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SEA BRIGHT: REBUILDING BONDS UPHELD

sb parking 081916 7By a 2-to-1 margin, Sea Bright voters endorsed the plan to erect two new buildings to house all public operations on the fringes of the municipal beach. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

HOT-TOPIC_03Sea Bright voters gave landslide approval Tuesday to a plan to rebuild every public structure wiped out by Sandy.

In a special election on a trio of bonding actions taken by the borough council in June, voters by a 2-1 margin backed the plan, which would put two sizable new structures with a combined price tag of $12.73 million at the edge of the municipal beach.

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SEA BRIGHT: PIVOTAL VOTE ON FACILITIES

BOROUGH of SEA BRIGHT Library + Beach PavilionHOT-TOPIC_03Sea Bright voters go to the polls Tuesday for a special election on a series of bonding actions taken by the borough council in June.

At issue: whether to take on $5.3 million in debt to replace  every public structure wiped out by Hurricane Sandy.

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SEA BRIGHT: POST-SANDY REBUILD DEBATED

sb boro hall 082316Crammed in beside desks in a gym repurposed as offices since Hurricane Sandy, dozens of residents attended the meeting. Below, the proposed police, fire and first aid building would include borough offices on the second floor. (Photo by John T. Ward. Rendering by Settembrino Architects. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

BOROUGH of SEA BRIGHT Municipal EMS BuildingWith millions of federal dollars possibly at stake, Sea Bright voters debated Tuesday whether to take on the financial burden of rebuilding all of the town’s public facilities wiped out by Hurricane Sandy.

With a pivotal referendum scheduled for September 27, dozens of residents crowded into a gym that’s been co-opted for borough offices since the 2012 storm, largely in agreement that new facilities are needed, but split on costs.

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SEA BRIGHT: TOWN HALL ON REFERENDUM

sb parking 081916 3BOROUGH of SEA BRIGHT Library + Beach PavilionSea Bright residents are scheduled to gather for a town hall meeting Tuesday night to discuss a referendum on whether to bond for new public facilities to replace those destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in October, 2012.

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SEA BRIGHT ISSUES: LIBRARY, REDEVELOPMENT

sb council 011614Engineer Jackie Flor of T&M Associates discusses the impact on a parking lot paving project necessitated by the demolition of the Sea Bright Public Library. The dormant borough school building, below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

sb school 011614Overlapping concerns about beachfront development, the future of the crumbling former school and the demolition of the public library dominated an issue-heavy meeting of the Sea Bright council Thursday morning.

Mayor Dina Long, who had opposed tearing down the library until a proposed combination library and bathing pavilion could be built, defended Saturday’s hasty demolition, but acknowledged that “perhaps it could have been handled in a different manner.”

“it was certainly no secret that that building was going to be abandoned after the last council meeting,” on December 17, she said at a crowded council workshop session. “But my concern going forward is that members of our own community felt there was a lack of transparency” about the timing of the action, which gave rise to conspiracy theories that are now “driving a wedge between” elected officials and residents, she said.

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FIREMEN’S FAIR: SKYLINE VIEW INCLUDED

sb-fairThe rides and games are staged and ready for the Sea Bright Firemens’ Fair. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

The Sea Bright Firemen’s Fair, if you haven’t been, is pretty much like any other you’d find in the area. Funnel cakes, games of chance, live music are all on tap.

But what sets this seaside celebration apart from most is one killer view.

“We’ve got a huge Ferris wheel and you can look right out into Manhattan,” said Kathy Morris, the borough’s recreation director.

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COMING SOON: SEA BRIGHT POOL CLUB PLANS

p-house1Plans are moving forward to develop the site that once was the Peninsula House. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

There’s a reason Read Murphy went from former councilman back to councilman in 2008: pool club. Now, with a year left on his term, the Republican is putting his personal guarantee on a campaign promise that, until this point, has been little more than talk.

For nearly a decade, local government has struggled to find ways to generate revenue along the beachfront — ideas that included buying Donovan’s Reef to developing a beach club and building a boardwalk. But always on the table for discussion, and often, for planning, was developing a public pool and building a cell phone tower. Now Murphy is making a bold claim for Sea Bright’s future.

The cell tower, public pool and, possibly, a restaurant, “will be operating in 2012,” he said.

“This is going,” Murphy said.

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SEA BRIGHT: FIREWORKS MOVE ADDS PARKING

sb-fireworks1Sea Bright’s fireworks show is switching launch points this year, freeing up parking spaces for visitors. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Sea Bright will put on its traditional Independence Day fireworks display this weekend, but a change in where the sparklers will be launched should make for less hair-pulling at the wheel for visitors coming into town.

Normally fired from the beach at the site of the long-gone Peninsula House hotel, the fireworks will instead take flight from the Anchorage Club beach, a state-owned property just north of the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge. The move was forced by beach erosion at the Peninsula House beach caused by a series of hard-hitting storms earlier this year, Mayor Maria Fernandes said.

The erosion makes shooting the fireworks from the customary location more dangerous because it would put the launch area too close to spectators, Fernandes said.

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