TRUTH. HERITAGE. ENVIRONMENT.

BEACHWOOD • ISLAND HEIGHTS • OCEAN GATE • PINE BEACH • SOUTH TOMS RIVER

Friday • December 24 - December 31 • 2010

RIVERSIDE SIGNALthe

OCEAN GATE – A somber mood marked the first bor-ough council meeting, here, since the sudden deaths of 79-year-old borough resident James M. “Jim” Mooney and 32-year-old Ocean Gate Pa-trolman Jason C. “Jay” Marles rocked this community in No-vember.

Mr. Mooney died on No-vember 11th in University Hospital in Newark following complications as a result of a vehicle accident on the Garden State Parkway in Irvington. Patrolman Marles was killed

in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving by a drunken driver on the Garden State Parkway in Toms River while traveling home to his wife and two young children from working an extended holiday drunken-driving detail in the borough.

To honor both men, Mayor Paul Kennedy and the govern-ing body decided to hold a shortened meeting focused on required business only, and to use the remaining time for a small memorial slideshow fea-turing photographs from the

OCEAN GATE – Facing an uncertain financial future in the wake of the worst econ-omy since the Great Depres-sion and a state-imposed two percent cap on annual tax in-creases, the mayor and govern-ing body, here, are considering multiple ways to cut borough costs, including researching the hiring of a private firm to take over solid waste garbage pickup.

During a special November meeting on the topic, Mayor Paul Kennedy noted that the borough had held a public referendum on the matter two years ago that had been defeat-ed, but that two years ago, “we weren’t faced with the situa-tion financially as we are now.”

The meeting room in bor-ough hall on Ocean Gate Av-enue was filled with residents interested in hearing the po-

PINE BEACH - Early last week, Rev. John R. “Jack” Bowering, pastor emeritus of the Pine Beach Chapel and longtime former resident and ardent supporter of the bor-ough, passed away following a long battle with cancer.

This past summer, the Riv-erside Signal had the oppor-tunity to sit down with “Rev. Jack” and record his memories of growing up in Pine Beach

during the summers of the late 1930s through the 1950s.

This oral history interview, taken on August 19th, has been transcribed and format-ted for print below for the ben-efit of his family, borough resi-dents and our readers.

We first came to Pine Beach from Belvedere in 1939, when I was six years old.

It was a fabulous little town: there were blueberry bushes

all over the place, it was all wooded, hardly any houses around. There was the big log cabin on New Jersey and River-side – we’re right next to it. My dad bought the property [and] paid a dollar a running foot, so he paid $103 on one side, $98 the other side, $40 across the front and $40 across the back. My Uncle Stanley bought the property next to my dad – he was a Methodist minister from

Kennedy & Council Mull Private Trash Pickup

Rev. Jack Bowering, On Pine Beach Part 1

Marles, Mooney Remembered

Water Tower Update

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By Erik Weber

By Erik Weber

By Erik Weber

Philip Schmidt

Celebrating the Season

Beachwood Engineer James Oris announced during last week’s borough council meeting that the approximate-ly 40-year-old, 300,000 gallon water tower, located between Locker Street and Railroad Avenue, would have the bor-ough name repainted along its northwest and southeast sides in identical fashion to what was there prior to the rehabili-tation and repainting project that started in June.

The earlier Beachwood El-ementary School bear mascot, which was first painted shortly

after that school opened in 1988 and had a brown bear posing next to a letter B, will be replaced with an updated version to match the school’s current logo, a smiling bear’s face enclosed in a circle con-taining the name, “Beach-wood Bears,” and painted in blue and white.

Mr. Oris noted that the bor-ough name and school mascot were due to be painted prior to the winter season, but that the project had not been com-pleted in time to do so, and

String Band Building Future ConsideredBy Erik Weber

ISLAND HEIGHTS – It appears that another chapter is about to be written in the history of the 87-year-old for-mer borough fire company building, located at the cor-ner of Simpson and Van Sant avenues, which later became known as the “String Band Building” due to the organi-zation that began leasing the site after a new fire company station was built on Lake and Maple avenues in 1963.

During the new business portion of the December 7th council meeting, here, Coun-cilman Gregory Heizler made it known that a number of neighbors in that section of town were interested in pre-

serving the site, which was recently returned to borough control after it was discovered that the Ocean County String Band, which had been leasing

the site for approximately 40 years, had disbanded due to lack of interest and the build-ing was found to be in a wors-ening state of disrepair.

cont. on page 2cont. on page 7

This historic Beachwood home, once part of four cottages that made up the “Resthavens – A Port of Health” resort in the early 20th Century, tasted its first lick of winter beside the borough boat slips and boardwalk last week.

