Phil Stilton & Erik Weber
TR Magazine/Riverside Signal

SEASIDE HEIGHTS—Three weeks after Superstorm Sandy pounded through the shoreline, boardwalk and amusement areas, here, Vincent Storino, managing member of Casino Beach Pier, LLC, took a helicopter flight to view the full scope of the damage to the Casino Pier.

Since the morning after the storm made landfall here, on October 30^th, images of the Jet Star rollercoaster ride partly submerged in the surf beside the shattered end of the pier became one of the main icons of Sandy’s wrath as area residents without power but with battery-powered cellular smartphones and national and international news organizations all flocked to the online social media website Facebook for on the ground information as the area began to first assess the crushing blow the combination storm system wrought.

This was how the pier manager first learned of the horror waiting for him at his family’s amusement pier.

“Where I was, we had no power, so initially I learned about the damage through my cellphone—people were just sending me messages,” he said.

A week earlier, upon seeing the European weather model for Hurricane Sandy’s path, the pier manager got nervous.

“Then when they were saying that storm was going to make a left-hand turn, that scared me because a storm has never come straight in from the east like this one did,” he said. “I knew it was going to push a tremendous amount of water to us.”

Mr. Storino said that his family prepared for the storm both at their Casino Pier and Jenkinson’s Beach Boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach the same way they would any other storm.

“Rides that we were able to get off of the pier were brought to our warehouse in Toms River,” he said. “Some rides were stored in the Centrifuge [ride, located on the eastern portion of the pier].”

Late in the evening of October 29^th, Sandy made landfall and caused damage to homes and infrastructure ranging into the billions of dollars in the state alone, according to the National Weather Service’s preliminary estimate. That agency also reported several wind gusts in Ocean County at close to 90 mph, and a buoy located near the entrance to New York Harbor issued a record wave height of 32.5 feet at 8:50 pm, just before a time that multiple witnesses present on the barrier island at that time attribute to a fast moving storm surge that elevated water levels in or near their homes drastically in a short period.

With much of the New Jersey shore without power or communications capabilities, the extent of the damage was unclear until the break of day, when Mr. Storino learned the news via the images being transmitted online through his smartphone by those who remained on the island through the night.

It wasn’t until October 31^st, when President Barack Obama and Governor Chris Christie were flying in Marine One, that Mr. Storino was first able to make it back to his family’s amusement center.

“The whole upper section of the pier is going to need to come down—in fact, part of what’s there is starting to collapse and will probably fall in soon,” he reported. “The ocean and the waves have been relentless since the storm.”

“The aerial pictures do not describe the damage that it did—everyone shows the rollercoaster in the ocean, and the rollercoaster in the ocean is minimal to the damage sustained to the pier,” the pier manager continued. “Did it fall off the pier or is it still resting on the pier below the water? I don’t know. To me the position it’s sitting in right now, it shifted northwest, so it’s kind of inland and a bit north of the pier.”

“The status of the carousel is unknown,” he continued, referring to the over 100-year-old Dr. Floyd Moreland Historic Dentzel/Looff Carousel with music provided by the only continuously operating Wurlitzer Military Band Organ in the state, present in Seaside Heights since 1932. “I’ve been reading things on the internet and getting e-mails saying the carousel is fine. We don’t know that the carousel is fine. We’re doing everything we can to protect it. It did get some water from underneath, there was some wind-driven rain inside from the top, however, [the carousel] is made out of wood. There’s no power, no heat. It’s inside of a building and with the moisture, we don’t know what’s going to happen—we don’t know if it warped or if there are any damages yet.”

“It doesn’t look like any of the rides on the pier are salvageable. It doesn’t look it,” Mr. Storino stated, adding that their storage warehouse in eastern Toms River Township took on “three to four feet of water, so the rides that were in the warehouse were underwater. A couple of the smaller kiddie rides were in the warehouse—some were old, some were new, but nothing is really salvageable.”

One ride that he was particularly interested in trying to save or restore was the Enterprise, a horizontal to vertical moving Ferris wheel with 20 gondolas that utilized centrifugal force to achieve its effect and is named after the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original Star Trek television series of the 1960s. It was manufactured by HUSS Park Attractions in 1972 and came to the Casino Pier from Coney Island, New York in the middle of the last decade.

