Riverside Signal - March 11th - 24th, 2011

TRUTH. HERITAGE. ENVIRONMENT.

BEACHWOOD • ISLAND HEIGHTS • OCEAN GATE • PINE BEACH • SOUTH TOMS RIVER

FREE March 11th ~ March 24th, 2011

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On February 13, 1914, the front page headline of the Toms River/Ocean County weekly, the New Jersey Courier, announced “Pine Bay Tract is Sold for $90,000/Said to Be a Record-Making Price”. Curiously, these new purchasers are never men-tioned by name.

The article goes on to de-

scribe the land as it was before any work had been completed: “The tract has a mile and a quarter river frontage, includ-ing the bluff at Cold Spring, the point of the Spiles [both later part of Beachwood Beach], and the bluff on the west shore of Squally Cove [renamed Windy Cove], the river frontage, run-

SOUTH TOMS RIVER – Following three years of conver-sations, negotiations and failed attempts by the volunteer first aid squad, here, to replace its aging 1995 ambulance with a newer, larger model through an agreement with the Borough of South Toms River, Squad Cap-tain Joseph Russo said they’re now moving forward on a ten year loan from the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture to cover the cost of a used 2002 model.

A final attempt for the gov-erning body to approve the purchase of a new model am-bulance for $140,000 fell apart late last month after Democrat-ic members declined to second a motion made by Republican Councilman Sandford Ross, Jr.

“They don’t want to spend the money,” said Captain Russo.

“I am very disappointed that the council chose not to support our first aid squad with the new ambulance to replace their ob-solete one,” Councilman Ross wrote in an e-mail following the failed motion. “The borough’s funding that would go towards the ambulance is simply part of our annual commitment of financial support for the squad anyway, and the squad would be required to cover the rest them-selves.”

“The money was already in-cluded in the [capital expense budget] by the council in 2010, so the only decision was whether or not to go ahead and provide the squad with the equipment

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Admiral Farragut AcademyPhotos Inside

By Erik Weber

By Philipp Schmidt

By Erik Weber

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside SignalThe Wildwood Avenue Pier, condemned last year by engineers from the Ocean County government, is currently undergoing a removal/replacement project.

cont. on page 11

cont. on page 2

cont. on page 7

Wildwood Avenue Pier: Going, Going…

Building Beachwood: Part II

STR Squad to Buy $43k Ambulance

Clayton to Residents: Check Trees for Storm Damage

By Philipp Schmidt

BEACHWOOD – Following a fierce winter that saw multiple storms batter the region with high winds and heavy snow-falls, Beachwood Councilwom-an Beverly Clayton asked that residents begin checking trees on their property for potential damage that could cause an unexpected fall and injure in-dividuals or damage structures.

“We had such a severe winter – we had trees that took a beat-ing with all the ice and weight

of the snow on the branches,” she said. “One fell down at the Ocean Avenue Playground and it was just terrible to see where it had fallen.”

The borough councilwom-an, who is responsible for pub-lic safety, said that nine other trees appearing to have possible damage were taken down in the playground as a result.

“We are not taking chances – the professional tree guy came down and picked out which

ones were [in poor shape],” she continued. “The healthy ones stayed.”

Mrs. Clayton added that prices for tree removal experts to cut down damaged trees cur-rently appeared lower than nor-mal due to the down economy.

“Companies are looking for work – we had nine trees taken down for less than $1,000,” she said. “I just wanted to make people aware; it can be such a dangerous thing.”

OCEAN GATE – Nearly a year after county engineers condemned the Wildwood Av-enue pier and made a recom-mendation that the pilings sup-porting its adjacent walkway be replaced, inmate workers from the Ocean County Department are steadily pulling decking off the structure to allow an out-side contractor to come in and complete the work before the beach opens for the busy sum-mer season.

