TRUTH. HERITAGE. ENVIRONMENT.

BEACHWOOD • ISLAND HEIGHTS • OCEAN GATE • PINE BEACH • SOUTH TOMS RIVER • TOMS RIVER

FREE April 8th ~ April 21st, 2011

RIVERSIDE SIGNALthe

OCEAN GATE – It was a bright, early spring morning last Sunday when longtime East Bayview Avenue resident and Ocean Gate Historical Society President Lou Purcaro rolled his car up to the southwest cor-ner of Asbury and East Cape May avenues, here. Two white buildings and a red brick-col-ored rail car shone back at him in the chilled sunlight while he got out and walked up the con-crete path. Eyeing first the stout wooden building at the corner, he turned and unlocked the ranch-style structure to his left, opening the door to a century of photographs, artifacts and memories that this summer will become a haven for curious children, studious researchers and long-lost relatives of past residents and tenants of this tight-knit shore resort commu-nity.

The story of Ocean Gate in the post-Native American era

dates to July 1909 when, ac-cording to a 1968 account by longtime borough clerk John H. Adrian, “title passed from one Edward Gottheimer to the Great Eastern Building Cor-poration of Newark, N.J., New York, N.Y. and Philadelphia, Pa. on the first of several tracts

which were to become the de-velopment of Ocean Gate (the Golden Gate of the East, as the company subtitled it). A map was filed, and the streets shown on that map are the identical streets we find to-day.”

He continued: “The site

Toms River Introduces Budget with 1.9% Increase

In the previous four edi-tions of the Riverside Signal, we serialized a look back at the Gatherer Institute, a not-for-profit youth environmental or-ganization founded and helmed by South Toms River resident Frank Domenico Cipriani, which produced a great deal of positive feedback and interest. Beginning with this issue, Mr. Cipriani rejoins us as a regu-lar contributing writer with his column, “You Think What You Think and I’ll Think What I Know,” the first entry of which is entitled “Opening Day.”

Besides writing for the Sig-nal and seeking a successor for the Gatherer Institute, Mr. Cipriani writes a weekly col-umn for Bangladesh’s first on-line newspaper, bdnews24.com, and is the author of a number of books, including “Learning Lit-tle Hawk’s Way of Storytelling,”

which is scheduled to be released by Findhorn Press in May 2011.

~The last thing I ever did in

my Little League career was to get picked off at third base.

By a girl.In the stands.Our team was down by one

run, two outs, last inning, and I was the pinch runner. I was thirteen, and I knew that this was my last season. I wasn’t good enough to continue. I could always get on base. I led the league in walks and hit-by-pitches. I could bunt, chop down on the ball, spray the ball to all fields. In fact, I’d gotten on base by intentionally strik-ing out on a wild pitch and beating the throw to first. I just couldn’t field, and I was grow-ing tired of my role as a pinch hitter and pinch runner.

That day, Gino was pitch-

www.riversidesignal.com

CONNECT TO THE RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

Ocean Gate Historical Society Looks Back

By Erik Weber By Philipp Schmidt

by Frank Domenico Cipriani

ERIK WEBER, the Riverside SignalMembers of the Ocean County College sailing team took to the river last weekend to practice for their regatta this weekend. Area residents will be able to observe by watching the waters south of the Toms River Yacht Club on Saturday and Sunday starting at 9 am.

cont. on page 6 cont. on page 2

You Think What You Think & I’ll Think What I Know OCC Sailing Regatta This Weekend!“Opening Day”

cont. on page 10

23 Years On, Ocean Gate Historical Society Still Carries the Past Forward

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside SignalThe Ocean Gate Station on the Pennsylvania Railroad is today the museum for the Ocean Gate Historical Society.

TOMS RIVER – Late last month, during a special meeting, here, the township council voted to introduce a $97,984,263 budget for 2011, carrying with it a 1.9 percent increase over the previous year.

An increase in the tax rate would be 2.85 cents per $100 of assessed value, or approximate-ly $8.76 per month, or $105 for the homeowner with the aver-age residential home assess-ment of $368,742.

According to a budget sum-mary sheet distributed by the mayor’s office, factors that af-fected the budget included a “reduction in available surplus revenue due to the winter storm on December 26th and 27th [as] the timing of this storm could not have been worse from a budgetary standpoint as the snow removal costs were in ex-cess of $1.3 million which, if not spent, could have been carried

over to 2011 and utilized to off-set property taxes in this year’s budget.”

Township Administrator Paul J. Shives noted during the meeting that the overall assessed value of the township was approximately $17.115 bil-lion in 2010, but that number had dropped to $16.950 billion in 2011.

“We lost from 2010 to 2011 $165 million in ratables,” he said.

According to the summary report, the assessed valuation of the township dropped an overall $615 million since 2009 due to tax appeals and corre-sponding adjustments to the ratable base.

“This change alone results in a change in the tax rate (+ 1.28 cents) from 2009 to 2011 since the rate must increase to raise the same amount of mon-ey as the ratable base declines,”

PAGE 2 Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

the report stated. Further increases in ex-

penses include $835,000 more for the reserve for uncollected taxes; a $1.3 million increase in state pension costs, “which rep-resents a 27 percent increase over the 2010 costs;” and an increase of $1.7 million in debt service, or the principal and interest payments for all short and long term debts.

Reductions in revenue or aid that affected the budget includ-ed a $718,000 drop in tax rev-enue; $2.5 million less in state aid for 2011; and a loss of $2.23 million in miscellaneous rev-enue, including one-time grant revenue.

The report further out-

lined ways that the municipal-ity had attempted to lower the budget, including a reduc-tion of $100,000 from sala-ries and wages, which was “ac-complished largely through and with the assistance of the township-employee unions… including re-opening of exist-ing collective bargaining agree-ments with eight unions again in an effort to address person-nel costs which [account for ap-proximately] 39 percent of the township budget.”

Overtime and the num-ber of full-time positions also dropped for the 2011 budget, by 26 percent and 34 positions, respectively.

Additional points made by

the summer include that the budget is under the state man-dated 2 percent levy cap and 3.5 percent appropriations cap; that the “other expense” line items for a large number of de-partments are at pre-2009 lev-els, and that the budget “main-tains the current level of service to Toms River residents” while keeping the average tax rate at approximately 16 percent lower than the average Ocean County rate.

The public hearing of the budget will be held during a special meeting of the Toms River Township Council on Tuesday, April 26th at 6 pm in town hall on Washington Street.

TOMS RIVER

ERIK WEBER, the Riverside Signal Youth ballplayers with the Toms River East Little League officially kicked off their 2011 season with a parade and ceremony last week. For more photos, go to www.RiversideSignal.com

Toms River Introduces Budget, continued from frontCattus Island Park Programs

Tour Cattus Island by Bike

Cattus Island Park now has adult bicycles and helmets of various sizes to loan out for use within the park. The bi-cycles are free to use with a driver’s license held until their return, and may be borrowed for two hours, seven days a week, between 8 am and 2 pm. They must not be taken out of the park.

Spring Has Sprung: Emerging Leaves

The warmer days of spring bring a variety of new oppor-tunities for viewing wildlife. Cattus Island Park’s 2 pm na-ture walks represent a long tradition of offering a fun, ed-ucational and interactive look at the wilds of the park. Take a break from the daily grind and get back to the basics with a short jaunt through one of Ocean County’s best-kept se-crets on Saturday, April 9th or Sunday, April 10th for an “Emerging Leaves” walk.

Step Into Spring

It’s amazing what you can find just a few small steps from the Cooper Environmental Center at Cattus Island Park. Spring Azures are spreading their wings. Buds are burst-ing out leaves and flowers. Fiddleheads of ferns are push-ing their way out of the musty loam. Spring is, well… spring-ing at Cattus Island Park. Let a naturalist open your eyes to the wonder on Sunday, April 10th and Sunday, April 17th from 10 am to 11 am. There is no cost or registration re-quired. All ages.

Scales and Tales

Snakes are frequently sub-ject to many myths. Join a nat-uralist as they uncover the real truths about snakes in this live animal presentation on Satur-day, April 9th, Sunday, April 10th, Saturday, April 16th and Sunday, April 17th from 11 am to 11:30 am at the Cooper En-vironmental Center in Cattus Island Park. There is no cost or registration required. All ages.

Turtle Feeding

The Cooper Environmen-tal Center at Cattus Island Park houses a variety of na-tive turtles, including the Diamond-back Terrapin, the Box Turtle and the Painted Turtle. Naturalists and youth

Toms River East Little League Starts 2011 Season

Toms River Community Calendar

Flowerfest: A Gnome and Garden Show

Celebrate spring with exhib-its, demonstrations, displays and workshops at the Toms River Library’s Flowerfest on Saturday, April 9th from 11 am to 3 pm. Learn gardening tricks, flower arranging, how to create a peaceful haven, ways to have an eco-friendly garden and more. No regis-tration required.

~Women in Jazz

The Toms River Library will hold a Women in Jazz pro-gram on Sunday, April 10th at 2 pm with Galen Abdur-Razzaq, an internationally renowned flutist who will dis-cuss the five pillars of jazz: melody, harmony, rhythm, syncopation and improvisa-tion, and give a demonstra-tion of how each of these el-ements influence jazz. Please register, 732-349-6200.

~Environmental

Commission Meeting The Toms River Environ-

mental Commission meeting will next meet on Monday, April 11th at 7 pm in town hall on Washington Street.

~Afro Jersey

On Monday, April 11th at 7 pm, Terre Roche brings her latest project in the form of Afro Jersey, a group whose songs are “equal parts West African and American folk music, with lyrics in both English and Mandingo,” to the Toms River Library, Washington Street. Please register, 732-349-6200.

~Council Meeting

The Toms River Township council will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, April 12th at 6 pm in town hall on Washington Street.

The Cottage ShoppeA Unique Gift Shop

Jewelry, Candles, Crafts, Handbags,Stained Glass, Favors, Country Decor...

374 Dover Rd.S. Toms River, NJ 08757

732-349-4566

APRIL SPECIAL

Belly Rings

expi

res 4

/30

/11

BUY 2 GET 1 FREE

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011 PAGE 3The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

TOMS RIVER

Antiques, Etc. with Patricia H. Burke Cattus Island Park Programs

volunteers will be on hand to answer all of your questions while they feed and otherwise care for their native turtles on Saturday, April 9th, Sun-day, April 10th, Saturday, April 16th and Sunday, April 17th from 1:30 pm to 2 pm at the Cooper Environmental Center in Cattus Island Park. There is no cost or registra-tion required. All ages.

Discovery Backpacks

Cattus Island Park has 10 discovery backpacks. The packs, which may be borrowed for free with a driver’s license held until their return, con-tain tools to help families en-joy and learn about the park, including binoculars, several field guides, an audio guide to bird sounds, an aquatic dip net, tools for catching and holding insects, and sev-eral suggested activities and games. The packs are appro-priate for family groups with children of any age.

Spring Has Sprung: Songs of Spring

The warmer days of spring bring a variety of new oppor-tunities for viewing wildlife. Cattus Island Park’s 2 pm na-ture walks represent a long tradition of offering a fun, ed-ucational and interactive look at the wilds of the park. Take a break from the daily grind and get back to the basics with a short jaunt through one of Ocean County’s best-kept se-crets on Saturday, April 16th or Sunday, April 17th for a

“Signs of Spring” walk.

It’s Springtime! Wreath Celebrate the coming of

spring by making a wreath that will last from year to year. Locally gathered natural ma-terials will be used to trans-form a grapevine wreath into a blossoming garden. The park will supply all materials. Event takes place on Friday, April 29th from 7 to 9 pm.