PAGE 2 December 24, 2010The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

ISLAND HEIGHTS – A res-olution to determine the num-ber of borough council meet-ings held per month for 2011 launched a debate over the purpose of multiple meetings among the governing body, here.

Discussion about the reso-lution was started by Coun-cilman Brian Taboada, who wanted to know the purpose of having meetings twice a month.

Mayor Jim Biggs stated that curtailing the second monthly meeting could affect paying borough bills on time.

Councilman Jeff Silver not-ed that most vendors have a 30-day billing cycle, which would allow the council to make such a move to one meeting per month.

“Most are 30 days, but if we only authorize payment with-in the 30 days, it’s not gonna happen,” replied Councilman John Bendel, who noted that it would double the time to ad-dress matters that may need faster action by the governing body.

“I think it’s a big mistake to go to one meeting a month,” he continued. “We’ll wind up having extra meetings, special meetings that require a 48-hour notice.”

The councilman also con-

tended that an increase in the amount of times the mayor and council would need to poll opinion via telephone would also increase, bringing forth “questions raised about coun-cil people who will express one opinion on the phone and vote another way in public.”

The governing body is not permitted to vote on borough matters in private, and phone polls are sometimes used to gauge whether an issue has enough support to devote fur-ther public meeting time to it, requiring 48 hours public no-tice, after which the governing body may meet and take an of-ficial vote.

Mr. Bendel felt that halv-ing the amount of meetings and potentially increasing the number of phone polls and special meetings would cause problems, adding that previ-ous governing body officials had set up the schedule of two meetings per month for a rea-son.

“They didn’t do it because they were having fun at meet-ings, and I think the people’s business requires that we have two a month,” he stated.

Mr. Taboada replied that the borough’s deputy munici-pal finance officer, April D. Elley, said that the checks to pay borough bills “are already

written and are just waiting our approval to put them in the mail.”

“This checks prepared to go out before we approve them does not necessarily mean that that bill did not sit there for a time before that check was cut,” said Mr. Bendel. “People will wind up being paid be-yond the 30-day limit, and if you want to make enemies in the vendor community, that’s the way to do it.”

“We need to be open to the public as much as possible, and two meetings a month isn’t too much,” added Councilman Gregory Heizler. “I think we move sluggishly enough two times a month – if we’re here once a month we won’t get any-thing done.”

Borough Clerk Ellie Rogal-ski noted that there had been changes in meeting schedules n “a lot of communities.”

“There is some savings per-haps,” noted Mayor Biggs.

“I think for the most part we’re talking about attorney [fees], and it’s not unprece-dented to have meetings with-out an attorney,” replied Mr. Bendel, adding that the an-nual pay for borough officials would not change based on the number of meetings held. “So if we want to save money, give the attorney here some

holidays.”“If you’re serious, what you

could do is have the attorney at the first meeting and at the second meeting be very care-ful what you say and do,” he continued.

Mr. Bendel made a motion to continue holding two coun-cil meetings per month. It passed with only Mr. Taboada voting against it.

The next meeting of the Island Heights Borough Coun-cil will be on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker

Complex. With the cold weather and winter season upon us, the bor-ough police have undertaken a campaign to remind residents of the snow emergency ordi-nance that is in effect during winter weather events in which snow falls and accumulates to a point that it covers borough roadways.

During these snow emer-gencies, parking is prohibited on the south side of east/west streets and on the east side of north/south streets and all off-street parking must be uti-lized to the fullest capacity.

Violation of the snow emer-gency ordinance could bring a fine not to exceed $200 or in-carceration for a term not ex-ceeding 10 days, or both.

For a copy of this ordinance or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Island Heights Police Depart-ment at 732-270-3006.

Council Votes to Keep Two Meetings Per Month

Snow Emergency Parking Restrictions Reminder

By Erik Weber

By Philip Schmidt

The Island Heights Bor-ough Council recently voted to approve their 2011 meet-ing dates, which are listed here and will generally take place on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex at East End and Van Sant av-enues, except where noted.

January 4th & 18thFebruary 8th & 22nd

March 8th & 22ndApril 12th & 26thMay 12th* & 24thJune 14th & 28thJuly 1st** & 19th

August 16thSeptember 13th & 27th

October 11th & 25thNovember 10th* & 22ndDecember 13th & 27th

* = Thursday** Reorganization

meeting

Boro Council 2011 Meeting Schedule Set

The Island Heights waterfront and walking boardwalk were transformed by an early winter snowfall into a sparkling winter scene after dusk one evening last week.

