“This was not a Republcian storm or a Democratic storm”
Governor Christie makes his opening remarks to the press after signing a letter to President Obama requesting FEMA disaster relief. The Governor praised his leadership team for the work they did dealing with the strom and praised Senate President Steve Sweeney for his non-partisan partnership. He described the preparation for the storm, the execution of the plan to deal with the storm, and events that occurred during the blizzard.
Governor Christie addresses the circumstances of both he and Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno being away from New Jersey for five days.
“It was not a matter of equipment. It was a matter of the amount of the snowfall and the intensity of the snowfall.” ~ Transportation Commissioner James Simpson
Governor Christie address the inaccurate reports of a decline in the amount of state equipment available to manage storms in the past year. Transportation Commission James Simpson describes the use of the equipment and the conditions he and his team were dealing with.
CLASSIC CHRISTIE
“I made the decision to be a father first.”
This segment is classic Christie. The Governor describes his decision to go on vacation with his family while preparing for the storm. He delivers a counter-punch to Senator Ray Lesniak who has been critical of the Governor and Lt. Governor this week. He addresses the antiquity of the sucession procedure of the State Constitution and he describes working with Senator Sweeney via phone during the course of the crisis.
Coming next year (probably some time over the weekend)….Chrisite slams mayors who blame the conditions in their towns on the State. He singles out Brick Mayor Steve Acropolis in particular.
Happy New Year! Thank you for being a loyal MMM reader in 2010. ~ Art
Seated left to right, Freeholder-elect Tom Arnone, Sheriff Shaun Golden, Freeholer John Curley, Freeholder Deputy Director Rob Clifton and Freeholder Director Lillian Burry listen to Goveror Christie's remarks to the press. Standing left, John Tobia, Director of Monmouth County's Department of Public Works
By Art Gallagher
During a press conference at the Monmouth County Hall of Records this afternoon Governor Chris Christie graded the results of the State’s response to this week’s blizzard a “B+” given the enormity of the storm. He said that 95% of the State roads were cleared by Tuesday afternoon.
The Governor praised the leadership of Transportation Commissioner James Simpson, Colonel Joseph Fuentes of the NJ State Police and Senate President Steve Sweeney who was Acting Governor during the storm.
Christie said that there were no indications of work actions on the part of rank and file state workers on the ground working around the clock to clean the state highways and rescue stranded motorists. “I’m proud of them,” Christie said of the State employees who worked the storm, “They saved lives.”
Christie explained his absence and that of Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno from New Jersey during the storm. “My most important job is husband and father. I think I made that clear to the voters before they elected me. I had promised my children a trip to Disney World at the end of my first year as Governor. ”
Christie explained that Guadagno came to him in August about a two week trip her father wanted to take with his children and grandchildren. “We hope it isn’t, but it is probably Kim’s father’s last holiday with his family. I wasn’t about to tell my Lt. Governor to only take one week.” The Governor acknowledge that the administration wanted to keep the circumstances of Guadagno’s absence private out of respect for the family and that he was addressing it publicly, with Guadagno’s consent, in response to the partisan rancor over both Christie and Guadagno being out of state.
MMM will publish video of the press conference later today and over the weekend.
Governor Chris Christie signs his letter to President Obama requesting FEMA disaster relief this moring at the Monmouth County Hall of Records. Assembly Members Mary Pat Angelini, Caroline Casagrande and Dave Rible, background.
Trenton, NJ –
To help New Jersey municipalities and counties recover costs from this week’s severe winter snowstorm, Governor Chris Christie today signed a letter to President Barack Obama seeking a major disaster declaration to secure federal funding and ensure New Jersey communities most affected by the storm receive all possible resources to address extraordinary and unforeseen costs from the snow emergency.
“My pledge is to do all we can to help our municipalities and counties in the aftermath of the blizzard, to clean up and to ease the storm’s financial impact,” Governor Christie said. “I want New Jersey to be in the best possible position to receive disaster aid through a prompt application to the federal government and FEMA.
”In the face of such a ferocious and unusual winter storm, our Department of Transportation, State Police and other agencies mounted an effective response, maximized resources and worked tirelessly for days. The eastern municipalities and counties most impacted also did the best they could under very difficult circumstances. There are always concerns about how things could have gone better, but the fact is this was a rare and unanticipated force of nature that hit our state, and we owe our thanks to all those who worked tirelessly to get us through it.”
