Below is the link to an article in today’s SandPaper entitled “Last Holgate Holdout Agrees to Sign Easement”. The story was written by Juliet Kaszas-Hoch. This is great news for Holgate and the news we have been wanting to hear for some time. We want to thank everyone for their efforts in bringing this result to fruition and now look forward to working together as a community to continue the rebuilding process. There is strength in numbers, so please consider joining the Holgate Taxpayers Association if you have not already done so.

Last Holdout Agrees to Signs (Sandpaper, March 4, 2013)

On the negative side of the ledger, I have seen several e-mails today about thieves working in our community. Here is one such e-mail below:

The copper pipe shower thieves are back. So keep an aye open for anything strange. Many times these thieves show up in our area dressed as workmen and with so much construction going on, how do you know. If you feel suspicious about anyone, please contact the police. A neighbor spotted two men looking over property on our street, and she kept an eye on them only to see them removing sculptures from their bay front property. i.e., one cost $2500.00. A quick call to the police got these thieves up at the pizza place and they were arrested and the material confiscated. This situation is only going to get worse as the good weather comes and more people are working on their properties

HTA Trustee Marianne Hurley coordinates a Neighborhood Crime Watch and is looking for volunteers to help keep watch over our neighborhoods. She could use your help. Please contact her if you can assist especially during this time of vulnerability. This topic will be on the agenda at the March 30th Trustees meeting.

Please remember these important dates below. If you can make the extra effort to attend, it would be appreciated.

LBI Business Alliance is sponsoring an event to help raise the spirits of Holgate residents on March 30th at 1:00 PM. The 5K bike, walk, run and bring the dog and family event will begin in Beach Haven and end in the south parking lot in Holgate. There will be a $20 donation to enter the event. Please reserve the day and join your neighbors, old friends, new friends and family in helping each other get our community back to normal.

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Commissioners convenes at 4:00 PM on April 5th at the Town Hall. It is critical that we show in a “big way” that the residents of Holgate are concerned and engaged with the Township in rebuilding and protecting our community. We need to show the Mayor and the Commissioners that we appreciate their efforts for what they have done to restore the infrastructure in Holgate.

Good evening all, there is an update in today’s SandPaper entitled “Final Holgate Holdout Could Sign Easement Soon Long Beach Twp. Mayor Says”. Go to the sandpaper.net. Click on News – Surf City, NJ The SandPaper and scroll down to the first article. This article by Michael Molinaro provides a complete update of today’s meeting with the Township and Bunny Kaufman’s new attorney.

In addition, the LBI Business Alliance is sponsoring an event to help raise the spirits of Holgate residents on March 30th at 1:00 PM. The 5K bike, walk, run and bring the dog and family event will begin in Beach Haven and end in the south parking lot in Holgate. There will be a $20 donation to enter the event. Please reserve the day and join your neighbors, old friends, new friends and family in helping each other get our community back to normal. The trustees of the Holgate Taxpayers Association will meet in the morning to plan and organize its agenda and meetings for 2013. I hope that all of you will complete your membership forms this year and join the HTA if you have not already done so.

Another date to keep in mind is April 5th. The regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Commissioners convenes at 4:00 PM at the Town Hall. It is critical that we show in a “big way” that the residents of Holgate are concerned and engaged with the Township in rebuilding and protecting our community. We need to show the Mayor and the Commissioners that we appreciate their efforts for what they have done to restore the infrastructure in Holgate.

The name says it all. We are still here and will come back stronger than ever. To stay up to date on our return check out the new LBI is Alive website. Great info and resources about our rebuilding.