The Island Heights Borough tree shone through the cold night with its bright lights and star earlier this week.

The governing body has since held occasional discus-sions during borough council meetings as to how to handle the property.

“I thought they would be excited at the prospect of re-moving [the building],” said Mr. Heizler, speaking about one of the potential plans for the building after an inspec-tion revealed its growing dete-rioration. “They actually said they like it, and one has said to me that he knows someone in-terested in buying it and mak-ing it a residence.”

“It’s someone who has looked at that building for a long, long time and said it would really be a great place,” he continued. “I was amazed they wanted to keep it.”

“Have they been inside?” asked Councilman Al Gabriel,

who is a past chief and long-time member of the borough fire company.

“No,” replied Mr. Heizler.“That might change their

mind,” stated Mr. Gabriel.Councilman Brian Taboa-

da suggested that the council place a question on the bal-lot in the spring election as to “what the town is willing to stomach” in regard to the building and property.

Mayor Jim Biggs said that a ballot question might be good to consider and noted that its position in the historic dis-trict “complicates things even more.”

“Our attorney did write to the state historical [commis-sion], and there are certain regulations we have to follow there to be able to do anything at all,” he continued, adding that for the interim period the borough had addressed a

broken window problem at the site by boarding the windows up and having them painted.

“That is one ugly building,” remarked Councilman John Bendel, who groaned when he learned that the borough would have to follow similar procedures in dealing with the property as its surrounding historic homes.

“It is borough property and it does have some value, and we must recognize it has two values – a value to us as a com-munity and to people who may bid on it,” said Mayor Biggs. “Both the community and those interested in bidding must recognize that it’s noth-ing to give away.”

He added that he would like the governing body to be-gin looking into what the val-ue may be after the New Year.

“When the fire company was in there, the borough

wouldn’t do a thing for us,” stated Mr. Gabriel. “That’s why we moved the hell out.”

The mayor noted that with the current economy and in-creasing budget pressures, they must “recognize that we don’t have a great deal of as-sets we could spend in creat-ing another borough property that we must keep up – we have enough of a problem keeping up what we do have.”

“It’s something we all have to consider and have input in,” he added, calling the govern-ing body “stewards of this com-munity and of its assets” and that as such, they must “treat these assets with as much re-spect as we would treat any of our own.”

The next meeting of the borough council will take place on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex.

continued from page 1

String Band Building Future Considered

ISLAND HEIGHTS

PAGE 3 December 24, 2010The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

SOUTH TOMS RIVER – Children across this borough will soon have reason to cel-ebrate, with the imminent ar-rival and installation of new playground equipment at three existing recreation sites, here, and the creation of a new fourth play area.

The new equipment will arrive and be installed at the three existing play areas, lo-cated at Brookforest Beach, the Recreation Center/ball-fields, and Center Street near the Wells Chapel Church. The fourth new play area, to become a “tot lot”, will be in-stalled in the residential Cen-ter Homes area.

William Gleason, chairman of the South Toms River Rec-reation Commission, praised the borough council for re-cently approving the utiliza-tion of approximately $99,000 from the capital expense bud-get to go toward a matching grant with Game Time, a play-ground equipment manufac-turing and installation compa-ny owned by Tennessee-based PlayCore, Inc.

One of the reasons for re-searching new equipment, he said, was because the current equipment in the borough was due to expire its compliance under the American Disabili-ties Act (ADA) in 2013, which would have rendered the play areas closed to the public.

“That got the fire under the council to allow me to go further to look for playground equipment,” the chairman said, who added that in the process a cache of previously-ordered playground equip-ment was discovered within borough storage at the old marina gas station in Mathis

Plaza. Though well beyond its ADA compliance, he made note of the supply company, which turned out to be Game Time.

Upon contacting repre-sentatives for that company, Mr. Gleason was told that “it was cheaper and easier to buy a new piece [of playground equipment] than rehabilitate the existing pieces because of insurance.”

“We could fix the old equip-ment so it could be compliant, but as soon as we touched the equipment, their insurance stops, and they have millions and millions of dollars of in-surance for that, and we can’t take responsibility of it,” he continued. “You can sell it [to a private individual or firm], you just can’t use it as a public playground.”

As he researched further and held discussions with the company representative, Mr. Gleason stated that “a grant came available just coinciden-tally [covering 50 percent of the cost of new equipment], so we’re getting $200,000 worth of equipment for $100,000.”

“It’s their own grant – Game Time is huge,” he con-tinued. “He offered it to us, and our ADA compliance was actually going to say, ‘in two years, close the parks.’”