The famous mock-haunted dark ride located at the end of the pier, the Stillwalk Manor, “is gone. It just disappeared. I found one of the cars from the ride on the beach, washed up near Jenkinson’s in Point Pleasant,” reported Mr. Storino.

“Everybody’s focused on the rollercoaster in the ocean, but there’s so much more damage than that—we still don’t know the full extent, and we’re finding more and more each day,” he continued. “We hope we have the proper insurance; we’re just starting to meet with our insurance company. The outpouring of support is overwhelming; it’s hard to take in. We’re fortunate that all of our family, we’re all safe, we had some damage and we don’t know anyone who perished in the storm. In this area, I’m amazed that there’s not several hundred fatalities.”

The Storino family’s insurance firm for both the Casino Pier and Jenkinson’s Beach Boardwalk is Andrew K. Knox and Company, of Toms River.

Despite the heavy damage inflicted upon Casino Pier, the pier manager had his sights set on the future.

“We’re going to do our best to try and get open as much as we can as soon as we can. There are no preliminary plans; it’s still out of our hands at this time,” he said, thanking both Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant Beach boroughs for their help and support. “The plan is to get something open of some sort in both towns, as much as we can in Point Pleasant Beach, providing the town has to reconstruct the boardwalk. Seaside Heights has already demolished their boardwalk; I’m pretty confident they can get that [rebuilt] in time.”

Before stepping out of the helicopter, he stated, “we want to build bigger and better than before, but that’s up to the insurance company and the professionals. We might be able to open the lower portion of the pier, but right now I just don’t know. It all depends on the extent of the pier. We might have to rebuild the entire pier. It might have to be rebuilt in concrete for seismic ratings.”

“At this point I just don’t have the answers,” he said.

The helicopter flight was arranged for Mr. Storino through Patrick Day of Liberty Helicopters by Chris Aldrich, public insurance adjuster with the Andrew K. Knox and Company. The Storino family’s Point Pleasant Beach amusement center is run by Vincent Storino’s cousin, Anthony Storino.

20121121 – SSH – PST – Casino Pier Vin Storino Heli Tour – 01

CREDIT – Phil Stilton, Toms River Magazine & Riverside Signal

CAPTION – (From left) Vincent Storino, managing member of the Casino Pier for the Storino family, posed for a quick photograph with Patrick Day of Liberty Helicopters before being taken on a flight over his family’s damaged Seaside Heights amusement center.

20121121 – SSH – PST – Casino Pier Vin Storino Heli Tour – 02

CREDIT – Phil Stilton, Toms River Magazine & Riverside Signal

CAPTION: Mr. Storino looks out as the helicopter flies above the barrier island coast.

20121121 – SSH – PST – Casino Pier Vin Storino Heli Tour – 03

CREDIT – Phil Stilton, Toms River Magazine & Riverside Signal

CAPTION: Mr. Storino, camera ready, mid-flight.

20121121 – SSH – PST – Casino Pier Vin Storino Heli Tour – 04

CREDIT – Phil Stilton, Toms River Magazine & Riverside Signal

CAPTION: Mr. Storino views the shattered northeast corner of his family’s amusement pier, with the Jet Star rollercoaster partly submerged in the surf below.

20121121 – SSH – PST – Casino Pier Vin Storino Heli Tour – 05

CREDIT – Phil Stilton, Toms River Magazine & Riverside Signal

CAPTION: Mr. Storino looking out from the helicopter over the Metedeconk River near the Laurelton section of Brick Township as the tour concludes and heads back to Lakewood Airport.

20121121 – SSH – PST – Casino Pier Vin Storino Heli Tour – 06

CREDIT – Phil Stilton, Toms River Magazine & Riverside Signal

CAPTION: Mr. Storino and Chris Aldrich, public insurance adjuster with the Casino Beach Pier, LLC’s insurance firm, Andrew K. Knox and Company of Toms River, view an aerial photograph taken prior to Superstorm Sandy.

This photo was of the original bridge crossing the Toms River as it was in 1948.  The photo was taken by the now-defunct Newark Sunday Times.  The photo is courtesy of OCHistory.org.

