TOMS RIVER-Toms River North was host to the 2013 8th/9th Grade Spring American Youth Football Championship All-Star Tournament this weekend.   All-Star teams representing New Jersey, Central Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania participated.

In round one, the New Jersey AYF team defeated Central Florida 28-10 and Maryland defeated Philadelphia 26-0.   New Jersey and Central Florida will face each other in the championship game.

The New Jersey AYF all-star team consists of players from NJAYF-Jersey Shore, including Toms River, Jackson, Brick and Berkeley Townships.

Despite the governor’s statements that “every boardwalk up and down the Jersey Shore” would be open in time for this weekend, at least several inland boardwalk areas, including Ocean Gate and the marina boardwalk section in Beachwood, both on the Toms River, remained under partial reconstruction at press time.

BRICK – The New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) hosted a weekend community design program starting on April 27th at Emma Havens Young Elementary School on Drum Point Road, here, to help develop a plan to rebuild Camp Osborn in Brick Township, which was devastated by a fire after Hurricane Sandy.

The program, formally known as a Sustainable Design Assessment Team or SDAT, combined local resources with the expertise of a multidisciplinary team of professionals to create a viable solution for rebuilding the Route 35 community. The volunteer participants included architects, planners, engineers, landscape architects, attorneys, officials and stakeholders.

“As architects, we have the ability to not only rebuild structures, but entire communities,” said Jack Purvis, president of AIA-NJ. “In an effort to help rebuild one of our local communities, which was devastated by fire as a result of Sandy, we’re using an SDAT as tool to help mobilize local support and foster result-driven cooperation. This fast-paced, exciting program will help us design and rebuild Camp Osborn in a sustainable way as quickly as possible.” Read More

Photos-  Top: AIA Rendering of Camp Osborn.  Middle: Camp Osborn on fire by Sean Furey.  Bottom: Camp Osborn days after Sandy, still smoldering by Patrick Day, NYOnAir.

by Kathleen Koch and Phil Stilton

SEASIDE HEIGHTS – What do three Democrats from the “Deep South” have in common with a Republican mayor from the Jersey Shore? They all know what it’s like to have a hurricane devastate their communities, and on Friday, May 17th, they all came together in here.

Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers hosted the delegation from Mississippi who came to meet with local mayors and officials and discuss the long term effects of Hurricane Katrina on their cities, including former United States Congressman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), Mayor Brent Warr (D-Gulfport, Miss.) and Mayor Eddie Favre (D-Bay St. Louis, Miss.). All were elected officials when Hurricane Katrina struck their state in 2005.

Rep. Taylor, who lost his home in that Category 3 storm, tried to introduce legislation to reform the insurance industry to give homeowners more security after national disasters, but his bill never made it to the Senate floor for vote. The divide was between congressmen who represented coastal communities and those who did not. With Taylor’s 2010 election loss, supporters of reform were certain the legislation would die without his support, and it did. Today, New Jersey towns face the same insurance and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) problems his state was confronted with eight years earlier.

Seven weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall…Continue Reading

by Erik Weber

BERKELEY TOWNSHIP – It may have been several decades since they put down their social studies notebooks and picked up their badges, but for five of the seven current police chiefs serving in Ocean County, coming back to the halls of Central Regional High School here to reminisce about their early years in front of  the cameras of contemporary television students was a bit like coming home again.

The five – Toms River Chief Michael G. Mastronardy, Class of 1971; Tuckerton Chief Michael Caputo, Class of 1976; Ocean Gate Chief Reece J. Fisher, Class of 1985; Pine Beach Chief John M. Sgro, Class of 1987; and Berkeley Chief Karin T. DiMichele, nee Kane, Class of 1989 – arrived one by one to the parking lot of the school, once just a grass field when they all had attended, and entered a main entrance facing Forest Hills Parkway that was built years after they graduated. After photo opportunities and initial video interviews conducted by student Avery Jackson in another newer hallway honoring successful alumni, the five walked through an older part of the school – trading old stories as they passed the rows of lockers – and entered the current location of the student television studio, which once held Industrial Arts classes.

