Wish to save Belmar $20,000 by having referendum in November
From the Bean/Seebeck Belmar Rising Facebook page:
MESSAGE FROM COUNCILMAN JIM BEANPLEASE COME TO THE SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY JUNE 17th AT 6PM AT BOROUGH HALL.
Mayor Doherty plans to announce the date of a special election at a special council meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, June 17th.
With his recent ruling, Judge Lawson stripped Belmar’s administration of the extraordinary powers that redevelopment law would have granted it. One of these was the power to ignore duly collected petitions calling for referendum on important issues. With the latest petitioning the residents have spoken loud and clear and will decide whether to spend $7 million on two beachfront pavilions by vote. According to New Jersey statute, the referendum vote should be on the ballot in November’s general election with no cost to taxpayers. However, Mayor Doherty, unwilling to wait until then, is forcing a special election to be held late summer or early fall at a cost to taxpayers of $20,000.
Many residents are unaware of the amount of debt that has been accumulated by the current administration. Presently Belmar has $56 million in debt ($52 million on our debt statement Dec 31, 2013 and the $4.5 million FEMA loan assumed as forgivable). The debt could cause staggering increases in property taxes starting in the next few years. And the spending is showing no signs of slowing down!
As a matter of fact, on November 12, 2013, even while still in litigation and awaiting Judge Lawson’s decision on the financing of the pavilions, the mayor authorized $650,000 in fees to be paid to Maser Engineering for its consulting services on building them. I would have never moved forward on any project until after the court made its decision. We have to know where the financing would come from first.
Attached is the most recent bid by Maser Engineering submitted to the NJ DCA showing the mayor authorized $1,035,501.00 just in engineering costs for our two pavilions!
Speaking for the Bean/Seebeck Belmar Rising campaign, I say our residents are being misled about how this spending will affect them. I say that the referendum should not be rushed. It should be held in November to allow our residents the opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights. I see the calling of a special election in the summer as unnecessary, inconvenient to our citizens and a waste of taxpayer funds. Please come out and be heard Belmar! This is your opportunity to have input.
7 Comments
Why is this. Maser firm and their “engineer” still engaged in Belmar business. Haven’t there been enough recent mistakes and costly oversights from this firms personnel? Now another $1,000,000+ in engineering costs? Maybe our Belmar officials never heard of Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity as “doing something over and over again and expecting different results.”
Maser like its predecessor Birdsall is doing the mayor’s bidding. When I got this estimate sans date and signature on Maser stationery, I called Paul Calabrese’s secretary at Maser. She never heard of an estimate, undated and unsigned. She requested that I mail her a copy. I did and when I followed up with her she said that all inquiries regarding this document must be referred to April Claudio at the borough. Couple this with the FEMA project worksheets for new replacements of 5th and 10th Ave. bringing both buildings in under 3.2 million, we have a problem.
“Ha, I like not that”
“Ha, I like not that”
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I like that kind of talk. Try this one out, “I told the man for a job and he asked me no.”
joegoofinoff…
Ok I want some of this action…Seems like easy money.
This sounds like a friggin criminal amount of money where is the FBI? We need to make sure only real residents vote on this, not bar employees and patrons…
Hey Keep your mouth shut about the booze business. I gotta $$$ invested in that
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