Build a Birdhouse Assemble and paint your

own special birdhouse for chickadees, downy woodpeck-ers, titmice, or house wrens. Bring a hammer (and don’t forget safety goggles!), along with a little creativity- and we’ll provide the rest! The fun takes place on Friday, May 6th from 7 to 9 pm.

cont. on page 14

Celebrate Mark Twain! On Tuesday, April 12th at

7pm in the Toms River Li-brary, join the Traveling Lit-erary Theater as three pro-fessional actors dramatically read passages from the great American humorist & writer, Mark Twain. Please register, 732-349-6200.

~Book Discussion

The Toms River Library, Washington Street, will hold a book discussion on Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale on Tuesday, April 12th at 7 pm. An atmospheric re-invention of the ghost story genre, Ms. Setterfield’s work is a calculated expedition into the realm of secrets, confused identities, lies and half-truths. Registration not required.

~Budding Artists

Gallery A reception for the Toms

River Library’s Budding Artists’ Gallery will be held on Wednesday, April 13th for the Month of the Young Child exhibit, which will showcase artwork from the students of local preschools and child care centers in the children’s section and atri-um of the library during the month of April. No registra-tion required.

~Planning Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Toms River Planning Board will be on Wednesday, April 20th at 6 pm in town hall on Washington Street.

~Municipal Alliance

The Toms River Municipal Alliance will hold its next meeting on Thursday, April 21st at 6 pm in town hall on Washington Street.

~Zoning Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Toms River Zoning Board of Adjustment will be on Thurs-day, April 21st at 7:30 pm in town hall on Washington Street.

Many readers will remem-ber the good old days, not that many years ago, when the At-lantique City show boasted over 1,000 dealers and it was im-possible to see the whole show in one day. I remember go-ing to one of several com-puter stations at that show and enter-ing the kinds of antiques I was interested in buying and getting a comput-er printout of the dealers and their booth numbers. This was a free service to assist both the buyer and the seller. Today it’s

a much different story thanks to the economy, eBay and the internet.

JMK Shows has revived this show, now called the Atlantic City Antiques and Collectors Show. There were about 260 dealers from 25 states exhibit-ing on March 19th and 20th at the Conven-tion Center in

Atlantic City. The show seemed large enough and there were a variety of antiques represented, plus, the show promoters had a special area set up for apprais-als, glass repair and porcelain

and pottery repair. They also arranged for AntiqueClothier.com to exhibit vintage clothing from the 1920s next to an area where the producer of the HBO television show “Boardwalk Em-pire” and the actor who played the character Arnold Rothstein signed autographs on photos.

Terry Collien, a dealer from Wisconsin, had for sale a Ho-palong Cassidy Pencil Case for $150, a Flintstones Barney Rub-ble doll for $50, and a Lost in Space Robot in its original box for $650. He said that collectors look for toys and games based on old TV westerns, science fic-tion, space and monsters.

Point Pleasant Antique Em-porium’s Clara Johnson had sold a number of items includ-

Patricia H. Burke

PAGE 4 Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

PINE BEACH – Earlier this month, longtime borough resi-dent Charles “Chuck” Shirey approached the borough coun-cil with a request: hold off on installing new public amenities before developing a stronger maintenance plan with those already existing.

Referring to the tentative plan by borough officials to replace the aging Admiral Far-ragut Academy docks with a re-stored bulkhead and new pier that will bump out to hold a seating area and pavilion, he asked borough officials at their March 9th meeting to first look at the current public areas that need maintenance, specifically the Vista Field fieldhouse and surrounding walkway and Sta-tion Avenue pavilion.

“I don’t think we have the re-sources to [make those repairs],” he said. “It always seems to fall on the townspeople, which, maybe get a little group going to keep up on these things, so before we make any big pur-chases or decisions on further enhancing the town we need to get a handle on what we have.”

Mr. Shirey volunteered to help maintain and restore vari-ous borough properties, includ-ing the New Jersey Avenue pa-vilion and, more recently, the entrance to borough hall.

“I don’t mind doing it,” he said. “It seems to me that we have a public works that, I don’t know if they don’t have the time or are managed properly or whatever, but I go to other towns and I see them out paint-ing, landscaping – not just pick-ing up the trash.”

Mayor Christopher Boyle

noted that the issues with pub-lic borough properties is what led the borough to seek out a municipal administrator, which Pine Beach Police Chief John M. Sgro volunteered to take on earlier this year.

“I believe the chief is already working on getting that kind of work scheduled on a regular basis,” he said. “It needs to be taken care of and I believe it’s going to be taken care of.”

Mr. Shirey offered to help out if the borough needed it.

“We appreciate that and no doubt we’re going to be call-ing on you again to help us out when we need it,” Mayor Boyle replied.

And in other news of the bor-ough council:

• Mayor Boyle led the bor-ough council and those in at-tendance to hold a moment of silence in remembrance of longtime borough resident Wal-ter Merry, who passed away on February 19th.

• Chief Financial Officer Mary Jane Steib gave the fol-lowing treasurer’s report for the month of February: general ac-count balance as of February 1st was $738,961.21, total receipts $821,344.35, total disburse-ments $731,092.07, balance as of February 28th $829,213.59; Water utility balance as of February 1st was $120,360.19, total receipts $3,862.01, to-tal disbursements $14,773.04, balance as of February 28th $109,449.16; Sewer utility ac-count balance as of February 1st was $129,569.68, total receipts $6,024.17, total disbursements $36,615.05, balance as of Feb-ruary 28th $98,978.80.

• Ms. Steib reported the rev-

enue reports for the month of February as follows: tax col-lector’s report, total receipts for 2010 taxes $10,430.95, total receipts for 2011 taxes $728,690.81; Miscellaneous reveue report, total licenses $156, total permits $530, to-tal miscellaneous fees $137.75, total grant reimbursements $72,309.85, miscellaneous re-ports $5,982.04, miscellaneous finance revenue $2,349.85, to-tal receipts $81,465.49.

• The following bills resolu-tions presented by Ms. Steib were accepted as a motion: Payroll for February 15th was $48,391.59, payroll for February 28th was $43,150.47, water util-ity account $36,764.55, sewer utility account $11,867.90, gen-eral fund account $262,603.34.

- Council President Lawrence Cuneo read a report by Chief Sgro reporting police activ-ity for the months of January and February: in January, the borough police department re-sponded to 187 calls for service; in February, it responded to 197; on January 4th a new com-munications console paid for by a grant for the Pine Beach Of-fice of Emergency Management (OEM) communications room was received; on January 13th Chief Sgro attended an OEM coordinators meeting at Miller Airpark in Berkeley Township, with topics discussed includ-ing local emergency operations plans, new homeland security initiatives, national incident management system issues and a possible disaster declaration by the Federal Emergency Man-agement Agency for the Decem-ber 26th winter storm that blan-keted the region with upwards

of thirty inches of snow; and on January 28th the department received another grant-funded piece of equipment, a new radio for OEM that replaced equip-ment over 20 years old.

Chief Sgro also stated: “We’ve had a very interesting winter to say the least, and hopefully at this point the worst is over. With spring and hopefully now the warmer weather approach-ing, I’d like to remind everyone that there will be an increase in our friends, neighbors and es-pecially children around town, so please drive carefully. I’d also like to advise everybody that on Saturday, April 30th, our department will once again be participating in Operation Take Back New Jersey, in which we will collect any unused and unwanted prescription drugs for disposal. Just remove any la-bels or other identifying infor-mation, and drop off your items at police headquarters between 10 am and 2 pm, no questions asked.”

• By motion of resolution, the borough council authorized the closing of streets for the annual Easter egg hunt, Pine Beach 5K race and July 4th Independence Day parade.

Councilman Barry Wieck noted that the egg hunt had been moved to Station Avenue Beach this year, and would take place on Sunday, April 17th at 1 pm.

He added that the borough “will not restrict any residents from entering or leaving their homes” during the street clo-sure dates.

• The council also authorized an agreement with the bor-ough’s police union, PBA Local 253.

“This is just an agreement with our police department as far as trying to help us out with our budgetary concerns that we have this year,” said Mr. Cuneo. “It’s our own staff helping us out, which is nice.”

“I commend the police de-partment and public works for working with the council, given the budget concerns that we have,” said Councilman Mat-thew Abatemarco. “We’re lucky to have a community of people that understand the budget cri-sis.”

• During the public comment portion of the meeting, River-side Drive resident Jim Saxton approached the borough coun-cil with an offer to both help maintain the parking lot across from Avon Road Beach as well as an inquiry to purchase the open lot, should the borough

PINE BEACH

Shirey Asks Boro to Maintain Old Before Getting New By Jim Blackburn

cont. on next page

Pine Beach Community Calendar

Council Work Session Meeting

The Pine Beach Borough Council will hold its next work session meeting on Monday, April 11th at 7:30 pm in borough hall on Penn-sylvania Avenue.

~Twisted Fairly Tales

Puppet ShowThe Beachwood Library,

Beachwood Boulevard, which also serves Pine Beach, will be hosting a Twisted Fairly Tales Puppet Show on Mon-day, April 11th at 3:30 pm. We all think we know the story of Rapunzel and her flowing locks of hair and how Prince Charming woke Sleeping Beauty with a kiss. What if those stories happened just a little bit differently? Our puppet show will offer an al-ternative (or twisted) version of the stories and then you can judge which one you like better. Space is limited to 20, open to ages 3 and up, please register. 732-244-4573.

~Council Meeting

The Pine Beach Borough Council will hold its next regular meeting on Wednes-day, April 13th at 7:30 pm in borough hall on Pennsylva-nia Avenue.

~Senior Exercise Program

The Pine Beach Municipal Alliance invites senior citi-zens from the borough to join their friends and neighbors at borough hall on Thursday, April 14th from 9 am to 10 am for the first class of a 12-week course that will teach simple, easy and effective exercises and techniques in a fun, motivating and non-intimidating environment.

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011 PAGE 5The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

ever be interested in selling. “Money is crunching and the

way that budgets are, there will be land that goes for sale,” he said. “We would like to be no-tified about the opportunity, being the adjacent homeowner, so just take that into consider-ation.”

Responding to an inquiry on the parking lot by the Riverside Signal following the borough meeting, Borough Clerk Char-lene Carney stated that the land was protected by the state un-der the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres program, and that it would not be capable of ever being sold to a private individ-ual or firm.

• Councilman Ritty Polhe-mus thanked the residents pres-ent for the meeting.

“We usually don’t get a lot of visitors, so it’s nice to see every-one coming out and actually listening and voicing your opin-ion,” he said, and further com-mended Mr. Shirey and all oth-er volunteers of the community. “You see that time and time again how people are making a lot of sacrifice and doing a lot of things to be able to make the town look a lot better.”

• Councilman Wieck stated that he received a response to an inquiry made to the county engineering department earlier this year regarding the corner of Station and Prospect av-enues.

“Many of you notice that people come out of Bayville or Chelsea [Avenue] at a rapid rate of speed,” he said. “We do not have a crosswalk in that area

[for cars to stop for pedestri-ans], so I contacted them sev-eral months back and they’re going to put in a crosswalk area, painted in, at their expense and put up some pedestrian signs.”

“Hopefully it will slow people down because anybody who lives in the area knows not only is it difficult there but trying to pull out of Admiral Circle becomes very difficult,” he added, not-ing that the borough would put a smaller stop sign at the walk-ing/bike path at that intersec-tion because one of the things they found while studying the location was that “people on bi-cycles just blew through there.”

• Councilman Andrew Ke-czkemethy also thanked those present and asked that more residents begin attending bor-ough meetings.

• Mr. Cuneo encouraged local residents to go out and support local youth sports pro-grams on the school and orga-nizational level.

• Regarding the upcoming 2011 municipal budget, Mr. Cuneo said that upon review-ing the preliminary numbers, he was “surprised it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, which is good for us and every-one who lives in town.”

