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?

THE MISSION AND HOW IT WORKS

We established a news letter which you can sign up for by visiting www.mypointbeac.com or www.njbeach.com and choosing list Point Beach News, the format seemed to be the most reasonable approach to beginning a dialogue for the community and also provided an automated approach to those who did not want to be contacted by simply removing their e-mails by opting out.


News does often come with an angle; in this case the angle is to motivate government to make the best decision. Every author has a point of view and regardless of how much we attempt to portray neutrality some sense of our own opinions shines through. I do honestly believe that as a community, we have to have an open forum where the majority of the citizens who do not attend meetings can stay informed and discuss the issues prior to council taking action.

I have witnessed first hand government operating in a vacuum and decisions or lack thereof being made with little of no input from the majority of the community. Our governing body in many instances does not possess the experience, time or knowledge and do not always receive the proper advice from their professionals to make the right decisions for the majority of us.

Unfortunately the council for the most part hears from an audience of individuals whose agendas may not reflect the sentiments or serve the best interests of the entire community.

I support video streaming of meetings to the web for all to take part in and additionally a public blog for anyone’s opinion to be heard regardless of how I feel about it. The blogs or another hybrid approach providing the public to ask questions from the web of the council at the time of meetings is the future of public meetings and true oversight in my opinion.

I also think that utilization of the news letter approach as a group of intelligent open minded individuals from our own community who would contribute their own articles and ideas periodically could be a good first step in reforming and improving government function here in the beach.

I apologize for the lengthy explanation however I feel the need to clarify my motivations.

I am looking forward to hearing comments on these ideas and learning from those of you interested in contributing articles, ideas or advice.

Cat Crisis how should it be handled?

Attended the Emergency Point Pleasant Beach Council meeting. The council will not disclose at this time the locations of the cat colonies.
They also have adopted a plan which appears at this point to place all decision making responsibilities on Muskrat Jack with no oversight other than the Borough administrator.
The program announced tonight to be put into ordinance next Tuesday night would provide for the trapping and containment of all feral cats to be housed in climate controlled trailers located at the railroad station parking lot toward public works with oversight and control given to Muskrat Jack and may take up to six months.
A request that some oversight by a review committee comprised of objective individuals disassociated from the TNR program and who have no ill feeling towards animals be put in place to support Muskrat Jack in his decision making process as he will undoubtedly face incredible pressure from the members of the Animal Committee who have control over their own existing colonies of cats and other animal activists who will certainly be comming.

One woman from the committee made it perfectly clear to council without objection of council that "no one will touch her feral cat colony".

We at least have the beginning of a program however all feral cats need to be contained for the requisite time period to insure that no rabies infections have occurred.