Belmar.com webcams provide bird’s eye view of the February 6th blizzard

The (latest) blizzard of the winter of 2010 is already well underway in Belmar, with several more hours to go. DPW crews worked overnight to keep the streets clear and to stay ahead of the storm, which will likely rage for the rest of Saturday. Fresh crews will be brought in once the end of the storm is in sight, and will work through the night to clear Belmar’s streets.

So far, it’s an unusual snow storm, and appearances are deceiving.

Because the snow is very light, areas exposed to the ferocious northerly wind appear to have little accumulation. In areas shielded from the northerly wind, accumulations appear to be roughly 6-8 inches (at least in my back yard) as of 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning.

Today is a good day to stay indoors and watch the storm via the streaming webcams on www.Belmar.com/webcams.

Belmar to reclaim Breslin Monument and Honor Pat & Sandy’s Legacy

Saturday marked the 60th anniversary of a long-forgotten ceremony at the Belmar marina that deserves to be remembered. On August 15, 1949, Pat and Sandy Breslin, the unassuming proprietors of the marina’s luncheonette and boat rental concession, dedicated a small granite monument outside their establishment. The inscription read: “To the glory of God, and to those who served, fought and died that our flag may forever fly in honor and peace.” Little did Pat and Sandy know that this small act – and the countless quiet acts of generosity that had preceded it – would ripple across our nation, and lead all the way to the White House.

The story of the Breslin monument began nearly eight years earlier. On December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor, while a stunned nation tried to digest the enormity of what had transpired, Pat and Sandy immediately grasped that everyone would need to do their part to support the war effort. They wrote a letter to the Congress in which they offered their boating and fishing pier in the Belmar marina at no cost to our soldiers, sailors and marines.

They kept their pledge. Not only through the war years, but for another dozen years after the war ended, Pat and Sandy fed countless servicemen and women and lent them fishing tackle and row boats. They refused to accept a dime in return. They would even insist these servicemen use their telephone to call home and talk to their loved ones.

Over the years, Pat and Sandy Breslin’s quiet hospitality and generosity became legendary. They received thousands of letters from all over the world, often from the servicemen themselves, but also from their families, and even from complete strangers who thanked them for what they were doing. As the years passed, many servicemen would come back to visit, not so much for the free hospitality, as to thank Pat and Sandy again in person. All too often during these visits, Pat and Sandy would hear about those who had shared their hospitality but hadn’t made it back from the war. The monument they dedicated 60 years ago today, was their way of expressing their gratitude to all who served, and especially those who gave their lives.

The dedication of the Breslin monument 60 years ago, was far from the end of the story. A few years later, in 1953, Pat and Sandy were invited the White House, where they were honored by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. A year later, they would also receive medals from Cardinal Spellman.

In 1957, Pat and Sandy’s concession license wasn’t renewed due to a planned renovation of the marina. The Breslin monument was put in storage until September, 1960, when Pat and Sandy wrote to President Eisenhower to request his help in finding a permanent location for the memorial. Soon after, Major General William D. Hamlin, the then Commanding General of Fort Monmouth, offered to accept the monument at Fort Monmouth. In April of 1961, the Breslin memorial was officially accepted by Fort Monmouth in a formal ceremony complete with an honor guard and military band.

But for the impending closing of Fort Monmouth, the story of Pat & Sandy Breslin and their monument might have ended here. In the fall of 2006, unaware that it had been moved, Sandy’s grandson, Norm Eaise, visited the Belmar marina to look for the monument he had heard so much about as a child. When he couldn’t find it, he contacted me, and with the assistance of our then Borough Clerk Marg Plummer, Congressman Frank Pallone’s office and the Fort Monmouth Historical Office, we were able to track the monument down to Fort Monmouth. A few months later, with the support of Mr. Eaise and his family and the Belmar Historical Council, the Borough of Belmar made a formal request that the Breslin monument be returned to Belmar.

If all goes as planned, the Breslin monument will soon be given a permanent place of honor at the Belmar marina. We plan to hold a formal rededication ceremony for the monument on Memorial Day, May 31, 2010. But it will be on Veterans Day, November 11, 2009, when we will honor Pat and Sandy’s legacy in a way they would most appreciate. The Borough will be hosting a banquet at which our community and its restaurants will come together to honor and thank all of Belmar’s veterans. In gratitude for their service, and in memory of Pat & Sandy, we will refuse to accept a dime from them.

