Asbury Park Declares A State Of Emergency, Imposes 10PM Curfew On Service Business

The City of Asbury Park has declared a State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, closing all municipal government facilites to the public and imposing a 10 pm curfew on all City service establishment.

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Satan’s Motorized Scooters in Asbury Park

By Tommy DeSeno

Asbury Park Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn

This column will mention Asbury Park Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn as well as her friends.  Nothing is their fault.  There’s just no way to tell the story without them.

This past August, Asbury Park started allowing motorized scooters here.  Deputy Mayor Quinn led the effort.

Quinn, the darling of local Democrats, selected a company called Spin for the scooters. Spin appears to be an eco-friendly San Francisco start-up that fits well with Asbury’s woke progressives who hate oil companies and long for Congresswoman AOC’s Green New Delusion. The reality?  Spin is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company.  Big Industry.  Big oil.  The transportation equivalent of a Red Lobster on the Boardwalk.

Amy Quinn really, really wants her pet project to do well.  Apparently, so does the Asbury Park Press.

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Humane Society Reinstates Volunteer Program

The Associated Humane Societies announced on facebook this evening that the volunteer program at their Tinton Falls facility has been reinstated.

AHS announced the suspension of the program last Sunday, claiming that volunteers failure to follow protocol for handling animals housed at the shelter cause animal deaths and injuries to both animals and humans.

Asbury Park Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn, a volunteer at the facility, called the claims by AHS “outrageous” and dubbed the management of the facility “apathetic” to both guests of the facility looking to adopt pets and the animals themselves. The volunteers was wage a PR campaign against the programs termination throughout the week.  A protest was scheduled for tomorrow at the facility.  It is unclear if the protest will happen, given the reinstatement.

Here is the statement posted today announcing the reinstatement of the program:

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Tinton Falls Animal Shelter Fires Volunteers

photo via ashcares.org

Asbury Park Deputy Mayor disputes Associated Human Societies’ allegations

The Associated Human Societies (AHS) has suspended the volunteer program at its Tinton Falls facility, according to a post on the organization’s facebook page for its Popcorn Park (Lacey Township) facility. (h/t app.com)

The announcement alleges that volunteers at the facility chronically violated protocols for handing animals which resulted in deaths, human and animal injuries and expensive veterinary bills. Additionally, the announcement alleges that volunteers “solicited funds to be collected as donations for Associated Humane Societies, yet they were never turned in.”

“The animals at our Tinton Falls facility will continue to receive the excellent care and attention that they always have from our dedicated staff while we work hard to formulate a plan for a new volunteer program going forward. Be assured that our dogs will continue to be walked. Volunteers were never responsible for feeding or medicating animals, cleaning or maintaining our facility, and were not involved with the general day to day operations of running the shelter, so none of that will be affected.”

The announcement said that the problems that have occurred at the Tinton Falls facility have not occurred at the organizations animal shelters in Newark or Forked River.

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“A-Team” sues to overturn Asbury Park elections

UPDATE: AsburyParkSun reports that if the Monmouth County Board of Elections decision to not count the disqualified Vote By Mail ballots is overturned, that a runoff election between Mayor John Moor and Remond Palmer could be triggered.

Asbury Park Mayor-elect John Moor told MMM that he was informed by City Attorney Fredrick Raffetto this afternoon that the City has been served with a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of both the municipal and Board of Education elections that were held on November 4, 2014.  According to Moor’s recalculation, the plaintiffs are Remond Palmer, the “A-Team” candidate for mayor and Arva Council, an “A-Team” candidate for Board of Education.

Moor said that his understanding is that the plaintiffs are seeking to have the results of the election overturned and for the 353 Vote By Mail ballots disqualified by the Monmouth County Board of Election to be counted.

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Overflow crowd urges Freeholders to save Bradley Cove

click for larger view

Asbury Park — An overflow crowd of Asbury Park residents attended the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders meeting in the city last evening to rally the county’s governing body to save the north end beachfront property known as Bradley Cove.

iStar Financial, the city’s master developer, owns the development rights to the site and has a proposal to build 15 town homes on the property. The Asbury Park Council passed a resolution earlier this month to apply for Green Acres funding to preserve the property.

