Merri-Makers “pre-reserves”
nearly every Saturday
in May, June, September
and October of 2018!
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Taylor event calendar. Click to open.
Note: At first I didn’t find this in the hundreds of pages of applications that were OPRAed and I published a piece saying that I didn’t find anything wrong. I spoke too soon and I apologize. The post was up for about an hour but I pulled it down in light of this discovery.
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Flashback!
47 Comments
I don’t see the required deposits mentioned?
Repeatedly seeing same names, Hmmmm.
Hello,
First, as a resident of Belmar for 15 years, besides living by the beautiful sea, I love reading this site. Somewhere between what is written here and what comes out of the boro, lies the truth. As an independent thinker I love having the option to learn both sides. It keeps me balanced. So, thank you for your post.
I’m one of the many citizens in Belmar who wanted our beloved Pavilion back as the community center I remembered and enjoyed with friends and family. The new facility is beautiful, but it lacks the warmth and charm found within the old walls and wood floors of the pre-sandy structure.
That being said, I was able to book the new pavilion on Sunday, October 7, 2018 for my parents 60th Wedding Anniversary. They are still very much in love. They had their first date in Belmar over 60 years ago. I have pictures of them as a couple at the old Pavilion and my gorgeous Mother sitting on 5th Avenue beach with my Father.
I felt lucky to get that date (lucky 7) knowing Merri-Makers was booking this venue a year in advance. What?
It’s like I blinked and everything changed.
Sometimes I ride through town and hardly recognize this new Belmar. I may sound like an old “Bruce” song but, I miss a lot of the small shops and hometown goodness that are gone and replaced with bars and towering buildings. It’s as if we lost our footprint. I realize you can’t stop progress, but I wish the mayor and council would listen to the citizens of Belmar and help unite us as a community and work together while we move forward.
Is that too much wishful thinking?
I have a 2018 campaign slogan…
“Make Belmar Great Again!”
This all stinks and needs to stop now. Any persons or organizations should not be able to rent the pavilion during prime days and hours more than once per year. I would quickly define prime days and hours as any Friday, Saturday, or Sunday between 2pm to 11pm, leaving the mornings still available for regular Belmar groups to book multiple events.
So far half the Yelp review is true where Merri-Makers did attempt to book up all the prime wedding dates for 2018. Did the sited Merri-Makers application get approved?
They are on the calendar
Thanks #6 for clarifying that the application for Merri-Makers booking multiple dates has been approved. Now my question is that if this wasn’t some form of collusion, wouldn’t the person approving the dates not first raise some questions with the borough council prior to approving? Wouldn’t a reasonable person who represents the taxpayers and residents of Belmar not think that these types of booking were not worthy of some form of public discussion and rules making? This all stinks from head to tail.
So any catering business can go down to bororugh hall and just book up multiple dates for OUR pavilion? Now this sounds like a inexpensive way to get into the catering business. Watch for the multiple bookings to start to add up.
Run down to town hall today and book up all possible prime dates. Then hold Merri hostage and name your price for the day.
Hope it Rains on any one of those days Merri-Makers booked up
Aww, I don’t want anyone’s wedding to be rained on.
A non refundable deposit needs to be required to reserve a date on the calendar.
Privatization of public assets …. please repeat what happened to Jon Corzine when he tried to privatize the Garden State Parkway.
vote them out!
I thought as a Belmar resident you had priority booking. If I wanted to have an event on a date that’s TBD by MM, shouldn’t they get bumped?
There is something so wrong about all of this. Will any council member speak out and support us residents?
This needs to be addressed by the council president quickly. This is unfair, no more bookings should be taken from them until a proper system and rules are in place.
Taylor is a precious town resource, and should be available to all Belmar families.
Catering companies from near and far will want to play this ghost booking game.
Only the people having the event should be able to book the room, not their vendors.No more than 1 year in advance an the process should be open and fair.
Merrimakers only rented a concession space in the north wing of the building, I was their for the walk through for bidders. Monopolizing the weekend high season dates is outrageous.
Bill McKim
Bill, we all know that you have a successful, wide and far flung media following. Please post this blog as a PSA for Belmar residents and for those that actually love the old NJ shore and all of its gifts and Majesty.
16 – One event per year per person and maybe, if the demand grows to high, a lottery for dates 1 year in advance. With a lottery there would need to be some third party to fairly conduct that function. This is all a product of collusion to fix bids for MerriMakers and also another not so well planned out town boondoggle.
