Skip to content

Monthly Archives: August 2014

The Week

A “Beer Hall”?

I noticed this in today’s Wall Street Journal story, “Rebuilt Jersey Shore Sees Summer Rebound”.  Subscribers can see it here.  The rest of you will just have to believe me. In many places, life seemed back to normal. In Belmar, only about a dozen families haven’t returned home, said Mayor Matt Doherty. A new beer […]

Maser Consulting Political Contributions, 2013

Even if none of this went to Belmar, these guys are out there spending a ton of money doing favors for politicians.  Do you really think it’s a good idea to have as our borough engineering firm a company that engages in the activity we see below?   If they were just out there giving […]

VS Borough Of Belmar

  Case Title DEROUVILLE VS BOROUGH OF BELMAR County Monmouth Case Type CONTRACT-OTHER Docket # L-005044-13 Year Filed 2013 Date Filed 2013-12-12 First Answer Date 01/30/14 Last Proceeding Date 04/21/14 Proceeding Type CSE MNG CF Date Disposed Disposition Type Stay Indication De Rouville signed a $100,000 and then a second $165,000 contract to grind up […]

Pringle: Maybe In The Godfather, But Not Here!

  This thing of ours is featured in the widely read PolitickerNJ:   Belmar mayor’s race: a wave of post-Sandy project politics stirs up seaside Monmouth borough . ……………..Doherty was also irked that Pringle mentioned his wife, Maggie Moran, in the letter, noting her former role as an employee of Laborers International Union of North […]

Restriction Could Have Suppressed Bidding

In today’s Coast Star story, Mayor Doherty dismisses claims by Councilman Bean and former mayor Pringle that the provision in our bidding laws that requires bidders to participate in a state approved union apprenticeship program or pay journeyman’s wages was a factor in the 70% drop in the number of bidders on the second set of pavilion […]

What Does That have To Do With It?

The mayor’s defense, published in today’s Coast Star, of the requirement that contractors participate in a union apprenticeship program or pay “journeyman’s” wages, which are higher than the required “prevailing” wages: The language modification came about, according to Mayor Doherty, after a contractor turned in payroll records that did not match those kept by the borough. […]

Cheap Money Causes Bad Investments

Adherents of the Austrian school of economic thought, such as myself, have been saying for some time that we’re in a stock market bubble and that when it pops there will be a lot of pain.  Now some in the mainstream are starting to say the same thing, even on CNBC: I don’t know if […]

Bean/Seebeck Media Release

I guess they consider me to be part of the media:   BELMAR RESIDENTS VOTED AND NOW WANT ACTION   Last week the voters of Belmar soundly defeated a plan to borrow 7 million dollars to fund construction of a public safety pavilion at 10th Ave and a new Taylor pavilion at 5th Ave. It’s […]

“Where’s That Confounded Bridge?”

The view from 5th Ave, Before: Notice that you can see if the drawbridge is open from pretty far back, plenty of time to safely move to the left lane and take Main St. to 8th Ave and Rt 35 instead of waiting for the bridge to close. Now: By the time you can see […]