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Mayors Helping Mayors: Gulf Coast Mayors Visiting Jersey Shore, NJ Mayors Next Week

Former Waveland, MS Mayor Tommy Longo tours Sea Bright with Mayor Dina Long in February.  Longo, three other Gulf Coast former mayors and former Congressman Gene Taylor will address the Bayshore Conference of Mayors on May 17 in Keansburg, Photo: NJ.com

Former Waveland, MS Mayor Tommy Longo tours Sea Bright with Mayor Dina Long in February. Longo, three other Gulf Coast former mayors and former Congressman Gene Taylor will address the Bayshore Conference of Mayors on May 17 in Keansburg, Photo: NJ.com

A group of former mayors and a former congressman who led their Mississippi communities to recovery from Hurricane Katrina are coming to the Jersey Shore next week to share their knowledge and experience with New Jersey’s mayors and senior municipal officials who are continuing to deal with the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

The group will be speaking at a meeting of the Bayshore Conference of Mayors on Friday evening May 17, 7PM, at Anthony’s Restaurant, 65 Church St in Keansburg.  All mayors and senior municipal officials of towns impacted by Sandy are invited, according to Union Beach Mayor Paul Smith, the conference president.  Those wishing to attend should contact Smith via text or phone call at 732-713-0506.   If someone who should have gotten an invitation didn’t, this is it. Readers are encouraged to pass this post on to their mayors.

The Mississippi delegation, comprised of former Congressman Gene Taylor and former mayors Brent Warr, Eddie Farve, and Tommy Longo, is being flown to New Jersey free on charge by Southwest Airlines.  Their lodging is being donated by Dominique Ervin, General Manager, Hampton Inn of Neptune/Wall and Sal Cannizarro of Immediate Care Medical Walk In of Hazlet.

This mayors helping mayors project is the brainchild of author and former CNN correspondent Kathleen Koch.  A Bay St’ Louis, MS native, Koch has dedicated herself to supporting survivors of natural disasters since Katrina.  She is the author of Rising from Katrina: How My Mississippi Hometown Lost It All and Found What Mattered and is donating a signed copy as a door prize for the conference.  She was sent to Japan by the U.S. State Department in March of this year to deliver her message of Resiliency and Words of Hope to the survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami of the second anniversary of that catastrophic event.

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Posted: May 10th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Dina Long, Hurricane Sandy, Kathleen Koch, Matt Doherty, Monmouth County, Serena DiMaso, Shaun Golden, Superstorm Sandy, Tom Arnone | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »