Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend. August 2-4, 2013 #STTS

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By Greg Kelly

Friday, August 2

• Manasquan Summer Sidewalk Sale – MORE INFO

• The Diary of Anne Frank by Center Players (Freehold) – MORE INFO

• Highlands Clam Festival – MORE INFO

• Manasquan Firemen’s Fair – MORE INFO

• Saving Kitty at NJ Repertory Theatre (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Shakespeare by the Sea (Spring Lake) – MORE INFO

• Memories of Elvis (Middletown) – MORE INFO

• The Wizard of Oz at Algonquin Arts Theatre (Manasquan) – MORE INFO

• Pat Roddy (Belmar) – MORE INFO

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Holmdel) – MORE INFO

• Return to Asbury 2013 – MORE INFO

• Children of Eden at St. John’s Community Playhouse (Hazlet) – MORE INFO

• Visit Martha’s Vineyard via Seastreak Ferry (Highlands) – MORE INFO

• Seining at the Bayshore (Port Monmouth) – MORE INFO

• Embroidery for Beginners (Ocean Grove) – MORE INFO

• Red Bank Ghost Tours – MORE INFO

• 107.1 FM Live Broadcast from Pier Village (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• La Cage Aux Folles (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• Exotic Driving Experiences at Raceway Park – MORE INFO

• “No Relation Quartet” at TRT (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• Back-to-School & Fall Preview Sale at Jersey Shore Premium Outlets (Tinton Falls) – MORE INFO

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Saturday, August 3

• Highlands Clam Festival – MORE INFO

• Coin, Card & Currency Show (Colts Neck) – MORE INFO

• Manasquan Firemen’s Fair – MORE INFO

• NY Mets vs. Royals via Seastreak Ferry (Highlands) – MORE INFO

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Sen. Rand Paul: Gov Chris Christie Is The King Of Bacon

Christie: New Jersey is a donor state.  Doubts Paul will cut pork he’s bring home to Kentucky

By Matt Rooney, SaveJersey.com

The Christie/Paul 2016 skirmish got ugly on Tuesday evening, Save Jerseyans.

Responding to Christie, who inferred that Paul was a hypocrite for bringing home to Kentucky, Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that ”[t]his is the king of bacon talking about bacon,”

Sigh…

Watch:

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Let’s get the Weiner Jokes Out Of Our System And Move On To Spitzer

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

Maybe we can finally put an end to the obsession over Anthony Weiner with these. Then we can have real fun and focus on Spitzer:

1. All those years in Congress and that’s all he has to show for it?

2. How odd that his name is Weiner when he should have been named for the other side.

3. How many years do you think Huda has set back women’s rights?

4. He really has proven the Peter principle, h…asn’t he?

5. Maybe if it were a little more substantial, it wouldn’t have been called a “tweet.”

6. Look, be kind, if no one is buying your product, you have to advertise.

7. We already know what he would do to the City if he were elected, he was merely being metaphorical in showing what he’d use.

8. Ok, so he made a mistake and confused some women with his urologist when tweeting.

9. Oh, like you’ve never accidentally pointed the cell phone in the wrong place when taking a picture?

10. It’s not really his fault. Huda said to him, “why can’t you be more like Hilary’s husband?” This was his interpretation.

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SHERIFF GOLDEN CONTINUES TO MAKE CHILD SAFETY A PRIORITY THROUGH YOUTH ID PROGRAM

Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden is pleased to announce that the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office issued 600 youth ID cards during the Monmouth County Fair which was held from July 24 to July 28. The Youth ID program consists of a credit card size photo ID of a child that is carried by a parent or guardian who maintains complete control of the card. In an emergency, the card can be given to local first responders to aid in the rapid location and safe return of a child.

“The Youth ID Program is offered year round and helps ensure the safety of our children, which is a top priority at the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office,” said Sheriff Shaun Golden.

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Tell Me Why I Should Bother Voting In A Gerrymandered District

By Tommy DeSeno

I think I need a political intervention.   I’m apathetic. I can’t find a reason to vote next year in the midterm congressional races.  Upon self-reflection I can’t decide if I’m enlightened or jaded.  Or both.   I just know I no longer care to cast a ballot.

I grew up schooled with the same civic lessons as the rest of America.  Served to me in full measure was that good government is  the result of the patriotic duty of voting and I swallowed it all.

I have been voting for more than 30 years and don’t recall having ever missed an opportunity to vote for a congressman.

Yet I’ve come to realize that I’ve been denied the opportunity to ever vote for a congressman.

Like elsewhere, the year after the census New Jersey gets redistricted.   Some connected political sorts from both parties negotiate in a hotel and as best I can tell, decide how the parties will split the state’s congressional delegation for the next 10 years.   Following that, the rest of us dutifully vote and pretend like it matters, doing nothing more than adding a façade of legitimacy to the literal backroom deal of the redistricting committee.

I lived for many years in what is now New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District (the number of the district has changed but the same suspect remains at-large).

The Congressman in NJ 6 is Democrat Frank Pallone, Jr.   Pallone serves many Monmouth County residents.  On the County level, Monmouth has been overwhelmingly a Republican county for decades.  Pallone represents  28 Monmouth County towns and 9 from Middlesex County.  However, Frank’s district has in it tentacles that grab certain neighborhoods (not even whole towns) from two other counties that are Democrat strongholds (and you can guess why).

In doing so the 6^th district lumps together sleepy little shore towns in one county with industrial settings in another, creating a varied constituency where the people have little in common.

