Wednesday, October 28, 2009

WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP REGARDING THE DECLINE OF OVERNIGHT VISITORS

WE NEED A COHESIVE APPROACH TO TOURISM, MARKETING AND IMAGE IN ORDER TO AVOID THE ASBURY SCENARIO.

Asbury Scenario
At the height of its popularity, visitors would see large crowds of people on the boardwalk, whose businesses appeared to be flourishing when in reality the amount of monies being spent by individual visitors was declining.
As revenues declined the boardwalk businesses responded by blanket marketing the tri-state area to increase the numbers of visitors to the boardwalk. All along the character and nature of the customers coming to the overall town was changing. More day trippers arrived from less desirable demographic areas who spent little or no money anywhere else in the community other than the boardwalk, however taxing both residential and municipal resources.

The lodging community, seasonal rentals, and downtown business began to decay. Slowly lodging unit owners who could no longer attract overnight customers due in part to high pricing required in a highly seasonal area and lowered desirability brought about by throngs of day trippers, turned to alternate forms of occupancies. These alternate forms of occupancies were in the form of government subsidized housing, government emergency assistance for families and the transient population of poor who move from low cost seasonal temporary housing from region to region. The influx of new residents whose children now began attending local schools brought with it a tax drain through added tuition costs and the added burden of programs necessary to support children from families in crisis. Residents began loosing confidence in their own neighborhoods and in local government who sat back and did nothing as the community illness spread.

The rest is history, the recovery is slow!

WHY HAS THE PRESENT COUNCIL FAILED TO ADOPT THE MASTER PLAN?

Why has this Council allowed to continue the policies which made our motel businesses non conforming uses and thereby making improvements to their facilities a matter of zoning applications and too costly to be viable. Councils failure to restore motels to conforming uses is contributing to the decay of these facilities and negatively impacting the ability of the community to attract overnight guests.

WHY ARE ORDINANCES DRAFTED PRIOR TO A PUBLIC DISCUSSION

ORDINANCES ARE BEING DRAFTED THROUGH THE DIRECTION OF COUNCIL MEMBERS WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF A MAJORITY VOTE OF COUNCIL AND WITHOUT ANY IDEA IF IT WILL BE VOTED UPON AT ALL, PRIOR TO PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND PAID FOR WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS.

OPEN SPACE TAX SHOULD BE RATIFIED EACH YEAR BY THE VOTERS

The open space tax is first foremost an added cost to taxpayers at a time of fiscal crisis in Point Pleasant Beach. It has been used to provide the down payment for the acquisition of properties which are than paid for through the issuance of bonds whose term can be as long as thirty (30) years.


1st question, how do we pay down the debt if we the voter decide we no longer desire to pay the added open space tax. Answer. The General Fund, and higher property taxes until the bonds are paid.

2nd questions, Why does a community bordered on all sides by water and most notably the Atlantic Ocean and Manasquan River need to spend money on additional open space? Answer; We don’t, this is the view of a few, I believe when the voters approved this it was believed that improvement to our local and existing parks and open space would have occurred. It hasn’t, are parks, the band shell, memorial park are all in need of renovation.

We need transparency in local government, live webcasts of all meetings

Broadcast all meetings live to the web for all to see. Why exclude the sick, those with obligations or those who cannot simply be there. It is done all over the country we need to move forward not backward. The present governing body has been offered the equipment and setup at no cost to the taxpayer. Why the hold up on taking the first step to complete transparency?