The pier itself measures 37 feet by 46 feet while the walk-

way connecting it to the two-story beachfront pavilion is 12 feet wide and 240 feet long. The core support structure of the pier, which Mayor Paul Kenne-dy dated to be anywhere from 50 to 70 years old, has numer-ous rotted pilings and loose hardware, according to the ini-tial report by the county engi-neering department dated last June 24th, and a later follow-up report by the borough en-gineering firm of Remington, Vernick and Vena, dated last June 28th. There are 92 pilings

total slated for replacement.“Specific deficiencies that

the pilings had shown includ-ed section loss, varying piling sizes, pealing at the annual rings, bore holes from worms of significant size, and the pil-ings drying out from old age,” wrote Christopher Jerome, as-sistant engineer with the county following the inspection, which was originally scheduled to be-gin work on moving a stormwa-ter outfall pipe currently to the east of the pier and walkway to run directly underneath.

Photo Courtesy ELIZABETH NICKERSONA.D. Nickerson (left) and B.C. Mayo are shown in California in 1913, likely working on the Beachwood land promotion for the New York Tribune.

Mar. 11th - Mar. 24th, 2011The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

they believe they need to better serve our town,” he added.

Mayor Joseph Champagne declined to comment for this article, and other council mem-bers contacted did not respond at press time. Michael Keene, the previous borough mayor, had made it well known during his term that he was opposed to the purchase.

Captain Russo defended his organization’s need for a new ambulance, citing irreparable issues with their older model.

“There’s no room to work – if you have to perform CPR in there, you can’t move around, there’s one aisle and you can’t get on both sides [of the pa-tient],” he said. “The suspen-sion is too hard – it’s made to hold a lot more weight, and if you have a back or neck injury

from a motor vehicle accident, the last thing you need is to be jarred around in the back of an ambulance.”

The squad also has a second, larger ambulance from 2003, but the 19-year squad veteran noted that the 2002 model it plans to purchase is 20 inches longer.

Rising fuel costs also led to the push for a newer diesel am-bulance, he continued, stating that gas-powered engines cur-rently being rolled out by man-ufacturers would cost the squad and borough more money in the long run due to low fuel ef-ficiency.

“With diesel, if you go to a call and are sitting, you don’t use any fuel,” Captain Russo said. “With gas, you can use a quarter of a tank with one call.”

Payments on the loan for the used model will be made using the $20,000 annual donation it receives from the borough, the $10,000 annual donation it receives from Berkeley Town-ship for responding to calls in Manitou Park and other nearby areas of that municipality, and public contributions. Captain Russo added that he expected the used purchase to last about a decade before requiring re-placement.

Anyone interested in join-ing the South Toms River Vol-unteer First Aid Squad can stop by the squad office or call 732-341-3339. Those interested in contributing towards the squad can send donations to South Toms River Volunteer First Aid Squad, P.O. Box 57, Beachwood, N.J. 08722.

SOUTH TOMS RIVER

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside SignalA new ambulance that South Toms River First Aid Squad Capt. Joseph Russo said the organization would be purchasing for approximately $43,000 was backed into the squad building earlier this week to check that it was able to safely clear the garage door opening.

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside Signal Borough residents will now be able to enjoy the new playground equipment installed across the borough late last month.

Ambulance, continued from front

Mar. 11th - Mar. 24th, 2011 PAGE 3The RIVERSIDE SIGNAL

The triumph of the first walkabout made us all eager to raise the funds and improve our training for Walkabout 2008. We had funds left over from the previous year, and the southern counties of New Jersey called to us. Our next walkabout would take us through South Jersey, the least known of all the areas in the state, where would again meet the goal of planting over a thousand trees and meeting wonderful people along the way, as well as being harassed the Mome Wraiths, those invisi-ble shadow scouts that pelted us with acorns, put money in our paths, and made the monoto-nous miles interesting.

This time, we brought along a trailer, a rickety old item do-nated by a well-wisher, and cob-bled together with screws and duck tape. Immediately upon loading the trailer, our prob-lems began.

On the day before the walk-about, the truck that was sup-posed to haul the trailer over-heated. Our trip was supposed to begin from Waretown, and we were scheduled to leave the next morning, but none of our equipment could be carried to the Assembly of God Church, our starting point. After a trou-bled day, we were woken (as we often were) at 4 am by automat-ic sprinklers in the lawn and started off – through Barnegat, where the whole town turned out, showered us with gifts, and the mayor made breakfast for us. During the first day of the walkabout, the mayor, who owned an ice cream parlor near Tuckerton, treated us to food

and vehicular support. The Barnegat Optimist Club made sure everything went well, and that night, we slept at the Tuck-erton lighthouse.