Good afternoon, in case some of you are not aware, I wanted to share with you some information which was placed on the Holgate Update Facebook page by HTA Trustee, Marianne Hurley. The information was provided at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Commissioners convened on Friday, February 1st. I hesitated a bit in getting this information out to the members as some were telling me to quell my enthusiasm as the signed easements were not in hand. However, the Mayor stated at Friday’s meeting that there was only one remaining holdout, 4303 S. Long Beach Blvd. She also made some other very important comments that may be crucial for some Holgate homeowners. Below are Marianne’s comments:

The biThe bi-monthly township meeting was held today and there were about 35 people in attendance. The great news is that we are down to ONE HOLDOUT —- BUNNY (MARILYN) KAUFMAN. See my separate post on this please. Holgate will be the first to get beach replenishment when we get her on board, and Mayor Mancini and Commissioner Lattanzi are heading to D. C. this month to seek funds for the Island. He is asking for 135 million, and with the replenishment he also hopes to have two dredgers working. He has also spoken with the head man in Harry Reid’s office regarding FEMA and our insurance, and received a call from FEMA this morning, but he didn’t divulge what was said. They also hope to have the parking lot built by late Spring, but it might not be cement yet. They are also reminding people that house tear down trash is the home owner’s responsibility, and if they have to get it after 10 days, you will be fined and a tax lien put on your house in the amount of 18%. They also want all houses that are going to be demolished down by March 1st. If you are having problems getting your funds from insurance the township will “lend” you the money on a 75- 25% basis until the money arrives. Call his office for more details.

This past week my wife, Kathy, has been on the phone with Bunny Kaufman on several occasions. We were working with her and the Mayor to try to get them to speak with each other directly on the phone. The effort came to a screeching halt at the end of the week as Bunny would not make the call to the Mayor and insisted that we talk to her attorney, Ken Porro. As you may know Ken Porro, dubbed “Dune Buster”, was recently successful in persuading the Superior Court to dismiss a NJDEP lawsuit which sought the taking of private property without compensation in Surf City. Prior to that he won an Ocean City, New Jersey case which mandates that loss of ocean view and access is an “unconstitutional taking” unless the property owner is compensated. In our conversations with Bunny, she said she favored beach replenishment and it wasn’t about the money but she just wanted to make sure she had direct private access to the beach and she could see over the dunes. We had also spoken to Ken Porro on one occasion and basically he told us that the Township should do the “right thing” and condemn the property. The stated goal of the client and the client’s attorney do not appear to be the same. Nonetheless, even if we had 100% signed easements today, we have another Hurricane season to endure, which begins in only four months. Let us all pray that Mother Nature spares Holgate of another near direct hit as we will be hard pressed to withstand even a glancing blow in our current condition. You would think Bunny would have understood this as she viewed her house perched atop pilings with no sand under, in front of, behind and next to her house. Sandy demonstrated that the need to protect Holgate from a major storm was no longer a theoretical exercise.

Daniel Macone

Long Beach Township is participating in two separate house raising programs. The first program is referred to as Increased Cost of Compliance (ICC) and information can be obtained by contacting 609-361-6679. The second program is the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and information can be obtained by contacting Andersen@longbeachtownship.com. General information is found on Long Beach Township’s websites. longbeachtownship.com

January 15, 2013

To: Generic Letter
From: Holgate Taxpayers Association Officers and Trustees
Re: Beach Replenishment Easement

Dear Homeowner,

On October 29th Super Storm Sandy devastated Long Beach Island. The community of Holgate suffered the most severe damage of any community on the Island. No one could have ever imagined that a storm of that magnitude would hit Holgate and cause so much damage to our wonderful community. Fortunately, there was no loss of life. However, Holgate is now extremely vulnerable to future storms as in most areas there are no longer any sand dunes to protect not only the ocean front homes but many other homes to the west. Many homeowners whose homes were destroyed are uncertain as to whether or not to rebuild and new investors in the community will be reluctant to make such a risky investment. Not only have our homes sustained damage, but the values of our homes have also declined for this very reason. Replenishment of the dunes is one of the only ways homeowners and businesses can have some assurance that they are making a good investment and the value of our homes will rebound to pre-Sandy values. Since Sandy, all but four (4) homeowners have now signed their easement. Despite this recent disaster you remain one of those homeowners who have not signed the required easement and you stand in the way of protecting our community, our homes and our businesses from future storms. We will have a short window of opportunity to get our community protected again or the funds will be used elsewhere. As an organization that represents the concerns of Holgate homeowners, we urge you to sign the easement so that we can get 100% of the ocean front homeowners signed. Without that, the future of Holgate remains uncertain.
In August 2012, prior to Sandy, we wrote to you asking you to please let us know if you were inclined to sign the Easement. The same thing applies now as it did then in that we can make arrangements to send a Township Notary to your home if needed so that you can complete the paperwork. It’s that simple! All you need to do is sign the document; no hassle. If you are hesitant about signing the easement for some reason, then as a community organization representing the interests of all homeowners in Holgate, we would appreciate the opportunity to understand your point of view. Please contact Dan Macone (732-575-0773 or dkmacone74@gmail.com), Bill Cannon (917-685-7219 or billcannon@earthlink.net) or Bill Hutson (609-492-6363) at your earliest convenience to share your concerns and any questions you may have. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Holgate Taxpayers Association

