On the web:
Belmar only has about 2500 households, including people who live alone. How were “2000 families” displaced?
Also yesterday the Belmar Democratic Committee released this:
Which elicited this email response from one of my readers:
“While we feel for these families, we have conflicted emotions. If our town can’t handle distribution of gift cards and we don’t know what’s going on with the Buy a Board money, how can we be expected to trust that this project will be on the level? We flooded and got no homeowners and very little from FEMA. We sustained over $50,000.00 worth of damage and were never offered a gift card (not that we would accept as people were worse off than we)-never even asked about our damage by anyone from the borough.”
I feel bad for these families but I won’t be contributing to this fund. I learned my lesson when the Paypal fund that I sent $250 to went from being a “help the town with its clean up expenses fund” to a charity fund to…..as Jim Bean discovered…..a half a charity fund.
I am glad to see the du Paul Society involved. (I hope they are handling the money.) I’ve written, and on several occasions stated publicly, that they and other non-governmental organizations should have been leading our Sandy relief efforts from the beginning.
23 Comments
Maybe the mayor can speak to Ferreira Construction about lending a hand.
Where is the generosity of the Unions????? Oh, the only donate to Democrat politicians.
Actually, some of his Laborers Union friends built a wheelchair ramp for someone in town. Maybe they can fix the one house and build the other.
I meant the $$$$$ they waste on politicians is a crime, there are drug problems, mentally ill and poor people that are left to fend for themselves.
Yes, a responsible non-profit organization should handle and distribute all the money, not anyone at Borough Hall. Yeah, what about those missing gift cards and other hand-outs of money? Secret recipients and poor accounting methods? Sorry. That just does not smell right. And whoever promotes secrecy? Why? Pride should not enter the equation. Till full disclosure happens, my money is staying in the bank.
Spin it again, Sam. I mean, Matt.
Nope! Matt is just looking to fund something other than what he is claiming to fund. If it is true about the families it is truly so sad. But nothing should be going through the Borough of Belmar. Leave it to those who will open their books to the public and proper jurisdictional authorities for review of such donations. Matt got $300,000 in donations after Sandy which he admits to in one of the recorded council meeting videos what happened to that money? He lost (supposedly) $10,000 in gift cards. I wouldn’t trust him with finding an elephant in the living room.
#5 callmecynical I agree with you What disturbs me is when the Gov says they are here to help and the only ones they help are themselves Shelly Silver to name one. Its a crime to see the TV ads for wounded warriors which I have nothing against but where is the VA????????
Im not a coward. That’s my real name. Once again Mr. Schneck, you have tried to polarize an issue is very simple and clear cut. Shame on you. The town is working with non-profits to get these families back in a home, and you paint the issue red with your conspiracy theory babble. If you don’t want to help these families out that’s fine. But you don’t have to discourage others from helping out. Of all the worthless garbage you embellish on your blog, this is by far the worst.
I suppose mentioning the kid is supposed to sanctify the effort and cleanse any lingering bad aromas. (“Pssst, hey, you, wanna buy a board?”) Again, I thought that the mayor wanted to keep his family out of politics. Use ’em if it is expedient.
I need to hear all the facts as to why 2 years later these homes have not been fixed. Matt’s letter leaves me with many questions. The on-line article left me with even more. Can someone explain the insurance part ? If I understand it correctly, the article says that in one case the insurance company paid for the repairs but the owners had the house knocked down. Is this correct ?
if you think this is confusing for you, imagine what it is like for these families. Insurance companies tend not to pay for the full amount to repair the home. Flood insurance will only ever pay a maximum of $250,000 for your property (not contents). I do not believe these families had flood insurance but they are required to now. That being said, simply repairing a home that has been condemned with no money to raise it can cost a fortune in flood insurance and if the home was more than 50% damaged, is not allowed. As for the funds being held by Bank of America, the following link will explain that. http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_consumers/finance/insuranceproceeds.html
Even if you agree with Mr. Schneck on everything else, I implore you to think about this one. This is a charity fundraiser and nothing else. I live down the street from the Keefe family. I was also flooded by Sandy and I can tell you first hand that theming to get through the red tape to actually get what type are owed is very very difficult. I was lucky. Others were not. This is about helping your neighbor, to me that is “common sense”
I am certainly not telling people not to contribute. I’m just saying that after the gift card fiasco, the Buy-a-Board fiasco and all the thousands going to secret “clients”, I would feel much better about this if the money were being sent directly to the du Paul Society to administer. That would be compassion with “common sense”.
Admin, if you think your post, its message, and the other comments do not discourage people to contribute you are further out of touch with what you post than previously thought. Good for you Mark Levis for calling him out. All readers of this blog must realize Dave’s agenda and see through the nonsense. He fosters negativity in town while trying to sound like he is doing good deeds. He is a Tea Party Libertarian with an agenda and smart readers should see through it. He makes some good points at times, but when he is all wet, which is often, he should be called out, not supported with an echo chamber. He only wants readers that agree with him and he tells others that disagree to simply not view the site rather than consider the alternate points of view.
I have never said I want only readers who agree with me. What good would that be? And while some commenters have told people not to read the site if they disagree with it, I certainly never have and never would tell people that. All readers and all opinions are welcome here.
Admin Bull, what you, and others don’t seem to grasp is this is Dave’s blog! He can write whatever he pleases, and you can choose to read it or not! Fostering negativity in town??? Have you been to council meeting where the Mayor talks down to people, embarrasses them, and “fosters negativity” towards people because they simply don’t agree with him? Mark Levis, I would I agree with you that people should consider donating, and Dave is saying be cautious with your donations going through town hall, because their track record isn’t great! My suggestion would be donating directly to St Vincent de Paul society, and let Father Ed know you’d like the money to go to this effort!
Mark I understand your feelings and agree that if people want and can help they should. But to trust this Mayor, who at his last two times running a charity as either not spent the monies towards its given purpose or has lost the monies would be like bringing sand to the beach. You cant blame the people of this town for being overly cautious when Mayor Matt is involved. Lets be real even the even the county questions his accounting practices.
Mark Levis you have your own interest here. Let the families comment, if this is what they want. Let the checks be made out to them, keep Matt and Belmar out of it.
If you want to help the needy? …. Make check payable to the St. Rose SVDP Society and mail to:
St. Vincent de Paul Society
St. Rose Church
603 7th Avenue
Belmar, NJ 07719
Thanksmuch Gene for giving SVDP a plug. I’ll go further. If a healthy man wants to do a bit of hands on charity work (furniture moving), he can usually find us at the SVDP store (Selective Seconds) at 8AM Monday mornings.
I am absolutely sure that there were terrible stories out there including my own. But because of the way that money was distributed to select people and the way the insurance companies FEMA included reacted we all had a great deal of money lost. The money I spent
Left me with a shorter time in my home.
If you feel a need to donate go to SVDP
And let them handle if they will. My other suggestion is to let Admin handle
His blog he probably knows where the bodies are buried. But I too would like a grocery store the Squan Acme which was the twin of the Belmar one is still
Going strong.
Why would anyone donate money to a campaign by the town after the “buy a board” debacle?
When I give money to a program, I want the money to be used for the stated purpose.
It seems public knowledge who the families are. So send a check to them directly and avoid any possible scam with the town’s use of funds.
And why exaggerate the number of families in Belmar in the PR info? Seems a bit slick
Number of families evacuated does not equal the number of families displaced.
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