• Mr. Abatemarco and Mayor Boyle also thanked those pres-ent along with the volunteers that aid the borough in main-taining its image.

The next borough council meeting will be on Monday, April 11th at 7:30 pm in bor-ough hall on Pennsylvania Av-enue.

PINE BEACH – Chief John M. Sgro reported the following police activity of the Beachwood Borough Police Department:

• On Saturday, March 5th, Scott Flaherty, 43, of Bayville, was arrested and taken into custody by Patrolman Chris-tian Longhitano after being observed driving his green Jeep northbound on Route 9 with an obstructed license plate.

Ptl. Longhitano determined that Mr. Flaherty was under the influence of alcohol. The Bay-ville resident was charged with driving while intoxicated, oper-ating with a suspended license, reckless driving and unclear license plates. It was also deter-mined that Mr. Flaherty had an outstanding warrant out of Toms River Township.

• On Sunday, March 6th,

Justin P. Juner, 19, of Island Heights, was arrested and taken into custody by Ptl. Longhitano after being observed driving his green Volkswagen northbound on Route 9 with an inoperable tail light.

Upon initiating a motor ve-hicle stop, the patrolman de-termined that the operator was under the influence of alcohol and charged him with driving while intoxicated, underage driving while intoxicated, reck-less driving and maintenance of lamps.

• On Monday, March 7th, Patrolwoman Natalie Balista in-vestigated a three vehicle crash on Route 9 north in which a ve-hicle struck a Honda that was stopped in traffic in the rear, causing that vehicle to strike a Dodge van that was stopped

in traffic in front. The vehicles sustained minor damage and none of the occupants reported any injury.

• On Saturday, March 12th, Rashid R. Johnson, 22, of Toms River, was arrested and taken into police custody by Ptl. Longhitano after being ob-served driving his silver Toyota northbound on Route 9 with an invalid inspection sticker.

Upon initiating a motor ve-hicle stop, the patrolman de-termined that the operator was under the influence of alcohol. Mr. Johnson was charged with driving while intoxicated, reck-less driving, failure to make re-pairs and having an obstructed windshield.

• On Friday, March 25th, Pa-trolman Christopher Raimann responded to a two vehicle

crash at the intersection of Mo-tor Road and Grant Avenue, in which a Jeep CJ7 and a Honda Accord collided. The vehicles sustained minor damage and none of the occupants reported any injury.

On Saturday, March 26th, Jennifer A. Destories, 38, was arrested and taken into custody by Ptl. Longhitano after being observed driving her grey Ford northbound on Route 9 without headlights on.

Upon initiating a motor ve-hicle stop, the patrolman deter-mined that Ms. Destories was under the influence of alcohol. She was charged with driving while intoxicated, operating with a suspended license, reck-less driving and operating with-out headlamps.

PINE BEACH

Maintain Old Before Getting New, continued from previous page

Pine Beach Police Report Recent Activity

Teen Mom Support SeriesA program focused on ad-

dressing the needs of the teen mom will be held on Thursday, April 14th and April 21st from 6 pm to 8 pm in the Beachwood Library, Beachwood Boulevard. The third in a four-part series co-sponsored by the Beach-wood Municipal Alliance. For more information or to reg-ister, please call Beachwood Branch Manager Nancy Voit-ko at 732-244-4573 ext. 3308.

~Easter Egg Hunt

Pine Beach’s annual Easter egg hunt will be held at Sta-tion Avenue Beach on Sun-day, April 17th promptly at 1 pm. Borough children will be split into five groups by age; parents will be permitted to help in the 3 and under group. Other groups include 4 to 6, 7 to 9, 10 and 11, and 12 and up. Portions of Sta-tion Avenue and Riverside Drive will be closed for park-ing during the event.

~Diabetes: Are You at Risk?Did you know that 23.6

million adults and children have diabetes in the United States and that 57 million are pre-diabetic? The Beach-wood Library, Beachwood Boulevard, will be hosting a program on diabetes on Monday, April 18th at 7 pm presented by Jenny Shubert, a Rutgers graduate and in-tern with Sodexo-Allentown, who will soon be a registered dietitian. Please register, 732-244-4573.

~Hydrant Flushing

Hydrant flushing will com-mence on Tuesday, April 19th and Wednesday, April 20th with alternate dates of Tuesday, April 26th and Wednesday, April 27th. The borough asks that residents refrain from washing clothes or using the dishwasher dur-ing this time period as sedi-ment may be stirred up by the flushing.

We welcome all members of our community to take this opportunity to attend our Open House and tour our beautiful club. Learn about all the activities and events that are planned for the year 2011.

Meet members from our various committees and hear about the benefits of membership. Find out why we think PBYC is such a special place. Children of all ages are encouraged to attend.

PAGE 6 The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

chosen by the company for its development was a particularly attractive one, partly wooded, with some meadowland, and a gently sloping beach on the south side of Toms River. It had been farm land, and at the western end of the tract was an apple orchard. That end of town became known as “the Or-chard.”

“So when the Great Eastern took over, and built an elemen-tal sort of boardwalk, three feet wide and perhaps a quarter mile long on the beach-front near the western end of the development, it was not long before people found this at-tractive spot and built summer homes for their families. A few stayed to make it their perma-nent homes. The Pennsylvania Railroad had a single-track line running diagonally through the town, crossing Barnegat Bay on a wooden trestle. Trains from Philadelphia connected with the New York and Long Branch

Railroad at Bay Head-Pt. Pleas-ant. A station was located in Ocean Gate just east of Ocean Gate Avenue, and there was also a way station at the eastern end of town… In those days, when the automobile was still a nov-elty and a luxury, the railroads were in their heyday.”

Over the next nine years,

Ocean Gate saw growth by way of the mostly-Philadelphian residents and vacationers, who set up several stores, hotels and boarding houses through-out the town with such names as Hill’s Drug Store, Burnett’s, Angerer’s General Store, How-ard’s Grocery Store and Meat Market, Branson’s, Keisel’s, and Biernbaum’s Palm House Bak-ery, which showed movies in the adjacent Palm Garden from a “primitive projector using a gas mantel.”

By late 1917, the property owners of this resort section of Berkeley Township decided to push for self-governance, and in February 1918 were successful in having the state legislature pass Chapter 152, Laws of 1918 that created the “Incorporated Borough of Ocean Gate.” From there all that was needed was a final vote by residents, and on March 26th a special election was held in Berkeley Township.

“Thirty people voted, with 26 voting in favor and four against,” recalled Mr. Purcaro. “I always tell the joke that we’re trying to find out who those four people were.”

“A lot of people in Berke-ley at the time said, “Why are you doing that? That’s silly,” he continued, “but there was just a sense of community here that wasn’t around the other [areas of the township], because from the duck pond [located at the westernmost end of town] down to what’s now the blinking light [at Narragansett Avenue, the eastern border of the town], it drew its own kind of commu-nity.”

In the following decades, Ocean Gate Borough endured

and enjoyed the pitfalls and the promise of the 20th century, from the “Roaring Twenties” to the Great Depression that fol-lowed; through two world wars, the Korean War, Vietnam War and others that called upon its young men and women to ser-vice; and from the heyday of the railroad to its later demise

at the hands of the automobile and interstate highway system.

This last change held a very elemental shift in the fabric of the borough, as many families felt strong ties to the transpor-tation system that brought them to this corner of the shore.

According to historical re-cord and news accounts of the era, the borough train station, a small yet sturdy hub measur-ing 17 feet wide by 31 feet long that featured tall windows and a low roofline, was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad shortly after the Great Eastern Build-ing Corporation acquired the Ocean Gate tract. Its location was directly east of Ocean Gate

Avenue, standing approximate-ly mid-block between East Lake-wood and East Long Branch av-enues, which the train line cut through east to west. Longtime Mayor Floyd W. Mease recount-ed the importance of the train system to the development of the borough in his 1985 book, “Memories of Bygone Days.”

“Mr. [Charles] Guttentag [president of the Great Eastern Building Corporation and con-sidered the founder of Ocean Gate] was always proud of the fact that of the hundreds of people they brought down from Philadelphia, no one was ever left behind when the train took off at night to return to Phila-delphia. The salesmen showed the people around town and tried their very best to keep them happy, signing up only a few prospects during the day, then on the train ride home the salesmen would go through the train and sign up people to buy lots. Many of our early cottage owners first met on the excur-

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011

OCEAN GATE

Ocean Gate Historical Society, continued from front

cont. on next page

Ocean Gate Community Calendar

Free Karate Classes Free karate classes are of-

fered every Friday from 6 pm to 7 pm in Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue to all borough residents.

~Loin of Pork Dinner

The Civic Club of Ocean Gate will be hosting its an-nual “Loin of Pork” dinner on Saturday, April 9th from 5 pm to 8 pm in Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for children 12 and un-der. Dinner will include loin of pork slices on sauerkraut, garlic-buttered mashed po-tatoes, string beans, apple-sauce, beverage and dessert. For more information, call Terry at 732-269-2019 or Ma-ria at 732-237-9121.

~Council Workshop

Cancelled The Ocean Gate Council

workshop meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 13th has been cancelled.

~Seniors Club Meeting

The next meeting of the Ocean Gate Seniors Club will be on Friday, April 15th at 12:30 pm in Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue.

~Breakfast with Easter

Bunny The Ocean Gate Historical

Society will be hosting its an-nual Breakfast with the Eas-ter Bunny on Sunday, April 17th from 9 am to noon in Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue. Adults are $6 and children 12 and under are $3. Free candy will be available and a bake sale will also be held. For tickets, call Rosemary at 732-269-8899.

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside Signal Bobby Alozo and Lou Purcaro pose beside the museum sign last week.

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011 PAGE 7The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

sion train and became lifelong friends.”

The train system continued to operate for forty years after the initial establishment of the Ocean Gate resort, but a fire in the late 1940s destroyed the bridge linking Ocean Gate to Seaside Park and points north compounded a widespread disinterest in what was then considered an outdated trans-portation system in the boom-ing postwar economy and au-tomobile age, and soon after the trains stopped running at all. The station and rail right of way was officially abandoned in 1952 and borough officials had the structure moved three blocks south to the Arverne Av-enue public works yard to be used as a workshop and storage facility while its former proper-ty was subdivided and sold for the construction of new homes. Today the exact location of the station site is occupied by a tool shed in the southwest backyard corner of 18 East Lakewood Av-enue.

As the years marched on

and original Ocean Gate resi-dents found themselves farther and farther away from the era and transportation system that brought them and their families to the borough, a yearning for a way to preserve in amber that time period grew strong, blos-soming in the 1980s when near-lifelong resident Pearl Green recalled a conversation she had with Mrs. Floyd Mease, in which both women agreed that saving the rail station from the public works yard and restoring it as a borough historical museum was a cause worth fighting for.

In short order, a group of like-minded residents banded together and incorporated the Ocean Gate Historical Society on February 26th, 1988, and by the following summer had 68 members petitioning for the borough to release the sta-tion and dedicate a portion of borough property for its relo-cation and operation as a mu-seum. Borough officials agreed to sell the building for $100 and on September 12th, 1989 unanimously voted to deed the

borough property at the south-west corner of Asbury and East Cape May avenues to the non-profit organization. Society members began fundraising to afford the approximate $5,000 cost of moving the station, and soon had enough to afford the project.

But from there, according to founding member and lifelong resident Al Alonzo, the project stalled.

“They sat on it and sat on it – they okayed it, but they didn’t do nothing,” he said this week. “They didn’t transfer it or any-thing, and then Bill [Jones, the mayor] died.”

Fortune then smiled upon the group when Mr. Alonzo’s brother, Walter “Wally” Alonzo, succeeded Mr. Jones as mayor.

