Ortley Beach Easement Issue and Gov. Christie: Where Are You?

Ortley Beach Easement Issue and Governor Christie Where Are You?

Dear Governor Christie,

We are 20-plus days and counting until May 1 when the Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) needs to go to congress regarding the building of the USACE Dune/Geo-Tube system. The time has come Governor Christie,you MUST take a stand regarding this very important issue. We do not need showmanship, political bravado or an imitation of Tony Soprano. What the residents of the Barrier Island need is political leadership. Like President Harry S. Truman said, "the buck stops here", and unfortunately Governor you are standing on the spot called, "here"!

The residents of the Barrier Island and the surrounding mainland Bay Area are in a bad way. In 2005 the Army Corps of Engineers, (USACE), wanted to build a Dune/Geo-Tube system to protect the Barrier Island from storms like Sandy. The dune system was never built because the needed easements required to build the dunes on private property were never signed. The Veterans Day Storm of 2009 which destroyed the shore line was a warning that went unheeded. Hurricane Irene and the lack of destruction she caused just gave everyone a false sense of security. Our elected officials told themselves that if we survived Irene then our dunes are in good shape. Well those two major storms did the opposite of what we would expect from a dedicated public official. You would expect your elected officials would look at the two major storms as a warning of impending disaster. The people we chose to protect us [from the townships all the way up the political chain] ignored the early warnings Mother Nature provided. The easement issue and the protection the USACE Dunes would provide went on a back burner and as the saying goes, "out of sight out of mind".

Then Sandy hit the Barrier Island and we all know the rest. What people don't know or at least I did not know until recently is that all the damage, all the hardship brought about by Sandy did not have to be. This was told to us by the Mayor of Toms River. The Mayor was mediating the question and answer session after a house elevation seminar my wife and I attended. This information came about when a home owner asked the Mayor “would we have to spend $10's and possible $100's of thousands of dollars to raise our homes if the USACE proposed Dunes were built”? Mayor Kelaher told the home owners in attendance that he had a meeting with the General in charge of the USACE Dune project. The General informed the Mayor that if the proposed dunes were in place when Sandy hit Ortley Beach, the flood damage would have been minimal. I still cannot believe all the damage, all the hardship and all the expense did not have to be. The Mayor went on to say that the proposed dunes would relax a lot of the harsh FEMA rebuilding requirements. A lot of the home owners in attendance would not have to raise their homes. In fact the USACE Dunes would change some V zones back to A zones, lower some floods elevations and reduce the newly imposed high FEMA flood insurance premiums to pre-Sandy levels. In fact the Mayor said that the proposed dunes were needed to protect the Barrier Island from future coastal storms, something the Township could no longer do. The reason the Township could no longer provide protection from coastal storms is because the beaches were so badly destroyed by Sandy that only the USACE has the means to repair the beaches.

The reason I am telling this part of the story is to get this information out. We are just being told by FEMA how to rebuild our homes and how to spend our money repairing our homes. The Government through FEMA is leading us to believe that there are no other options. But we do have other options. The same Government officials who are making, what I feel are unreasonable rebuilding demands can relax those demands by just building the USACE Dunes. Any reasonably intelligent person can understand the importance of getting the Dunes built, so why can't our elected officials. So Governor Christie it is time for you to be a leader, a real take charge type of guy. Last summer you walked the Boardwalk in Seaside holding your child in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other. When I saw the film of that scene on the evening news I said to myself there goes a man of the people, someone who knows his roots. Well Governor, be a true man of the people because the people of the Barrier Island are suffering. They are suffering, the "slings and arrows of their outrageous misfortune". The people that make up the Jersey Shore, that you Governor claim to care about, have their backs against the wall, they have been given no blind folds, no last smoke and no last meal request. We home owners are just waiting to be executed by a bunch of FEMA rules that don't have to be. Governor you have to take action and issue a "stay of execution", by getting the DUNES BUILT! Do you realize the home owners are being asked to pay dearly for a crime they did not commit? The Dunes have been on hold since 2005. The politicians we elected to protect us, let seven years go by without resolving the Dune issue. In the past seven years the Jersey Shore has been attacked by numerous costal storms. The Veterans Day storm of 2009, Hurricane Irene and numerous Nor-Easters just to name a few. Just because the shore survived these storms our elected officials felt no sense of urgency. Since these storms created very little property damage, our elected officials put the easements issue and the dune project on the, "pay me no mind list".

