Sea Bright Library First Saturday Recital Will Celebrate Mother’s Day

May 7 is the first Saturday of the month which means the Sea Bright Library will be hosting its monthly organ recital and sing along.

Councilman Charlie Rooney launched the program earlier this year to give the organ pipes a workout and bring the community together to enjoy the library which is housed in the Sea Bright United Methodist Church.

Rooney has arranged for Judy Grimes to play the organ and lead the community in song. Grimes is bringing song books to help the participants sing along.

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend, May 6-8, 2016

By Greg Kelly

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Friday, May 6

• Colts Neck Kitchen Tour – MORE INFO
• Villainous Company by NJ Repertory Company (Long Branch) – MORE INFO
• Greenhouse Plant Sale at BCC (Lincroft) – MORE INFO
• MSHS Food Truck Fest (Middletown) – MORE INFO
• “And Then There Were None” by South Street Players (Spring Lake) – MORE INFO
• Red Bank Mayor’s Charity Ball – MORE INFO
• Paint the Town Pink ’16 Events – MORE INFO
• Avoiding Identity Theft (Shrewsbury) – MORE INFO
• The Little Mermaid at Count Basie Theatre (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

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N.J. revises, renames Common Core academic standards

TRENTON — Nearly a year after Gov. Chris Christie declared that Common Core academic standards were “simply not working” in New Jersey, the state has adopted a revised and renamed version with few substantial departures from the original. The state Board of Education on Wednesday gave final approval to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, a… Read the rest of this entry »

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Support Grows For Controversial Property Tax Assessment Program As Shrewsbury Opts Back In

A bi-partisan effort to explain the controversial pilot program for assessing Monmouth County properties, the Assessment Demonstration Program, is generating support for the program as one of the eight municipalities that opted out of the program has reenlisted and other towns are choosing to stay with the program that is reducing the amount of property tax appeals filed.

The biggest problem the program has faced is confusion between the alleged improprieties and conflicts of interests in the implementation of the program exposed by an Asbury Park Press series which instigated an investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the benefits and weaknesses of the program itself.

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Empty boxes: A list of the 20 N.J. towns where a Sports Authority will close

The announcement this week that Sports Authority will close all its stores nationwide sent another jolt through the commercial real estate industry. The nationwide retailer had originally released a smaller list of stores that it planned to close, but on Monday announced it would liquidate its holdings at auction May 16 and close all 140 stores… Read the rest of this entry »

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Blasting the myths and making the case for reasonable speed limits

By Declan O’Scanlon

The Asbury Park Press editorial board recently took a position AGAINST setting speed limits based on engineering criteria and FOR setting limits based on the hunches of unqualified elected officials and bureaucrats.  The position is so fundamentally flawed, so based on decades-old defunct myths, so devoid of any basis in actual fact, that it’s hard to decide where to begin.

My speed limit initiative is a simple one – set speed limits based on sound engineering criteria.  I would remove uninformed or profit-motivated elected officials and bureaucrats from the process. Traffic laws shouldn’t be based on the random hunches of any of us. Setting any law by hunch only diminishes the public’s confidence in ALL laws. That’s not a way to enhance safety anywhere. Why should the public take a 25 mph school speed limit seriously when we randomly post such speed limits all over – including stretches of roadway that should be posted at 40?  Don’t even get me started on the damage random limits have on the image of our police – who become the face of these arbitrary laws.

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend, April 29-May 1, 2016

By Greg Kelly

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Friday, April 29

• The Little Mermaid at Count Basie Theatre (Red Bank) – MORE INFO
• Crossing Delancey by Center Players (Freehold) – MORE INFO
• Arbor Day Tree Walk on Sandy Hook – MORE INFO
• New Jersey Marathon Weekend – MORE INFO
• Running Through Fire by Lighthouse Productions (Monmouth Beach) – MORE INFO
• NJHDA New Jersey Shipwreck Symposium (Wall Twp.) – MORE INFO
• Daffodils & Daiquiris: A Spring Open House (Middletown) – MORE INFO

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Judge: Belmar’s new pay to pay ordinance, “Matt’s Law” is not law

Doherty’s lawyer asks Court for a gag order

Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty

Freehold-Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Katie Gummer ruled Wednesday that the new pay to pay ordinance in Belmar, dubbed “Matt’s Law” in honor of Mayor Matt Doherty who the measure would  immediately benefit, is not law, has never been law and will not become law unless approved by Belmar voters in a referendum or unless the Court rules otherwise in coming weeks as a suit regarding a protest petition filed under the Falkner Act is further litigated.

For now, Doherty, who is running for Monmouth County Freeholder, and all candidates for office in Belmar are bound by the pay to play ordinances, passed in 2004 and amended in 2005 and 2011 (the current ordinance), that restrict campaign contributions from Belmar vendors, developers, liquor license holders and professionals to $300 and/or require that the office holders to recuse themselves from matters regarding the contributors that come before them.

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Joe Woerner resigns from Asbury Park Council to focus on his son’s health

Asbury Park Councilman Joe Woerner announced his resignation from the city’s governing body this evening in a poignant post on facebook wherein he publicly disclosed his family’s struggle with his son Michael’s genetic mutation which was diagnosed the month following his election in 2014.

Michael’s condition has recently taken a turn for the worse.

Woerner’s posted as follows:

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Twin Light Museum Reopens On 123rd Anniversary Of The Pledge Of Allegiance

By Muriel Smith

Senator Joseph Kyrillos, Sheriff Shaun Golden, Freeholders Serena DeMaso, Director Tom Arnone, Lillian Burry and John Curley and Highlands Business Partnership President Carla Braswell at the Twin Lights reopening with World War II and Korean War veteran Dick Seuffert of Middletown. Photo by Ken Braswell, ShoreGrafx.

HIGHLANDS – Close to 100 people joined Sheriff Shaun Golden and students from Rumson Country Day School in pledging allegiance to the flag in front of the Twin Lights, a scene enacted for the first time publicly at the same site 123 years ago April 25.

In a formal ceremony officially reopening the Museum at the historic lighthouse, Mary Jo Kenny, president of the Twin Lights Historical Society, welcomed guests to the 2016 season at the state-owned museum and introduced the program which followed the US Coast Guard honor guard presentation of the flag.  Golden led the group in saying the pledge as it was first recited at the site 123 years ago, and the current day passage, adopted in 1954.

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