“We would have absolutely no playgrounds,” the chair-man added. “The ADA com-pliance doesn’t mean that it’s dangerous; it just means that it’s not good enough for a dis-abled person.”

One item he knew from memory that would need to be completely removed was a large, metal slide at the Brook-forest Beach playground.

“It’s not even close – we can’t feasibly do anything with it,” he said. “It’s made of metal, for one thing, which means it can get boiling hot. You need to put signs in there saying this equipment may be hot – that was the easy part. The hard part is that it’s too high, and there’s no railing to keep somebody from falling [down] the 15-foot drop.”

Another piece, also at Brookforest, was a domed jun-gle gym.

“That dome has two rails running down the top center of it, and you could put your head in and turn it and it’d be a choking hazard,” Mr. Glea-son said. “If you’re a four-foot person, you would hang there, you would die.”

“We can cut that bar, but as soon as we cut [it], it’s the bor-ough’s insurance, not Game Time,” he continued. “When we buy the Game Time equip-ment – if anything happens, the borough is not going to take the fall for it.”

“We’re spending $99,000 now, which, I know, is a lot of money, but unfortunately gone are the days when we could just have wood donated and have guys build it – it just doesn’t work,” said Council President George Greitz, Jr. “The fact that we’re getting the installation included, so we’re going to get four major areas covered for $99,000 – that’s phenomenal, and this is prob-ably the only instance where the bad economy is working in our favor, because they need to get the work, they’re willing to do the labor as a part of the cost for buying the equipment, and there’s no extra fee.”

“It’s very important that

professional people install it correctly and properly, so that kids aren’t hurt and nobody’s hurt and the equipment lasts,” he continued. “The money was there and the plans were there for a lot of things, whether to work on this building or buy that ambulance, [but] having it on paper is nice but you ac-tually have to go out and get some of this stuff.”

“That’s what a capital ex-pense budget is for,” agreed Councilman Sanford Ross.

The next meeting of the borough council will be held on Saturday, January 1st, 2011 at noon in borough hall on Mill Street.

Four New Playgrounds in STRBy Philip Schmidt

A warm glow from a carefully perched Christmas tree illuminated the night outside the Island Heights Yacht Club entrance and waterfront boardwalk earlier this week.

SOUTH TOMS RIVER

Borough offices will be closed Friday, December

31st in observation ofthe Christmas holiday,

and Friday, December 31st in observation of the

New Year holiday.

The 2011 reorganization meeting of the South Toms

River Boroughcouncil will take place

on Saturday, January 1st at noon in boroughhall on Mill Street.

Boro Council 2011 Meeting Schedule Set

PAGE 4 December 24, 2010The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

PINE BEACH

Chief Sgro Reports Borough Police Activity for NovemberBy Erik Weber

The following report was submitted by Pine Beach Po-lice Chief John M. Sgro to the borough council during their December 8th regular council meeting and accepted by mo-tion as part of the monthly re-ports.

- For the month of Novem-ber 2010 the police depart-ment responded to 280 calls for service.

- On November 1, I at-tended a meeting at police headquarters with Frank Rog-ers from the Rogers Group regarding department accred-itation. Rogers Group is a pri-vate company that can assist a police agency with obtaining state accreditation. One of the main benefits of becoming an accredited department is re-duction in the municipality’s liability premiums as well as a reduced susceptibility to law-suits. They also offer products for the tracking of personnel training, as well as state-ap-

proved lesson plans for train-ing of police personnel on the multiple areas of mandatory training that is required annu-ally. Both of these are critical to reduce liability to the town.

- On November 5th, our records clerk, Lynn Hargrove, attended an annual training seminar on uniformed crime reporting. Every police depart-ment is required to report cer-tain types of crime to the state, who in turn is responsible for reporting these statistics to the F.B.I. This is how the F.B.I. is able to release uniform crime statistics for the entire nation on an annual basis. This year’s training covered the new method of reporting these sta-tistics electronically, which has now become mandatory.

- Early on Thanksgiving morning, November 25th, the Ocean Gate Police Depart-ment lost one of its officers to a horrific motor vehicle crash. Officer Jason Marles, a nine-

year veteran, was killed when his vehicle was struck from behind by a drunken driver and forced off of the Garden State Parkway. Ironically, Offi-cer Marles had just completed a special D.W.I. enforcement shift in Ocean Gate and was on his way home to his wife and two young children. Our department came together with the neighboring Berke-ley Township Police Depart-ment to assist Ocean Gate by providing police coverage to their town during the two days of services for their fallen of-ficer. Please keep Officer Mar-les’ family and the officers of Ocean Gate in your prayers.