So Governor Christie I am, "calling you out", no let me rephrase that. We, the Home Owners of the Barrier Island are, "calling you out"! It is time for you Governor to take charge, take action, take a stand, but please just don't take up our time with a lot of useless media sound bites. Since you cannot use Eminent-Domain to force the "HOLD-OUTS", to sign the easements, you have to get legislatively creative. (The Federal Dune Bill says that Eminent-Domain cannot be used). Those New Jersey tough guy sound bites might be building your political image, but we have something more important to rebuild, like our homes and our lives. You know Governor, talk is cheap, but the new FEMA rebuilding codes are very expensive. Do you realize we are being told that in order to protect our homes from future coastal storms we have to raise and rebuild our homes to the harsh FEMA flood standards? Then the Mayor of Toms River tells home owners attending a house elevation seminar that the Township can no longer protect us from future coastal storms without the USACE Dunes. I just want to be clear on this point. The home owners because of the flooding caused by Sandy are being forced to raise their homes, but the Townships cannot provide the basic flood protection needed to protect the infrastructure and our newly raised homes. Two things I have to say about this, what is the point of raising our homes if the Township cannot provide the basic protection from coastal storms. How come the home owners are forced to either raise their homes or lose their homes, to guard against coastal flooding, but the Townships can just throw their hands in the air and declare we can't protect the residents from coastal floods. Why aren't the Townships held to the same rules they created. How in the world is that fair? Why the double standard? I ask you how much more Government created insanity do you expect us to accept. By the way, the Mayor said he was told this bit of information by the General in charge of the USACE Dune project. The General basically said that, "the current condition of the shore line at Ortley Beach is so deteriorated from the destructive forces of Sandy, that without the USACE Dunes, the Township can no longer provide proper protection from flooding caused by future coastal storms."

Just in case Governor Christie changes his mind or forgets his pledge to fight for us. (We all remember how the Governor gave his word to the residents of Manasquan at a town hall meeting to fight the FEMA flood maps, only to change his mind with no explanation to the residents). It is plain to see that our elected officials from the Governor on down have a conflicting sense of duty to the citizens they pledged to protect. We cannot depend on them to fight for us. That is why I have listed eight ways we can help ourselves to get the easements signed and the USACE Dune/Geo-Tube built.

In my opinion and not being a lawyer, I feel that these are eight legal ways for anyone who wants to get involved can get involved. This one time whether you like it or not you must get involved. Remember this whole issue is about the law. We want to do everything legally possible to get the easements signed and the Dunes built. The people who refuse to sign the easement deserve their respect. We should always remain civil and respect the rights of those who don't agree with us.

1) Call the Senate offices of Senator Menendez and Senator Lautenberg. Let them know your rage and that you want the bill amended to include Eminent-Domain. The two Senators can get a bill passed to spend $75.9 million dollars to rebuild a two lane 12 miles stretch of Rt. 35. How many of you feel that is an outrageous price for 12 miles of road? Maybe our two Senators can find a way to use part of the $75.9 million to buy the land needed from the "HOLD-OUTS" to build the USACE Dunes. Why rebuild Rt. 35 if you cannot protect it from being washed away by ocean breaches caused by coastal storms? I guess this is just another example of Government insanity!

2) Since Congressman's Runyan is up for re-election, call and tell the Congressman that if he wants your vote, he has to get the bill amended to include Eminent-Domain. Call him today and every day thereafter.

3) Join Stop FEMA Now and tell the leaders of that organization, the best way to Stop FEMA is to undo the facts that their rules are based on. The only way to achieve this is to get the USACE Dune/Geo-Tube built.