Over the next several days, we walked the coastline of New Jersey to At-lantic City, where we spent the night and promptly made off to Marmora and points south. Marmora was another ex-tremely friend-ly town, where the mayor’s wife treated us to a barbecue and the youth of Marmora walked the fi-nal miles with us, carrying banners and welcoming us to town. Then it was onto Newport. With the exception of Atlantic City, we were greeted by so many friend-ly towns, and the final decision of which was the friendliest would be extremely difficult. In Newport, we made some friends who decided to join us on our walk. As the three teams, the Tragic Heroes, the Golden Ex-ploding Monkeys, and Double Stuff competed for first place in the standings, we arrived at a primitive survival camp called Coyote Tracks where, on a tour of the grounds, three of our walkers stepped into a wasp’s nest. One of the walkers was stung twenty-two times.

By the time we reached Ber-lin Township, another incred-ibly friendly town, we’d walked 125 miles. In need of some serenity, we camped at a Zen monastery, where the walkers were taught to meditate. From

there, we walked into Chatsworth, and straight into the eye of a terrible thunder-storm. The tents leaked. Well, leaked isn’t exactly accurate. They collect-ed rainwater and deposit-ed it in little lakes inside our tents.

Everyone woke up soaking wet (except Danny Boyle,

who slept in the twenty-eight square inches of tent that were dry). Tired, wet, and faced with the prospect of more rain and a midnight walk, we trudged eight miles more and re-entered Ocean County for the first time since Day Two.

The next day, as guests of the Civil Air Patrol, we camped at Miller Air Park. The Tragic Heroes, the winning team, was treated to a flight that retraced in two hours the entire fourteen day course of the walk, and that night we all slept in past 8 am for the first time on the walk. When we awoke, South Toms River Councilman Ed Mur-

ray arrived with a special gift from the mayor and council of South Toms River: A huge, no-holds-barred breakfast with all the trimmings. Easily the big-gest breakfast of the walk, it was cooked by Mr. Murray and Councilman Oscar Cradle and courtesy of the private dona-tions from the South Toms Riv-er officials themselves as well as the South Toms River Commu-nity Club. After eating, we were able to have a day of leisure and went to Keswick for a swim in the lake, where canoes were also provided. Brother Dorian, a member of Keswick, took us on a tour of the rehabilitation facility and told us the powerful story about how this community of faith and prayer took him away from gang life and helped him find, through a prayer-ful lifestyle, a way beyond peer pressure, gang membership, and addiction. His testimony was very moving and inspira-tional.

The next morning, we com-pleted the short walk into South Toms River. On every light pole heading into town, the names of the walkers had been af-fixed, and townspeople lined up to cheer the walkers home. It was the best homecoming of any walkabout, and as we ended our walk at Wells Chapel, we did the final measurements: We had walked 214.6 miles. And this was just the warm-up. We had the longest, most challeng-ing walk yet to come: Walkabout 2009.

SOUTH TOMS RIVER

Frank Domenico Cipriani

South Toms RiverCommunity Calendar

Council CaucusMeeting

The South Toms River Bor-ough Council will hold its next caucus meeting on Mon-day, March 14th at 7pm in borough hall on Mill Street.

Land Use Board

MeetingThe South Toms River Land

Use Board will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, March 15th at 7pm in borough hall on Mill Street.

Regular Council Meeting

The South Toms River Bor-ough Council will hold its next regular meeting on Monday, March 21st at 7pm in borough hall on Mill Street.

Fire Co. RoastBeef Dinner

On Saturday, March 26th, the Manitou Park Volunteer Fire Company will be hold-ing its annual roast beef din-ner at the Holiday City South clubhouse, located on 139 Santiago Drive at Mule Road, Berkeley Township, from 4 pm to 7 pm.

Advanced tickets may be purchased at the Fort De France Fire Station, located on Fort De France Avenue and Pembroke Lane in Holi-day City, Berkeley Township, on Mondays from 1 pm to 3 pm for $12. Tickets will be sold at the door for $15. 50/50 raffle tickets will also be available.

Dinner will consist of an appetizer, roast beef, gra-vy, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and butter, des-sert and beverages. Music accompaniment will be pro-vided by entertainer Andy Howard.

