Trenton, NJ – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy released the following statement regarding passage today of the disaster relief package by the House of Representatives:
“We are grateful to those members of Congress who today pulled together in a unified, bipartisan coalition to assist millions of their fellow Americans in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut at their greatest time of need. The tradition of Congress being there and providing support for Americans during times of crisis, no matter where they live across this great country, lives on in today’s vote in the House of Representatives. We anticipate smooth passage when this package moves back to the Senate for final approval and for this long-awaited relief to finally make its way to our residents.”
Governor Chris Christie’s reelection campaign announced today that they will not be accepting taxpayer funds for the primary election.
“In response to Governor Christie’s decisive leadership and clear record of historic, bipartisan reform, we’ve seen an unprecedented level of financial support from donors across all 21 counties in New Jersey. This positive reaction during such a short period of time only continues to grow daily which is why Governor Christie’s campaign has decided not to pursue matching funds for this primary election cycle” said Bill Palatucci.
“I would also like to thank Todd Christie, Jon Hanson and the entire finance committee for their continued efforts. They have been a tremendous help in reaching the campaign’s fundraising goals.”
Christie’s campaign reported raising $2.139 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 and $2.08 million cash on hand.
Bradley Beach Restoration Project Uses Administration Grant Dollars to Hire Unemployed Residents for Clean Up Project
Trenton, NJ – With the recovery and rebuilding process fully underway, Governor Chris Christie today toured a restoration project in the storm-impacted community of Bradley Beach where workers hired through a National Emergency Grant (NEG) are on the job repairing the town’s beachfront area. Bradley Beach is one of dozens of communities in 11 New Jersey counties that have put 428 unemployed people to work on storm clean-up using the $15.6 million grant obtained by the Christie Administration in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Another 650 people are slated to be brought in up to five other counties.
Sandy was the worst storm to strike New Jersey in 100 years. It damaged or destroyed 346,000 homes, knocked out power to nearly 7 million people and 1,000 schools, and caused the evacuation or displacement of 116,000 New Jerseyans – 41,000 of whom are still displaced from their homes. The storm also cost the state over 8,000 jobs in November, making the Governor’s job and recovery initiatives essential to getting people back to work.
“New Jersey is rebuilding from Sandy with pride and determination,” said Governor Christie. “With the NEG grant and the $26 million being released through three programs we have initiated — Recovery4Jersey, Skills4Jersey and Opportunity4Jersey – we are helping Sandy-impacted businesses and workers, as well as investing in our future economic growth. New Jersey, its citizens, communities and businesses are resilient and I assure you that we will leave no stone unturned in bringing the Garden State back better than ever.”
Status OF Transition Sheltering Assistance Extension Is Uncertain. Refugees Left To Fend For Themselves With No Notice
By Art Gallagher
Evicitions from FEMA sponsored hotel accommodations are continuing this weekend for New Jersey residents whose homes were destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. MoreMonmouthMusings reported on Wednesday that some residents have been left to sleep in their cars on weekends.
NJ.com is reporting that the Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch is evicting refugees to accomodate a pre-booked scrapbooking retreat.
Highlands residents Angus Mcdougland and Leia Sims have been living at Ocean Place since Sandy destoyed their home. This morning they received a notice from the hotel that they needed to check out today or pay $260 per night to stay. Mcdougland told MMM that there is a college basketball team filling the hotel, in addition to the scrapbookers.
Lois Pongo, also of Highlands, was locked out the room where she’s been staying this week at the Holiday Inn in Hazlet this morning. Hotel employees told her that she was no longer eligible for transitional housing assistance. Pongo paid for her room for tonight and is scrambling to get her contractors to finish the repairs on her home this weekend.
Pongo visited the FEMA Recovery Center in Leonardo on Thursday to verify that her temporary housing was to be extended. She was left with the impression that her temporary housing was in place. The Leonardo FEMA office which had been so helpful earlier this week said they could not help her today.
Governor Christie announced on Thursday that FEMA’s transitional housing program had been extended for two weeks until January 25th. Evidently someone at FEMA gave Christie bad or incomplete information.
Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornik told NJ.com that Governor Chris Christie is playing politics by not supporting Marlboro’s decision to post armed police officers at each of their schools as a reaction to the Newtown, CT massacre.
“Unfortunately, I believe that if Governor Christie was not contemplating running for President or was not running for re-election, he would be firmly behind [Marlboro’s actions], but politics has had its influence on him,” said Hornik. “Politics can’t come into play when you’re talking about children’s safety. We need gun control in this country, and we need to get rid of assault weapons and multi-bullet clips. I don’t see a need for them, while recognizing the Second Amendment, at all. But the reality is that guns are out there, right now.”
