Bookerism of the day

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Holmdel shutters 97-year-old fire company amid insurance, safety concerns

Holmdel shutters 97-year-old fire company amid insurance, safety concerns (via NJ.com)

HOLMDEL – The township’s oldest fire company was officially disbanded Tuesday evening. The Holmdel Township Committee eliminated the 97-year-old Fire Company No. 1 amid complaints that the company failed to respond to calls and refused to provide…

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Moody’s Expects New Jersey To Use ‘One-Shots’ To Fill Shortfall

Moody’s Expects New Jersey To Use ‘One-Shots’ To Fill Shortfall (via NJSpotlight)

While Gov. Chris Christie is proclaiming that there is “nothing off the table” to close this year’s $800 million budget gap, Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday it will be keeping a close watch not only on how heavily the state relies on…

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RAINE Foundation passes the flag to Kyrillos

RAINE Foundation volunteers in Union Beach, November 2012. Click for larger view.

During the first week of November, 2012 Tim Mills was alone working on cleaning up what remained of his Union Beach home.  He was making very little progress. His home was badly damaged and he felt there was no way possible for his family could return to the shambles or overcome the devastation. “I was in a very dark and desperate place emotionally that day, ” Mills recalled.

Mills noticed a group of at least 20 men and women walking down the street, approaching his home. He was scared, fearing they were looters coming to steal what little he had left.  One of the group pulled the family’s American flag from the muddy debris that used to be the front lawn.

“Who the hell are you?” Mills shouted at the group. “We are from RAINE. We here to help,” the team leader responded.  Mills stood in silence as the man, a U.S. Marine, who pulled his flag out of the mud draped it over the furniture that was drying out on his lawn.

“It was at that point that I didn’t feel alone or lost any more. I felt like somehow, we were going to be OK. That team saved my life that day.”

Mills donated his flag to RAINE (Reaching All In Need Everyday). Since then the volunteers that lead the non-profit have put the flag on tour as a symbol of leadership, perseverance and strength in the face of adversity.

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Middletown residents continue to voice concerns over controversial all-girls school

Middletown residents continue to voice concerns over controversial all-girls school (via NJ.com)

MIDDLETOWN – The township’s Planning Board took no action during its meeting Wednesday night controversial proposal to build an all-girls high school in a residential neighborhood in the township . Trinity Hall, a private all-girls high school that…

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Search function added

Yes, after 4,000 posts, it is about time.

MoreMonmouthMusings just got a little more useful and a little more user friendly. We’ve finally added a search function.   It’s on the top of the right sidebar, just above the first ad.

Want to know the glorious history of the Bayshore Tea Party Group or what to do if your generator won’t start?  Now that information is easier to find.

Who were the Monmouth County Freeholder candidates in 2010? Got it.  Who is the former nude model who held a fundraiser for Chris Christie?  Enter nude model, Christie.

Curious about any Monmouth County or New Jersey political news since 2010?  Try out the search function.

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Obama Administration Looking To Divert Billions in Sandy Funds Away From New Jersey and New York

By Art Gallagher, [email protected]

The Obama Administration is considering holding a contest for areas impacted by disasters other than Superstorm Sandy.  The “winners” would get between $1 billion and $2 billion of the remaining $3.6 billion is Sandy relief dollars being doled out by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to a story first reported by the Wall Street Journal

The Record reports that New Jersey Congressmen Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson; Albio Sires, D-West New York; and Frank Pallone, D-Long Branch, and Sen. Bob Menendez are urging HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan not to divert federal aid to projects in other parts of the country.  Members of the New York Congressional Delegation are making similar pleas.

Bookerism of the Day

Where’s Senator Cory Booker?  He’s proselytizing on twitter. 

Sires told The Record that the entire New Jersey delegation could join together in opposition to a nationwide contest for the money.  That would be great!  Sires should lead the Democrats in the delegation in ending the partisanship that has been dominating the discourse over Sandy recovery and sign the letter to Donovan and Michael Boots, the Acting Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality that Congressman Chris Smith invited him, and all members of the delegation to sign requesting a meeting to hash out the multitude of issues New Jersey residents are having with the HUD relief process.

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$25K raised in 20 hours for family of boy killed in Keansburg

$25K raised in 20 hours for family of boy killed in Keansburg (via NJ.com)

KEANSBURG – More than $25,000 has been raised in less than 24 hours to help pay for funeral arrangements and medical bills for a boy who was struck and killed by a car on Tuesday night. At around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, 11-year-old Drew Keough was a pedestrian…

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Beach Replenishment Project Completed In Belmar

Resident Engineer Paul Jalowski with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, discusses how the elevation of a wide beach berm reduces coastal risks to communities behind them at the site of the Belmar to Manasquan beach renourishment project with U.S. Representative Chris Smith and local officials in Manasquan, N.J. Nov 7, 2013

Congressman Chris Smith announced this afternoon that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has completed a $25 million Southern Monmouth County beach replenishment project in Belmar.  The five mile stretch of beach including Manasquan, Spring Lake, Sea Girt and Belmar was severely eroded by Superstorm Sandy.  The project, which started in November 7, 2013 nourished the beaches to better conditions than existed pre-Sandy.

“I stood on what was left of the beaches in the days after Superstorm Sandy and the immense scope of the damage was a hard to take in,” said Smith, who worked to obtain Sandy recovery funding and hosted a groundbreaking in Manasquan Nov. 7. “The beaches and dunes which offered protection to the shore communities were washed away—leaving the towns vulnerable to future storms. Thankfully, the Army Corps of Engineers has now rebuilt the beaches in Belmar, Sea Girt, Spring Lake and Manasquan to continue the protections they provide for homes and lives.”

The project is funded 100 percent by the federal government through the Army Corps’ Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies (FCCE) account. The project pumped an estimated 1.3 million cubic yards of sand onto the shoreline.

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Middletown Calls On Christie, Legislature To Allow Affordable Housing Funds To Assist Sandy Impacted Homeowners

Citing the shortage of federal and state funds available to assist Superstorm Sandy impacted homeowners in rebuilding their homes, the Middletown Township Committtee this week joined Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik and Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon in calling on the state legislature and Governor Chris Christie to put the more than $100 million in Affordable Housing Funds that are sitting dormant to work.

With a unanimous 5-0 vote, the committee passed a resolution on Monday, April 21, calling for legislation that would reinstate Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs) “for the limited purpose of getting victims of Superstorm Sandy back in their homes during this time of need.”

RCAs were created in the original 1985 Fair Housing Act whereby towns with funds raised from developer fees or through bonding could transfer up to half of those funds to another community for the purpose of building affordable housing as required by the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Mt. Laurel decision.

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