“So brother-brother – we got after him, and then we moved

OCEAN GATE

Historical Society, cont. from prev. page

cont. on page 11

Easter Egg Hunt Ocean Gate’s annual Easter

egg hunt will be held at Adri-an Hall on East Cape May Ave. on Sunday, April 17th promptly at 1 pm. Only bor-ough children up to the 6th grade are eligible for the egg hunt.

~Democratic Club Meeting The Ocean Gate Democratic

Club will hold its next meet-ing on Monday, April 18th at 7:30 pm in Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue. The club is currently seeking new members from the commu-nity and invites anyone inter-ested to attend.

~Council Meeting

The Ocean Gate Coun-cil will hold its next regular meeting on Wednesday, April 20th at 7 pm in borough hall on Ocean Gate Avenue, at which time the public hear-ing of the 2011 municipal budget will be held.

~Republican Club Meeting

The Ocean Gate Republican Club will hold its next meet-ing on Thursday, April 21st at 7:30 pm in Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue.

Beachfront Transitions

ERIK WEBER, the Riverside Signal Two photographs of from the same spot in January 2010 and March 2011 produce very different views of this Riviera Avenue property.

Yoga Ribbon Cutting

ERIK WEBER, the Riverside Signal Ocean Gate Mayor Paul Kennedy was on hand to commemorate the opening of Ocean Gate resident Sharyn Kerins’ new business, Spiritual Journey, on Atlantic City Boulevard in Bayville.

Not a commitment to lend.LO NMLS# 298472, Company NMLS# 1599Licensed by NJ Dept. of Banking & Insurance

Contact Toni Gratzel today!

tgratzel@franklinamerican.com623 Main Street, Toms River, NJ 08753

PAGE 8 The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011

BEACHWOOD – Following a beach bulkheading project denial by representatives from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) earlier last month, of-ficials and borough engineer, Jim Oris, here, will now seek alternate steps to prevent con-tinued erosion on the eastern shore of Beachwood’s bathing beach area.

“We presented a hard struc-ture option for bulkheading that was not an acceptable so-lution for our shore protection project because, in fact, that area has always been part of the beach,” said Mr. Oris during the March 16th borough coun-cil meeting. “The DEP is not interested in us moving forward with the bulkhead project un-less, of course, that is the only alternative.”

Citing the availability of a shore protection specialist from Stevens Institute of Technology that the state has provided to the borough at no cost, he add-ed, “there are other alternatives we are going to explore.”

Other options being con-sidered “include a breakwa-ter which would help dissipate some of the energy that comes from the wave before it hits the beach” as well as a beach re-plenishment project, Mr. Oris continued.

“We’re looking at all options but that seems to be the leading option at this juncture,” he said.

Recently, officials in neigh-boring Pine Beach Borough ap-proved a proposal recommend-ed by Dr. Stewart Farrell of the Stockton Coastal Research Center authorizing an applica-tion for a general permit that will allow the replenishment of that municipality’s Avon Road

Beach in stages over a number of years.

Following Mr. Oris’s report on a possible breakwater at the beachfront, Anchor Avenue res-ident and Shade Tree Commis-sion Chairwoman Robyn Paci-ulli Griffith expressed concerns that such an installation would possibly prevent the natural circulation of water at the site, which could trap pollutants in the bathing beach area for an extended period of time.

In a July 2010 National Re-source Defense Council report, the Beachwood Beach swim-ming area was classified as the “dirtiest” of those tested in New Jersey, with 51 percent of water samples exceeding the

state’s daily maximum bacte-rial levels from the previous year. The results of indepen-dent research conducted by the Barnegat Bay Student Grant Program presented in early Au-gust concurred with the NRDC findings, and pointed to nearby stormwater outfall pipes as the possible main source of pollu-tion following heavy periods of rain.

Shortly after, Mayor Ronald W. Jones, Jr. released a declara-tion that automatically closed Beachwood Beach for three days following any rainfall over one-quarter of an inch, stating that “a health hazard exists in the waters of the Toms River.”

BEACHWOOD - Before the end of this month, area resi-dents and visitors will have the chance to help remove litter from this borough’s beachfront section of the Toms River while taking home some native plants to help clean up their own cor-ner of the Barnegat Bay water-shed.

Volunteers of the Beach-wood Environmental Commis-sion, here, announced earlier this week that for the first time a native plant sale would accom-pany the biannual beach sweep on April 30th at Beachwood Beach.

Co-Chairperson Michelle Dillon reported that she was currently working with Jackson-based Cicconi Farms on the details of which plants would be arriving for the event, and whether a portion of the pro-ceeds would benefit a bor-ough organization, such as the Beachwood Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization.

Chairwoman Jayne Moor-mann reported that Mayor Ronald W. Jones, Jr., who was not present at the meeting due to the unexpected death of friend and former New Jersey 3rd District Congressman John

H. Adler earlier that evening, had previously requested that the commission approach the borough council about whether any firm selling native plants at the beach event would be re-quired to donate a portion of the profit to a borough organi-zation.

Commission members, in-cluding Tom Tashjian, Wendi Higgins and Robert W. Harri-gan, also discussed rain garden information boards that would be present during the event, as well as reaching out to local or-ganizations and groups for vol-unteers and refreshments.

BEACHWOOD

Jakes Branch Park Programs

Recycled Bird Feeder Birds need more than

seeds. Using recycled mate-rials, participants will make different types of bird feed-ers to attract a variety of birds to their yard on Friday, April 8th at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. Bird seed is not in-cluded. Participants are asked to inform parks employees if their child is allergic to pea-nuts. Please register. Cost is $8 per person, ages four years to adult, maximum 12 partici-pants.

Live Animal Talk A live animal talk will be

held on Sunday, April 9th from 1 pm to 1:30 pm for all ages at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. This event is free and no registration is re-quired.

Pet Rocks A family “drop-in” pro-

gram on pet rocks will be held at Jakes Branch Park on Sat-urday, April 9th between noon and 3 pm. No registration is required, all ages. Make a craft, hear a story or take part in a quick experiment when you have the time.

Nature & History: Pest Controllers

Why not let nature take care of those pesky insects? Learn how putting up a bat house or Purple Martin gourd tree can reduce the presence of some of those biting and annoying insects during a Jakes Branch Park Nature and History program on Monday, April 11th from 7 to 9 pm in the nature center. Please reg-ister. Cost is $5 per person, ages 12 years to adult, maxi-mum 25 participants.

Beginner-Friendly Birding Walk

Join park staff on a walk designed to build confidence of the beginning birder on Fri-day, April 15th from 10 am to 11 am beginning at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. Participants will search for the parks feathered residents and springtime visitors. A lim-ited number of binoculars will be available. Please register. Free, ages 12 years to adult, maximum 20 participants.

Frogs by Flashlight Frogs are easily heard but

often difficult to spot. On Fri-day, April 15th from 7 to 8 pm, hike the trails and sandy roads of Jakes Branch explor-ing potholes and puddles in search of the many amphib-ian species native to the Pine-lands. Bring a flashlight. Af-terward, the nature center’s observation tower will be open for nighttime viewing. Please register. Cost is $6 per person, all ages, maximum 25 partici-pants.

Volunteers Prepare Native Plant Sale at April 30th Beach Sweep

Beach Bulkheading Denied; Boro Seeks Possible Breakwater to Halt Erosion By Philipp Schmidt

By Erik Weber

cont. on page 15

Beachwood Community Calendar

Municipal Alliance DanceThe Beachwood Municipal

Alliance will hold its next dance on Friday, April 8th from 7:30 pm to 10 pm in the Beachwood Community Center on Compass Avenue. Open to 5th, 6th, and 7th graders, space is limited, bracelets available for pur-chase beginning at 6:30 pm. Parents must pick up at end of dance at 10 pm. For more info, call 732-286-6000.

~Twisted Fairly Tales

Puppet ShowThe Beachwood Library,

Beachwood Boulevard, will be hosting a Twisted Fairly Tales Puppet Show on Mon-day, April 11th at 3:30 pm. We all think we know the story of Rapunzel and her flowing locks of hair and how Prince Charming woke Sleeping Beauty with a kiss. What if those stories happened just a little bit differently? Our puppet show will offer an al-ternative (or twisted) version of the stories and then you can judge which one you like better. Space is limited to 20, open to ages 3 and up, please register. 732-244-4573.

~Land Use Board

MeetingThe next meeting of the

Beachwood Land Use Board is on Monday, April 11th at 7pm in borough hall on Pinewald Road.

~Teen Mom

Support SeriesA program focused on ad-

dressing the needs of the teen mom will be held on Thursday, April 14th and Thursday, April 21st from 6 pm to 8 pm in the Beach-wood Library, Beachwood Boulevard. The third and fourth series co-sponsored by the Beachwood Municipal Alliance. For more informa-tion or to register, please call Beachwood Branch Manager Nancy Voitko at 732-244-4573 ext. 3308.

cont. on page 14

Beachwood Giants Practice

Erik Weber, the Riverside SignalMembers of the Beachwood Little League team, the Giants, practice at Mayo Park late last month. The season opened last week.

St. Pat’s Dinner

Erik Weber, the Riverside SignalMembers of the Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company take a break from cooking and serving their annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner for a photo.

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011 PAGE 9The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

On February 11th, the Tri-bune printed photos of the dining room and train depot under construction. During this time, Watson and the in-spectors made several trips to Beachwood. Watson recounted this period and the investiga-tor’s findings in his testimony:

“They were extremely cautious in their expression of conclusions they had reached, but I think I know what their conclusions were from some of the remarks they made. For in-stance, on one occasion, when we were out to Beachwood, after they had looked over the water front, which was the gold-brick part of Beachwood, and said it was very pretty and they could not see anything wrong about that, when we got into the wild interior of Beachwood, and one of them turned to me – I think it was McQuillan – and said, “We have stuck a man in jail for less than this.”

Inspector McQuillan him-self recalled visiting Beachwood and coming upon further evi-dence of the Tribune salesmen defrauding investors by holding the most desired lots for higher amounts:

“They advertised they had a yacht club and a club-house and a small hotel, which they did have – it was a small boathouse; they called it a club-house. The part of the grounds

they included was where the yacht club was, and the ground there was not for sale at the ad-vertised price, but held out by the promoters at a price 20 or 30 times higher. The part sold to the public was at the rear of the property. In the early part of the investigation we found that very few lots had been sold [on the waterfront] – to not more than four or five people.”

“What we refer to as the water-front property, they cut down the trees and built streets through there by putting gravel over the top soil there. I do not think there was any curbing or guttering at all. The water-front property was developed in good shape for a summer resort… [and] there was an electric wire from Toms River, which runs through the main boulevard, and electric lights on the. wa-ter-front property—some in-candescent lamps there, [but the area on the opposite side of the rail crossing] was improved merely by cutting down trees—the whole tract is covered with scrub oak—and they had cut this down and had some cheap signs put up, giving the name of the boulevards, etc., only one of which was passable.

“They advertised that the lots were being practically given away as a premium with the paper, to induce new sub-scriptions; that they were being

sold at cost, and in another part of the booklet it said premiums are usually given away at a price away below cost, and that the Tribune was not making any money out of it, and the Tri-bune was spending thousands and thousands of dollars on this property for the purpose of giving their subscribers a high-class premium, and any person purchasing was entitled to and would receive the best available lot at that time, “First come, first served.” We found that practically all the prop-erty except within a half mile, at the most, of the beach, was wild scrub-oak land and sand of practically no value at all. The postmaster at Toms River said it was worth about $6 an acre. It was being sold for $19.60 per lot… [or] three hundred some dollars [an acre]. The tracts be-tween Atlantic City Boulevard and the water they developed. They put a small hotel out there and restaurant, a clubhouse, some small bathing houses, and made a very attractive resort out of that part of it, but, as I before stated, those lots were not given to the ordinary per-son who subscribed to the pa-per. Some of the first subscrib-ers received lots 2 ½ miles away from the water – most of them did… They had, I should say, nine-tenths of the waterfront and several thousand lots in the back… I found that the promot-er had done precisely the same thing in another development which he handled for a Chicago paper. At this development he sold some twenty-six or twenty-seven thousand lots.”