Belmar and Neighboring Towns Receive $75k Grant to Study Shared Police Services

The mayors of Belmar, Bradley Beach, Lake Como, Neptune City and Neptune Township issued a joint statement today announcing the receipt of a NJ SHARE Grant in the amount of $75,684, to fund feasibility studies of sharing services between among the police departments and dispatch services of the five municipalities.

The mayors of the five participating municipalities proposed this feasibility study in response to the increasingly challenging economic conditions in New Jersey. While all of these municipalities already participate in shared service arrangements through inter-local service agreements with one or more of the other municipalities, this represents the first time these five neighboring municipalities have come together as a group to undertake a comprehensive feasibility study of opportunities for sharing these types of services.

Police department services have become one of the most expensive operations for individual municipalities and consistently represent one of the largest increases in most municipal budgets each year. It has become increasingly difficult to stabilize taxes and meet the State mandated tax levy cap while also budgeting for the increased expenses of police services. Through this feasibility study, the participating municipalities are seeking ways to share services in a way that will lower costs and increase operational efficiencies while continuing to maintain, and in some areas improve upon, existing levels of police services.

The Mayor and Council of the Borough of Belmar will be awarding two contracts at their August 12th Council Meeting, authorizing the start of the studies.

Intertech Associates of Freehold will be studying the feasibility of sharing police dispatching services between and among the towns, and developing a plan that can be followed by those municipalities that decide, either initially or gradually over some period of time, to participate in a joint dispatch center. The proposed joint dispatching center would provide not only all public safety dispatching, but also records management and prisoner processing/detention.

Jersey Professional Management of Cranford will be studying the feasibility of sharing other individual police department functions, such as management, patrol, detective bureau, fleet maintenance, purchasing, etc. Additionally, it will develop a detailed plan that can be followed by those municipalities that decide, either initially or gradually over a period of time, to share multiple, or even all, police department functions, through a joint police organization that would have the staffing, facilities and services necessary and appropriate to serve multiple municipalities.

“By enabling us to undertake a comprehensive study of the feasibility of sharing police and dispatch services with our neighboring towns, this SHARE grant has the potential of yielding enormous budget savings for our property taxpayers, without any noticeable reduction in the level of police services we provide,” said Belmar Mayor Kenneth E. Pringle.

Two New Webcams Coming Soon to Belmar.com

The Borough is installing two new webcams that will enable visitors to Belmar.com to enjoy Belmar’s spectacular scenery. The new webcams will be installed on the roof of the Taylor Pavilion at Fifth and Ocean Avenues, and on the roof of the Senior Citizen’s Building at Eighth Avenue and Railroad. The Taylor Pavilion roof location will enable Belmar.com visitors to enjoy beach and Ocean Avenue views, while the Senior Citizen Building roof top camera will capture views of the marina, commercial boat docks, inlet and back bay of the Shark River.

Currently, visitors to Belmar.com can access a webcam only through a link to an NJ.com-sponsored webcam mounted on the front of the Eastern Lines Surf Shop on Ocean Avenue. Although this fixed, still-shot camera provides a view of only a narrow slice of Belmar’s beach and boardwalk, it has proved to be enormously popular with Belmar.com visitors. In fact, despite its limited features, this one webcam accounts for upwards of 15% of all summer-time visits to Belmar.com.

The Borough’s two new webcams will use a more feature-rich version of TrueLook software to provide streaming, as opposed to still-shot images, and viewers will be able to pan, tilt and zoom the camera to capture a wide array of scenes. The TrueLook software will also include a variety of special features, including enabling My Belmar members to sign up to receive photos of Belmar’s magnificent sunrises over the Atlantic and equally spectacular sunsets over the Shark River. Moreover, unlike the NJ.com webcam, Belmar will be able to earn advertising revenue from these new webcams, and also use the cams in a variety of ways to promote Belmar’s special events and downtown, marina and beachfront business communities.

As part of the webcam project, the Borough is also installing wireless directional antennae on the roof tops of the Taylor Pavilion and the Senior Citizen Building that can transmit data at high speeds via line-of-site wireless links between the two buildings. (There is no broadband cable service east of the boardwalk).