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Freeholders never took illegal contributions

John Bennett

By John Bennett, Monmouth County Republican Chairman

I am writing in response to the July 13 oped written by Monmouth County Democratic freeholder candidate Brian Froelich, “County purchasing still murky, post-Birdsall.”

From the first sentence to the last, I am disappointed that Froelich has chosen to take an opportunity as a political candidate to make not only misstatements but outright false statements concerning the actions being conducted in Monmouth County.

As to his first statement, that each Monmouth County freeholder received campaign contributions donated illegally by Birdsall Engineering Group, Froelich fully knows and understands that none of the contributions which he sets forth were illegal when they were received by either the Republican freeholders or the former Democratic freeholders who received similar contributions.

In fact, none of the Republican or Democratic freeholders (to our knowledge) received any illegal campaign contributions from any vendor in this county. Many of the Republican and Democratic councilmen and mayors throughout the county also received contributions that were not illegal to those who were receiving them.

There may have been inappropriate actions conducted internally within their office by those giving the money, but that knowledge could not have been made available to any person receiving the money, whether they were Democrat or Republican.

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County This Weekend, July 26-28, 2013

SPONSORED BY SEASTREAK

By Greg Kelly

Friday, July 26

• Monmouth County Fair (Freehold) – MORE INFO

• Red Bank Sidewalk Sale – MORE INFO

• Shakespeare by the Sea (Spring Lake) – MORE INFO

• A Chorus Line (Spring Lake) – MORE INFO

• Children of Eden at St. John’s Community Playhouse (Hazlet) – MORE INFO

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Holmdel) – MORE INFO

• Saving Kitty at NJ Repertory Theatre (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Teen Improv Comedy Night (Belmar) – MORE INFO

• Visit Martha’s Vineyard via SeaStreak Ferry (Highlands) – MORE INFO

• Seining at the Bayshore (Port Monmouth) – MORE INFO

• Visionary Tattoo Arts Festival (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• The Diary of Anne Frank by Center Players (Freehold) – MORE INFO

• Learn Computer E-mail Basics (Shrewsbury) – MORE INFO

• 107.1 FM Live Broadcast from Pier Village (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• A Bronx Tale: Chazz Palminteriat Count Basie Theatre (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• Danny White Band (Belmar) – MORE INFO

• Camp Out in the Park (Fair Haven) – MORE INFO

• “Summer Wind” CPC Benefit (Eatontown) – MORE INFO

• La Cage Aux Folles (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• Dueling Keys Quartet at TRT (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

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Saturday, July 27

• NY Yankees vs. Rays via Seastreak Ferry (Highlands) – MORE INFO

• Monmouth County Fair (Freehold) – MORE INFO

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If You See A Spot, Check A Spot

A message from Assemblyman Dave Rible:

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Reforming Engineering Bidding Process Saves Tax Payers Money and Increases Competition

By Monmouth County Freeholder Director Thomas A. Arnone

In the past, when Monmouth County looked to hire engineering and architectural consultants for various projects, the firms applying had to prepare extensive proposals, costing them thousands of dollars, just to compete for the work. As of now, however, the process will be streamlined, after the Board of Chosen Freeholders voted to revise it to make it easier and less costly for consulting firms to seek contract with the county.

Freeholder Director Tom Arone

The freeholders voted 5-0 last Thursday to adopt new bidding procedures for architectural and engineering contracts. The new procedures create a two pronged process that will make applying to work on county projects more cost effective for the consulting firms seeking the work as well as for the county, which has to provide the staff to review the proposals. The county is aimed at encouraging more professional firms to apply for work.

As liaison to the Department of Public Works and Engineering, I embarked on a mission a year and a half ago to look at ways to streamline the bidding process to make it easier and less costly for consultants to apply for work. Under the old process, professional firms would have to submit voluminous proposals, usually hundreds of pages long and costing them thousands of dollars to prepare. Some of the cost of that work was passed on to the county, and, the county would have to commit its staff sometimes for weeks or more to review the proposals. Because it would cost the consulting firms between $10,000 and $15,000 just to apply for work, (which seemed somewhat unjust) a year and a half ago, I asked the Freeholder Board if we could research a way to streamline it.

The new process is a two-pronged one in which the firms seeking to be hired for a project would first submit three or four pages documenting their background and experience. From those submitting the initial applications, county engineering staff would choose three or four firms and ask them to submit full technical and cost proposals. The firm to be hired would be selected from among those who submit the full proposals. The process also takes into account how many county projects a firm already is working on, so that other firms without work can be considered for new projects. Most of the top engineering firms in the state come out of Monmouth County. Most of the businesses that are here employ Monmouth County people, so more people are continuing to work. Under the new process, the Board of Chosen Freeholders remains confident that everybody’s going to get work.

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Disputed Asbury Park Election Ballots Will Not Be Opened

By Asbury Park Sun

A Monmouth County Superior Court judge has ruled that 252 rejected vote by mail [VBM] ballots in the Asbury Park city council election should not be opened.

The number of ballots at issue were enough to change the election results.

Daniel Harris III, an unsuccessful candidate on the A-Team slate, filed the legal challenge to the May 14 election. His A-Team running mates Jim Keady and Duanne Small were 178 votes away from unseating Mayor Myra Campbell and Deputy Mayor Susan Henderson, the two lowest vote-getters who won seats on the five-member city council.

Harris’s attorney, Kristie Howard of Montclair, said Harris will appeal the decision.

“Definitely. Immediately,” she said.

The 252 ballots subject to the ruling today by Judge Dennis O’Brien were disqualified by the Monmouth County Board of Elections. The board had ruled that handwriting on the applications for the ballots indicated other individuals provided assistance to the voter in filling out the applications.

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