The two other Central Regional graduates currently serving as police chiefs – Seaside Heights Chief Thomas Boyd and Seaside Park Chief Francis Larkin – were unable to attend. Lt. Kevin C. Arnold, head of the Island Heights Police Department but not yet formally promoted to chief, is also an alumni.

Settling into a row of chairs before bright lights and a group of digital videocameras, the five opened up to student and host Angela Roberts for the station’s Community Spotlight program about their reaction to the changes around the school, how they learned they had all graduated from the same school, what they remembered most about their time here, and what they could offer as advice for contemporary students.

“So, pulling up into the parking lot and walking through those same hallways again, what felt different?” asked Ms. Roberts. “What has changed since how you remember it?”

Read More of this Story: http://issuu.com/oceansignal/docs/20130524_ocean_signal/7

MANTOLOKING–On May 2nd, to much media fan fare, the iconic home in the Barnegat Bay was removed.  Last week, Crowder Gulf removed the last home from the northern portion of the Barnegat Bay, which sat adjacent to the Mantoloking Bridge, with very little media fan fare.   The Ocean Signal was on scene for the removal.

Photos by Phil Stilton / Ocean Signal.

By Phil Stilton
Photo by Phil Stilton

TOMS RIVER—Shortly after announcing the creation of a municipal position to help Toms River Township residents navigate through the difficult networks of red tape involved with disaster recovery, Mayor Thomas Kelaher told the Ocean Signal today that the township has hired long time resident Trevor Newman for the job.

Mr. Newman will start his job as Disaster Recovery Ombudsman on Monday, May 20^th.  Initially, he will meet with township officials and department heads to work out a plan on how the township can begin to offer assistance to those negatively impacted by Sandy who are struggling to understand FEMA guidelines, insurance policies and to help them seek out available programs they may qualify for.

Shortly after the announcement of the position was made, Mr. Newman ironically tells us that he was sitting at the Band Wagon Diner on Route 37 and was thumbing through the inaugural issue of the Ocean Signal when he read the article about the Ombudsman position.

“I saw the article and read what the mayor was saying and thought, “That’s me”, so I sent him an email and my resume and some thoughts I had.  The rest, as they say, is history,” Mr. Newman said.

Newman, 67, who has lived in Toms River for 40 years, said he worked as a front line manager for Allstate insurance in property loss for 37 years.  He is a certified adjuster for the National Flood Insurance Program.

“When Katrina took place, most of the flood qualified people were sent to Louisiana,” he said.  “What they failed to recognize there were flood damages in other places and nobody was going to those places.”

Newman was tasked by his company to devise a plan to branch out beyond Louisiana and help those affected in other states by the hurricane, handling over 1,600 claims between the end of 2005 and 2006.

He also warned that there’s no quick solution to many of the problems residents in Toms River now face.  “We have a long way to go as a town and there are an awful lot of people who don’t understand the programs and that are where the problem lies, people need to know the programs available and how to wade through the mass of documentation to get back on their feet,” he said.   “Many people have expectations that their policies can’t meet and it’s because they didn’t understand the policies that they run into those problems, which isn’t unusual.”

Part of the problem, according to Newman is the complexity of the situation between insurance companies, FEMA and other programs designed to help people.

It’s a problem Mayor Kelaher and the township are fully aware of.  “We have a lot of residents who are overwhelmed with paperwork and the process involved in fixing up your home from Sandy,” Mr. Kelaher said.  “The purpose of the ombudsman is to help residents work through the steps, and assist with insurance problems, FEMA applications and grant programs.”

Newman concurs.

“It’s a complicated program on a good day, on a bad day it’s much worse,” he added.   “My hope is that I can clarify for people what they have and where they are going and help them make the necessary applications to get them on their feet.”

Newman said one of the ways he hopes to help people is by helping them properly fill out the right paperwork and in the right order to ease some of the pains sometimes associated with the recovery process.    He said during the process you have to be aware of everything, including municipal building codes, the permit process and the application processes for various assistance programs.