For more information, please call 732-286-3857 or 732-232-6797.

Seasons of the Gatherer Institute: Part IV The Walkabout 2008


PINE BEACH – It’s not every day one finds oneself writing the next chapter in an 86-year-old family history, but that’s where Sandy Bagge found her-self as she sat watching the de-molition of her father’s approx-imately 70-year-old, blue cedar shake-sided home on the 900 block of Riverside Drive during the first mild patch of weather last month.

Over the course of the next six months, borough residents will have the chance to see a new, updated version of her family home mimicking much of the style and details of the old constructed by Bayville-based builder Joseph Fiumara.

Mrs. Bagge, a retired Win-slow Township School District kindergarten teacher from Wil-liamstown, Gloucester County, inherited the original home and property from her father following his death in early 2009, though her family’s his-tory dates back to the first year Pine Beach broke off from Berkeley Township and incor-porated as a borough.

“[My cousin’s] family started coming to Pine Beach around 1925 and stayed with the Fair-childs on Riverside Drive,” she stated. “At some point they bought a house on Lincoln Av-enue, on the same 900 block.”

According to deed records held in the county archives, the adjacent Riverside Drive home was then owned by a Ms. Florence Louise Ross. William A. Curtin, the father of Mrs. Bagge’s cousin, purchased the waterfront home following the death of his wife, after which he remarried. At the time of pur-chase, 1951, Ms. Ross, who by then had moved to St. Peters-

burg, Florida, sold her home to Mr. Curtin for just $1.

“So in 1964, he had died and his [second] wife decided to remarry, so she sold it to my dad because he always said, ‘If you’re getting ready to sell it, let me have first dibs on it,” stated Mrs. Bagge, who remem-bered visiting Pine Beach dur-ing many of the summers of her own youth, especially the year after her father purchased the home, when she met her hus-band.

The price her father pur-chased the home for was also just $1.

“We used to come down on weekends because my dad worked,” the soon-to-be former Williamstown resident recalled, adding that her father was a vice-president at PNC Bank in charge of commercial loans. “It was great – it was the river, and we had a Sunfish and a Sailfish and we got a motorboat and it was perfect.”

Her father also regaled them with stories of his youth when the Pennsylvania Railroad used to branch across the Toms River to deliver summer resi-dents and vacationers to Island Heights and back. It was during his childhood that he picked up a hobby he carried through the rest of his life: woodworking.

“My dad was really neat with woodwork and everything – he just started from a little boy when they had soap and every-thing and they carved, and his father was into whittling and woodworking and stuff and he continued doing that,” Mrs. Bagge said, adding that in his lifetime he made around seven full-sized carousel animals that his mom painted before she

passed away in the mid-1990s.Besides the carousel animals,

her father also created a piece instantly recognizable to many borough residents and regular travelers along Riverside Drive – the large golden eagle that once adorned the western side of the house.

“The eagle – yes, the eagle is being restored, and it’s go-ing to be put right back on the side of the house,” confirmed Mrs. Bagge. “He did the eagle and he gold leafed it, and the fish that was on the weather-vane that was on the top [of the house]. I’m having both of those repaired and redone, though the fish we’ll put someplace else because I’m not putting that back on top of the roof.”

The retired schoolteacher

said she was looking forward to returning to Pine Beach as a year-round resident.

“To me it’s like a Norman Rockwell kinda thing – you can leave your doors open, you can walk up and down the street, you can walk your dogs at night – it’s just a wholesome kind of feeling that you have when you’re here,” she said. “My dad used to have a hammock be-tween two trees [towards the front of the property], and after my mom died and everything I used to swing in the hammock and he used to swing me and he used to say hello to everyone that walked by.”

“He made so many friends in the neighborhood just by being friendly,” Mrs. Bagge recalled. “It’s just an awesome place.”

PINE BEACH

Rebuilding Pine Beach: A Family Legacy ContinuesBy Philipp Schmidt

Pine Beach Community Calendar

Free Rabies ClinicThe annual Pine Beach free

rabies clinic will be held on Saturday, March 19th from 1 to 2 pm in the borough Public Works yard on Pennsylvania Avenue.

