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| Photo via The Southern Ocean Times Some people think the town needs to take action against abandoned properties, especially on Dock Road. |
Beach Haven resident Mary Ann Hovan knows she’ll probably have to pay more taxes since the town’s newly adopted $11.5 million budget includes a tax rate increase of 2.5 cents over last year. But she doesn’t think that’s fair since her Dock Road home has been surrounded by abandoned properties that are falling apart and have been overgrown with weeds for quite some time.
“I’ve picked up a whole bunch of Styrofoam in between the houses,” she told officials during the town council’s regular meeting on Monday, April 11. “I don’t belong on that property. I’ve commented about this before. I’m trespassing, but I can’t live like this anymore.”
Hovan said that while many residents and business owners have been concerned about the expansion of The Ketch’s liquor license to The Boathouse across the street and the proposed bridge connecting the two establishments on Dock Road, which the council recently rejected, the area continues to look rundown.
“Don’t you see that block, how it’s deteriorating?” she asked council members. “We have a lot of foot traffic there. You have people going to these restaurants. They see this. I can’t understand how this can be allowed going into our fourth year after (Superstorm) Sandy. Nothing’s gotten done. Four years, that’s a lot of time.”
The Dock Road resident added that she’s upset that the Black Whale Bar & Fish House, which ironically is her best neighbor, is moving.
“I just think it’s about time that somebody does something,” Hovan stated.
William Burris, owner of the Black Whale who has been working on concepts for the maritime district, agreed that the area is in poor shape.
“I don’t know why we’re putting this off,” he said. “It’s things that should be done. We want to do our part. We want to do the right thing.”
Council members said they will have the code enforcement officer, which position they approved by resolution during the meeting for the purpose of implementing the abandoned/vacant property ordinance adopted in February, over to Hovan’s house within a week or two.
“That’s one of the first things we should do,” said Councilman Don Kakstis.
Mayor Nancy Taggart Davis also suggested officials enforce the town’s blight ordinance to deal with the overgrowth. But Hovan said the cuttings aren’t picked up and then begin to build up.
The mayor noted that it has been difficult to rectify abandoned-property issues without the new ordinance, which took a long time to get approved. She said council also did not want the ordinance to penalize the people who have had issues with unethical contractors that came into town after Sandy.
“But we are concerned, and we do have a meeting scheduled this week to discuss this. So things should move forward,” Taggart Davis stated.
Council members have also decided to set up a meeting with the master plan committee to discuss ideas on how to spruce up the town’s parks.
In reference to last year’s Taylor Avenue Ball Field rehabilitation project, which was abandoned last year when the bids received came in at nearly $300,000 and it got too close to Hop Sauce Festival to do in-house, resident Jeff Wells, who is a member of the master plan committee, suggested leasing the park to a local nonprofit group to avoid the high cost of prevailing wage. He also suggested using the $150,000 earmarked for the renovation as well as other raised funds to fix up Veterans Memorial Park.
Regarding beach replenishment, Borough Manager Richard Crane said the town is on standby. He noted the ocean wave height needs to go below 4 feet before Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. can begin the effort.
“The wave height is actually a little too high for them to work safely,” Crane stated. “They’re waiting for any time, for a window of opportunity, to start it. Everybody’s ready to go.”
The current weather conditions are expected to continue to be subpar for the foreseeable future, he noted. When ready, the project will start at both ends of the borough, at Nelson Avenue and 12th Street.
In other meeting news, council adopted an ordinance to repeal a water relief ordinance for property owners seeking a one-time billing adjustment due to unusually high water charges. From the time the relief ordinance was originally adopted in December until its current cancellation, 36 property owners sent in applications resulting in a total of $36,960 in forgiveness.
Crane encouraged residents to take advantage instead of the water usage monitoring system the town has implemented, particularly during the summer months when utilizing sprinkler systems.
Council members also adopted a 3.5 percent cap bank amounting to $282,761 for the new municipal budget adopted that night. The 2016 salary ordinance was passed on reintroduction.
An ordinance to implement a $2 daily pass and a $40 season pass for the borough’s pickleball courts was approved on first reading. This will decrease liability for the town as well as the players, Taggart Davis said.
Ordinance amendments to regulate the use of dune walkovers, to permit and regulate sandwich sign boards as well as to ban smoking on the beach and in any park area or borough-owned property were also approved on introduction.
Taggart Davis said Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the smoking ban at the state level, but the town still wanted the regulation in place.
Resident Michael Peler said he was glad the ban includes all smoking, including cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
“We sure hope no one’s smoking crack,” he stated.
Peler also expressed concern about how the town was going to respond to some other environmental issues, including plastic bags and balloons, people attempting to photograph wildlife selfies, as well as climate change. Kakstis suggested Peler get involved with the borough’s Green Team.
“It’s one thing to state what needs to be done. It’s another thing to help make it happen,” Kakstis said.
Taggart Davis, who said she would love to see a ban on plastic bags, noted that change happens at the local level, though it is often a slow process.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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