“You have to follow proper procedures to be successful,” he concluded.

Earlier today, the Union County Homicide Task Force and the Clark Police Department  issued an arrest warrant in the homicide of Joseph Galfy, Jr., which occurred in Clark, N.J. on May 12, 2013.

The  main suspect in the case was Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, a homeless man who was made famous on the internet as the “Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker”.

McGillvary is also known as Kai Lawrence, Caleb Kai Lawrence and Kai Nicodemus.

Galfy was found inside his home on Starlite Drive on May 13, 2013 after

officers were called to the residence for a welfare check. An autopsy performed the following day determined that Galfy died as a result of blunt force trauma, said Romankow.

Around 6:30 pm tonight, Lawrence was arrested at the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Philadelphia, by members of the Philadelphia Police Department.

McGillvary has been charged with the homicide of Joseph Galfy, Jr.   He will be processed in Philadelphia and returned to New Jersey in the coming days. His bail was previously set at $3 million and he will be lodged in the Union County Jail in Elizabeth.

“I am grateful for the overwhelming response and dedicated effort by the public and law enforcement that led to this arrest,” said Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow. “I believe that everyone is a little safer with this person off the streets.”

Investigators learned earlier in the day, McGillvary had cut his hair in an attempt to alter his appearance, and was  seen at a light rail station in Haddonfield.

The Union County Homicide Task Force worked with local, state, and Federal officials to locate McGillvary.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS–Just in time for Memorial Day, the borough council has approved the hiring of five new full-time police officers.   The five men had all served previously as special police officers to the borough during the summer season and were also employed during the borough’s recovery after Hurricane Sandy.

Lawrence Mayberry, Michael McCurdy, Christopher Linnell, Erik Hershey and Justin Heffernan were all sworn in by borough attorney, Jean Cipriani.

“We got five really good cops, I’m very proud of them.” said Police Chief Thomas Boyd. “These are the types of guys who go out and help people.  They’re the types of guys who go up in the tree and get the cat, not the guys that shoot the cat out of the tree.”

Boyd said each of the officers have proven themselves worthy of becoming full-time police officers through their actions since Hurricane Sandy.  “We’ve been through a lot, we’ve been beaten up, so this is finally some good news,” Boyd said.

Chief Boyd thanked Mayor William Akers and the borough council for allowing him to hire the new officers and for the community support for that decision, “With they allowed me to do, to hire these five good kids, you have no idea what it means to me…and to see the community come together again, it’s great, these men deserve this, they’ve worked for it.” the chief added.   Akers said that since Hurricane Sandy, the five had

Former Seaside Heights Mayor P. Kenneth Hershey, held the bible during the swearing in of his son, Erik.

“I’m so glad to be here tonight,” Mayor Hershey said afterwards as he broke down in tears of joy.   “I’m so happy for my son tonight.”

“I just to thank the mayor and council for giving me this opportunity,” said Officer McCurdy.

Councilman Richard Thompkins said the five new officers had performed well as special officers for the borough.  “They held themselves in such high regards, we never looked at them as class II officers, we always felt as if they were full-time officers,” Mr. Thompkins said.

“I’m so happy we’ve finally been able to appoint these men,” said Councilwoman Agnes Polhemus, “It’s been a long time coming, but they were certainly worth the wait.”

SEASIDE HEIGHTS – The first phase of debris removal from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean here was completed today with the demolition and extraction of the Jet Star rollercoaster, which became an iconic symbol the morning after Hurricane Sandy devastated the shore last October 29th.

Weeks Marine of Cranford, Union County completed its work at noon today, approximately 23 hours after it began removal efforts alongside the Casino Pier, where the coaster originally sat.

Toby Wolf, spokesperson for the pier amusement firm, stated the next step would be an oceanographic survey of what else remained of several other rides and attractions in the water, including the Stillwalk Manor, a well-known “dark ride” mock-haunted house which was completely topped from the end of the pier during the storm.

Photo by Pat Day, NYOnAir.Com.