Also today, Governor Christie announced the distribution of more than $11.18 million in FEMA disaster aid from successful applications following major storms earlier this year. Distribution of payments to municipalities and counties began yesterday and will continue through Monday. Payment amounts to some of the hardest hit counties from those storms include, for example, $386,344 to Camden County, $308,936 to Burlington County, $291,612 to Gloucester County, $284,561 to Atlantic County, $278,638 to Cumberland County and $278,091 to Salem County. Payments for amounts ranging from thousands of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars will go to dozens of other municipalities and counties.
In his letter to President Obama, the Governor noted that storm conditions in 13 counties exceed the standards set to qualify for federal disaster assistance. The qualifying counties are Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset and Union. New Jersey, through data being collected by the State Police Office of Emergency Management, will provide additional supporting information following the completion of a Preliminary Damage Assessment pursuant to FEMA’s Snow Assistance Policy.
The snowfall, which began the morning after Christmas, broke many of the historic records established and maintained by the National Weather Service and National Climatic Data Center, as described in an attachment to the Governor’s letter.
“In light of these severe conditions, federal assistance is critical to properly and fairly mitigate the financial impact of this major snowstorm on State and local budgets, which are both currently under tremendous pressure due to severe economic conditions,” Governor Christie wrote in his letter to the President.
Governor Christie urged counties and municipalities to prepare damage and cost assessments as quickly as possible to move the aid application process along as expeditiously as possible.
The storm of December 26-27 2010 was more than a significant weather event. Published reports have called it one of the top six snow storms in New Jersey history. Many veterans of the DPW in this and other towns do not recall conditions as severe as the ones encountered overnight on Sunday and into the early morning hours of Monday. The magnitude of the storm is illustrated by the fact that snowfall rates of 1 inch per hour are generally considered too heavy for plows to keep pace with, and this storm had periods of 4.5 inch per hour accumulations. Add in the strong, near hurricane force winds and the resulting snow drifts, and this storm will be recorded as one of our area’s worst.
In Fair Haven, our DPW had two men in sand trucks on the road by 11:30 am on Sunday. By 3:30 p.m. Sunday, 7 more employees were on the road plowing. Fair Haven had 9 men, including two who came in from vacation, as well as the DPW Supervisor, operating up to 7 plows and 3 loaders through out the duration of the storm. These were all of our resources. All continued to work until Monday evening, with the last crew and DPW Supervisor leaving at 10:30 p.m. Monday. At that time, late on Monday, almost all streets were open with at least one lane.
The sheer volume of snow required the DPW to remove snow with front-end loaders, slowing down the removal and making it a street-by-street process. This takes a long time, and was the reason most streets had only one lane open while the front end loaders, trucks and plows cleared one street at a time.
Our DPW regular schedule resumed at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday with continuation of snow removal. By 10:00 a.m. 2 trucks were picking up trash, all of which was picked up by 5:00 p.m. Snow removal crews continued until 3:30 p.m. A sand truck continued to operate, to hit the critical areas until dark.
On Wednesday recycling was picked up town wide and completed by 4:00 p.m. Snow removal crews continued throughout the day, with the sand truck again continuing until dark. Thursday saw continued snow removal, as well as an additional town-wide garbage pick-up.
There were no incidents or mechanical failures during this event. The most significant struggle was the snow plows repeatedly getting stuck on Sunday night.
I am very proud of our dedicated DPW employees, who worked in excess of 30 straight hours from Sunday afternoon until Monday night clearing the roads. The fact that there were no major incidents, injuries or accidents is a testament to their dedication. Further, three employees have voluntarily switched their scheduled day off on New Years Eve to Monday, so they could work to get the streets as clear as possible for when school to resumes on Monday. (I know it is a huge burden, but please make every effort to clear sidewalks in time for the walk to school on Monday)
I am also proud of and grateful to all of those who helped their neighbors; our volunteer fire and first aid squads who were repeatedly called out in terrible conditions; and our police employees who were on the road in the worst of the conditions.
Although we believe we performed admirably under the circumstances, there is always room for improvement. Therefore, we will be conducting a complete and thorough review of all of our processes and decisions, and will make adjustments where necessary, so our performance will be better during future events.
Thank you for your patience, and please have a Happy and Safe New Year!
Governor Chris Christie will be at the Monmouth County Hall of Records this morning for the purpose of signing a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting disaster aid for storm releated expenses resulting from the blizzard this week.
He will be available to the press at 11:30am in the Freeholders Meeting Room.
This just in from Frank Cotton of the Monmouth Tea Party Coalition:
Did they break the law?