During these excur-sions, Watson had a series of photographs made to support his claims that Beachwood was a scam. These photographs, showing buildings under con-struction, cleared roads, pine forest and the waterfront were accompanied by Watson’s own derisive comments that reflect-ed more opinion than fact. One of these, however, appeared to possibly hit upon some truth in the way the Tribune campaign

BEACHWOODJakes Branch

Park ProgramsNative American Garden:

Corn and Beans Gardening with native

crops provided the Lenape In-dians with most of their food. Corn, beans and squash grow together as “three sisters” and each plant benefits the other. Drop in and plant seeds using traditional gardening tools on Saturday, April 16nd from 12:30 pm to 3 pm at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Cen-ter. No registration required. Free, all ages.

Night of the Stars Spend the night under the

stars and up on the five story observation tower overlook-ing the Pinelands with the Astronomical Society of the Toms River Area (A.S.T.R.A.) on Saturday, April 23rd from 7:45 pm to 9:30 pm at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. If you’re a budding astronomer or stargazer, this night is for you. Volunteer members of the club will be onsite with telescopes to share their out-of-this-world knowl-edge and answer all of your questions about the great un-known. Participants who own their own telescope are invit-ed to bring them along. Club members will be happy to give you pointers on how to find the planets and locate constel-lations. Free, all ages, no reg-istration required.

Registration Information

Unless otherwise stated, all programs require regis-tration along with payment in full at time of registration. Anyone attending a program or trip, without registering in advance, must pay by check or money order (cash is un-acceptable). Participants will only be permitted upon avail-ability.

Registration for programs designated as “FREE” may be placed by calling Cattus Is-land County Park at 732-270-6960 on or after the registra-tion date listed.

Special assistance/accom-modations available upon re-quest.

For program availability or a newsletter please call Jakes Branch County Park, Beach-wood at 732-281-2750.

Building Beachwood: Part IVBy Erik Weber

Photo Courtesy JOAN DISBROW-MORRISThe Beachwood Clubhouse once stood on the bluff above Windy Cove. It burned down in the 1940s and has been used as an auxiliary parking lot by the borough ever since.

cont. on page 16

Shade Tree Commission Meeting

The next meeting of the Beachwood Shade Tree Com-mission will be on Thursday, April 14th at 7 pm in the Beachwood Community Cen-ter on Compass Avenue.

~Summer Camp

Applications AvailableApplications for summer

camp counselors and coun-selors in training are now available at borough hall on Pinewald Road during nor-mal business hours.

~Breakfast with Easter Bunny

The Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company will hold its annual Breakfast with the Easter Bunny on Sunday, April 17th from 8 am to noon at their firehouse on Beach-wood Boulevard.

~Easter Egg Hunt

Beachwood will hold its an-nual Easter egg hunt at Mayo Park on Sunday, April 17th promptly at 1 pm. Anyone with questions are invited to call Councilman Steve Kom-sa at 732-232-7983.

~Diabetes: Are You

at Risk?Did you know that 23.6

million adults and children have diabetes in the United States and that 57 million are pre-diabetic? The Beach-wood Library, Beachwood Boulevard, will be hosting a program on diabetes on Monday, April 18th at 7 pm presented by Jenny Shubert, a Rutgers graduate and in-tern with Sodexo-Allentown, who will soon be a registered dietitian. Please register, 732-244-4573.

~Council Meeting

The next meeting of the Beachwood Council will take place on Wednesday, April 20th at 7 pm in borough hall on Pinewald Road.

~Beach Sweep

The first of the two bian-nual beach sweeps will take place on Saturday, April 30th from 9 am to 12:30 pm at Beachwood Beach. Volun-teers interested in getting the beachfront ready for the 2011 season by clearing it of debris and garbage are encouraged to participate. Please wear appropriate clothing; gloves and rakes a plus! Refresh-ments will be available.

Beachwood Yacht Club Open House

Philipp Schmidt, the Riverside Signal Beachwood Yacht Club members, from left to right: Dave Mooney, Patrick O’Hara, Vice Commodore Neil Brooks, Keith Christopher, & John Isdanavage

PAGE 10 The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011

SOUTH TOMS RIVER

Opening day, continued from front

Boro Mulling Environmental Commission By Philipp Schmidt

South Toms River Community Calendar

STRCC Baseball Opening Day

Opening day for the 2011 season of South Toms River Community Club baseball will take place on Saturday, April 9th at the Recreation Center fields off Drake Lane.

~Council Caucus Meeting

The South Toms River Bor-ough Council will hold its next caucus meeting on Mon-day, April 11th at 7 pm in borough hall on Mill Street.

~PTO Meeting

The final South Toms Riv-er Elementary School PTO meeting for the 2010-11 school year will be held on Wednesday, April 13th at 6:30 pm in the Media Center of South Toms River Elemen-tary School on Dover Road.

~Municipal Alliance Meet-

ing The next South Toms River

Municipal Alliance meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 13th at 7 pm in bor-ough hall on Mill Street.

~Fair Vendors Sought

South Toms River Borough is currently seeking vendors for its May 7th Spring Fair, to be held at Mathis Plaza. In-terested parties may call Bet-ty Silvestri at 732-349-0403.

~Council Meeting

The next regular meeting of the South Toms River Bor-ough Council will be on Mon-day, April 18th at 7 pm in borough hall on Mill Street.

~Land Use Board

Meeting The next meeting of the

South Toms River Land Use Board will be on Tuesday, April 19th at 7 pm in bor-ough hall on Mill Street.

ing. His sister Wendy was in the stands on the third-base side. Gino knew I liked Wendy, and Wendy knew I liked Wendy. I took a big lead, and looked back at my third base coach. Wendy caught my eye. I re-live the hor-rible moment even now. I raised my eyebrows at her, which, especially in the ‘70’s meant you liked a girl, and she smiled. I lost focus…

Youth Baseball has become a more sub-dued experi-ence than it was in 1976. In those days, a kid was ex-pected to ar-gue with the ump and try and rattle the opposing pitcher by insulting him. We were trained to slide hard into the shortstop’s an-kle on a double play ball. The concept of sportsmanship, as it is known today, simply didn’t exist. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that Gino and his sis-ter had set me up to have me picked off, and even by 1970’s standards, that was a low blow.

Over the next few years, my association with baseball diminished in exact reverse proportion to my interest in girls. I continued to play in the sandlots, the way I’d done every summer. In those games, no one kept score, everyone batted, the catcher wore no equipment, and we played until we could no longer see the ball. In Little League, even though I was a perpetual pinch hitter/pinch runner, my wonderful Little

League coach made me man-ager of the team, let me set the line-ups and run the practices, even come out of the dugout to argue with the ump, because I could always devise strategies for winning, and I wanted it so bad.

But more than that, My coach had an innate sense that

the sandlot ex-perience was a kid’s crowning glory, and he, as an adult, should just stay out of our way. Kids were inherently more egalitarian than adults. In a sandlot game, no matter how badly you stank as a ballplayer, they’d let you play shortstop for a couple of

innings, or even pitch. The whole point of playing ball on those long Saturdays was to get away from the adults (and their chores). We would spend hours pretending to be big-league ballplayers- “I call I’m Rusty Staub!”

I also noticed at a tender age that the jock-kids who were such jerks on the field were nicer when their dads weren’t watch-ing. In the sandlot, no one ever rode the bench. No coach’s son got the prime positions. More likely, it was the spastic kid with the good equipment who got to play shortstop, and the kid who owned the baseball who got to pitch first. But sooner or later, if you insisted, you got to play the position you wanted to, and if you messed up, nobody cared.

Over the next three weeks, baseball leagues will hold

opening games all along the River, from South Main Street through Berkeley. I’m told there’s even a baseball league or two in Toms River. This will be my fifteenth year as a coach in South Toms River. I will pay special attention to my favorite kind of players, those gutsy kids who make up for a certain lack of raw baseball instincts with pure, fearless heart, constant hustle, a sense of purpose, and no bad attitude. Seventy-five percent of the time, these most coachable of ballplayers are girls. They will be passed up for consideration for the prime positions, will often be treated patronizingly, ride the bench more than their share, but they will show up to play.

And sometime in July, when the fields are not in use, I might drive down to the recreation area and notice that a crowd of kids is assembled on the field, each pretending to be his fa-vorite ballplayer. The catcher will crouch bravely behind the plate with no equipment. No kid will be wearing a batting helmet. Children, ranging in age from eight to sixteen will be down there having too much fun to notice that I’m spying on them, reminiscing. The batter will call balls and strikes, but never accept ball four. When some coach shows up with an equipment bag and all-Star practice begins, these kids will be chased from the field so that the athletic elite can chase their fathers’ dreams of glory, and so that young athletes can vie for their father’s approval. As a fa-ther and as a coach I say, “Noth-ing wrong with that.” The other kids will move their activities to the parking lot for a game of wall ball.

Opening day is a town’s crowning glory. We suburban Americans have a mania for or-ganizing things. We meet, we fundraise, we vote, we discuss, we buy in bulk, and often we do it “for the kids”. Nowhere have the lessons of civic responsibil-ity been as well-taught as on the baseball field here in South Toms River. Kids regularly contribute to the maintenance, fundraising activities, and even the umpiring and coach-ing. More than being taught to be ballplayers, they are be-ing prepared for a life of self-less community service, a qual-ity that parents here have in abundance. It is this spirit that makes me feel so proud of my town, and is the best lesson one can learn from organized base-ball.

Still, as we adults head into another baseball season, I urge you coaches and parents out there to let the kids “go sand-lot” every once and awhile. Try not to coach, or supervise, or even protect. Take those ball-players off their leashes and let them run free. Who knows? If you behave yourself, they might even let you have a turn at bat.

~Follow-up: When school

started up again that fall, I in-vited Wendy to go ice skating with me. The relationship was doomed from the start. We had a nice time, but I never asked her back out. She denied in-tentionally picking me off, but I couldn’t help it. Every time I looked at her pretty face, all I could hear was the sickening thud of a baseball fired to third, and the feel of the tag against my right hand. All these years later, I couldn’t even bring my-self to friend her on Facebook.

SOUTH TOMS RIVER – Adding to the sprawling “green” movement that has been spreading across munici-palities nationwide, the govern-ing body, here has begun look-ing at establishing a borough environmental commission that would begin looking at any en-vironmental issues within the borough while forming bonds with commissions from sur-rounding river towns and ad-vising the land use board when needed.

“I think every municipal-ity should be environmentally conscious,” said Mayor Joseph Champagne following a tem-porarily halted move towards the formal establishment of the first borough environmen-tal commission. Earlier this

year, the newly-elected mayor rechristened the Municipal Parks Committee as the Envi-ronmental Committee to begin a broader look at issues within the borough.

Mayor Champagne said he hopes that with the initial name change, the borough would be-gin to “be more aware of envi-ronmental issues affecting our town, be it the river or pollu-tion, or to be an advisor to the planning board and to work with the recreation committee.”

He noted that he would like to see the borough’s public spaces become more attractive and environmentally friendly with the widespread planning of trees and cleanup of open areas.

“It starts with a cleanup and

making sure that it is a safe en-vironment,” Mayor Champagne said. “But as with everything, it costs money to do that, but at least we have the objective and the vision for it so we can start planning around that and put some money aside if possible.”

