Dumping
This weekend’s rare July nor’easter dumped loads of rain across South Jersey, and in one Absecon Island town, it also dumped an opportunity for civic outrage.
A crowd of about 60 people (the Press of Atlantic City reports) collected on the beach at Delavan Avenue Sunday to demand public officials “Fix our beach!” after stormwater runoff, blocked by the unpopular and probably vindictive dune project, formed a pop-up swamp on their formerly pristine sands.
Beachgoers now had to wade through “Lake Margate” as it was being called to get to the ocean.
Margate homeowners–many of them–didn’t want the dunes in the first place. Many of them predicted exactly this problem. Now, after the first storm, fears were realized.
Beaches had just been reopened after last week’s bacteria invasion.
On Saturday morning, while the storm was still blowing, kids could be seen sloshing around in the big pool of storm runoff filled with pesticides, pet [waste] and automobile drippings. Etc.
Reflect if you will gentle reader on the political context for this natural disaster: the much-ballyhooed the Nocross-Christie political alliance has been advancing for several years now at least into Atlantic County–formerly the fiefdom of Republican State Senator Bill Gormley–and have been dumping over Gormley’s former constituents all summer. Now they’ve dumped a toxic lake on the beach in his hometown. Coincidence or symbolism?
On the other hand, maybe there’ll be some backlash.
Elsewhere in Christie news, the governor was videotaped at a baseball game “cradling” (the New York Post’s word) what appears to be an order of nachos while confronting a Cubs fan who’d been heckling him. A bearded and confused Brad Joseph later alleged Christie bumped into him and asked if he wanted to “do something” / “start something.”
For a while now, American politics has been a game of provoking the other guy’s base. Most Americans are completely disenfranchised. Getting a reaching out of the right people–whether they be Libtards or Deplorables–is almost the the only thing you need to do to prove to your base that you’re doing your job. Christie is what this game looks like when it winds down to its dismal end–when you figure out that the enemy of your enemy is not your friend and all you have left is a sad man with a 15% approval rating and an order of stadium nachos and no one can figure out how it came to this.
Missed some of last week’s Roundups? Or too many emails to read? Here’s a roundup of the roundups from last week, in podcast form.
In the rest of the weekend’s headlines, proposals for Atlantic City’s Bader Field are being sought, have you eaten some Jersey peaches yet this season? Experts say it’s the best crop in years, NJ OKs medical marijuana growing in Secaucus, Margate tried to get out ahead of some of the rumors on the federal fraud investigation into Absecon Island prescription costs by releasing data on its employees’ healthcare, an amazing Asbury Park Press investigation found that although Lakewood has just 2 percent of NJ’s children it receives 14 percent of NJ’s sick child aid, and in an Op-Ed for The Press of Atlantic City, Van Drew is still trying to change Pinelands Commission voting, Local 54 leader Bob McDevitt and others say that the push to expand gaming in New Jersey is continuing behind closed doors. All that and more below:
Buyback Collects 400 Guns in First 2.5 Hours in Trenton–Trenton authorities doled out cash payments for residents wishing to hand over firearms Friday morning on the first day of a three-city, two-day gun buyback. Events were also being held in Newark and Camden. NJ.com
If They Build it, Says Toms River Family, Kids With Special Needs Will Come–The project, in part based on a similar one out of Atlantic County, bears the name of the classic 1989 movie that gave us the line, If you build it, he will come. But the Toms River Field of Dreams is about much more than baseball. New Jersey 101.5 – Proud to be New Jersey – New Jersey News Radio
Recent Weather Takes Its Toll On Margate Beaches: ‘It’s Creating A Hazard’–Margate has been losing its fight with the state over the construction of sand dunes, but now the town has another reason to complain. philadelphia.cbslocal.com
New Regatta Breaks Through Challenging Conditions–Bernadette Ritzel’s “vision” for the Ventnor City Sprints and Coastal Regatta was a bit hard to see on Saturday, through the steady, wind-swept rain of a rare summer nor'easter. But as Ritzel, the race director, looked out from a deck on the Ventnor Heights intracoastal waterway, she saw the future of an event that she hopes will become an integral feature of the area’s summer sports landscape. Shore News Today
Ocean First Shutters a Quarter of its Branches–The consolidation of 15 branches comes before its planned acquisition of Sun Bancorp, after which it plans to close another 15 overlapping locations. www.bizjournals.com
City Officials Fend Off Rumors in Federal Prescription Fraud Investigation–The flow of new information on a federal prescription-drug investigation among city employees on Absecon Island this week has slowed, but city officials have released some financials to quell concerns about city involvement or knowledge of the scheme. “For months there has been rumor and speculation about an FBI probe of prescription fraud involving doctors, pharmacies and public employees within Atlantic County,” Margate Business Administrator Rich Deaney said during the July 20 commission meeting. Press of Atlantic City
Freeholders Approve Site for New Cumberland County Jail–The Cumberland County Freeholder Board recently approved the authorization of the Cumberland County Improvement Authority to buy land for the new Cumberland County Jail. The vote, which passed by a 6-1 vote, is next to the current location of the Southwood State Prison. NJ.com
Jersey Peach Production Best in Years, State Says–New Jersey peach farmers are reaping a bounty this summer with one of their largest crops. New Jersey, which is the fourth-largest producer of peaches in the nation behind California, South Carolina and Georgia, is projected to produce between 55 million and 60 million pounds of peaches over 5,500 acres in 2017, according to the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council. Press of Atlantic City
City Officials Fend Off Rumors in Federal Prescription Fraud Investigation–The flow of new information on a federal prescription-drug investigation among city employees on Absecon Island this week has slowed, but city officials have released some financials to quell concerns about city involvement or knowledge of the scheme. “For months there has been rumor and speculation about an FBI probe of prescription fraud involving doctors, pharmacies and public employees within Atlantic County,” Margate Business Administrator Rich Deaney said during the July 20 commission meeting. Press of Atlantic City
At South Jersey Robotics, Gears and Switches Set Careers in Motion–At a summer robotics camp for high school and middle school kids in South Jersey’s Salem County, failure is an option — but only temporarily. When 17-year-old Noah Halsted switched on his team’s 3½-by-2½-foot, gear-packed robot and absolutely nothing happened, he took just a second to groan, “That failed,” before grabbing some electrical tape, fixing a cable, and sending the reenergized robot to scoot across the floor on six wheels, scooping up plastic balls with a cleverly hidden broom. Philly.com
Coast Guard Rescues 2 After Boat Capsizes Off Absecon Inlet–The United States Coast Guard rescued two people after their boat capsized two miles off the Absecon Inlet in Atlantic County on Tuesday. The nearby Coast Guard Station Atlantic City received a report from the Atlantic City Police Department at 11.21 am of two people in the water after their 18-foot boat overturned, according to an agency news release. Newsworks.org