- With the holiday season and all of its parties upon us and winter fast approaching, please remember to drive carefully and never drink and drive. On behalf of the entire police department, I would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season.

Borough offices will be closed Friday, December 31st in observation of the Christmas holiday, and Friday, December 31st in observation of the New Year holiday.

The 2011 reorganization meeting of the Pine Beach Borough council will take place on Monday, January 3rd at 7:30 pm in borough hall on Pennsylvania

Avenue. The oath of office will be

given to new Pine Beach councilmen Andrew Keczke-methy and Barry Wieck

Boro Holiday and 2011 Council Re-org Schedule

A group of area children prepared to greet Santa Claus with song at the annual Pine Beach tree lighting event, held earlier this month.

Motorists avoided most roads during last week’s early winter snowfall, lending a barren, arctic scene to Riverside Drive in Pine Beach.

PAGE 5December 24, 2010 The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

Port Murray, up near Washing-ton [and] Hackensack.

They dug the foundations by hand, they laid their block and my Uncle Stanley – both my parents came from New-foundland – had connections in Brooklyn, New York with a lot of builders and that [were] quasi-related, and they came down and in two years, [his] house was up, but my dad was 13 years before he finished his house. So, from ’39 to now, 71 years and the front door of my dad’s house is the original front door, and the original lock, and I have the original key.

[We were] on Buhler, right next to the log cabin, then came my Uncle Stanley’s, then a Mr. and Mrs. Jones that had the house, then there was an empty lot, and then there was Reverend [Francis] Powell [Jr., Pine Beach Chapel Pas-tor from 1934 until 1945]. My sister and I, we played with his girls, and my cousin, Lou-ise, she played with them, too. And then there were two or three other houses, and then on the end of Buhler Avenue, facing the academy [Admiral Farragut Academy, which pur-chased the former Pine Beach Hotel, stood from 1933 until shuttering in 1994 due to fi-nancial problems] on Hillside was Captain Bobo, who was an instructor at the academy, and across the street was Mayor [Fred R.] Church, he was may-or of the town [from 1944 un-til 1951, he was just the second mayor of the borough], and then there was a corner house – I forget Bob’s last name, they were from Philadelphia – but the property across from ev-erybody’s house on Buhler Av-enue was just an empty wood-ed lot.

We were all summer resi-dents all those years. We’d drive down from Belvedere in an old

Hudson Terraplane, pick up ice in South Toms River for the icebox, and go down. We’d go down weekends: Daddy would drive down, he’d drive back for church up in Belvedere, and my Uncle Stanley would go to Port Murray, and then they’d be up there for two or three days, calling, and then they’d come down early, like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, [and] Sunday. When we were in school, as soon as we got out of school, we’d go right down to Pine Beach and it was like a paradise down there. Most everybody was friendly except that woman in that log cabin. She had these big sheepdogs, I mean, big ones, and she used to sic them on us if we went through the woods there. She was nasty. And there was Mr. Heatley, he was the plumber in the town and also a mayor [from 1956 until 1959], and my brother dated his daugh-ter, Gloria, and I dated Mrs. [Evelyn] Benedict’s daughter, Shirley, and my brother hung out with Mrs. Benedict’s son, Jack, and there was Whitey Slyth, and the Bradley boys, and Pete Hottenstein, and the Sotomen girls [spellings for these names could not be con-firmed at ress time].

On the banks of Pine Beach, Riverside Drive, [were] black and red raspberries, big bushes, and we used to go out in the morning and pick rasp-berries, or pick blueberries, in the back yard and that, and my mother would make blue-berry muffins, we’d have blue-berries on our cereal, we’d have raspberries for dessert at lunchtime or suppertime, all stuff we got down there. There were two stores in town – Zender’s and… I can’t think of the other name right now, but anyway, that store had ice cream and stuff like that, and Bill the cop [William Hutch-

ingson, a “one-man police de-partment” of the era], he used to go in there, and there was an Englishman there [accord-ing to Pine Beach Clerk Char-lene Carney, this store was called Halligan’s and was es-tablished in the front porch of the residence of its owner]. He had a Newfoundland dog and a parrot, and he and his wife lived there, and when you got ice cream, they’d scoop out scoops and you’d put it in your glass bowl, and then you’d go like crazy back to your house so it wouldn’t melt.