4) Contact your local Town Council and State representatives and demand that they enact emergency legislation that forces beach front property owners to build and maintain a dune/beach replenishment system. The dune system has to be the same as the proposed USACE Dune system. The reason for this law is simple. No one can explain how it is fair that beach front property owners are not forced to provide dune protection on their property, yet the rest of the home owners have to raise their home to protect them from the flooding caused by the lack of dune protection on beach front property. It is time to right this injustice. (This is another example of Government insanity)

5) Ask the powers that be to pass a law that would make beach front property owners civilly liable for the flood damage caused by improperly maintained dunes on their property. They should also be force to carry a liability policy to pay flood claims. (If FEMA can charge unreasonable high flood insurance premiums to force us to raise our homes, then FEMA, and our Government should force/use the same tactics to force the "HOLD-OUTS" to sign the easements).

6) If you belong to a Home Owners Association call and demand that the leaders/board members of those organizations join forces for a common cause. That cause is to get the easements signed and the USACE Dunes built. I believe this is the most important issue facing every home owner on the Barrier Island. We should not have a bunch of different organizations fighting separate battles. We should all be united with a clear plan to get the dunes built.

7) Tell the leaders of the organizations or associations that you belong to that the time has come to use social networking to organize an open air rally. The rallies should all be held on the same day and include all the towns on the Barrier Island. The purpose of these rallies is to show a united front and to get the dunes built. The news media would cover the rallies and the public would finally be made aware (as well as the Tri-State Area and beyond) that if the USACE Dunes were in place the Jersey Shore would not have been destroyed by Sandy. The rally would send a clear message to Trenton and Washington, that we want the USACE Dunes built. We demand the positive changes to the FEMA regulations that building the dunes would bring. No resident of the Barrier Island is going to stand by and wait for the next coastal storm to needlessly destroy us. In plain English we refuse to accept the Government created insanity that plagues the rebuilding of our homes.
There is one other issue we have to get straightened out with the leaders of our Home Owners Associations. That issue is you cannot have it both ways. I believe that some of the leaders of the Associations have divided loyalties. I say this because I should not have to make these obvious suggestions to get the easements signed. The leaders of the Associations cannot support the private beach front property owner’s right not to sign the easements and then support the Dune issue. The leaders of our Home Owners Associations are either with the Dune issue 100% or not at all! It’s that simple. We need a united front to win this battle for our homes. No playing both ends against the middle. We get enough of that from the politicians we elected into office. So ask your Associations leader/board members where their loyalties begin and end.

8). Call the Governor’s Office today and every day and let the Governor know that if he wants your vote in November that he needs to use his executive power to get the USACE Dune/Geo-Tube built. Tell him you want him to use whatever power at his command and that you will not settle for anything less than getting the Dunes built. We should not settle for the same old rhetoric. That rhetoric only makes, for nice sound bites for the media. We need more than Governor Christie's hollow New Jersey tough guy act. I expect more than talk or showmanship. I want the Governor to act as a leader, to take charge of the task at hand and get the Dunes built. We know Governor you got what it takes to get the job done. All you need is the resolve. I suggest that if the Governor gets the USACE Dunes built we should name the Dunes after him. Maybe by naming the Dunes, "The Christie Dunes", we can appeal to the Governors sense of vanity. It just might be the motivation needed to get the Dunes built.


So I am calling you out Governor, in fact we the people affected by Sandy are calling you out and everyone we elected to protect our families, our homes and our hard earned savings. No elected official gets a pass on this issue. GET THE EASEMENTS SIGNED and GET THE DUNES BUILT or WE WILL VOTE ALL OF YOU OUT OF OFFICE. So let's get a real grass roots movement going. No body with any kind of heart, wants to see their friends, neighbors and family members lose their home or see people needlessly spend their life saving trying to save the homes they worked so hard for. The Barrier Island, its residents and the coastal mainland cannot survive without building the USACE Dune/Geo-Tube.

One other item I would like to add. I am not attacking the Governor personally. I am sure he is a fine decent human being. I am simply attacking what I feel is an injustice that is causing undue hardship and expense. No one should be made liable for an injustice they did not commit. That injustice was not building the Dunes when we had the chance. We all have to make sure that our political leaders have the resolve to right that injustice. Hurricane season is a few months away.

Thank you for reading my Blog and let me know your opinion. TomsBoy