~Council Meeting

The Pine Beach Borough Council will hold its next regu-lar meeting on Monday, March 28th at 7:30 pm in borough hall on Pennsylvania Avenue.

~Library Health Series

The first in a three-part series on health will be-gin on Monday, March 21st at the Beachwood Library, Beachwood Boulevard, with “Calcium: Are You Getting Enough?” Rutgers graduate Jenny Shubert, who is intern-ing with Sodexo-Allentown to become a registered dietician, will be on hand to speak about the importance of calcium and Vitamin D for bone health. Please register, 732-244-4573.

~Author Visit

Author Donna Zappala will visit Beachwood Library, Beachwood Boulevard, on Monday, March 28th to read from her book, “Albert’s Per-fect Pet,” then do a related craft with children ages 4 to 7. Limited to 15 participants, please register, 732-244-4573.

~Join Boy Scouts

Troop 114, Ages 11 through 17. If you enjoy learning life skills, camping, adventure and helping to im-prove your community, call Barry Wieck 732-341-6565.

Riverside Drive Home,Then, Now, & Future


PINE BEACH – Earlier this winter, after noticing a con-tractor’s sign going up in front of the iconic blue cedar shake bungalow on the 900 block of Riverside Drive, we at the Riv-erside Signal got a little curious and wanted to find out more about not only the home and its future but also the builder, longtime area home builder Jo-seph Fiumara.

A week later, while compiling the information for the feature story seen on this page, we had that opportunity while standing in what was the dining room of that circa 1930s home.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how long you’ve been in the business?

I’ve been doing carpentry since basically I got out of high school, and for a while in the Seventies when we were in the Carter years and things were tough, I worked for a lumber yard because there wasn’t a lot of building around. Carpentry has always been my love, and everything else came with it. At first, I was a carpentry contrac-tor, but from doing jobs, you know, getting a following, then being a general contractor – I hand-picked my plumber, elec-trician, and mason. I’m a car-penter, and rather than being an office guy, sending people out to work, I do the work.

I actually went into business in 1980 and I’ve been doing it ever since, so what happens is I’m on the job and can orches-trate and make sure everything

else is being done right, and it’s a bonus because I’m not only the carpenter but also the gen-eral contractor. Brian Cody has been with me for 25 years and we do the carpentry work to-gether.

Have you always been out of Bayville?

When my wife and I got mar-ried in ’72 we moved to Bayville and we’ve been there ever since.

How do you feel about the change in housing styles and wants and needs of the resi-dents over the years, what have you seen that you find interesting?

Well, I guess the most inter-esting thing is that I would hate to be the person who has to re-model houses 20, 30 years from now compared to the houses that I’m now remodeling. The ones that I’m working on were largely built in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s. Back then, we weren’t screwing, we weren’t gluing and we weren’t hurri-cane clipping and doing that

type of thing, so now, with that work that you do today, a young boy who becomes a contractor 30 years from now and goes to rip up the floor, it’s all glued. When he goes to rip down the sheetrock, it’s glued to the studs. You’ve got to back out all the screws, and it’s not as easy. But I like the construction we’re doing today, it’s a lot stronger, and I think it’ll hold up in a

hurricane or whatever. Some people hold affection

for homes like this. How to you respond to those who are critical of demolishing them for new construction?

My opinion is that there’s enough upgraded materials to-day that we can duplicate the look but your money isn’t go-ing to be going out the window

Joe Fiumara

PINE BEACH

Almost a decade has passed since the deteriorating build-ings on the Pine Beach campus of Admiral Farragut Academy were put out of their misery by the wrecking ball, the school it-self having fallen victim the pre-vious decade to a sharp drop in enrollment, lack of funds and, therefore, a lack of ability to pay its debts and maintain its facili-ties.

While today boxy luxury homes and a rechristened boat yard and public recreational park exist in the space once oc-cupied by the grand campus, the school itself having relocat-ed entirely to its southern cam-pus at St. Petersburg, Florida, area residents may take note that a book partly celebrating the nearly 61 years America’s first preparatory school with naval training stood on the southern shore of the Toms River was recently published.