The freeholders were sympathetic to the public outcry to prevent the development, but made it clear that the ball is in Asbury Park’s court.  Prior Asbury Park administrations sold the development rights to the property and approved a tax abatement to support the development.  Community members are now trying to undue that deal, and seem be hoping that Freeholder Board has the power to make that happen.

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Asbury Park Mayor Campbell Says She Wasn’t Trying To Embarrass Council Members

Asbury Park Mayor Myra Campbell said she wasn’t trying to embarrass her fellow council members at Tuesday evening’s National Night Out Celebration when she announced their names and asked that they come forward when they weren’t present.

“Everyone was invited, but attendance was not well coordinated,” Campbell said in on a phone call with MMM, “Susan Henderson (Deputy Mayor) told me she didn’t get her email about the event until after she got she home.”

“All the council members except John Loffredo, who was on vacation as I said, attended the event. When they arrived, I invited each of them to speak. Councilwoman Quinn and Henderson did speak. Councilman Moor did not.”

“We’re a council. Whenever we’re at public events, I will invite each member of the council to speak.”

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Asbury Park Mayor Myra Campbell Throws Council Members Under The Bus

Asbury Park Mayor Myra Campbell went out of way to embarrass her colleagues on the city’s governing body last evening during the National Night Out celebration.

While introducing Congressman Frank Pallone as a candidate for “State Senator” (Pallone is running for the Democratic nomination to succeed the late United States Senator Frank Lautenberg), Campbell went off script with a spiel about the importance of citizens knowing their governmental representatives.

“I represent you as mayor of Asbury Park and I want you to know your other representatives,” Campbell announced to the crowd of a few hundred, “If you are a member of the council, please step forward.

“Susan Henderson, Deputy Superintendent, uh, Deputy Mayor Susan Henderson.  I know John Loffredo is on vacation. Councilman John Moor, are you here.  Amy Quinn?

“I guess they’re not here.  They are your representatives.”

The council members were not scheduled to join the other dignitaries on stage for the kickoff of the event.

Councilwoman Amy Quinn was seen arriving to the celebration about 10 minutes after the formal remarks concluded.

Quinn told MMM that “unequivocally” Moor and Henderson attended after the formal remarks to kickoff the event.

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New Asbury Park Government Off To Rocky Start

John Lofreddo, left, Myra Campbell, center and Susan Henderson.
AsburyParkSun.com photo

The hope of a new beginning was replaced with anger today in Asbury Park when the new city council was sworn in.

John Moor, the top vote getter in the May 14 non-partisan election, was expected to be appointed mayor by his colleagues, as is the tradition.  He had the 3 votes he needed on the 5 person council by virtue of his own election and that of two of his running mates, Amy Quinn and Myra Campbell who ran on the One Asbury ticket in the non-partisan election.

Then sometime over the weekend, Campbell split with her running mates and made a deal with returning council members John Lofreddo and Susan Henderson, who ran for reelection on the Forward Asbury ticket, to get the mayoral title for herself.

The mayor’s office in Asbury Park is largely ceremonial in the city’s form of government.  The appointed City Manager, a full time employee appointed by the council, runs the day to day operations of the city. Asbury Park elects their entire council once every four years.

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If Asbury’s Election Goes Badly, I’ll Blame Loffredo and Quinn

By Tommy DeSeno

John Loffredo (Forward Asbury Park ticket) and Amy Quinn (One Asbury ticket) are the top guns in the Asbury Park City Council race. That’s not news for me; I’ve known it for years and have let them both know they should be together.

In fact, I thought it was a foregone conclusion that they would run together since it makes so much sense. Had I known they would overlook the obvious I would have lobbied them vigorously over the past 4 years to create a political marriage (or civil union, if that’s your preference).

Just look at the last election. Tickets make it easier for candidates to win, particularly weaker candidates, but Amy Quinn fell just short of being elected while running as an independent. That means she carries a great deal of support on her own, perhaps as much as any individual candidate running this year.

How Loffredo didn’t see the benefits of scooping up Quinn and all her support befuddles me. She was clearly the off-season prize; the league’s most valuable free agent. How Quinn didn’t see the benefits of picking up support from the team who won for the past dozen years amazed me more. It’s like she passed up an opportunity with the Yankees to start her own team. That hasn’t worked out well for the Mets, has it?

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