Sandy...Aftermath.....Future of Beach Access.......

[jigfreak]

J.because of the arrogance and entitlement of some of the fishermen I have come across...I have spent hundreds of my own dollars on attending access meetings over the years, and see the same old faces.....while the majority of the surf anglers out there don't want to get involved.


You have to think how we as fishermen are looked on in the areas we come in to fish...

Ask yourselves if you always conduct yourself the way you would want someone coming through your neighborhood to conduct themselves.

Guys don't do this that's part of the problem. Baitstealer some of these are internet guys. There was a thread on another site where they were asking for volunteers to clean up Sea Bright. One idiot said he wouldn't help them because he felt they closed off beach access to him. News flash the people who lost their houses didn't close the access the town gov't made those decisions. Penalizing people by not helping them get their life get back in order is just plain selfish and stupid. And yes these are the guys who should be informed and better evolved because of all the fishing they do. They aren't. I hate that elitist attitude on the part of fishermen. I hate that many surf guys have reasons why they won't help one cause or another. Bunch of freaking prima donnas most surf fishermen are. Little girls who cry when access is blocked but do nothing to be responsible when we have access. Pick up some freaking trash once in a while it wont give you the cooties. Even that is too much trouble for these internet fishermen. "Shouldn't the towns have trash cleaners to help clean the beach after the surf fishermen are there, like totally!" that is the mentality out there. Makes me sick. Part of the reason why I hate the guys who look like they stepped out of a surf fishing catalog. They are the worst offenders and least likely to help others. My .02.

[buckethead]

Latest on beach assess from npr.
Dark i know and agree with your points that a lot of surf fishermen are pigs, but we do have a right to be there. JMO


http://www.npr.org/2012/12/12/166988308/in-new-jersey-renewed-debate-over-fees-to-access-public-land-after-hurricane-san
N.J. Spars Over Free Beach Access Post-Sandy

by DAVID SCHAPER
December 12, 2012 3:33 AM

Superstorm Sandy caused massive beach erosion and damage to the Jersey shore. Some people say the beach restoration work, which will largely be paid for with federal tax dollars, will mostly help to protect expensive homes for the wealthy — people who have free access to the beach — while most communities would still be charging fees for public access.


At an oceanfront park in Long Branch, N.J., Tim Dillingham looks out over the beach in awe of how much the pounding waves and high waters of Hurricane Sandy have changed the Jersey shore.

Dillingham is the executive director of the American Littoral Society, a coastal conservation group. Before the storm, he says, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent years building up the beaches by pumping sand onto them.

But that shouldn't be a solution to restoring the shore, he says.

"We need to design the beaches to be sustainable, to be open to the public, in a way that everybody can get to them, everywhere, and we need to design them so they're ecologically sensitive and they provide for habitat," Dillingham says.

The huge beach restoration cost will be shouldered by the public: Seventy-five percent of it is likely to come from federal taxpayers, with the state picking up a significant chunk too.

Yet much of the beach restoration work will end up protecting private property. The relatively few beach areas now accessible to the public on the Jersey shore often charge fees of $8, $10 and even $12 a day for access. And some towns are considering hiking those fees to help pay for the renovations.

Jeff Wulkan owns Bikini Barbers, a barbershop just off the beach in Long Branch. He says he's fed up with the fees and won't pay them. "I think that they're ridiculous," he says. "I mean, I think the towns make enough money through taxes and fines and all this other stuff."

One of his employees, Jennifer Leotis, isn't a fan of them either but says she pays up to go to the beach in nearby Manasquan. "It's almost $90 for the year and I think it's kind of a rip-off because it's not that nice at Manasquan," she says.

And both Leotis and Wulkan say the fees shouldn't go up to pay for restoration costs.

"Most of it's probably going to go to protect the homes of the superwealthy people that have these multimillion-dollar mansions on the beach," says Wulkan. "So their houses don't get destroyed, you know."

Wulkan and Leotis are hardly alone. In fact, there are similar sentiments in the N.J. state Senate.

Republican Sen. Michael Doherty says he has long been frustrated that N.J. is one of the few states that allow communities to charge beach fees. "The Jersey shore is the domain of single-family homes and they really are not welcoming to outsiders and day-trippers coming in," Doherty says. "They don't want you in their town. That's why there's no place to park, no place to use the restroom, and they charge you seven, 12 dollars just to get on the beach for the day."

And Doherty says for communities to continue charging beach fees after Sandy is even more outrageous.

"They now have their hand out and they want us to send them hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to rebuild their beaches, yet when it comes time to enjoying the beaches, we're told we have to pay before we can step on the sand," he says.

In response, Doherty is sponsoring legislation that would make public beach access free in all Jersey shore communities that accept federal and state funding for shoreline restoration.

But some officials in beach towns that collect the fees oppose the measure. Thomas Kelaher, mayor of Toms River, N.J., insists they're necessary. "What we do with that money is that pays for the lifeguards, the beach cleaners, and the crossing guards along the highway leading up to the beach," Kelaher says. "And we just about break even every year with what we collect and what it costs us."