Then the other place was Zender’s, and that was where the post office was, and then the railroad train used to go through, go across over to Is-land Heights, turn around on the turntable, and come back. I remember as a kid, I used to put pennies on the track and the train would flatten them out. [At] the firehouse, Mrs. Benedict used to drive the fire truck because so many of the men worked, and she’d drive [and] wherever there might be men home, she would ride down that road and pick them up and they’d go to the fire. They didn’t have a siren then, they had this big, round piece of iron, and somebody right next to it would clang that thing and they had two, one down on the edge of town go-ing in toward Ocean Gate, and then they had the one, I think it was on Midland, that was the other one, and they might have had another one down on Motor Road. I remember two for sure.

Read the December 31st edition of the Riverside Signal for the sec-ond half of Rev. Jack’s memories of Pine Beach, including his interac-tion with Admiral Farragut Acad-emy’s founder and the social life of the Pine Beach Yacht Club in the

late 1940s and 1950s.

continued from page 1Rev. Jack Bowering

PAGE 6 December 24, 2010The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

previous week’s funeral pro-cession through the borough for Patrolman Marles, and a video this year’s borough Fourth of July ceremony that featured Mr. Mooney, a retired captain of the Newark Fire De-partment and longtime singer known for his powerful voice, singing a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Prior to and during that night’s meeting, a number of borough officials and Ocean Gate School Superintendent Frank Vanalesti remembered the two men and reacted to their deaths.

“I happened to be one that knew Jay the longest out of all the governing body members here, except [Councilwoman Patricia] Barger,” said Mayor Kennedy. “I was on council with five other members when we hired Jay – to me, Jay was a friend.”

“I’m taking it hard, and the officers are taking it hard,” he continued, thanking offi-cials and volunteers from sur-rounding towns who aided the borough and its police depart-ment in the days following Pa-trolman Marles’ death.

“This tragedy really showed the true reflection [of this

community],” the mayor stat-ed. “Those that were here at that vigil Friday night shows what a job our chief does here, shows a reflection on his men and what this little town re-ally, really means to a lot of people.”

“Officer Jay, as the kids and the school community referred to him, was and always will be remembered as the best of the best,” stated Superintendent Vanalesti via e-mail. “He was a cop who was truly a keeper of the peace as he helped us all.”

He then listed a number of short memories he had of the late patrolman.

“He spend hours helping a boy look for his lost dog. He helped calm many a domes-tic dispute case. He kept an eye out for stolen quads. He recovered lost or stolen bikes. He would just stop and talk to all the kids in town, many of whom looked up to him. At one in the morning, a school door was inadvertently left open, and he sat and waited for someone to arrive to lock up,” he said. “Officer Jay came to the school and helped calm down some irate parents. He gave me his private cell num-

ber to call if I ever needed him. He came to our annual holiday show to see the kids. [He] treated everyone with respect. Anything I needed from the police, Chief [Reece J.] Fisher or Detective [Barry] Wohl would send Jay as they knew he would get the job done right.”

“He and I had many per-sonal talks about people, life, children, our families and friends,” Superintendent Va-nalesti continued. “He had a big heart and was very compas-sionate.”

Mrs. Barger recalled the man who had been hired while she was a deputy clerk for the borough in 2001.

“This is just awful,” she said. “He was always a gentle-man and had a great personal-ity – friendly to everyone.”

“He was very dedicated to his job and shall be missed by all who knew him,” the coun-cilwoman added.

“Out of all of our officers, I knew Jay the best and the lon-gest,” stated Councilman Bri-an DiStefano. “Jay was a huge part of our town and will be impossible to replace. He was an exceptional officer and was well-liked in the community.

He was especially good with teens in town. Everyone liked him and respected him – that was reflected by the number of residents who attended his services and made donations to the family.”

“During our procession back through town, there were many residents standing in the wind and rain, holding up signs and saluting him as he passed,” he recalled. “That was something that made me very proud of our town and of Jay’s service as an officer. He was not only an employee of the borough; he was part of Ocean Gate.”

“I had the pleasure of know-ing him both personally and professionally for many years, even before I was on council,” the borough official contin-ued. “He was truly one of the best officers I have dealt with over my many years of [law] practice and I will miss him as a friend and councilman. He was the perfect fit as an officer in Ocean Gate. He was person-able and was not afraid to in-teract with the residents.”

Mr. DiStefano added to the mayor’s praise of the area offi-cials and volunteers who aided the Borough of Ocean Gate in

the week that followed Patrol-man Marles’ sudden death, and thanked all the officers who attended his funeral from across the state.

“On a sadder note, it is very difficult for me to see his children going through this tragedy, as I personally knew how much he loved and cared for them,” he stated. “I know he was a great father and it is hard to see that they will now grow up without him in their lives.”