This wireless network will connect to the internet via a high speed fiber optic cable that is being installed in the Senior Citizen Building. The Borough plans to rely on the same wireless network to enable visitors to Belmar.com to see the planned new 4k wind turbine at Taylor Pavilion in action, as well as to view real-time data about the turbine’s energy output.

The wireless directional antennas Belmar is using have the capacity to be expanded in the future to provide full mesh-networking capability. This will enable Belmar to not only provide wireless access for internet and cell phone use, but also to expand the network over time beyond line-of-site locations. Under the plan, Belmar’s 70-foot tall Senior Citizen Building will serve as the hub for the network, collecting wireless line-of-site data feeds from an array of directional antennas in the town. The building’s easily accessible roof, existing broadband service, and clear line-of-site views to numerous other Belmar buildings and landmarks make it an ideal platform for the future expansion of the network. Future sites for the installation of webcams include the basketball courts and skate board park at Dempsey Park, the ball fields at Memorial Field, and the Community Sailing Dock, followed by other municipal parks, playgrounds and walkways.

The Belmar Tourism Commission is funding the cost of the cameras, weatherproof enclosures, wireless antennae and routers and cables, poles and mounting equipment, and will also manage the advertising revenue from the cameras, as well as their promotional use to support Belmar’s special events and Belmar’s businesses. Advertising revenue from the webcams will pay for the ongoing software and maintenance of the cams, and fund the expansion of the program. The design and technical aspects of the installation are being handled on a volunteer basis by long-time Belmar resident Marshall Boxer. Special thanks is also owed to Luis A. David, who is the Senior Learning Manager for SCOPE Center at Brookdale. Luis spent 23-years with AT&T Communications in both networking and engineering, and has been an invaluable resource for Marshall and the Borough in the planning and implementation of this ambitious project. Special thanks are also owed to the Public Works Department, and in particular Rich Neral, who is handling the installation and cabling of the system. Thanks are also owed to Borough Administrator Robbin Kirk, who has handled the procurement issues is spearheading the installation of broadband service to the Senior Citizens Building.

Belmar.com and the Star News Group Launch Shared Content Pilot

Belmar.com just got even better at keeping Belmar residents and visitors in the know. Through a first-of-its kind content-sharing agreement with the Star News Group, which publishes the very popular Coast Star and Ocean Star weekly newspapers, Belmar.com will begin carrying several Coast Star news stories about Belmar each week on the Belmar.com home page. The articles appears in a box entitled “Recent Belmar News from the Star News Group,” located just below the Community Notices section of the Belmar.com homepage. Because the Star News Group allows non-subscribers to have online access to only a handful of feature stories each week, this agreement gives Belmar.com those readers who aren’t yet Coast Star subscribers a special opportunity to read a regular sampling of the Coast Star’s informative stories about Belmar. The publisher of the Star News Group hopes this will encourage even more Belmar residents to subscribe to the Coast Star. We hope so, too, and in the meantime are thrilled to have a new partner contributing regular quality content that will help us keep Belmar.com readers informed about everything that’s going in Belmar.

Special thanks also go to Belmar photographer Stephen Lacko, for allowing us to use his photograph of the Coast Star news box to highlight this announcement.

To read The Coast Star stories on Belmar.com click here!

Even Before There Was Sidoroff’s There Was John’s Blue Lunch

Long time residents and visitors to Belmar fondly remember Sidoroff’s, the popular, but now vacant, hot dog and hamburg stand at the corner of 19th and Ocean Avenues. In its heyday, it featured some of the best hamburgers and hot dogs anywhere, not to mention ice cold Hires Root Beer served in frosted mugs. Some of my favorite memories of Sidoroff’s were those rainy days and evenings, when they would roll down canvas flaps to create a sheltered seating area under the overhang. And I remember Mrs. Sidoroff, who always wore her hair up in a bun, and was as much a fixture in front of the counter, as the old Hires Root Beer Barrel was the behind the counter. Her old-fashioned cash register didn’t actually do any math, so she would tally up the cost for each patron on a little pad, and then enter the total on the register.

In its later years, Sidoroff’s became THE place for breakfast on weekends, especially if your idea of a great breakfast included the Jersey Shore delicacy of pork roll with a fried egg on a hard roll. Of course, all of this was eaten around painted picnic tables, and washed down with terrific coffee served out of mismatched mugs.