Kelaher says if the state wants to pick up those costs, he'd support getting rid of the fees. But it wouldn't be fair to charge his town's property-tax payers more to cover those expenses when mostly out-of-town visitors benefit, he says.

The bill banning beach fees is expected to come up for a vote in the N.J. Legislature in January

[buckethead]

The latest, Sweeney behind it. I hate that JO, I think there was a time when something was important to fishermen and he voted several times against us.

nj.com
Dec 26-2012
The Jersey Shore is still digging and drying out from Hurricane Sandy, the most destructive natural disaster in its history. So what’s the latest recovery strategy from Trenton?Free beaches!
It’s an idea that panders to bennies everywhere who resent being forced to shell out $5 or more to sit on the sand. But it ignores the reality that Shore-goers are used to safe, clean beaches — and that someone has to pay the lifeguards, cops and cleanup crews.

A proposal from Sens. Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Michael Doherty (R-Warren) ties beach tags to the money Shore towns want for post-Sandy beach repairs. Under the bill (S2368), any town that takes state or federal aid would have to offer free beaches and restrooms.
“Where taxpayers are paying for beach restoration, they shouldn’t be taxed a second time just to walk on the sand,” Sweeney said.
But the plan pinches off money to maintain the beaches.

Take Belmar, which sold $3 million in beach tags last summer for lifeguards, police, bathrooms and other beach-related costs. That’s roughly 15 percent of Belmar’s total budget.
Or Long Beach Township, where $1.7 million in 2012 beach tag sales paid the lifeguards. Taxpayers covered everything else.
The bill comes, too, as Sweeney considers challenging Chris Christie for governor.

“It’s a good sound bite,” said Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini, who doesn’t like the bill. “But it just doesn’t work.”

would let Shore towns keep 2 cents of the 7-cent state sales tax to recoup lost fees. But that requires a constitutional amendment.

Wherever you go to the beach, someone pays for lifeguards or trash pickup. Instead of taxes, like most other states, New Jersey sells beach tags. It rankles, but the user bears the cost.
Taxes fund highways, but we still pay Parkway tolls. NJ Transit will get millions for Hurricane Sandy repairs, but no one suggests they stop charging commuters.

Beaches belong to everyone, and increasing access is noble. Repairing storm damage is a public responsibility, however, separate from summertime maintenance.
Who doesn’t want to see beach tags disappear? But keeping beaches safe and clean isn’t a cost Shore towns should shoulder alone.

[buckethead]

Fema delivers a blow at shore
From Philly.com
http://articles.philly.com/2012-12-2...urricane-sandy


FEMA delivers a blow at Shore



December 24, 2012|By Amy S. Rosenberg, Inquirer Staff Writer



BRIGANTINE, N.J. - Bill Haeser and Bob Huff were neighbors before Sandy, but the storm has chased Haeser and his wife, Laurel, off their block, at least for now.
Still, their dark-humored buddy routine has held, even as the short-term rebuilding on Cummings Place has stalled, and the long-term future of people like them along the Jersey Shore gets murkier.
Both big guys in their own way, they were happy to see each other again last week in the back of the Brigantine North Elementary School auditorium, where at a FEMA town-hall meeting, their mayor had speculated that requirements from proposed flood-map elevations would "decimate" the island.
Story continues below.




Haeser: "I see you filling up that Dumpster."
Huff: "Do you see me limping out there? My knees are shot. I go to the porch at 1, 2 in the morning, look down the block, and it's me, Helen, Tony, that's it."
Haeser: "What are they going to steal, my insulation?"
And really, what can you do if you're Haeser and Huff, at home and in exile, except laugh, cry, lie awake at night, laugh about your Charlie Brown Christmas trees, your six vinegar-sprayed Christmas balls. You vow to stay put in Brigantine one minute, contemplate walking away the next.
Last year at this time, Cummings Place was lit up with the happy surprise of Christmas lights in a beach town, the residents tucked into their horseshoe-shaped street by ocean and bay, their modest yet quirky lifestyle more or less settled.
Settled is the last thing they are now, eight weeks after Hurricane Sandy. Hardly anyone's rebuilding, because insurance payments have not been issued. And there are new wrinkles.
FEMA and town representatives acknowledged last week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's proposed flood and velocity zones mean steep insurance hikes and the costly if not impossible task of lifting thousands of old homes on pilings.

'Walk away'

Someone like Joe Fumo on nearby Lafayette Boulevard - who is preemptively lifting his home 10 feet in the air like futuristic transformer toys - risks not meeting FEMA's final standards and having to do it all again.
At Brigantine North school last week, the question hung in the air like Fumo's cranked-up Cape Cod: Would FEMA finish the job that Sandy started?
"We'll have to walk away from our homes," said Patty Magee. "I'm not sure people can take a $1,000-a-month rate increase."

[surferman]

John Weber.He talks about access and the public trust doctrine
http://jerseyshore.surfrider.org/cam.../beach-access/

[DarkSkies]

Thanks surferman. According to friends, Surfrider has played a big part of beach access in the Monmouth County area and other areas in NJ. Folks, take a look at the link he posted and check in on them periodically.