The councilman empha-sized the importance that area residents know how much he loved his children, and en-couraged regular donations through the years to the fund set up by the Policeman’s Be-nevolent Association Local 352 for his 5-year-old daugh-ter, Taryn, and 4-year-old son, Landon.

Donations to the fund can be made to PBA Local No. 352, P.O. Box 562, Island Heights, NJ 08732.

Please read the December 31st issue of the Riverside Signal for a full memorial article on Mr.

Mooney’s life and the memories of borough residents that called him

a friend.

Mooney

Dem Club Pancake Breakfast

Trash Pickup

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The Ocean Gate Democrat-ic Club will be sponsoring a pancake breakfast on Sunday, January 9th, 2011 from 8 am to noon in Adrian Hall, located on East Cape May Avenue in the borough. Price of admis-sion will be $5 for adults and $3 for children. For more in-formation, please call 732-245-3172 or 732-779-6863.

Borough offices will be closed Thursday, December

23rd in observationof the Christmas holiday,

and office hours from De-cember 27th through

December 30th will be from 9 am to 4 pm.

The 2011 reorganization meeting of the Ocean Gate

Borough council willtake place on Saturday,

January 1st at noon in bor-ough hall on East

Arverne Avenue.

Boro Holiday and 2011 Council Re-org Schedule

OCEAN GATE

tential plans.“This is purely a financial

issue,” stated Mayor Kennedy. “When the referendum first went out it wasn’t fully ex-plained in detail why it was be-ing done – we want to look at what we do in the borough to benefit all taxpayers.”

He went on to state howev-er, that he had heard numer-ous complaints from borough residents about the current borough trash collection.

“I can tell you that in the past six months to a year, I’ve received more complaints about garbage collection in this town than you can imag-ine, in writing,” he noted. “It’s not a pretty picture - I don’t think I got one nice one.”

The mayor said that the complaints largely were the result of garbage not being picked up when scheduled.

Paulette Konopka, the bor-ough’s chief financial officer, presented financial informa-tion regarding the costs of the borough’s current trash col-lection based of actual 2011 figures that took into consid-eration insurance increases, payroll and pension raises, and

state taxes. She also balked at any rumors that the numbers presented were altered to favor one form of trash collection or another.

“I have never manipulat-ed any numbers as the chief financial officer for Ocean Gate,” she stated. “It is not my intention to manipulate or present any inaccurate infor-mation.”

Reviewing first the finan-cial data strictly on borough garbage collection, Ms. Ko-nopka pointed out that there are “currently four employees on one garbage truck – one driver and three laborers. Based on one time per week, it takes 1.5 days to complete.”

Garbage is picked up twice a week between the summer season beginning June 1st and ending September 6th, she said, and “that’s 66 total collections based on calendar year 2011.”

Also factored into the an-nual cost of borough garbage collection were the 170 trips to the landfill in 2009, each of which averaged three man-hours per trip, supervisor hours based upon two hours

per week, maintenance house based upon two hours per week, a salary determined by the hourly rate of each employ-ee plus the trip to the land-fill, the longevity pay for the length of time each employee has worked for the borough, the 2011 health benefits rate plus consideration for the one percent employees give into the program, workers compen-sation at $11.48 per $100 of payroll, a 5.5% pension rate, and social security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance.

As a result, the total an-nual costs for the borough-operated garbage pickup are $64,584.96 in employee salary, $10,980.30 in trips to the land-fill, $3,374.11 for longevity, $25,008.01 for health benefits, $9,062.25 for workers com-pensation, $4,156.09 for pen-sion, $4,894.28 for social se-curity, $1,144.63 for Medicare, $1,184.10 for unemployment insurance, and $394.70 for dis-ability service for an overall to-tal annual cost of $124,783.43.

According to Mr. Konopka, there are 1,071 residential units in the borough, which

would make the annual cost per household for garbage pickup alone to be $116.51.

Reviewing next the data for recycling collection, Ms. Ko-nopka stated that there were 26 collections per calendar year, with ten man-hours used per collection, and one super-visor hour and two mainte-nance hours utilized per week.

As a result, the total an-nual costs for the borough-operated recycling pickup are $20,904.78 in employee salary, $752.02 for longevity, $8,091.23 for health benefits, $2,380.71 for workers compen-sation, $1,149.76 for pension, $1,285.71 for social security, $300.69 for Medicare, $311.06 for unemployment insurance, and $103.69 for disability in-surance. The borough also received a recent annual reim-bursement from the county for their recycling pickup in the amount of $2,676.81, which would make the overall total annual cost $32,602.83, or $30.44 per residential unit..

