New Jersey Natural Gas announces lower rates

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Freeholder Director Burry, Steve and Maureen Van Zandt and Mary Eileen Fouratt honored by Count Basie

Freeholder Director Lillian Burry, Steven Van Zandt, Maureen Van Zandt and Mary Eillen Fouratt, Executive Director of Monmouth Arts at Count Basie Theatre, August 22 for the presentation of the Vanguard Awards.

RED BANK, NJ – Monmouth County Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry was honored with a Vanguard Award by the Count Basie Theatre.

“It is an honor to be chosen as one of the first recipients of the Vanguard Awards,” Burry said. “I believe that art and history are the foundation of our society and it is essential to maintain a strong presence of the arts in our communities.”

The Vanguard Awards took place on Aug. 22. Vanguard Awards were also given to E-Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt and his wife Maureen Van Zandt and Monmouth County Arts Council executive director Mary Eileen Fouratt.

The evening featured a Rockit Woodstock reprisal performed by students aged 8 to 18.

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U.S. State Dept. officials tour County Connection

County office is participating in national pilot program

Freeholder John Curley, County Clerk M. Claire French, U.S. Passport Chief Brenda Sprague, Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and Freeholder Tom Arnone at the County Connection in Neptune, August 28, 2014

NEPTUNE, NJ – Chief of the U.S. State Department’s Passport Office, Brenda Sprague, toured the Monmouth County Connection yesterday with County Clerk M. Claire French and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

“It is an honor for the Monmouth County Connection to be recognized by the U.S. Department of State as a Leading Acceptance facility and chosen to participate in a national pilot program studying customer service,” said Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry. “The Connection’s enhanced services include extended hours, photo services and walk-in availabilities, which provide the American traveling public with a more convenient, seamless passport application process.”

In April 2014, the U.S. Department of State designated the County Connection as a Leading Acceptance Facility. As a result of this honor, the Monmouth County Connection has been chosen to participate in a customer service-oriented pilot program to help the Department of State better understand customer preferences. Only eight passport acceptance facilities, out of 8,500, were chosen to participate.

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this Labor Day weekend, August 29-September 1, 2014

By Greg Kelly

Friday, August 29

• Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair – MORE INFO

• Joan Rivers at Count Basie Theatre (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• Canterbury Art Show (Rumson) – MORE INFO

• Gabrielle Stravelli (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• Shore Blue Band (Belmar) – MORE INFO

• Campfire on the Beach on Sandy Hook – MORE INFO

• Labor Day Weekend Sidewalk Sale at Pier Village (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Canoeing on Sandy Hook Bay – MORE INFO

• Seining at Horseshoe Cove – MORE INFO

• Lucky Me at NJ Repertory Theatre (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Bus Stop at First Ave Playhouse (Atlantic Highlands) – MORE INFO

• Car Show Art Show (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• Yoga for Adults (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• Ocean Grove Antiques & Collectibles Auction – MORE INFO

• Comedian Frank Santos, Jr. (Freehold) – MORE INFO

• Uncle Funky (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

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

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

• Kids Night Out (Fair Haven) – MORE INFO

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ObamaCare puts Monmouth County’s nursing homes in peril

UPDATE: August, 27, Curley pulls nursing home sale resolution

Freeholder John Curley called this morning to say that he has pulled his resolution to sell the Monmouth County owned nursing homes from this week’s agenda. County CFO Craig Marshall is on vacation.  Curley wants Marshall available to address all of the financial concerns regarding the proposed sale. Curley expects to reintroduce the resolution in September.

Reductions in Medicaid payments for long term care under the Affordable Care Act have led to increasing deficits at Monmouth County’s two government owned nursing homes.

The John L. Montgomery Care Center in Freehold and the Geraldine L. Thompson Care Center in Wall are owned and operated by Monmouth County’s government. Property tax payers have been subsidizing the long term care of the elderly, disabled and infirm residing in these facilities for decades.  From 2007 through 2013 the cumulative deficit funded by Monmouth property tax payers was about $40 million.  Despite cost cutting measures and union givebacks, the combined deficit this year is on track to exceed $13 million plus the cost of repairs and capital improvements required to keep the facilities in compliance with state and federal regulations, due to cutbacks in the amount that Medicaid pays for patient care under ObamaCare.  98% of the patients at Montgomery and Thompson are insured by Medicaid.

Freeholder John Curley has been pushing his colleagues on the all Republican Board of Chosen Freeholders to sell the nursing homes for years.  Every time the issue gets traction or public attention, patients in wheelchairs  and staff members of the nursing facilities show up at Freeholder meetings and plead with the Freeholders not to sell the facilities.  The patients’ stories are heart wrenching. The declarations of love for their patients by the staff members are moving.

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Avon Man Charged in Rumson overdose death

Michael Renna, 25 of Avon-by-the Sea, was charged today with the October 2013 overdose death of Christopher L. Pesce, a 25 year old resident of Oxford House, a drug rehabilitation transitional facility located in Rumson.

Renna is charged with one count of first degree Strict Liability for Drug Induced Deaths and one count of third degree Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous.  He was released from the Monmouth County Correctional Institution after posting $210,000 in bail as set by Judge John R. Tassini, according to Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Marc LeMieux.

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Attention Highlands and Sea Bright residents: Your input matters

New Jersey Future has teamed up with a research scientist from Carnegie Mellon University to support Highlands and Sea Bright in our effort to develop a long-term resiliency plan.  One part of this support involves reaching out to and engaging with the public to talk about flooding risk and plausible solutions. To that end, they developed a short survey to understand how best to talk about these issues with community members.

Please help our community in its plan for recovery and resiliency.This 10-15 minute survey will ask about your beliefs on flooding and flooding risk. Your answers will help Highlands, Sea Bright and New Jersey Future make plans for long-term community resiliency.  In a few months, New Jersey Future will publish a summary of the answers given by the community.

Here is the link to the survey:  http://njfuture.org/risksurvey

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People In Love May Be Having Better Sex

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Shake Up At The Asbury Park Press

Hollis Towns, APP’s Editor of the Future. Photo via facebook

Editors and writers at the Asbury Park Press are vying to keep their jobs in Executive Editor Hollis R. Towns’ “Newsroom of the Future.”

Gannett, the owner of the paper, announced on August 5 that it is separating into two publicly held companies.  APP will be part of a  publishing company that will be debt free and own the company’s newspapers including USA Today and 81 local daily newspapers and their affiliated websites.  The more profitable broadcasting  and digital divisions will be folded into a company that will assume the existing debt and consists of the 46 television stations the company owns or services as well as the websites Cars.com and CareerBuider.com.  The publishing company will retain the Gannett name.

The following day, Towns announced on app.com and the paper’s front page that he, along with the executive editors of four other of Gannett properties were charged with creating the “newsroom of the future.”  There will be fewer editors and more reporters who will hang out in coffee shops and delis hunting for stories that they will be able to post to app.com without a gatekeeper reviewing their work.  And there will be public events like the Sleep Con event they hosted with an advertiser earlier this month where readers could pay $10 to learn how to sleep better by buying a mattress from the advertiser.

What Towns didn’t announce publicly was that current Asbury Park Press employees had to apply to keep their jobs.  “To be hired into the Newsroom of the Future” is how is was spun in Neptune.

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Spend a Night in Cardboard Box City 2014

Friday, September 26 Cardboard Box City for Family Promise of Monmouth County

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