An old school surfer friend of mine was one of the ones that got the towns to blink when they tried to ban surfers and fishermen in the 80's.

From what I was told, there was a ban, and some of these guys (with my friend being at the forefront and putting up the cash to hire a lawyer on retainer and start the litigation process) got the towns to blink...and access to surfers and fishermen was restored.

Things were a lot different back then. People actually got involved and went to meetings....and wrote thousands of protest letters.....

I wish some of the younger folks who do so much ranting on the internet today about these access issues would get more pro-active and really get involved.

My Nomad tendencies to fish other states have taught me that these places can be shut down relatively easy, skirting around the Public Trust Doctrine, by restrictive parking regulations.....

Those who would be so critical on the internet, demanding access because of this Doctrine....should remember that.....

[DarkSkies]

Another good story is in Spring Lake.

I believe it was the 80's...when Finchaser, Joe Melillo and the clubs they were affiliated with, rallied together....over 100 guys and their vehicles...and locked down traffic in Spring Lake as they paraded up and down the main street with their vehicles...protesting.... when access to surf fishermen was shut down.


Sadly, I doubt that even with more people fishing today, if we needed to do this to make a point, if it could ever happen. The apathy out there is appalling.....

I say this not to anger people, but to perhaps ignite some sort of spark, in those that still do care....

With the beach rebuilding we will continue to have access issues. Even with federal dollars coming in for replenishment, somehow fishermen always seem to get short changed.....We need to remember this and keep ourselves informed. To those who contributed to this thread, thanks for continuing to do that.....

[DarkSkies]

The lines in the access battles are being drawn. The first battles are these easements that are vexing homeowners and officials alike. We can't move forward without the homeowners signing them. There are vaild arguments on both sides. Here is a Brick Patch article that tries to put some of that in perspective. Sent in by Fin, thanks.


http://brick.patch.com/articles/publ...uspatc00000001
Public Access Fears Dominate Brick Beach Replenishment Meeting
Homeowners concerned with easement language, lack of established dune line
3-24-13

• By Daniel Nee

Though Brick officials have pledged the status quo will remain along the township's oceanfront, homeowners at a meeting Saturday said they have concerns over preserving private beach access as well as the lack of an established dune line in a proposed beach replenishment plan.

In order for the project – which is primarily funded by the federal government – to move forward, oceanfront residents and beach associations would have to sign easements to allow the dunes to be built and maintained partially on private property.

The state has set an April 1 deadline for easements to be signed, while Rep. Jon Runyan's office has set a federal deadline of May 1.
"I do not want to put Ferris wheels or boardwalks behind anyone's house," Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis told more than 100 residents at the meeting. "I don't want more beaches. We have three beaches and that's enough. I don't want to take anyone's private beach."
Township attorney Jean Cipriani said the easements entitle public officials to access private property only for the scope of the dune renourishment project itself, so the prospect of using the documentation as license to build a boardwalk, restrooms or parking lots is out of the question.

"The Army Corps has confirmed through their project engineer that the public access that would be constructed is only to replace the exact access points that exist now," said Cipriani.
But some residents have doubts.
Homeowner Ed Pilot, as well as many others at the meeting, pointed to a subsection of the easement that states one of the goals of the project is to "implement the Public Trust Doctrine and ensure permanent public access, use and enjoyment of the beach and ocean."
"What's to prevent the DEP to come in after the project is finished and sue everyone to allow public access to their beach?" asked Pilot.
Attorney John Paul Doyle, representing 14 homeowners, also pointed to the public acces language, asking whether the easement – the boundaries of which are not technically defined yet in Brick – could mean private streets would be opened for public parking.
Cipriani said the easement is "limited by the project area," meaning the dune renourishment project itself.

Though some residents at the meeting claimed the section on the public trust doctrine – a legal principle that maintains certain lands are held in trust for the use of the public – was not present in earlier versions of coastal easements, a check of public records by Patch found that easement agreements in Long Beach Township and Mantoloking going back to 2007 included the same language.
In Long Beach Township, Surf City and Harvey Cedars, public access points did not change since replenishment projects were completed there, nor were showers, parking lots or other amenities constructed.
Acropolis said even advocates for more public beach access have been largely satisfied by Brick's current access level.
"There is a group of people around here where that's all they do - sue for public access," he said. "They've never sued Brick Township."

Cipriani said the state Department of Environmental Protection will not allow changes to be made to the easement document itself, though the township may be able to add a supplemental section explaining its position on certain issues.

Acropolis said eventually, the debate over whether to sign easements may be ended by legislation.
"There is a deadline, and it will move forward," said Acropolis. "I would much rather have input at the local level with you than have someone in Trenton set the policy as for what should happen."
Legislation that would empower municipalities or the state to condemn the easement areas and factor in the added value of the project to reduce payouts to homeowners is pending, and Gov. Chris Christie has come out strongly in favor of the replenishment project.

Acropolis also spoke of the need for replenishment to protect all of Brick's residents, including those on neighboring streets on the barrier island as well as those across the bay.
"Most of the professionals believe that if the breach [in Mantoloking] hadn't happened, most of the homes on the mainland would not have flooded," the mayor said.