Union Beach Joins Middletown in Supporting Law Enforcement With Blue Light

The Borough of Union Beach is joining Middletown Township in showing their support of all law enforcement personnel by light their town blue between now and January 1st.

MMM has received an advanced copy of the following statement that the Borough will release on Tuesday:

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Today is the last day to register to vote on November 4

Today is the last day to register to vote in New Jersey, if you want to vote in the General Election on November 4.

The Monmouth County Clerk of Elections’ Office told MMM that if your Voter Registration Application is post marked today, October 14, your registration will be valid today.  Postage is free, but if you go to the post office, ask the postal clerk to stamp a post mark on the application, just to be sure it is dated accurately.

You can also drop your application off at your municipal clerk’s office.  Three Monmouth County towns have extended hours today to accommodate new voters.  Eatontown is open until 8pm. Freehold Township is open till 7:30pm and Union Beach is open till 7pm.

The County Elections Offices at 300 Halls Mill Rd, Freehold, NJ is open until 9pm to accept Voter Registration Applications.  Download the form here. 

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Union Beach Fireworks Postponed Till Saturday

The Borough of Union Beach announced that the Independence Day Fireworks celebration on the beachfront, originally scheduled for tonight, July 3, has been postponed until Saturday night, July 5th, due to expected inclement weather.

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Christie orders flags at half-staff in honor of fallen Union Beach firefighter

Christie orders flags at half-staff in honor of fallen Union Beach firefighter (via NJ.com)

TRENTON – Gov. Chris Christie has ordered flags at half-staff in honor of the Union Beach firefighter who died Sunday night while battling a four-alarm fire in the borough. Volunteer firefighter Robert “Hawk” Meyer, 54, collapsed outside the fire…

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Electrical Connection Failure Might Be The Cause Of Union Beach Fire

An electrical connection failure may have been the cause of the Union Beach fire on Sunday that resulted in the death of volunteer fire fighter Robert “Hawk” Myer.

“The failure of an exterior electrical connection cannot be ruled out as the cause for the fire that ripped through a Union Avenue business Sunday evening where a Union Beach volunteer firefighter died from cardiac arrest,”announced Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni from Afghanistan where he is ten days into a six month deployment. Gramiccioni is a Lt. Commander in the Naval Reserve JAG Corps.

Union Beach firefighters responded to a 5:56 p.m. report of a structure fire at Hydrair, Inc., located at 615 Union Ave. and upon arrival struck a Second Alarm to bring additional resources to the scene. The fire was eventually elevated to Four Alarms with firefighters from the Middletown Fire Department, North Centerville Fire Department, Hazlet Fire Department, Keyport Fire Department, Holmdel Fire Department, East Keansburg Fire Company, Keansburg Fire Department and Red Bank Fire Department responding.

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Restored Doughboy Statue Helps Sandy Recovery at Union Beach

Restored Doughboy Statue Helps Sandy Recovery at Union Beach (via NJSpotlight)

A much-loved memorial to Union Beach’s war dead was hoisted back into place on Monday, some 19 months after it was displaced and dismembered by superstorm Sandy. The doughboy, a 6-foot granite statue of a World War I soldier, had stood on its plinth…

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Stronger than the storm?

New Jersey’s economy should be booming with reconstruction. It isn’t.

There should be hundreds of construction workers in Highlands, Union Beach, Sea Bright and other Sandy impacted communities every day.  They are not working and don’t look to be anytime soon.

Short changed by insurance companies/the National Flood Insurance Plan. Arduous applications for aid followed by red tape, bureaucratic incompetence and rules that halt rebuilding.  Expensive and time consuming zoning approvals to rebuild what was there before.  Pleas for help are answered with finger pointing between bureaucrats at different levels of government who are getting paid for their bullshit and going home every night.

“GO, GO, GO, REBUILD, you’ll get reimbursed,” we were told after the storm. We trusted our government. They lied.

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Hornik: COAH funds should be used to help Sandy Victims

By Mayor Jonathan Hornik, Marlboro Township

Forgotten among the latest round of finger-pointing and investigations regarding the use of Superstorm Sandy funds are displaced low and moderate-income homeowners and renters who need help. This immediate and pressing need, combined with resources available from communities like Marlboro Township, in the form of affordable housing trust funds, present a unique opportunity for regional cooperation. Now all we need is some action in Trenton.

The funds, collected from developer fees, now totaling at least $180 million state-wide (and which the State has been trying to take for its own budget problems), are to be used to meet the need for affordable housing under the Supreme Court’s Mt. Laurel rulings. Those cases decreed that every town has an obligation to provide for its region’s need for affordable housing. We have long argued that the doctrine should be meaningfully applied – let’s build the housing where the need is the greatest.

Yet to this day the planners in Trenton wrangle over rules to determine how towns must address their affordable housing, going on 15 years now, when it should be painfully obvious that the need for our community (and our region) is staring us in the face. Current state laws prohibit Marlboro from helping those communities who are in desperate need for housing assistance after Sandy.  There is no mechanism for Marlboro to spend its trust funds for the benefit of, for example, Union Beach or the Highlands, because there are no rules that allow us to do so. We can’t fulfill a fundamental tenet of Mt. Laurel, and help our neighbors because the authority to do so isn’t there. And why not?

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Union Beach Man Charged With Setting Fire To Hazlet First Aid Building

Ronald Schroeder,  43 of Union Beach, was charged with second degree Aggravated Arson today for allegedly setting fire inside the lounge of Hazlet First Aid Unit 1 Building at 33 Leocadia Court on Sunday, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

The fire was reported at 5:07 pm on Sunday.  Firefighters from the West Keansburg and North Centerville Fire Departments extinguished the blaze with assistance from Union Beach and Matawan firefighters.  An investigation determined that the fire was set intentionally, that Schroeder was the only person in building and that he was seen fleeing the building.  He returned while firefighters were still on the scene.

Schroeder is a probationary member of the First Aid Squad, having volunteered a short time ago.  He was arrested by the Hazlet Police and is in custody at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold.  His bail is $100,000 with not 10% option and is prohibited from returning to the building if his bail is posted.

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Hurricane Sandy victims make do in trailers as they wait to rebuild

Hurricane Sandy victims make do in trailers as they wait to rebuild (via NJ.com)

Tina Napalo lived in a bungalow-style house on Fourth Street in Union Beach for more than 20 years. “I didn’t have everything,” said the 40-year-old mother of four, but, “it took me a long time to get what I had.” Then Hurricane Sandy hit.…

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