The bridge was opened on this day in 1914.  It was the brainchild of Leon Berry and Charles Beck.  Berry had a vision of bringing cars across the Barnegat Bay into both Seaside Park and Long Beach Island.  At the time, only train bridges existed.   So in 1912, the pair went to local Toms River  business owners and got the backing they needed.  He was able to build both causeways and essentially altered history for life on the barrier islands of Ocean County.

Many of the pilings from the original bridge can still be seen today along the northern side of the new bridges.

Editor Note: We’ll do a full and proper story at the centennial mark.  We just felt the need to correct an incorrect earlier report. Perhaps the rest of the story would make a good Memorial Day weekend feature.  Either way, it will come.

Further to the south, at the southern end of Seaside Park was the old train bridge.  Plenty of photos and stories on that one here to go around as well for another day.

All other photos from the New Jersey Courier.

]]> http://www.oceancountysignal.com/2012/10/23/this-day-in-history-toms-river-toll-bridge-opened-in-1914/9227/feed/ 0 http://www.oceancountysignal.com/2012/10/21/ocean-county-history-van-hise-saw-mill-2/9147/ http://www.oceancountysignal.com/2012/10/21/ocean-county-history-van-hise-saw-mill-2/9147/#comments Sun, 21 Oct 2012 16:46:00 +0000 Ocean County News http://www.tomsrivernjonline.com/?p=9147

The Van Hise sawmill was in operation until the mid-1800′s in the Cassville section of Jackson Township.  Charles P. Van Hise owned the saw mill.  A staunch Democrat and active in local political affairs, Van Hise operated the mill until his successful retirement.  He had trained his sons Frank and Aaron in the lumber business and both also had very successful careers in the industry.

It is said that every person in the United States with the last name of Van Hise, has descended from Thomas Van Hise, who settled this region in 1750 when he located on the 200 acre tract of land here in Jackson.

The land was eventually sold to a Russian Orthodox group in 1934.    Over the years, the Van Hise tract grew from 200 acres to 1,440 acres by Thomas’ sons and grandsons, including the prominent Antrium Van Hise.

The property was sold for $2,200 and eventually was transformed into the Rova Farms resort complex.   In case you were wondering, that comes out to $1.57 per acre.

ref: Photo provide by OChistory.org
Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County NJ, pub. 1899
Rova Farms by Pauline Miller, 2008
 History of Monmouth County 1664-1920, volume 2

Only two Democrat candidates for President of the United States have ever won the majority of votes in the county.  In 1996, Bill Clinton defeated George Bush, Sr. and in 1964 Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater.

In four of the last 5 elections, Ocean County voters rejected the New Jersey election winners.

In 2008, John McCain defeated Barack Obama, Obama won at the state level.

In 2004 George W. Bush defeated John Kerry, Kerry won at the state level.

In 2000, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore, Gore won at the state level.

In 1992, George Bush Sr. defeated Bill Clinton.

From 1968 through 1988, New Jersey voters agreed with Ocean County voters, electing Richard M. Nixon in two elections.   In 1976, New Jersey and Ocean County voted for Gerald Ford, but Ford lost to Jimmy Carter.

From 1980 through 1988, Ocean County, New Jersey and America all agreed and voted for Ronald Reagan to two terms and George Bush Sr. to his first term.

The only other non-Republican to ever win a presidential election in Ocean County was Theodore Roosevelt, who ran on the “Progressive” ticket in 1912.  Roosevelt lost to Woodrow Wilson that year.

Voting records were kept in Ocean County dating back to 1888 when the county helped elect Republican president Benjamin Harrison.

Source: Ocean County Clerk;Political Graveyard;

By Phil Stilton

Jackson–At 4:01 p.m., as the gates were closing for the final time at the Six Flags Wild Safari in Jackson, the Lynch family from Staten Island, New York were officially recorded as the last family to “roll through the toll plaza” at the drive through. The end of drive-through access to the Safari closed a 38 year chapter in the amusement park’s history.

On August 20th, the company announced the park will no longer allow guests to drive their own cars through the 350 acre animal sanctuary, which is home to 1,200 animals from six different continents.

A week after announcing the closure of the Six Flags Wild Safari park to self-driven automobile access, the company announced their new plans for the Safari.  It will be a guided off-road safari adventure similar to Disney’s Safari Adventure.  Next season, the park will undergo a transformation that combines the 160 acre theme park with the 350 acre Wild Safari, making it the largest theme park in the world, by size.