During this past week we have been working on getting the correct contact information for the remaining four holdouts in Holgate. I have provided the most current information I have below. At this time, I would encourage each of you to send your own personal letter explaining why dune replacement is critical to you and your community. This may help anyone sitting on the fence to make a decision. Two of the properties are not individuals; one is an estate and one is a time share. The people representing the ten-member time share have told us that no one is against signing and that’s it’s a matter of getting the paperwork signed by the time share’s three directors. They are in the process of getting that done. Thanks for your help in this regard.

4401 S Long Beach Blvd. – Marianne Von Volkenburgh – 1 Stillery Road, Lebannon, NJ 08833

4209 S. Long Beach Blvd. – Piperata Estate – Attorney Bruce A. Jones is handling the Estate. His address is 8 Market Street, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865

4303 S. Long Beach Blvd. – Marilyn Kaufman – 7351 Monteverde Way, Naples, FL 34119 – Property is being represented by Attorney Kenneth Porro 12 North Rte. 17 PO Box 1827 Paramus, NJ 07653

4801 S. Long Beach Blvd. – Time Share Property – Managed by Mr. Brooke Tidswell 112 High Street, Mount Holly, NJ 08060

There was a Town Council Meeting on December 21, 2012 in which a number of questions were asked and answered. To vie the Q&A click here or read below

Questions Town Council Meeting – Friday, December 21, 2012

Q: How long will the Township be accepting sand at the South end of Holgate?
A: At least two more weeks. At that time, the effort will be reevaluated.

Q: Will the Township continue to pick-up the debris? The Bobcat consolidated the debris at the south end today but no truck came to pick it up.
A: No debris will be picked up during the Holiday week. The Clean-up will resume on January 2nd to pick up any debris remaining. No additional debris should be put out as of today.

Q: Many residents think that the hazardous waste items that they are being placed in front of their homes will be picked up by the Township. What arrangements are being made and what should residents do? I went to the Ocean County Hazardous Waste Disposal site. They would only take paint cans that had an original label on them. Most other materials I had to bring back home.
A: The Township has started picking up the hazardous materials and will be getting to it.

Q: Is the south end parking lot, including the bathrooms, going to be rebuilt?
A: Yes, initially it may not be paved due to lack of resources.

Q: Will W Cleveland Avenue remain a dead end street?
A: It might not be.

Q: Will our beaches in Holgate be replenished? Starting when? How many ocean front owners still need to sign easements? Will the names be made public? Will the township/state now use eminent domain to seize the homes of the holdouts?
A: There are five (5) unsigned easements as of today. They are 4803, 4801, 4405, 4303 and 4209. There is a bill in the US Senate to provide funds to address the issues caused by super storm Sandy. Some of the money being requested is to be allocated for beach replenishment for Long Beach Island. There will be a finite period of time to utilize the allocated funds or they will be lost. In other words, it is imperative to get the remaining 5 easements signed.

Q: What can we do as a community organization to help the Township with rebuilding? The disaster also presents us with the opportunity to make improvements. Improvements to the community that the Association can recommend as the rebuilding process is underway ie, parking lot, beach access, ways to better protect the community from future storms in addition to beach replenishment – what else
can be done?, etc.
A: Put our suggestions together and they will take a look at them.

Register your vacant home with the Long Beach Township police department at LBTPD.org. Vacant home forms must be renewed each winter season to remain active.