I need everyone who can to go to the www.app.com look up my profile frankcott and respond to this:
Three members of a local tea party group (Monmouth County Tea Party Coalition) did write-ins in June for democratic county committee chairs. The people were Bill Lawton, a gentleman (anonymous) and a woman (anonymous) for district 13. As of today, none of these 3 have been allowed to participate in democratic meetings, leaving them out of important events like the recent November elections.
Bill Lawton was notified of winning but the man and woman were not notified . Afterwards Bill spoke with Joe Marks, the democratic township committee man, and Joe Marks responded that he didn’t want Bill or the others on the committee because
“you are not friends of the democratic party”. This remark shows how the democrats in Hazlet are about getting their own like minded people and don’t respect the democratic process and voice of the people, not unlike our national democratic leaders.
Mr. Marks, why haven’t included these write-ins in the democratic meetings? Don’t you understand our constitutional rights, apparently not?
Frank Cotton of the Monmouth County Tea Party Coalition is now making inquires to the county board of elections and sees to have the state question the alleged actions of the local democrats. Meanswhile Hazlet, Aberdeen and and towns will soon find themselves under democratic leadership and proababy become high taxed, limited rights, congested and social welfare havens like the northern counties due to the alleged corruption and like minds of these democratic leaders. We have seen healthcare, cap and trade, and all kinds of deception at the national level by democrats, we don’t need that nonesense here in monmouth county.
“I would like to know why Bill Lawton and Cindy Butler, write-ins for the country committee, are being excluded from your organization? Please respond to them directly so we can all participate in our democratic process. “
When we last visited Paul Mulshine he was preparing to blame Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno if his cat pooped on his rug. Mulshine’s cat must have peed in Paul’s Cheerios and drank his last beer. The dipsomaniac expositer has been on a bender since.
First Mulshine said Guadagno should stay in Mexico because the roads were bad in Ocean and Monmouth Counties as he successfully made his way to the Edison studios of News12. He said the roads were bad in the Republican counties because Guadagno and Governor Christie left the Governor’s office in the hands of Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney.
After Mulshine found out why Guadagno is in Mexico, she and her brothers are spending probably their last Christmas holiday with their father who is suffering from advanced cancer, that was OK with him. Then it wasn’t OK with him. Kim’s clan should have spent the holiday in Iowa, where they are from, instead of going to Mexico. Mulshine better hope he keeps his Star Ledger gig, he won’t qualify for America’s next emerging profession, end of life counseling.
In his latest rant, Mulshine demonstrated that he doesn’t qualify as a storm cleanup expert either. He writes as if he’s an expert. His seven hours of shoveling and failure to get to the store to get kitty litter are his qualifications. Paul said:
The effort in the coastal counties was nothing short of pathetic. Though this snow was deep, it was very light – as I can affirm after seven or so hours of shoveling it.
Just a few good passes with a plow would have cleared key state highways at the Shore.
Instead, many of those highways still had just one lane open the day after the storm.
Worse was the lack of coordination. State, county, and municipal roads were all plowed by separate crews. One road would be just fine, till you turned onto another that was barely touched.
Paul is right. The snow was deep, and fortunately light. The reason the snow was so deep is that we got too much of it too fast. Just a few good passes did clear it, on Sunday, and then it snowed some more covering up the area that had just been plowed. I know, while Paul was shoveling and cleaning up cat poo, I was plowing. Then my plow broke, as did many many others that I witnessed at the repair shop today. This storm was historic. 30 inches and wind-blown drifts in less than 24 hours. New Jersey is not equipped to clean up this type of a storm quickly. Nor should we be because they are so rare. Syracuse and Buffalo are equipped for these types of storms which occur in those cities every year.
One would expect a guy who covers New Jersey government and purports to be an expert to know why there are different jurisdictions clearing different roads in the same communities. Coordination is a great idea and might even work in the private sector if unions weren’t involved. But in New Jersey government their would be fights over which entity would pay the overtime and which union would get the overtime.
Mulshine related his personal snowstorm. Just like hundreds of others did in the comments on the app and nj.com websites and who called into News12 while Paul was in the studio that he managed to get to in the horrendous conditions. One would expect better from a professional journalist and opinion maker.
And better we got from the Star Ledger’s Mike Frasinelli. Reading Mike’s article I learned that despite Mayor Cory Booker’s ability to simultaneously handle a snow shovel and an IPhone Newark is more messed up over the storm than Monmouth and Ocean. The reporter witnessed two men threaten each other with gunfire over a parking spot and then start shoveling together. There’s the making of a reality TV show that I would watch.