But what few remaining Belmartians remember is that another Belmar classic occupied that spot for decades before Sidoroff’s. John Blue’s Lunch operated at that location during the 1940’s and well into the 1950’s. We’d be grateful to anyone who could provide better dates for us as to when John Blue’s Lunch first opened, and when the transition to Sidoroff’s occurred, and any other memories about this classic Belmar food stand.

New Belmar Children’s Boutique Helps Families Save Money and the Environment, too!

A new store opened this Spring on Route 71 in Belmar that every mother and grandmother should stop by and visit. “Twice Upon a Time” bills itself as a “children’s discount boutique,” but that really doesn’t do justice to the store.

Whether due to the state of the economy or the store’s name, I confess to have been totally unprepared for much more than a typical second-hand store or consignment shop when I arrived to cut the ribbon on a sunny, snow-covered morning back in early March. But the moment I stepped inside this stylishly decorated and professionally merchandised shop, I literally stopped in my tracks and looked around to make sure I was in the right place!

Lining the walls are racks of beautiful children’s clothing, interspersed with shelves brimming with dolls and games and toys. Gathered in islands in the center of the store are larger items, like a high-end double-stroller and a play-pen on the day I was there.

As its name suggests, all of the store’s inventory was owned before –but it’s really hard to tell. And that’s not just because every item in the store has a professionally printed, bar-coded price tag with the store’s name on it. It’s hard to tell because nothing — and I mean, nothing — in the store looks like it has ever been used before! It was a fascinatingly contradictory experience to be in a store that looks and feels like a high-end boutique when you know that it is offering slightly used items. I was so taken by the experience, that I found myself asking dozens of questions of the owners, a friendly pair of sisters named, Lisa M. Ortenzio and Lynn K. Mastrocolo.

Lisa and Lynn explained that their store is not a consignment shop. They buy all of the stock in the store from parents (or grandparents) who have either slightly or never-used children’s items they no longer need, and would like to convert into cash. But before you go rifling through your kids’ closets and drawers looking for things you can offer them, keep this in mind: Because Lisa and Lynn pay for their inventory, they can afford to be very picky about what they buy. And judging from the store’s apparently flawless merchandise, they do a very a good job of choosing only the finest things.

Notwithstanding how selective they are, Lynn and Lisa have found there are more quality second-hand items out there than they can fit in their already well-stocked store. So, they’ve started keeping a list of items they would like to buy from people when their existing inventory runs low. They are also keeping a list of “wanted items,” gleaned from shoppers who have stopped in looking for a particular item the store might not have in stock. By comparing their lists, the sisters can help speed the process of moving an unused item out of someone’s closet and getting it in the hands of someone who needs it and will put it to good use. Everyone in this chain either earns or saves some money, and not incidentally, the environment benefits as well.

Lisa told me about an older couple who happened into the store shortly after it opened. They were looking to outfit their home for a new grandchild who would be visiting them from time to time. They wanted to get nice things, but it seemed pretty wasteful, especially in this economy, to buy brand new baby furniture and other items things when their new grandchild would only be visiting occasionally, and would soon grow out of them. By the time they had left the store, they had given Lisa and Lynn a list of things they needed. The sisters told me that before long they hoped to be able to post a “wanted list” of items on line, and encourage their growing network of “suppliers” to be on the lookout for quality used items that could be resold through “Twice Upon a Time.”

In addition to high-tech touches like an on-line “wanted list,” and the software that enables Lisa and Lynn to put those professional looking price-tags on every item in the store (Lynn casually explained they use Quickbooks’ “Point of Sale” software “), the owners of Twice Upon a Time are especially good at providing the high level of service and extra special attention to detail that makes a boutique stand out from other stores.

For example, in addition to keeping an eye out for things you are looking for, they will even arrange your purchases in a gift basket. Wait, a gift basket ? I can picture that some readers may be thinking to themselves, “It’s one thing to buy your grandchild a slightly pre-owned high-chair, but to give used items as a gift?”

Twice Upon a Time is located in the new, three-store center at the southwest corner of Sixteenth Avenue and Highway 71. Lynn and Lisa have adopted an apt slogan for their store: “Saving the planet. . . one item at a time.” Please stop in and say hello, and do your part to help them make our world — and Belmar — a better place.

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