“Unfortunately, not being in a financially sound position where we can invest money here and there in different projects, we cannot afford to have the commission in terms of apply-ing for grants because we have to have matching funds in or-der to apply for certain ones that will support us,” he contin-ued. “That’s the main distinc-tion between an environmen-tal committee and commission – essentially you can fulfill the same function as a committee if

you have the necessary person-nel, however, with a commission you are better recognized and it’s more regulated.”

The mayor wanted to re-iterate that despite the delay in formally authorizing a new borough commission, he has no intention of letting it fall by the wayside.

“We’re not putting this off the table altogether, we’re only delaying it because of the fund-ing issue and also the personnel issue,” he said. “We also need to have the personnel in place and some kind of history estab-lished, some kind of course of performance in dealing with environmental issues in that committee itself that can then rise up to the level of being a commission.”

Frank Domenico Cipriani

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011 PAGE 11The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

it,” Mr. Alonzo said. The station was moved Oc-

tober 17th, 1990, and members immediately set to work clean-ing and restoring it. At the same time, historical items from local borough families began flowing into their collection, and the so-ciety acquired a trailer to house as much as they could and store in their attics whatever was left over.

Less than two years later, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Ocean Gate rail station was ready for its debut as the Ocean County’s 12th historical museum – and first dedicated railroad mu-seum – and to begin accepting the public for the first time in over forty years.

At the dedication ceremony on July 18th, 1992, renowned Ocean County Historian Pau-line S. “Polly” Miller gave a brief history of the land that became Ocean Gate and closed with comments on the station itself:

“This little old railroad sta-tion has seen some happy times over the years as holiday-bound folks crowded its platform, along with some unhappy times when it was used as a storage fa-cility. But now, with its new lo-cation, coat of fresh paint and shining windows, we begin a new era – fresh with new hopes and dreams to save this little two-room railroad station as a focal point to preserve the heri-tage of Ocean Gate.”

In those first few years, membership grew in conjunc-tion with the size of the soci-ety’s collection of local artifacts, and before long members re-alized that space was growing short. When Ms. Green died in the mid-1990s, the society

found that she had anticipated the growing lack of space two months before the museum opened, when in her will signed May 8th, 1992 she bequeathed one of her borough homes, lo-cated at 516 Arverne Avenue, along with the sum of approxi-mately $35,000 to the organiza-tion.

Edward C. Beck, the ambi-tious and energetic president of the Ocean Gate Historical Society through much of the 1990s and early 2000s until his untimely death in November 2006, recalled that Ms. Green wanted the society to renovate and move her home to the open land adjacent the rail sta-tion museum, but that it was not feasible given the cost that would produce. Instead, the so-ciety sold her home for $59,000, combined it with the remainder of her bequeathment and cov-ered the entire cost of a new museum building that was con-structed between September 1996 and May 1997 and dedi-cated as the Pearl Green Mu-seum on June 28th of that year, with approximately 125 people in attendance. The society then sprawled out between the two buildings, allowing for the train station to hold the more hands-on, physical artifacts while the new museum building displayed more of the photographs, docu-ments and historic household objects for researchers and gen-erally interested parties.

The following year, Mr. Beck launched the society’s first newsletter to keep its member-ship “advised about [its] activi-ties throughout the year,” with Louise Squeri as editor and Su-san Brooks as typist.

Three years later, following

an extensive search by Mr. Beck and renowned area railroad historian Al Stokley, the society moved to purchase an original Pennsylvania Railroad caboose for $500 from the Amtrak train graveyard in Metuchen. Coin-cidentally constructed in 1918, the committee formed to ac-quire and restore the rail car ar-ranged to have it moved by flat-bed car to the northwest corner of Asbury and Arverne avenues, adjacent the Pearl Green Mu-seum, in late 2001. There it has stood ever since, allowing area residents and visitors an even more complete look into the re-gion’s past.

Back at the Pearl Green Mu-seum last Sunday, Mr. Purcaro was contemplative about the past but looked forward to the future of the organization.

The Ocean Gate Historical Society, he said, holds many programs throughout the year for its members, from dinners to breakfasts to inviting speak-ers for their meetings. Next month, the society will hold its annual grounds cleanup on May 21st to kick off its open-ing season, after which time the museums and grounds will be open Saturday mornings from 10 am to noon.

“We’re going to have a lot of work, and volunteers are needed absolutely,” Mr. Pur-caro said, noting that interest-ed parties should arrive at the museum grounds by 9 am. “We have inside work as well as out-side work.”

The Ocean Gate Historical Society Museum is located at 800 Asbury Avenue and can be reached by calling (732) 269-8040. Membership dues are $10 per year.

SOUTH TOMS RIVER - OCEAN GATE continued

Holiday City Roast Beef Dinner

Historical Society, continued from page 7

Erik Weber, the Riverside Signal Members of the Manitou Park Fire Company pause for a photo before cooking up their annual roast beef dinner at Holiday City late last month.

Spring has Sprung!

Borough residents enjoying South Toms River Recreation’s Senior Meet and Greet, South Toms River Community Club ballplayers running laps, and area children enjoying the new playground, all at the Recreation Center complex, here.

PAGE 12 The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011

ISLAND HEIGHTS - Prep-arations are underway to give the public its first glimpse of the former home of John F. Peto, an American still-life painter who resided in the Cedar Avenue bungalow, here, from 1890 un-til his death at age 53 in 1907. A “Pie Social” fundraiser for a new museum at the site -- the John F. Peto Studio Museum -- is scheduled for April 17th, followed by an opening gala on May 29th.

Slated for demolition around 2004 or 2005, the Queen Anne structure was saved when a steering committee formed to oversee restoration of the build-ing and grounds.

Designed and built by Mr. Peto in 1890, the 2 ½ story house has significance as a doc-ument of the daily life and work habits of an American artist during the Victorian era.

“In the US, I believe, there are 30 historic artists’ homes and studios -- from palaces to very humble places,” said board member Don Roberts.

The Peto studio and home is “the only one in New Jersey,” added fellow board member Harry Bauer.

Though Mr. Peto has a defi-nite place in the American still-life tradition, his significance is often overlooked.

“No one really understood it, even the historic team. They didn’t get who John Frederick Peto was. Once they really got it there was a commitment for a restoration,” said Mr. Roberts.

In addition, the American still life has often been mar-ginalized. However, it is “start-ing to get attention, and to get collected by museums,” added board member Alice Askoff.

The ArtistThough Mr. Peto painted

portraits and landscapes, he is most known for still lifes in what is known as the “trompe l’oeil” style, which translates roughly as “fooling the eye.” His highly illusionistic oil paintings were meticulous renderings of three-dimensional still life arrange-ments in addition to more shal-low compositions parallel to the picture plane. These latter ar-rangements feature letters, doc-uments and other mementoes fixed to a flat surface -- much

like a bulletin board.The relief paintings for

which Mr. Peto is known are typically placed in two cat-egories: “patch” paintings in which items are usually tacked or nailed to a surface and let-ter-rack or “rack” paintings, explained Mrs. Askoff, adding that that he frequently used string as a structure for dis-plays, which “looked like you could actually pick it up off the painting.”

“The content was always very modest and basic--things that

would be found in the home,” said Mr. Roberts.

“It was a very modest fam-ily. They were poor, which goes back to the things that he painted, which were everyday objects,” added Mr. Bauer.

Though the still life genre is often considered matter-of-fact and banal, it comes from a tradition in which ordinary ob-jects are selected and manipu-lated to tell a story. This makes a spectator’s reading of a Peto somewhat like the act of solving a mystery novel.

For instance, “Toms River Yacht Club,” which was former-ly owned by that organization, includes documents indicative of club affairs and activities: a membership card, dinner ticket and letter along with meaning-ful inscriptions -- commodore, TRYC, dates, etc. -- carved into a wooden wall.

According to Mrs. Askoff, Mr. Peto started doing rack paintings as commissions for businessmen. “They would say, ‘I want something for my office or something to represent me.’”

“One of the articles I read said that he was fascinated with material things, not necessarily wealthy things,” she continued. “He did things of pleasure -- like the wine and the food and the mugs and the pipe. That’s a way of enjoying pleasure in his life.”

In the late forties it was dis-covered that many of Mr. Peto’s paintings were falsely attribut-ed to his slightly older contem-porary, William M. Harnett, a more celebrated still life paint-er who also trained at the Penn-sylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

As Mrs. Askoff explains,

ISLAND HEIGHTS

cont. on page 14

By Lisa ProthersJohn F. Peto House Soon to Make Public Debut

Island Heights Community Calendar

Yoga Classes Yoga classes for residents are

held every Thursday morn-ing from 10 am to 11 am in borough hall at the Wana-maker Complex on East End and Van Sant avenues for a cost of $5 per session. Multi-session rates are available.

~Designing for Dance

The latest in the “Talk of the Town” series will be held on Monday, April 11th at 7 pm and feature Island Heights Ballet director and designer, Angela Whitehill, as she shares her dance se-crets and passions about bringing magic to the stage through costume and design. Maximum 20 people, please register, 732-270-6266.

~Board of Health Meeting

The Island Heights Board of Health will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, April 12th at 9 am in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex on East End and Van Sant av-enues.

~Book Discussion

The Friends of the Island Heights Library will be read-ing Angel of Harlem by Ku-wana Haulsey for discussion on Tuesday, April 12th at 11 am. New members welcome! Please pick up a copy at the circulation desk and join!

~Council Meeting

The next meeting of the Island Heights Council will be on Tuesday, April 12th at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex on East End and Van Sant avenues.

~Wine Tasting Dinner

The Island Heights Culture and Heritage Association will hold a wine tasting dinner fundraiser event on Thurs-day, April 14th from 7 pm to 9 pm in Caffé Italia Ristorante, located at 2414 Route 37 East in Toms River. Reservations are now being taken, cost is $50 per person and a door prize will be awarded during the event. For more informa-tion, please call Chairwoman Kenetta Tomaso at 732-929-2815.

Erik Weber, the Riverside SignalStill Life

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011 PAGE 13The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

ISLAND HEIGHTS – Last weekend, the Ocean County Artists’ Guild held their month-ly reception featuring the work of two area members: Sangita Phadke of Colts Neck and Paul Hansen of Barnegat. The event was held in the guild’s 130-year-old Victorian home at Ocean and Chestnut avenues, here, of-fered a soothing aesthetic that accompanied the breezy and brisk, sun-soaked day outside.

Fruit & Vegetable Series Entering the first gallery,

patrons were met by intensely realistic still life depictions of local produce from Mrs. Phad-ke, often eliciting the not un-common reaction of comparing the subject to a mental image of the real thing.

A self-taught artist, the Chi-cago native recalled working in color pencil as a hobby during her formative years.

“I went to school for finance in the University of Illinois and I wasn’t doing art for a couple years,” she said. “I was working in consulting, and then I basi-cally made a switch into an art career after a brief period, and have been doing it profession-ally ever since.”

Mrs. Phadke said the deci-sion to make the leap was not easy.

“Oh my gosh, it was very scary, it was a huge decision, and basically my mindset was that after a year of doing this if I don’t see a future where I can really make a living off this, that I’m going back to finance,” she recalled. “That was really one of the scariest fears for me: if I really can’t, I’m going to have to go back to something I really don’t enjoy.”

“I was just really happy with how it worked out,” Mrs. Phad-ke added.

Today a leading pastel artist, Mrs. Phadke said that working with color pencil gave her a love of detail that she brings to her contemporary work.

“I just loved the sharper tips but really wanted to work on a bigger scale, because with color pencils it’s really hard to work large,” she said, adding pastel offers a similar medium to achieving the strong detail she desires in her work. “I love working in drawing mediums.”

To achieve the fresh color and appearance present in her fruit and vegetable series, the artist traveled to numerous farm markets.