In addition to getting into the streets, Frasinelli talked to men who worked overnight clearing the snow. He spoke to James Simpson, the State Transportation Commissioner who explained the Route 18 and other State Highway problems. Rather than neglect as Mulshine would have you believe, Route 18 was impassable because plow trucks were breaking down. 9 or 10 trucks broke down clearing the highway.
I guess I knew that Neptune has five state highways running through it. I just never thought about it until I read Frasinelli’s fine article. 175 abandoned vehicles would certainly complicate a clean up. Those vehicles wouldn’t have been abandoned if it hadn’t snowed so hard so fast.
Or just take it from me. What happened was we got too much snow too fast. Christie and Guadagno being here would not have resulted in a faster clean up. Even if they were here, their political opponents in the media and a few idiot legislators would have tried to rile you up and score political points.
There are few pundits in the mainstream media and the blogosphere who should take the rest of the year off. Forget the blizzard. Some of these guys should pray for a power outage to stop themselves from killing their credibility on the Internet.
Two sites I like so much I give them live feeds here on MMM, Gannett’s Capitol Quickiesand InTheLobbyare suggesting that Governor Christie’s absence from New Jersey during the blizzard of 2010 will do to his administration what Hurricane Katrina did to George W. Bush’s presidency.
John and John, you guys should have followed Christie’s lead and taken the week off.
Christie will be back in New Jersey tomorrow. The weather will be in the 50’s and raining on Saturday. The snow will melt and Christie will launch the year with his 2011 agenda. By this time next week, no one will be talking about the blizzard except mayors who will be choking on the overtime bills.
It snowed too much too fast. That’s what went wrong in New Jersey this week. New York too.
It wasn’t a personal snowstorm, yet naturally many, if not most, people relate to the aftermath of a storm out of their personal concerns. The numb minded media, especially the Asbury Park Press editorial board, who is once again is living up to their Neptune Nudniks moniker, granted a full page in the print edition to selfish rants, 12 pages on their website, contributing to an online frenzy of wind-bagging.
The Nudniks are contributing to directly to the frenzy with yet another editorial premised on inaccurate information and assumptions. They say the storm was predicted days in advance. Hogwash. Forecasts as late as Saturday night were predicting snow falls in Central Jersey in the 12-18 inch range. It wasn’t until just a few hours before the storm hit that any forecaster was talking about accumulations of 25-30 inches with 55 mph winds. Folks in Buffalo or Syracuse might be expected to be prepared for the type of storm we got, but the truth of the matter is that New Jersey’s various governments don’t have the equipment or the personnell to handle the this type of weather quickly. That is why the clean up is continuing now, 48 hours after the snow stopped falling.
The Nudniks started their editorial rant accusing road crews of “surrendering” to the storm.
I was out Sunday night to plow my properties. The DOT crews were out. The visablity was terrible. It was dangerous to be plowing. It was snowing too hard too fast.
If they were not still out there cleaning up, I would suggest those crews dump truck loads of snow that they surrendered to at APP headquarters in Neptune. Cancelled subscriptions should suffice for cooler heads.
It snowed too much to fast. That is what happened. There have been lots of rumors and comments that there have been job actions and sick outs in some towns and maybe the state. Given how well Monmouth County’s crews performed vis-a-vis many towns and the DOT, you have to wonder. Investigations should take place and corrective action taken where appropriate. However the APP should be tracking down the validity of those rumors rather than wind-bagging that road crews “seem to have” quit on the storm.
The media driven brouhaha over Governor Christie and Lt. Governor Guadagno being out of state at the same time is as absurd and insulting as the Nudniks’ assumption that road crews quit.
As published elsewhere and confirmed by MMM, Guadagno and her brothers are spending what is most likely their last Christmas holiday with their father who is suffering from Stage 4 prostate cancer. The trip was planned and booked months ago with Christie’s approval. Shame on the pundits and politicians who have been trying to score points over Guadagno’s absence.
Once the news about why Guadagno is “on vacation” at the same time as the Governor gets around, watch he feeding frenzy on Christie step up. I’m looking forward to his first press conference back. I hope he shames the mindless numbskulls of the press.
There’s little going on in Trenton this week. That’s why it was a good week for the Governor to take his family to Disney World. Guadango’s situation made the decision to take a vacation delicate. Senate President Steve Sweeney’s good character made the vacation doable. But various pundits and political hacks won’t care. Let the Christie kids give up one more thing because their Dad is tough to lay a political glove on.
Does anyone really doubt that Christie would have returned to New Jersey given the “state of emergency” if it was possible? The airports were closed. They are just opening today.
