In yesterday’s mail, with my comments in red italics:
Dear Friend,
Belmar needs your help.
In order to continue moving forward with recovery from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, our town needs you to come out and vote YES on Tuesday, August 19th. (Actually Belmar needs you to vote NO. Doherty, Epic Construction and Maser Engineering need you to vote yes. And if enough of you vote yes, Belmar won’t need your vote, it will need your money.)
After Sandy ravaged our town, destroyed our boardwalk, severely damaged and flooded hundreds of homes and businesses, we rallied together as a community and fought our way back. Because of our response as a community, Belmar was able to clean up, repair damaged homes and businesses, and rebuild 1.3 miles of boardwalk. This was only possible because of the resolute spirit of our town, and because we worked together to get things done. (Yes, we did get the job done and we should be proud of that. But it’s not like our neighboring towns are still lying in ruins, so let’s not get carried away here.)
Our next task in recovery is to rebuild the pavilions destroyed by Sandy. This is why we need to rally together again–to rebuild the Taylor pavilion and the 10th Ave pavilion. As you know, the Taylor pavilion has hosted numerous community events (some of which you probably attended) and rebuilding it is important to our community today, and for future generations as well. The 10th Ave pavilion will house our First Responders including Lifeguards, Police, First Aid, and Water Rescue. Both of these pavilions are vital to our community’s recovery from Sandy. (No one is saying don’t rebuild the pavilions. And actually the 10th Ave public safety building would be done already if the mayor hadn’t insisted on tying it to his controversial and ever-evolving plans for Taylor.)
Fortunately for us, the same company that built our beautiful boardwalk will also build both pavilions. Epic Construction gave us a good price as the lowest bidder and they also have a great track record in Belmar. They did an amazing job completing our boardwalk in record time, (What was the previous “record”?) and they will do an even better job building the pavilions. (Does doing an “even better” job on the pavilions than on the boardwalk mean that this time they won’t ask for another $2.5 million change order?)
If you have any questions about these pavilions, please email me at matt@dohertynj.com or call me at (732) 681-1300. (How’s this for a question, since the letter doesn’t seem to tell us? What, exactly, are you asking us to vote YES on? Answer: IT’S TO BORROW $7 MILLION DOLLARS!)
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I hope Belmar can count on you to vote YES on Tuesday, August 19th. (Vote NO)
I hope you and your family have an enjoyable and safe 4th of July holiday. (Too late. I received this letter July 9th.)
Sincerely,
Matthew J. Doherty
Mayor
6 Comments
Just Revisited Mayor & Council Meeting
of Nov. 21, 2012. time 26:39 Public Comment prior to vote on $20,000,000. bond to rebuild Belmar’s Boardwalk. Birdsall estimated it would cost 17 M and the other 3M for debris removal.
FEMA will reimburse at least 75% ( good chance of getting 90%. Cost will be for a new super boardwalk and based on the FEMA project worksheet. So according to the Mayor the worst case scenario is we get 15,000,0000. and the beach utility will pay the balance. Now dial forward…
Boardwalk FEMA PROJECT WORKSHEET. $10,187,175.76 we got less than 85% just reported 8.6 M.. Seebeck asks also about the Emergency Expenditures 2M. The resulting payments none to 50% FEMA reimbursed. So Mr. mayor please let’s revisit Belma’r recovery.
VOTE NO to spending 7 million dollars to rebuild the pavilions. We can still build the pavilions with 4.1 million from FEMA and insurance and save 3 million. SPECIAL ELECTION AUGUST 19, 2014 VOTE NO – SAVE 3 MILLION AND BUILD PAVILIONS FOR 4.1 MILLION.
You should send the revised letter out as mailer. where do I donate to make this happen.
Does anyone have a true copy of the layout for the pavilions? I heard 10th ave lifeguard party palace will not even include a public restroom?
There are no interior plans available, period. Maser Engineering’s fee of $1,035,501.00 apparently did not include the interior layouts for the pavilions, or at least residents are not allowed to see them yet. The architect is laying low also, their fees still not public. Isn’t it appalling that resident’s have to wonder what is going on with the pavilions. Shameful no other town administration recovering from Sandy has been so secretive about their plans to rebuild. And no other taxpayers have been so duped by their mayor.
At $100.00 per Eng hour that comes to 10,355 hours worked on these eng. plans. Maybe each eng. puts in 2,300 hours each year of work. That comes out to 4 & 1/2 people working just on this project alone.
I know they hand drew the plans. Didn’t have a CAD system.. Now I understand the high expense of $1,035,501.00
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