“That’s kind of where the whole series started, [with] a lot of different areas that sell fruits and vegetables,” she said. “I’m basically making a fruit and

ISLAND HEIGHTS

This Month at the Ocean County Artists’ Guild:

Fruit and Vegetable Series & The Maker’s Mirth

cont. on page 16

By Erik WeberRead a Story, Make a Story Come to the Island Heights

Library, Central Avenue, on Friday, April 15th at 4 pm for stories and the chance to cre-ate your own story by making a comic book. Open to ages 6 and up, space is limited to 20. Please register, 732-270-6266.

~Springtime Fun!

Children ages 5 and up are invited to welcome spring with stories, a fun craft and a special treat to eat at the Island Heights Library on Monday, April 18th at 7 pm. Space limited to 20, please register, 732-270-6266.

~Municipal Alliance

Meeting The Island Heights Mu-

nicipal Alliance Committee will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, April 20th at 3 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex on East End and Van Sant avenues.

~Environmental Committee

Meeting The next meeting of the

Island Heights Environmen-tal Committee will be on Wednesday, April 20th at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex on East End and Van Sant avenues.

~Annual Easter Flower Sale The Island Heights Volun-

teer First Aid Squad will hold their annual Easter flower sale at Lake and Central ave-nues on Thursday, April 21st and Friday, April 22nd from noon to 6 pm, and Saturday, April 23rd from 9 am until sold out.

~Annual Easter Egg Hunt

The Island Heights Recre-ation Committee will hold its annual Easter egg hunt at Memorial Field, corner of Lake and Maple avenues, on Saturday, April 23rd at 10 am. Open to all Island Heights children through 6th grade, the rain date will be on Sunday, April 24th at 1 pm.

Honing Their Craft

Philipp Schmidt, the Riverside SignalMembers of the Ocean County Artist’s Guild practice their craft last week.

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside SignalSangita Phadke poses before three of her still life pieces in her Fruits and Vegetables series.

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside SignalBarnegat-based artist Paul Hansen poses among some of his pieces at the Ocean County Artists’ Guild.

PAGE 14 The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

According to the website for Clean Ocean Action, the non-profit environmental organiza-tion that sponsors the statewide event, Beachwood is one of only two municipalities participating in the beach sweep on the Toms River this year. Ocean Gate is the other.

And in other news of the Beachwood Environmental Commission:

• Ms. Moormann restated the commission’s need for new members and alternates to fill the currently open spots. Inter-ested parties may stop by bor-ough hall on Pinewald Road to fill out a Citizen Leadership Form.

• The commission is cur-

rently working on the instal-lation of two signs at the rain garden that was planted by a borough Eagle Scout late last year at Toms River Intermedi-ate South. The first sign will recognize the scout, and the second will identify the rain garden itself.

• Ms. Moormann reported that she, Ms. Dillon and Ms. Higgins had attended train-ing with the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commis-sions (ANJEC) and that their representatives had told them that “one of the big jobs of the environmental commission in addition to doing the beach sweep is to obtain an ERI - En-vironmental Resource Invento-

ry - that is supposed to be part of the master plan.”

Last year, Borough Engineer Jim Oris reported to the govern-ing body that such a resource, which ANJEC literature states to be “a compilation of text and visual information about the natural resource characteristics and environmental features of an area,” was unnecessary.

Ms. Moormann further stated that she would be pur-suing the governing body to take a second look at the re-source, and also hoped to give a presentation on another state environmental program, Sus-tainable Jersey, which was also unanimously declined by the borough council in 2010.

Mr. Peto’s exhaustive reuse of the same one-of-a-kind objects for compositions helped a re-searcher correct these mistaken attributions.

“[Dr. Alfred] Frankenstein came to Island Heights and walked into the Peto House and saw items, artifacts, that were in the presumed Harnett paint-ings but were actually sitting in Peto’s house and couldn’t have been at Harnett’s house.”

In addition to proving with x-rays that Mr. Harnett’s signa-ture was added later, sometimes over a Peto signature, to paint-ings, Frankenstein recognized stylistic differences between the two artists.

“Peto frequently reused or reworked his canvases, altering both minor and major details, painted with thick and solidly textured pigments, and often left his paintings unsigned, un-dated, and even unfinished,” wrote John Wilmerding in the 1983 catalog for a comprehen-sive National Gallery show.

As Mrs. Askoff clarifies, Harnett paintings had a high-er market value and were sell-ing well in the forties, which encouraged profiteers to doc-tor Peto paintings for resale in New York or Philadelphia. One collector “sold thirty-nine Har-netts in one year.”

After Mr. Peto died of Bright’s disease, his wife, and later their daughter Helen, ran the establishment as a boarding house. Granddaughter Joy Smi-ley operated a bed and break-fast that also commemorated the artist’s work and habits.

Discovering the PastContinuously occupied by

the Peto family, the house estate contains some furniture and many artifacts from the artist’s residency. Delving into boxes packed in 2005 or 2006, board members are combining inven-tory with research. Using his-toric photographs and repro-ductions of the artist’s paintings as an on-site reference library, they are separating Mr. Peto’s

possessions from those of the last occupants, granddaughter Joy Peto Smiley (d. 2002) and her companion Ernie Dean.

“Peto became a recluse, painting over and over again the same artifacts that were here, are still here. That’s ex-citing for us because we can show that there were, for in-stance, over there, the little jar, the candlestick, we might still have that. We would be show-ing it next to the art,” said Mrs. Askoff.

Each week, board members uncover artifacts Peto painted. A bed warmer, spinning wheel, antlers and horseshoe are among recent discoveries.

“Part of the fascination that I have with [this process] is the discovery of objects,” said Mr. Bauer.“There are objects that when there’s a photograph are always around him -- like the sewing table and mirror.”

“I think these guys are trying to get back to the bare bones of Peto’s style,” added Mrs. Askoff.

The board plans to decorate much of the interior to resem-ble the house’s appearance dur-ing Mr. Peto’s residency.

The artifacts will be posi-tioned in three ground-level rooms, including a moderate-sized family-room used as a stu-dio, and one upstairs bedroom decorated to show the décor of the time. Other second-floor rooms will provide office or gal-lery space.

“In the restoration there was a lot of subtraction,” said Mr. Roberts. Some new additions added after Mr. Peto’s lifetime were removed, though a “new wing,” consisting of a kitchen and small apartment, remain.

Restoration involved a number of professional teams: Historic Building Architects, Trenton, for architecture and conservation; general contrac-tor Robert Frizell Builders, Bamber Lake; site planning and engineering by East Coast Engineering, Toms River; land-scape architect Barretto/Dowd

Landscape Architecture; and historic research by Zakalak As-sociates, Red Bank.

Architect Michael Calafati of Historic Building Architects was awarded a 2010 Historic Preservation Award from New Jersey “for his attention to de-tail,” according to the board.

Upcoming EventsA Pie Social fundraiser will

take place at the museum on April 17th from 1 pm to 4 pm. Tasting tickets are $5 for se-niors and children and $10 for adults. Bicyclists can also meet at the Peto house at 1 pm for an 8 to 10 mile ride and garden tour through Island Heights.

An opening gala will be held on May 29th from 5 pm to 9 pm.

The John F. Peto Studio Mu-seum is located at 102 Cedar Avenue.

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011

Business / Service Directory

Peto House, continued from page 12

Native Plant Sale, continued from page 8Antiques, continued from page 3

Special Needs Housing, continued from page 2

ing a piece of Chinese por-celain, a RCA Victor Nipper made of papier-mache , an oil painting, a Weller vase, a Ma-dame Alexander doll, a child’s tea set, toys, mens wristwatches, a pair of silver candlesticks, a dresser set and jewelry. She said that sales weren’t as good as in previous years because “it’s the economy and people are skit-tish.”

Chairperson Antiques of Baltimore, Maryland was sell-ing Chinese export porcelain, French and German porcelain, Nippon, and jade and noted that “2008 and 2009 were tough, but business was improv-ing marginally at the beginning of this year.” They also had a German “Jasper” tobacco jar

priced at $375, a Chinese blue and white lotus bowl marked $375, and a Japanese Kutani ewer, pre-1900, with a dragon handle and spout, for $225. A stunning Chinese export Rose Medallion punch bowl, 12 inch-es in diameter and made for the Boston market was marked $4,250. The Chinese, they said, are “buying back their heritage” which is good for business.

The Spring Antiques at the Morristown Armory Show will be held in Morristown on April 30th and May 1st with over 150 exhibitors. For additional in-formation, please contact www.jmkshows.com or call (973 )927-2794.

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011 PAGE 15The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

Continued From & Letters to the Editor

Published by

Riverside Signal, LLCP.O. Box 93Beachwood, N.J. 08722

Erik J. WeberPublisher & Editor

publisher@riversidesignal.com

Lisa ProthersToms River Beat Reporterlisa@riversidesignal.com

Jeri MorrisCalendars & Blotters

jeri@riversidesignal.com

Advertising732.701.SELL

News Room732.903.TIPS

Wendy KonarAccounting

accounting@riversidesignal.com

Advertisingads@riversidesignal.com

Events Listingsevents@riversidesignal.com

Letters & Submissionseditorials@riversidesignal.com

Subscriptionssubscriptions@riversidesignal.com

Photograph and Motion Picture photos@riversidesignal.com

Sally DracikiewiczDesign

sally@riversidesignal.com

Steven J. BaeliHeritage Writer & Research Associate

steve@riversidesignal.com

Frank Domenico CiprianiColumnist

frank@riversidesignal.com

Philipp SchmidtAssociate Publisher & Salesphil@riversidesignal.com

Beach Bulkheading Denied, cont. from page 8

“The feeling is that a lot of the polluted water isn’t re-ally coming from here,” replied Council President Ron Roma during the March 16th meet-ing, adding that it appeared to be coming from South Toms River and Berkeley and settling off Beachwood Beach.

“A breakwater will not have any impact on flow with respect to normal currents,” said Mr. Oris. “It’s actually not attached to the river bottom, it’s really just for the surface wave action and will not impede any water flow in terms of circulation or current flow.”

And in other news of the borough council:

• Mr. Komsa, acting on behalf of the borough recre-ation commission, of which he is council liaison, presented the awards to the borough’s annual snowman contest. First place was awarded to the Patton fam-ily, who created a three-mem-ber snowman family dressed in summer outfits “piloting” a canoe in their yard; second place went to the Cypher fam-ily, who created a traditional snowman with the added touch of shortened pine tree branches for eyebrows and pipe material; third place was taken by Meli-na Sobieski, who built a clown snowman complete with a rain-bow wig, funny glasses, polka dot bowtie and large red boots; and fourth place was awarded to Connor and Cameron Ricca-rdi, who created a “Snowman at the movies” that appeared simi-lar to renown film critic Gene Shalit.

• The borough council unanimously approved a reso-

lution that reduced the contract price of the water main exten-sion project on Locker Street with DSC Construction by $13,061.85.

• A contract for the re-placement of Beachwood Water Department’s well number five was awarded by unanimous vote to Sambol Construction Corpo-ration for the low bid amount of $394,175.

• Replying to comments made by Anchor Avenue resi-dent David Lipton protesting the 18 percent interest rate on delinquent tax bills over $1,500 during the March 2nd council meeting, Councilman Gerald W. LaCrosse reported a bill had been introduced to the state as-sembly that proposed lowering the interest rate to 12 percent but that the New Jersey League of Municipalities was opposed to the change.

Later, during the public comment portion of the meet-ing, Mr. Lipton spoke out against that organization.

“The League of Municipali-ties is a trade association-slash-lobbying organization,” he said, adding that it is given annual membership dues paid for by municipal taxpayers. “You take my tax dollars and pay dues to the League of Municipalities that takes positions against us, that’s insane of course.”

The Anchor Avenue resi-dent noted that employees of the league, which is not a gov-ernmental agency, are entitled to publicly funded benefits as pensions and health insurance previously granted by state law-makers.