“A Tale of Two Campuses”, written and compiled by Admi-ral Farragut Academy Rear Ad-miral Richard G. Wheeler and published by Admiral Farragut Academy to commemorate the

75th anniversary of the school’s founding along the Toms Riv-er, chronicles the early Pine Beach beginnings of the school through its operation today as a modern military college prep boarding and honor naval school in Florida.

Split into three chapters ac-cording to time period – 1933 to 1945, when Pine Beach was the original and sole campus; 1945 to 1994, from the year St. Petersburg’s campus and op-erated simultaneously as Pine Beach; and 1994 to present day, from the year the Pine Beach campus closed through the continued operations of the re-maining Florida campus – the hardbound book is largely built on top of a structure provided by a detailed 1993 historical ab-stract on the school written by the late Captain Frederick Nel-son Klein, Jr. USN.

While the contemporary op-erations and even existence of a southern campus may be a sur-prise to some area residents, the bulk of attention will likely fall upon the early section, which peppers firsthand accounts, pe-

riod correspondence, archival photographs and academy peo-ple profiles along the historical narrative of the northern Pine Beach campus through World War II.

“How well we remember the appearance of the grounds when we first arrived,” wrote the Class of 1937’s historian in a reprinted yearbook page, where he recalled the school’s transition from a Tudor Re-vival style hotel built in 1910 to an expanding academic cam-pus. “Farragut Hall has not changed much but where the gymnasium now stands, there was the barn which served as garage when Farragut Hall was the Pine Beach Inn. One of Jer-sey’s pine forests flourished on the ground which Du Pont Hall now occupies...”

As the campus expanded in both size and enrollment, so did the threat and eventual outbreak of war, as evidenced by reprinted statements from school founder and retired United States Navy Rear Admi-ral, Samuel S. Robison:

“Graduates of the Class of

PINE BEACH – Chief John M. Sgro reported the following recent activity of the Pine Beach Borough Police Department:

- On Saturday, January 1st, a 16-year-old Toms River male, whose name was withheld be-cause he is a juvenile, was ar-rested and charged with driving while intoxicated, and Giana Raheb, 19, also of Toms River was arrested and charged with allowing an unlicensed person to drive and allowing an intoxi-cated person to drive.

Patrolman Christian Long-hitano observed a 2006 white Chevrolet traveling north-bound on Route 9 operating erratically. Upon stopping the vehicle, it was determined that the operator was allowed to op-erate the vehicle due to the fact that the vehicle’s owner and passenger, Ms. Raheb, was also under the influence.

The juvenile also received multiple motor vehicle viola-tions.

• On Friday, January 7th,

a resident on the 200 block of Linden Avenue reported his mailbox had been vandalized. Patrolwoman Natalie Balista is investigating.

• On Monday, January 17th, Jonathan Desantis-Joiner, 21, of Bayville, was arrested and charged with driving while in-toxicated.

At approximately 12:28 am, Ptl. Longhitano observed a red 1994 Mazda pickup traveling north on Route 9 in excess of the speed limit. Upon stopping the vehicle it was determined that the operator was also un-der the influence.

In addition to the DWI charge, Mr. Desantis-Joiner was charged with speeding, failure to inspect, failure to produce documents and reckless driv-ing.

• On Thursday, January 20th, Ptl. Balista took a report of theft of 80 feet of copper wire from the JCP&L substation within the borough.

• On Tuesday, January 25th,

Pine Beach Police Report Recent Activity

“A Tale of Two Campuses” Book Review

23 Minutes with Joseph Fiumara, Area Builder

By Erik Weber

By Philipp Schmidt

By Erik Weber

cont. on page 16 cont. on page 15

cont. on page 16


OCEAN GATE – Half a de-cade after a similar proposal was turned down by officials, here, a new reworked plan to install a limited recreation area between Adrian Hall and the Ocean Gate train station museum received a tentatively positive response at this week’s council workshop meeting.

Council President Richard Russell distributed a rough sketch to fellow governing body members outlining the installa-tion of three bocce ball courts in the borough-owned open green space, stating that while it was an early concept, he hoped it would provide added recreational value to residents.

“Right now I think we could do this pretty inexpensively and have a nice little place for peo-

ple to play bocce,” he said.The earlier plan also includ-

ed horseshoe pits and a bad-minton court that Mr. Russell said was “shot down” because of safety fears due to a more crowded use for the area with regard to the danger of thrown horseshoes.

