Booker comes to Monmouth, Only Raises $25K

Selfie via twitter.

Senator Cory Booker’s fundraiser for the Monmouth County Democrats only yielded $25,000, according to a report on PolitickerNJ.

Booker has had much better nights in Hollywood and on Twitter than he had last night in the county he lost by 10,000 votes last year to former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.

Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal confirmed the take and said he was happy with it.

Democratic Freeholder candidate Larry Luttrell was excited in his remarks at the Wall Township home of Gary Faraci, the Wall Democrats only nominee for three Township Committee seats this fall.

“This is different. This isn’t like any other year. This year is special. We have a rock star on top of the ticket,” said Luttrell, of Holmdel, an attorney, as he pointed to Booker. “He’s here to help us, and that means a lot. We’re going to out work them, we’re going to out raise them, and we’re going to make it happen.”

OK Larry.

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Crematorium Has Oceanport Officials Hot

Oceanport officials are burning over the prospects of the Woodbine Cemetery installing a crematorium with a smoke stack in a residential neighborhood of the borough.

In a statement released by Councilman Joe Irace yesterday and posted on the Oceanport website , the borough complains that the only public notification that Woodbine Cemetery was seeking to build a crematorium was in a public notice published in the Home News, an Asbury Park Press affiliated publication that is distributed in Middlesex and Somerset counties.

The borough became aware of the situation via a letter from the Department of Environmental Protection informing them that Woodbine was seeking an Air Pollution Control Permit.

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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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The Arnone Report

Freeholder Tom Arone

By Monmouth County Freeholder Tom Arnone

At the last meeting of the Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Board authorized an award of bid for an asphalt recycler for the Department of Public Works and Engineering. This equipment will allow the Divisions of Bridge and Highway to take waste asphalt from construction projects throughout the year and turn it into high quality hot mix, re-using it for road repairs. This will reduce our disposal and operating costs, along with being environmentally friendly. The cost of the recycled material is 75% less than the cost for new material.

Last year the county spent over $150,000.00 for cold mix, base material and disposal of waste material. As an added benefit, every ton of asphalt the county recycles will benefit Freehold Township in the amount received from the State of New Jersey in their tonnage grant.

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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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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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