st Amendment Rights and to avoid expensive litigation, the Marlboro Township Council unanimously passed an ordinance that prohibits the placement of temporary political signs on public property and rights of way, limits the time before and after an election that signs may appear on private property and rights of way adjacent to private property, and regulates the size of signs and the distance they may appear from each other on private property.

At the request of Councilman Frank LaRocca, the ordinance was amended to eliminate the imposition of a 90 day jail sentence for violating the ordinance.  Candidates, Committee Chairmen, Campaign Treasurers and private property owners now face fines ranging from $100 to $1250 if signs appear more than 45 days before an election, 7 days after an election or if signs promoting the same candidate are posted within 50 feet of each other on the same property.  The total square footage of all political signs on any one tax lot must not exceed 16 square feet.

Matthew Rasmussen, an attorney representing the Marlboro Republican Committee told the council during the public hearing prior to the adoption of the ordinance that it contained numerous “constitutional infirmities, some of them fatal” and urged the governing body to defeat the ordinance in order to avoid expensive litigation that they would certainly lose.

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“Unlike” News12

By Art Gallagher

News12 New Jersey has effectively fired reporter Sean Bergin for telling the truth.

In a report about Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago’s murder, Bergin went off script and closed the segment by saying, “The underlying cause of all of this, of course: Young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.”

News12 executives responded by proving Bergin’s point about the spineless media. They suspended him and then offered him a one day a week job, for $300 per week, covering fluff like broken fire hydrants or other inane subjects.  They covered their asses by saying the discipline was for breaking company policy.  Bergin turned them down and quit.

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Two River Times Is Sold

Domenic DiPiero, the new owner of the Two River Times. photo via uhnj.org

RedBankGreen is reporting that the news weekly, The Two River Times‘s, ownership has changed hands.

Domenic DiPiero, founder and president of Newport Capital Group bought the paper from Mickey Gooch, founder and president of GFI Group under terms that have not been disclosed.

DiPiero is a lifelong Two Rivers area resident, according to an announcement of the paper’s sale posted on it’s website on Monday.

“I look forward to continuing the great tradition that The Two River Times has built. I want the newspaper to continue to be a source of pride and news in the community,” DiPiero said, according to the TRT announcement.

Gooch, and his now ex-wife Diane, bought the paper from Geraldo Rivera in 2004.

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Marlboro GOP Poised To Challenge New Sign Ordinance

A proposed Marlboro temporary sign ordinance on the agenda for adoption by the Township Council on Thursday evening July 17 has Marlboro Republicans contemplating a federal court challenge should the all Democratic Council enact the measure.

Mayor Jon Hornik, named the best mayor in New Jersey in an unscientific PolitickerNJ poll earlier this month after the Township’s resident email list was used to rally online votes, told MMM that political signs create clutter and traffic safety issues in the Township and that his administration has been working on an solution that protects free speech rights while improving public safety since 2008.  “It’s not just local races, but every level…county, state, and federal.  Marlboro gets littered with campaign signs every fall,” Hornik said, “It is a safety issue that has gotten worse since the Board of Education elections were moved to November. The council has been working hard to make sure the safety and clutter issues are addressed while at the same time protecting free speech rights.  I will support what they come up with.”

The proposed ordinance, which can be found here, would prohibit temporary political signs on Township property and public rights of way, with the exception of rights of way adjacent to private property (that strip of land between sidewalks and curbs), regulate the size of signs to 16 square feet, and allow signs to be placed on private property only 45 days prior to an election or event and seven days after an election. Candidates, Committee Chairmen, Campaign Treasurers and private property owners with signs on rights of way adjacent to their property would be subject to fines ranging from$100 to $1250 and/or 90 days in jail for violations.

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