The Arnone Report: Bi-partisan team work yields success with Shark River project

By Monmouth County Freeholder Tom Arnone

Freeholder Tom Arnone

After a very long period time and with many notable road blocks and obstacles, I, along with a great team of my colleagues, including Senator Jennifer Beck (R-11), and Neptune Committeeman Randy Bishop, am so happy to announce that the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s (NJDOT’s) Office of Maritime Resources has awarded the bid to complete the Shark River dredging project. The project’s contract was awarded to Mobile Pumping & Dredging Co., of Chester, PA.

This huge step forward is a result of years of work coordinating with the many agencies that have authority over this project. After being involved in this project for more than fifteen years as Mayor of Neptune City and now as a member of the Board of Chosen Freeholders, I am personally very happy to see this project finally begin.  I have worked with other officials throughout the years whom were also very passionate about this project, including Tom Catley, former Mayor of Neptune Township, as well as other past mayors of the surrounding towns and those in office today. The County has long continued to work cooperatively with these local officials, as well as state and government agencies to move this dredging project forward.

This is a large project, with approximately 106,000 cubic yards of material to be dredged.  With cooperation from the Monmouth County Reclamation Center, which is able to accept and reuse the dredged material, and the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders providing funding, we have made this project a reality. Not one part of the Shark River project was easy or simple, but we found a way to accomplish this.

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$1 million Mega Millions ticket sold in Neptune

A second place $1 million Mega Millions ticket for the Friday September 25th drawing was sold at the Wawa at 1344 Corlies Ave in Neptune Township, according to a statement by the NJ Lottery.

The winning ticket match the five white balls with the numbers  03, 08, 38, 51 and 64.  It did not match the Gold Mega Ball, 4, nor did the player choose the multiplier which, if he or she had, would have boosted the prize to $5 million.

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Pope to prisoners: ‘I am here as a pastor, but above all as a brother’

PHILADELPHIA — Jennifer Millar sat thinking about the strangeness of it all. After a hard-knocks life that included abuse and 22 years of cocaine addiction, she landed in jail on a drug charge and, when a paperwork snafu delayed her release, found herself a few feet from Pope Francis. Millar, 37, of Philadelphia squeezed the pope’s… Read the rest of this entry »

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Supermoon-Bloodmoon coverage via NASA

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Pope Francis celebrates Mass in Philadelphia, bids farewell to U.S.

With a simple message of love and family, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in front of nearly a million people in Philadelphia Sunday and wrapped up his historic six-day journey to meet the American people. On a massive stage capped by a golden arc, the pope used his homily to remind the crowd that love is born… Read the rest of this entry »

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Cop hospitalized after woman bites officer, and refuses to let go, police say

ABERDEEN — A 25-year-old township woman bit a police officer and “refused to let go” Saturday night after resisting arrest, police said. Several officers responded at around 10 p.m. to a residence on Hawthorne Street in the Cliffwood Beach section of town after receiving a report of a fight, Chief John Powers said in an email.… Read the rest of this entry »

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Sunday will be last chance to see a Super Blood Moon until 2033

For the first time in more than 30 years, you can witness a supermoon in combination with a lunar eclipse. Late on Sept. 27, 2015, in the U.S. and much of the world, a total lunar eclipse will mask the moon’s larger-than-life face. Watch NASA’s live stream from 8:00 p.m. until at least 11:30 p.m. EDT… Read the rest of this entry »

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Shark River Dredging Contract Awarded

The New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Office of Maritime Resources has awarded the bid to complete the long awaited Shark River and Shark River Spur Dredging Project to the low bidder, Mobile Pumping & Dredging Co., of Chester, PA. MPD’s bid of $7,649,817.50 was $1.8 million lower than the next closest bidder.

The State of New Jersey will contribute over $5 million to the project. Monmouth County will contribute $1.1 million and Neptune Township has committed $450,000.  Belmar, Neptune City and Wall Township are expected to share the remaining costs of the project, according to a statement isssued by Senator Jennifer Beck,  Freeholder Tom Arnone and Neptune Township Committeeman Randy Bishop.  Beck said the project will start this year, “if all the stars align,” and will be completed by the end of 2016.

“After over two decades, there has finally been a bid awarded to dredge Shark River. Notably, The National Marine Fisheries only allows dredging work from July 1st to December 31st, so I’m happy to see this monumental step taken forward, which, if all the stars align, will allow dredging to begin this year. None of this could have been possible without the work of Freeholder Tom Arnone and Committeeman Randy Bishop, working together in a bipartisan fashion with every state, county, and local stakeholder to make this project happen. While the State is investing more than $5 million, the project couldn’t have moved forward without the assistance of Monmouth County, which is accepting the material at its landfill and helping to fund the trucking. In addition, a number of surrounding municipalities have preliminary agreed to share in the cost of the project” said Beck.

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Rumson Cop Who Beat DWI Charge Is Suing To Get His Job Back

Damien Brennan

Damien Brennan, a former Rumson Police Sergeant, is asking the Monmouth County Superior Court to force the Borough and its Police Department to give him his gun and badge back.

Brennan, 38 of Howell, was terminated on August 11 of this year after an Internal Affairs inquiry into the single-car traffic accident he had on in the early hours of September 20, 2014 when he left the Dublin House in Red Bank to report to his off-duty assignment protecting Bruce Springsteen’s unoccupied Rumson home.   According to reports on RedBankGreen, Brennan crashed his Chevy Camaro into a dumpster behind Fisher Diamonds at the corner of White and Broad Streets.

The Red Bank Police charged Brennan with DWI.   He pleaded guilty to Reckless Driving and received a 60 day drivers license suspension after his attorney, Peter O’Mara, argued that the blood sample evidence taken at Riverview Medical Center after the accident should be ruled inadmissible because the Red Bank Police did not obtain a warrant for the blood, according to RedBankGreen.

In his suit against Rumson, Brennan blamed his car accident on Meniere’s Disease, a disorder of unknown cause that manifests with spontaneous  episodes of vertigo — a sensation of a spinning motion — along with fluctuating hearing loss, ringing in the ear, and sometimes a feeling of fullness or pressure in the ear.

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N.J. pension investments sag after years of double-digit returns

TRENTON — New Jersey’s giant public worker pension system lost $2 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June as investment returns sagged to 4.16 percent, state investment officials said Wednesday. And the volatile stock market this summer brought an even bigger hit to pensions. The value of the fund was $79 billion at the… Read the rest of this entry »

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