“This is a monumental change for the Wild Safari and our guests,” said Dr. Bill Rives, safari director and chief veterinarian. “For nearly 40 years, people have dreamed of more up-close animal experiences with fewer boundaries, and now we can truly deliver a VIP experience to each and every one of our guests ─ and it’s included in their theme park admission.”

After the Lynch family passed through gate, the Stilton family, of Jackson, including myself, my wife Christine, daughter Erin, 9 and son Jack, 3, became the “unofficial” last car to enter the safari, just to keep it real and keep it local. Here’s some of the final pictures taken of the Safari as a self-driven drive-through experience.

Be sure to check the Great Adventure facebook page and Toms River Magazine for off-season updates and we’ll see you next year to give a first look at the new attraction!

This 1940′s photo shows Mrs. Emma McGuire tending cattle at the Bey Lea farm in then Dover Township.      Long before Bey Lea was a county golf course, it was a large working dairy farm.   In 1929, Emma married Benjamin McGuire, president of McGuire Brothers Inc. Bey Lea Farms Dairy.  The farm was opened in 1932.

The family sold the farm to the township in 1965 to be used as a golf course.

In 1966, Mrs. McGuire moved to Maryland where she died at the age of 90 in 1998.    Her husband Benjamin died in 1983.

Photos courtesy of OCHistory.org.

Brick–It may not look like much today, but the Econo car rental  office on Mantoloking Road in Brick was once a well traveled general store and gas station.   The store opened in the late 18th century and was owned by George S. Adams originally.  A photo shows the store as it was prior to the turn of the twentieth century.   The area, then known as Adamston, was serviced by the store, which later sold Esso gasoline is located at 646 Mantoloking Road. A modern photo is attached as well as two taken during the late 1920′s, including an inside shot.

Courtesy ochistory.org.

The above photo is not in the book, but you can see other great Cassville photos in the book.

Jackson Township (Images of America)\

Photo courtesy of ochistory.org.

The Barnegat Glass Company, built in 1896 operated until 1913.  The factory drew in many families who came to Barnegat looking for work.   The south Jersey sand was suitable for glass making.   The Barnegat Glass Co. was the only glass factory in Ocean County.  Others were located further south.

The factory was built on a nearly 3 acre tract of land known as Picket Field between Route 9 (Shore Road) and the Turckerton and NJ Central Railroad tracts of land.

In 1897, Thomas Ludlam of Sea Isle City bought the factory and fifty acres of land west of the railroad tracts.

In 1911, the company went bankrupt and was sold to The Cox and Sons Company of Bridgton.   A year later, a group of glass blowers formed a new company, the Co-Operative Glass Company of Barnegat and bought the factory.

In 1913, the factory closed again and in 1914, was foreclosed.  The building fell into decay and was all but gone by 1920.

Sources: www.ochistory.org; Pauline Miller – The Barnegat Glass Factory, 1980-08-20.

“Tim Hart is a true friend of Ocean County and his love for the history of this great County makes him the perfect choice for County Historian,” said Freeholder Deputy Director John C. Bartlett Jr., who serves as liaison to the county’s Cultural and Heritage Commission. “I look forward to working with Tim in promoting the county’s rich heritage, culture and history.”

Hart, Stafford Township, joined the County staff in 2009 when he was named Division Director for the Ocean County Cultural and Heritage Commission. He also was named Deputy Director of the Tuckerton Seaport and Baymen Museum at that time.

“Tim has extensive knowledge of the county’s history. He is an expert when it comes to the role the Barnegat Bay plays in County History in addition to how historical events like the Civil War has had an impact on this County,” Bartlett said.

Hart was named Stafford Township Historian in 2006 serving only as the second official historian of Stafford Township since 1749.

Hart has been an active member of the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey serving as the organization’s president in 2010 and as a trustee from 2008 to 2010.

Hart is also known for his participation in numerous historical re-enactments and serves as a trustee for Advocates for New Jersey History.

“Tim’s ongoing participation in re-enactments has brought him closer to the county’s history giving him a sense of what it was like to experience important events throughout time,” Bartlett said.

Ocean County had bid a fond farewell to County Historian Pauline S. Miller, who died in December 2011 at the age of 93. Mrs. Miller was a noted historian, author and lecturer who promoted the history of Ocean County for more than four decades.