Since the day after the Newtown shooting, Christie has said that he does not think cops at schools are conductive to the learning environment nor are such deployments the answer answer to mass shootings.
At the press conference for the Belmar boardwalk groundbreaking this week, the governor said that he would not take action to stop communities that decide to have police at their schools.
Middletown Mayor Gerry Scharfenberger told MoreMonmouthMusings that Hornik’s comments sound political. “Maybe Jon’s running for governor,” said Scharfenberger, “his comments sound just plain silly. I don’t hear anything political in what Christie said. He is sharing his philosophy and a lot of people agree with him.”
Hornik told MMM that he’s not running for anything this year. “I doing my job as mayor. No other office excites me. You never know what will come your way, but I am not pursuing anything politically.”
In an interview with NJ.com Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long expressed her frustration with a lack of specifics in Governor Christie’s State of the State Address, even though she said she is meeting with state officials and FEMA today.
“We’re glad we’re on the governor’s radar, but the story of the owner of Sea Bright Pizza, Cono Trezza, is emblematic of my entire community,” Long said, citing one of many Sea Bright establishments yet to be back in business. “We want to do the right thing in terms of rebuilding by doing it smarter and by mitigating flood risk. Unfortunately, because of a lack of specificity coming from the state of New Jersey, and a lack of support and money from Washington, D.C., people who want to do the right thing are in limbo. I’m glad that we’re Jersey strong, because we’re going to have to be strong enough to pull ourselves out of this. We’re a 1,500-person town with a $5 million budget that needs help, and we’re not getting help.”
“I would not respond well to somebody who criticized this Republican governor, because [Christie] has been a determined, inspirational leader,” Long said. “But in order for us to rebuild smart from Sandy, we need more than just moral support. We need to know whether or not we’re going to get financial assistance or not. And if the answer is not, that’s fine – we’ll figure it out ourselves.”
Long’s frustration is understandable. Frustration among municipal officials and residents alike is likely to rise in the coming weeks and months as the difficult realities of rebuiding are confronted. Yet, for a mayor to expect the Governor to recite what specific actions will be taken in any given town during a State of the State Address is unrealistic, especially when that Governor highlighted your town during the address and you’ve got a meeting to handle specifics scheduled for the next day.
However, Long’s next line is alarming and should have been the lead to the story:
“Every day that goes by, the resolve of our business owners goes away,” Long added. “I’ve got people sleeping in cars – I could care less about the boardwalk.” (emphasis added)
Why are people sleeping in cars?
A friend of mine whose home in Highlands was flooded by Sandy has been staying with friends, at no cost to the taxpayers, for the last two months during her home clean up and rebuilding. That arrangement stopped working last weekend. My friend visited the FEMA office in Leonardo and was put up in a hotel in a matter of hours. That residents of Sea Bright are sleeping in cars doesn’t make sense. Maybe they are choosing to sleep in their cars. Maybe someone is dropping the ball. Maybe there is red tape. Red tape and dropping the ball is unacceptable.
My friend says that FEMA temporary housing is expiring on the 12th. That could lead to a lot more people sleeping in cars. That’s not acceptable either.
Where is all the money that was raised by concerts being spent? How is the millions that Christie raised privately being spent? Evidently its not being spent on people in Sea Bright and elsewhere who have been displaced and are sleeping in cars.
We can’t have people who are displaced by a natural disaster sleeping in cars because of red tape. Not in Monmouth County. Not in New Jersey. Not in the United States of America.
We’re better than that.
UPDATE: Displaced residents are sleeping in cars because they are being evicted from their hotels on weekends to accommodate wedding guests. Read about it here.
Lt. Governor Guadagno, Madam Speaker, Mr. President, members of the Legislature, fellow New Jerseyans.
Since George Washington delivered the first State of the Union in New York on this day in 1790, it has been the tradition of executive leaders to report on the condition of the nation and state at the beginning of the legislative year. So it is my honor and pleasure to give you this report on the state of our state.
One year ago, we were scheduled to gather on this second Tuesday in January when our friend and colleague Alex DeCroce passed suddenly the night before, causing us to delay this report. I miss the hard work and kind spirit of Alex. I think of him often, but I am so pleased to see his wife Betty Lou here in this chamber as a duly elected member of the Assembly today. She continues his work and does honor to his memory.
Just three months ago, we were proceeding normally with our lives, getting ready for a national election and the holidays to follow. Then Sandy hit.