A November 2009 article by

the North Jersey Media Group entitled “Non-government em-ployees cash in on taxpayer-funded pensions,” confirmed this and noted that, at the time, “taxpayers are giving $1.3 mil-lion a year to 62 retirees of three Trenton organizations: the League of Municipalities, the School Boards Association and the Association of Coun-ties, records show.”

“I don’t want my tax dollars spent to go to them,” Mr. Lip-ton said.

• Mr. Komsa reminded residents that the annual bor-ough Easter egg hunt would take place Sunday, April 17th at Mayo Park beginning promptly at 1 pm.

• Mr. Roma stated that Beachwood Municipal Alli-ance dances would return on Friday, April 8th following a single month absence while the Beachwood Community Cen-ter had its annual cleaning and renovation work completed.

• The borough council ap-proved a resolution permitting the Garden State Chapter of the Studebaker Drivers Club to hold its annual car show at Beachwood Beach on Sunday, September 18th.

• Elm Street resident and former councilwoman, Bonnie Verga, approached the borough council with a request that they authorize immediate paving improvements to Mizzen Av-enue between Bowline and Ma-ple streets, which are currently in poor condition.

Mr. Oris confirmed that that particular length of roadway was scheduled for drainage re-pair and repaving in the near

future. “Just this one area drives me

crazy,” she replied. “Please fix it this year.”

• Councilman Gerald W. LaCrosse protested a bill submitted by the New Jersey League of Municipalities for $35 for a luncheon attended by Mayor Jones, stating that bor-ough taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for the food.

Mayor Jones replied that he attends state-level meet-ings “as a representative of the borough,” and that he does not submit reimbursements for oth-er costs incurred on the trips.

“It gives the mayor the op-portunity to network with other mayors and state officials for the benefit of Beachwood, but if you don’t want to pay for it, don’t pay for it,” he continued. “I’m still going to attend these things. I’m an advocate for Beachwood and that’s all there is to it.”

The mayor further struck back at Mr. LaCrosse for utiliz-ing the medical benefits avail-able to council members, which he stated cost $18,000 per year. Mr. LaCrosse stated that he had given Mayor Jones the option to withdraw the request for the $35 but as he did not do so the bill payment was voted upon and defeated, with council-men Gregory Feeney and Steve Komsa voting to approve the payment, Mr. LaCrosse voting against the payment, and Mr. Roma and Councilman Edward Zakar voting against it specifi-cally because it had not been put in as a request prior to the conference.

PAGE 16 The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

Ocean County Artists’ Guild, continued from page 13vegetable painting for every state that showcases their local produce.”

New Jersey’s piece, titled Jer-sey Fresh Apples, shows seven ripe apples clustered in a hex-agonal setup glistening under a strong overhead light source.

“I really love a lot of the Dutch art, probably because a lot of it is very realistic and it’s very dramatic,” Mrs. Phadke said. “There’s a lot of bold light-ing, colors and things like that – I really love the old masters.”

Noting that she also does portraits and landscapes, the Colts Neck-based artist said her work was currently being repre-sented by a gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she believes there is “a lot of interest in fresh fruits and vegetables.”

Later this month Mrs. Phad-ke will be on hand at the Guild to teach a sold out class on pas-tels.

“What we do is focus a lot on value studies, because for

me that’s really how to get the composition to look as real as you can,” she said. “If you un-derstand values, we’ll talk a lot about the materials. I always feel that if you know the materi-als well, it really makes a differ-ence in your art.”

“I think that one of the coolest things is if you really have a passion for it, you really work hard and really learn the industry – whether it’s art or anything else – it’s so worth it,” Mrs. Phadke added. “For me, I always tell people that it doesn’t even feel like a job. I’m doing what I love, and what can really be better than that?”

Mrs. Phadke’s website can be found at www.sangitaphadke.com

The Maker’s Mirth Passing through the center

of the house and into the bright, wide open back annex, patrons had the opportunity to drink in Mr. Hansen’s larger-scale work, which featured prominently

the wood finishing and paint-ing skills he’s spent over twenty years perfecting, often utilizing the trompe l’oeil style.

“I grew up loving art,” he said, pointing out a bio sheet that said he and his brother, Steven “spent countless hours trying to emulate artists like Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Don Martin, and artists from Mar-vel and D.C. Comics,” with Paul also being “heavily influenced by album cover artists, such as H.R. Giger, Stanley Mouse and Rick Griffen.”

“I took a half semester at a state college 26 years ago, but went into the house painting trade and learned marbleizing, wood grain and decorative fin-ishes,” Mr. Hansen continued. “About 11 years ago I decided to incorporate that knowledge to painting, and I’ve done about 76 paintings in [those] years.”

The choice of frame plays heavily in the Barnegat artist’s work, and he gave a tour of his

pieces, pointing out the vari-ous choices as painted frame on canvas, antique frames, a cus-tom walnut and maple frame and one made of medium den-sity fibreboard (MDF).

“It’s a really mixed bag,” he said. “I explain what’s what be-cause people think the canvas is real wood, and so I kinda have to show them which one’s paint-ed. Some people can tell which is the real wood.”

According to his biography, Mr. Hansen “feels that art al-ready exists before it is created, that it’s a matter of channel-ing it, becoming a conduit of a collective spirit, tapping into something primal and inher-ent,” and adds that he is “in-fluenced by art from many cul-tures: Native American, Celtic, Aztec, and African as well as prehistoric cave paintings. Each piece of art is meant to evoke a deep sense of emotion in the viewer.”

“I guess the biggest influ-

ence would be the abstract ex-pressionists,” Mr. Hansen com-mented.

The biography added that he “believes this connection to his artwork proves the spiri-tual axiom true: that we are all somehow connected.”

“I would say that having a consistent body of work is prob-ably the most gratifying thing,” said the Barnegat-based artist. “Each one, when it’s finished, it’s a sense of accomplishment, but that doesn’t last, and then it’s on and you feel a need to [create again].”

He offered encouragement to burgeoning artists trying to find the time to practice their craft.

“If you want to be serious about art, you have to approach it like it’s a job,” Mr. Hansen said. “You have to make time for it and you have to do it – there’s just no other way to say it.”

Visit Mr. Hansen’s website at www.paulhansenart.com

was being run: “Next I show you a photo-

graph of the Atlantic City Bou-levard which cuts through the short length of this property. That was not built by the Tri-bune, but was built by the State of New Jersey, and I would like to see somebody that bought lots from the Tribune facing that boulevard, on either side of it. I found none on the record.”

Further, Watson used an official state publication to sup-port his condemnation of the entire Tribune land promotion:

“This whole section is thoroughly notorious for its real estate scandals; so much so that in an official publication gotten out by the State of New Jersey, and reading, “New Jer-sey State Board of Agriculture; farmlands in New Jersey, their natural characteristics and adaptability to the various farm crops; Trenton, N.J., 1913,” the State of New Jersey went to the extent of saying:

“It may not be amiss to warn intending purchasers against land gamblers, who oc-casionally advertise “city lots for sale” in “the pines” at prices out of all proportion to the value of the land. For their own pro-tection, prospective buyers had better consult established and reliable authorities for informa-tion, and visit the land before purchasing.”

“This is very decent warning on the part of the State of New Jersey, because there are so many of these developments where you see the stakes in the ground to describe what were to have been streets, and you see trees growing up in the “streets”

of deserted cities, where people have lost their money.”

Progress at the resort contin-ued. At the end of February, an article was printed in the New York Tribune titled, “Building Plans at Beachwood.”

“During the Washington’s Birthday holidays several hun-dred holders of Beachwood lots made the trip to the resort to look over their properties and to see the improvements which are being made. The formal opening of the new tract… is set for Memorial Day. Already the finishing touches are be-ing put on the new hotel and other community buildings… Already forty miles [of the over-all eighty] have been laid out. The buildings now rising or completed are a hotel, a yacht club and pier, a depot and three rows of bathhouses… With these [first buildings] as a nucleus, it is expected that the spring and summer will see marked activ-ity in building construction.”

Less than three months to opening weekend, a March 2nd Tribune article revealed the or-igin of the resort’s name:

“The entire beach is re-served for the common use of all residents of Beachwood, and here excellent boating and bathing facilities are to be had. The trees which cover the land grow down to the very edge of the beach, affording that un-usual combination of beach and wood which gives the new town its name.”

It was also around this time that the Tribune began to sta-tion a representative to greet potential investors and lot own-ers as they made their way down

from New York to see Beach-wood for themselves.

An April 9th edition of the New Jersey Courier captured the spirit of the period as well as an accurate look into the fu-ture of the area under the head-line, “Growing Resort Section in Ocean County”. The issue overall was devoted to the up-coming summer resort season, but this opening article in par-ticular seemed more interested in the growth of the county as a whole in the future years of the Twentieth Century.

““The Courier,” with this issue, makes another boost for Toms River and its vicinity. Whether we know it or not, we have one of the finest locations to be found anywhere. Our cli-mate is equal to any. There is no pleasanter place in summer or in winter on the Atlantic seaboard. The seashore gives us cool breezes in summer and mitigates the cold in winter.

“Nature has done much for this location. It has given us ocean and bay and river; beach and pineland hills; fresh air and sunshine are ours for the taking; the sea and pines make over the air in nature’s great laboratory for our benefit; gar-den truck and fruit grow here anywhere for anybody; fish and shellfish teem in our bays and ocean – we have all the requi-sites for health, and for plea-sure.

“And yearly other folks are finding it out. More and more they come! Every year, nearly, sees some new development in this region – some new attempt on the part of city dwellers to get out into air and sunshine and

enjoy life in the open. These various developments will all grow – some faster and some slower, but each one brings people to this section. Eventu-ally they will build it all up – all the beaches; all the bay shore – into one continuous community – just as Atlantic City and Pleas-antville have covered the shore section on the back of Absecon Island.

“Each of these developments adds to the importance of Toms River village as a centre. You can call the roll and hear them respond. Begin with Toms Riv-er’s elder children:

Seaside Park,Lavallette,Island Heights,Then you can come down to

later years:Ocean Gate,Pine Beach,Seaside Heights,Money Island,Beachwood.The last-named, the baby

of the bunch, but apparently a lusty and vigorous child. But these will not be all. There will be others. These will all grow, because they have what city dwellers want and must have. If the cities grow, the number of city folks who must get out into the country o’ summers must grow, too. Thus the demand for summer homes on a modest scale, such as are found here, and as are growing in numbers almost daily, must grow also.

“This section is well-located. As the beaches nearer New York fill up, the people must come down this way. It is nearer Phil-adelphia either by rail or auto than any other waterfront sec-

tion on the Jersey coast. These facts are worth remembering [as] time is not far distant when the whole water frontage of Ocean County will be taken up for summer homes.”

Later in the same issue, up-dates were given on the prog-ress of Nickerson and his crew:

“Construction work has also been begun on the water sys-tem, which will take care of the needs of the various club build-ings, and it is very evident that early spring will see this work, as well as all the community buildings, finished.

“Architecturally all the com-munity buildings show the in-fluence of the latest Southern California bungalow designs, an effect which has made that style of architecture admired and copied all over the country. All the buildings are built with extended eaves, following the old mission idea, and are most attractive in appearance.

“The Community Plan, un-der which it is said Beachwood will be operated, should insure it a great future, for, instead of allowing a few people to ac-quire the waterfront, the entire waterfront and beach can be used by any lot owner. The club house is also built for the free use of the owners of the proper-ty, and those who have acquired cottage sites not only get their lots but they get a club house, the membership in a yacht club, a bathing beach, and they also get the best of all health re-storers, good Barnegat Bay air mixed with the balm of the pine trees.”

Apr. 8th - Apr. 21st, 2011

continued...

Building Beachwood, continued from page 9