Reviewing the data for bulk collection, Ms. Konopka stated that there was one borough-wide bulk pickup per month,

PAGE 7 December 24, 2010The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

Water tower,continued from page 1

The 2011 reorganization meeting of the Beachwood

Borough council willtake place on Wednesday,

January 5th at 6:30 pm in borough hall on

Pinewald Road.

CouncilRe-Org Meeting Set

Last Saturday, Santa Claus made a surprise inspection of the borough as he traveled up and down its streets with help from members of the Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company and Beachwood First Aid Squad, showering children with candy canes along the way.

Patrons and visitors to the Beachwood Library enjoyed a holiday party put on by the Friends of the Beachwood Library early last week.

BEACH WOOD

that they will now be painted either in the spring or possibly during any unusually warm weather periods this winter. The cellular service equip-ment present on the tower prior to the rehabilitation and now standing on adjacent tem-porary cell towers will also be reinstalled on the water tower to complete the project.

The Riverside Signal

Published byThe Riverside Signal, LLC

P.O. Box 93Beachwood, N.J. 08722

Phone 732.664.1043Email RiversideSignal@gmail.com

www.riversidesignal.com

PAGE 8 December 24, 2010The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

with eight man-hours used per collection for a total of twelve collections per year. Two su-pervisor hours and one main-tenance hour was allotted per month.

As a result, the total annual costs for the borough-operat-ed bulk pickup are $7,965.72 in employee salary, $37.05 for longevity, $3,050.29 for health benefits, $946.60 for workers compensation, $438.11 for pension, $511.23 for social se-curity, $119.56 for Medicare, $123.59 for unemployment in-surance and $41.23 for disabil-ity insurance for an overall to-tal annual cost of $13,233.49, or $12.36 per residential unit..

Adding to the data the overall vehicle and equip-ment maintenance and insur-ance, Ms. Konopka found that the borough annually spends $4,000 on vehicle repairs, $2,500 for equipment repairs, $1,000 on tires, $1,000 on oil

and lubricants, $10,000 on gasoline and $2,482 for insur-ance for a total added cost of $20,982, or $19.59 per residen-tial unit.

Based on the number of res-idential units in the borough, the annual cost per household for garbage, recycling and bulk collection vehicle and equipment maintenance and insurance is $19.59.

The final overall annual total for borough-operated garbage, recycling and bulk collection is $191,601.75, or $178.90 per residential unit.

None of the figures includ-ed tipping fees, or the cost the borough pays for the amount of garbage brought to the dump.

“That’s a fixed cost,” said Mayor Kennedy. “If we were to go private or stay in-house, it still exists.”

The average annual tipping fees cost the borough approxi-

mately $100,000, he added.Borough Attorney James A.

Gluck next explained that the borough went out to bid for its combined garbage and recy-cling pickup, which currently costs Ocean Gate $175,886.26, or $164.23 per residential unit.

“Five bids were received from five different compa-nies – Meadowbrook, Tri-State Carting, Waste Management, Marpal, and Suburban Dis-posal,” he said, noting that bids were requested in keep-ing with the same collection schedule that the borough currently has, or twice a week in the summer and once a week during the off-season.

“The low bidder, Meadow-brook Industries, [offered] a couple different options – they had a three year option for keeping that collection the same at $288,000,” the attor-ney continued. “It would be $94,000 for year one, $94,000

for year two and $98,000 for year three.”

Based on the number of 1,071 households in the bor-ough, the total amount per household that garbage and recycling pickup plus mainte-nance and insurance would cost would drop to $87.77 for the first and second years and $91.50 for the third.

They also offered a five year option, added Mr. Gluck, with a price increase of only $1,000 each for the fourth and fifth years.

“The total price at the five-year option for keeping service the way it is is $486,000,” he said. “There is no bulk, but re-cyclables are included.”

Another option was for the borough to offer trash pickup only one day per week year-round. Mr. Gluck said that Waste Management was the lowest bidder on that package, at $273,384 for a three-year

contract which, split evenly across the time period, would be $91,128 annually, or $85.09 per residential unit.

Concluding his report, he added that he’d “also like to point out that within the last week, our firm was assigned to defend the borough from another workers’ compensa-tion claim filed from the Pub-lic Works Department for an injury sustained on a garbage truck.”

Check the December 31st edition of the Riverside Sig-nal to hear how residents re-acted at the November meet-ing and also an upcoming second special meeting on the topic, which will take place on Wednesday, December 29th at 6 pm in borough hall on East Arverne Avenue. A regular borough council meeting will follow at 7 pm.

continued from page 6Trash Pickup

Holiday Scenes Along the River