Will closed beach forfeit Sandy funds?
(Alexandra Pais | For NJ Advance Media)Alexandra Pais | For NJ Advance Media)j
**This post contains a Letter to the Editor written by Ed Neafsey, published in the Star Ledger on October 9, 2023. The full letter can be found at the following link: https://www.nj.com/opinion/2023/10/for-unbiased-coverage-stop-quoting-hamas-letters.html?outputType=amp **
Updated: Oct. 9, 2023, 5:54 p.m.
Published: Oct. 9, 2023, 5:41 p.m.
By: Ed Neafsey
Known as “God’s square mile,” Ocean Grove is a lovely town. Its people greet anyone walking the boardwalk with a friendly “hello.” But the owner of the boardwalk and beach within Neptune Township, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (OGCMA), is not as welcoming.
Based on its Christian roots, OGMCA denied public access to the beach for three hours every Sunday morning this summer by placing chains across the boardwalk’s nine entrances to the beach.
A Star-Ledger editorial correctly noted this violates the state public-trust doctrine.
According to a recent lawsuit that OGMCA has filed in order to retain the policy, the group states that the closures promote “an unhurried morning stroll on a less crowded boardwalk” that “has emotional, spiritual, and bodily health benefits.
Hurricane Sandy destroyed every boardwalk in Monmouth County. Unlike others, however, Ocean Grove’s boardwalk is not publicly owned. OGCMA applied for Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to rebuild its boardwalk under special rules for privately owned facilities.
FEMA’s New Jersey Sandy Recovery Office determined OGCMA was ineligible. This decision was upheld on appeal. But, after political intervention, OGCMA was granted a second appeal and won. OGMCA received $2.3 million based, in part, on a finding that the boardwalk “is available 100% of the time as part of a network . . . to support evacuations [from the beach] and emergency responses when necessary.”
Since it’s no longer “100% available,” will OGMCA reimburse the federal treasury?
Ed Neafsey, Avon
