OPINION: A Beachfront Owner's View Of Toms River's Dune/Easement Request

I have owned my small beachfront condo (one of a six unit building) in Ortley Beach for over 20 years and lived there most of that time. I paid a BEACHFRONT price for the property and for more than 20 years have paid BEACHFRONT taxes which are mostly for the land and are far greater than any homeowner in Toms River would pay for under 1000 square feet of living space.

For all of those years most beach goers treated our "back yard" as public land, even when we fenced or roped off part of it. Among other activities, it was used to play ball in, and people went so far as to sit on our decks, use our showers and on rare occasions urinate in our sheds and against our building.

In the fall when we would take the ropes or fencing down, fishermen would park their trucks at our back door ignoring the fact that they were intrusive and blocked our view.

I have unusual pets and people completely ignored the ropes/fence when they wanted to come to my back door to see them. If this were any of their backyards, they would think such behavior outrageously rude.

Now Toms River Township is trying to pit our neighbors on the island against us by claiming that we are prohibiting them from putting up dunes on our property that will assure their safety. What they don't mention is that they want to take our land by having us deed them an open easement to the land. No homeowner in our country would consider giving up his backyard this way. If the electric company needs an easement for putting up wires, it is a very specific easement, not a general one that would eliminate the homeowners rights of use and privacy on his land.

As a further insult, Toms River has refused to talk to us about this easement, saying that they will only speak to our attorney (which i guess we will soon have to obtain). Whenever it suits the township they come on our property, be it to drive across it with their sand cleaning equipment, to dump mountains of sand in our vacant lot to protect the street from the ocean, and even put mounds of sand between the ocean and a neighboring beachfront property (the Golden Gull) as protection prior to a post SANDY storm (mind you, without any easements being in place). Their agenda seems to be to protect the town and grab some beachfront property while ignoring that we too are tax payers deserving of that same protection.

Shame on you Toms River Township!

DORIS SCHWARTZ

ORTLEY BEACH