Notice how they MM didn’t book July and August. Nice of them huh? Leave the hottest and most crowed months to the peons who live there. This whole situation is unbelievable!
Hi Suzanne (#3)- can you please share with the readers one instance where what was posted on this site wasn’t true ? The way I see it is that the truth lies on this site and the borough (i.e. Matt) will tell you nothing but lies.
#20. You could be absolutely right. But, it’s all subjective and I prefer not to be the judge. Somehow the truth always surfaces and these people who represent us have to live with themselves. One test will be after August 18th which is the last day of Summer Camp. Let’s see if the so called SC fence comes down in the back of the pavilion or, will it remain part of MM’s venue…the clock is ticking.
Ugh, just horrible. No one business should be allowed to monopolize the pavilion. We want events there for the public.
The council must end Merri makers over use of pavilion.
And all the weddings will cause traffic chaos on Ocean ave.
They didn’t book July and August due to the parking issue
Also too hot to wear tux or wedding dress outside.
With the proper insurance and booze being able to be served, what is to stop someone from figuring out how to circumvent the ill thought out policies and start promoting club parties at Taylor?
How did we all let this happen? Oh yeah, November 2, 2010. UGH!
Something everyone needs to remember here-this isn’t political issue whatsoever. This is the entire Belmar community being duped by a self serving ass. How much more of this crap can go on ?! No council member will question any of this so it’s absolutely time to clean house. Vote them out one by one. All must go.
You get what you paid (voted) for. Belmar does not need Merri-Fakers.
In all those bookings is there a single one that’s at all beach-related and would have justified having the beach goers pay to construct a building to house them in?
The entire Belmar community was not duped; I would think that many of those who voted ‘no’ on the pavilion construction knew that the mayor was less than trustworthy and the council members simply a bunch of rubber-stampers along for whatever ride they thought they could benefit from. It seemed evident that the Taylor Pavilion would become a political clubhouse, but it would have been hard to foresee the Merri Makers deal, though, and with this, the administration has sunk to a deeper low. Indeed, vote them all out, starting with Brennan. If Matt keeps up his shenanigans he will lose the election, if he chooses to run again, on his own lack of merit. Something has to give, and I think the crap is starting to hit the fan. The existence of this blog has to be promoted somehow in the media and by word of mouth. And yes, Mr. Valario should speak out and campaign. How else would the voters know that there is a reasonable, credible alternative and not just vote against the other guy.
Business is business and merrymakers is in business to make money anyway they can.. It is very nice for the landlord (US) to accept their bid without any reservations who knew???
Sounds like a great deal to me. Merry Makers makes money on the snack bar and catering and Belmar foots the bill for building the building, on public land but not accessible for the public to use. Is there another lawsuit in Matt’s future??
Maybe when the pavilion concession was originally bid it should have been known that the use of the pavilion for weddings and other catered events would be handed to the bidder carte blanche. Seems a little dubious that there was one bidder, who by some standards bid high, and now gets the benefit of blocking out prime dates for a relatively inexpensive event hall. Any illegality here may have occurred back with the bidding process.
Stop complaining and bring your issues to the council at the meetings!!
33. Maybe the building was built according to their specs. Who knows??
Today’s Coast Star
Ad for Merri-Makers at the Taylor Pavilion is on page 39.
Who needs this?
Answer = Vote them all out.
Just got off the phone with my caterer friend. He’ll be booking all prime dates for 2019. Stay tuned.
THE MAYOR’S PROMISE, from his August 2013 letter to residents, I quote:
” The old Taylor Pavilion held many community events and the new Taylor Pavilion will be able to accommodate even more. Public forums, elementary school events, Senior events, Boy & Girl Scouts functions and many others WILL ALWAYS have a home in Belmar and THE RECONSTRUCTED TAYLOR PAVILION WILL SERVE AS THAT HOME.”
Souce: This blog August 2013
Didn’t mention weddings did he? $tragic plan became let’s make a deal.
When will a leader emerge and address this mess and expose this slap in the face of the residents?
Demonstrate, picket…
This should be all over Facebook and tag every council member . Be funny the thing this dummy pushed the hardest on is the thing that leads to his demise
KARMA
Whom is the Republican candidate this year for town council?
45 – It should be Jim Bean!
At least Belmar will be responsible for uniting people in love and holy matrimony instead of being divisive.
Wait till the residents hear about this Trojan Horse deal. Tapinto it.
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