Christie’s presence would not have made a difference in how the snow was cleaned up, or not cleaned up. His leadership from the bully pulpit would have made a difference though. He would have told the media the truth. It snowed too much too fast. We’re doing the very best that we can and we’re working about the clock, he would have said. He would have done a much better job than New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg did when he told NY that everything is OK and that they should go shopping. Christie would have told people to remain calm and safe; to look out for the elderly and disabled. And the media would have had something responsible to write about, rather than create a frenzy over the fact that it snowed too much too fast.
County, Manasquan OEM rescue dozens stranded on Route 18
FREEHOLD, NJ (December 28)– With Monmouth County roads showing blacktop one day after the snow stopped falling, county road crews have been deployed to assist the state. This afternoon, four county tandem trucks with snowplows and heavy equipment began clearing beleaguered Route 18.
Meanwhile, the county Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and Manasquan OEM rescued about two dozen motorists who had become stranded on Route 18. A convoy of Army trucks Manasquan normally uses for tidal flooding was dispatched Sunday night and rescued 12 to 18 people. The same convoy was deployed last night and picked up another 11. Route 18 had not been plowed.
On Sunday and Monday nights, county snowplow operators also cleared roads assisting Jersey Central Power & Light Co. personnel who were responding to power outages.
“County roads such as Routes 524, 537, 547 and many others are showing blacktop today as a result of the work county road crews have been doing since 10 a.m. Sunday morning,” said Freeholder John P. Curley, liaison to the county Department of Public Works and Engineering. “The county’s public works and engineering crews do an excellent job keeping county roads safe and drivable.”
Monmouth County’s Public Works crews have been working since 10 a.m. Sunday morning when they began applying salt brine to county roads in advance of the predicted snowfall. The salt brine helps prevents snow and ice from bonding to the road surface, making plowing that much easier after the snowfall. As a result, most county roads showed blacktop today.
Monmouth County is responsible for about 1,000 lane miles of roads in the county. The county has 115 trucks outfitted with spreading and plowing capabilities. About 200 personnel were working to clear the snow from roadways as a result of this storm.
“One of the challenges with this storm has been the wind,” said John W. Tobia, director of the county’s Department of Public Works and Engineering. “The one-two punch of the steady 10 to 15 mph winds and gusts of more than 40 mph have been undoing some of the road work, but we have been diligent and have cleared the county roads – most of them are down to blacktop.”
“We began gearing up for this storm on Saturday,” Tobia added. “We opened up our snow room to monitor the storm’s progress and we began dispatching crews from the county’s nine highway districts on Sunday morning.
At that time crews began applying the liquid salt brine. Then, before the snow actually started falling, the crews began applying rock salt treated with magnesium chloride.
“The key was to keep the ice and snow from bonding to the road surface,” Tobia said. “Some lanes were slushy instead of iced over. That’s generally the first step before the plows come by and push it all aside.”
According to the National Weather Service, snow and windy conditions began in Monmouth County late Sunday morning and produced a higher than average snowfall overnight Sunday into Monday morning. Acting Gov. Steve Sweeney declared a state of emergency in New Jersey due to the blizzard that moved through the state during that time.
Monmouth County concentrates its efforts on county roads first and then works to assist municipalities with their plowing needs. Through shared service agreements, county road crews helped clear roads in Howell, Wall and Upper Freehold townships. They also helped plow the National Guard Armory in Red Bank. The towns reimburse the county for any resources used.
A number of towns also purchase magnesium-treated salt from the county at a lower cost.
This is the third year the county has been using the salt brine combined with magnesium chloride-treated rock salt. The salt brine and a pre-application of treated rock salt prevent the snow and ice from bonding to the roads, and the treated rock salt is environmentally friendly. It does not burn the grass or other roadside vegetation nor does it corrode the trucks or the steel bridge spans.
The new rock salt is much more efficient than the old rock salt, which was very corrosive to bridge structures, roadside vegetation, the roadway itself and trucks and equipment, Tobia said.
“We have found that magnesium chloride-treated rock salt is much more effective and, therefore, there is a savings in man hours and material,” he said. “We use approximately 30 to 50 percent less material and reduction in spreading trips, depending on the snow event, for the same result. By reducing the number of trips, we are reducing costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
As a result, there have been far fewer telephone calls from local police departments about trouble spots, Tobia said. Typically, when police dispatchers call to report icy conditions – usually on bridges or curved roadways – the county dispatches additional trucks to perform some spot treatments.
“County highway personnel set the standard and example on snow and ice control operations,” Curley said.
Fortunately, The Star Ledger also has 