“I think this is a pretty rea-sonable and easy way to set up nice recreation events and maybe even a bocce association [down the line],” he said.

After conducting an unoffi-cial poll of the governing body for general support to move forward in researching the cost and procedure for installing the three courts, which would run parallel to East Cape May Avenue, Mayor Paul Kennedy confirmed their positive re-

sponse.He noted that several trees

on the property would need to be removed regardless the plan’s final approval, as they were dead and could pose a potential danger if left stand-ing. Several other trees would also be looked at for removal, including those overhanging Adrian Hall and the parking area for borough police patrol cars.

“The area needs to be cleaned up,” the mayor said.

Councilwoman Joella Nica-stro inquired whether Mr. Rus-sell had considered looking at creating a new recreation area at the green space commonly known as “First Aid Park,” as it was a much larger area.

Mayor Kennedy stated that

the property was privately owned by the Ocean Gate First Aid Squad, not the borough.

The councilwoman was pleased with the idea and noted that “when you want to make something like this it has to be enticing and comfortable for anyone to be there,” adding that adequate seating, shade and access to public bathrooms would also need to be installed or otherwise available.

Mayor Kennedy requested Mr. Russell start to put togeth-er pricing on the install of the courts and associated recre-ation amenities and return with the figures at a future govern-ing body meeting.

OCEAN GATE

Adrian Hall Recreation Area Proposed

cont. on page 12

By Erik Weber

Ocean Gate’s Pennsylvania Railroad station, built in 1909 and shown here during operation in the early 20th century, was moved from its original location to the corner of Asbury and Cape May avenues when the Ocean Gate Historical Society purchased it in 1990.

Restored closely to its original appearance, present-day patrons may see a variety of railroad artifacts, including memorabilia, charts, maps, the original ticket counter, station lamps and a number of tools besides other displays of borough history.Check back in the next issue of the Signal for a look at the Ocean Gate Historical Society.

Ocean Gate Community Calendar

Free Karate ClassesFree karate classes are of-

fered every Friday from 6 pm to 7 pm in Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue to all borough residents.

Council MeetingThe Ocean Gate Borough

Council will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, March 23rd at 7 pm in bor-ough hall on Ocean Gate Av-enue.

First Aid Aux Spring Breakfast

The Ocean Gate First Aid Auxiliary will host a Spring Pancake & Eggs Breakfast on Sunday, March 20th from 8 am to noon in Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue. A cake sale, Easter dinner raffle and 50/50 will also be held during the event.Tickets are $5 for adults and

$2 for children under the age of 12. All proceeds benefit the Ocean Gate First Aid Squad. For more information, please call Sheryl Ann Roselli at 267-444-1586.


OCEAN GATE – Following comments made during this week’s council meeting by a res-ident concerned with the cur-rent state of the borough bas-ketball courts, here, Mayor Paul Kennedy revealed that 31-year-old Ocean Gate Avenue resi-dent Stanley Moore had come forward with a plan to begin a youth basketball group to help maintain and utilize the courts.

“He wants to have a youth group, so to speak, but it’s go-ing to be a basketball clinic,” he said, adding that background checks would be required for anybody operating the pro-gram. “There is no cost in-volved obviously in using the basketball courts so if the coun-cil so chooses he will put a plan together mid-week next week and go from there.”

The borough council unani-mously approved the idea.

“What he wants to do is run

a clinic open to first graders through high school students to show them how to play bas-ketball, [to] teach the funda-mentals,” the mayor continued, adding that Mr. Moore also sought to have participants help with the upkeep of the courts by painting the lines and generally curtail any possible vandalism by giving the youth a vested in-terest in the town.

Following the meeting, Mr. Moore discussed his plan fur-ther.

“I actually came up with the idea with a couple of friends of mine,” he said. “We were out there playing on the basketball court and I had my kids outside there, and they’re playing with their friends and they’re trying to get their own full court game going, and, you know, it’s hard to sit back and watch the kids [when] they need training.”

“If it’s something they’re

interested in, then I want to pursue it,” the Ocean Gate Av-enue resident continued. “Even though it’s something that may be minute, I just want to make some kind of difference.”

Community support, Mr. Moore added, was growing.

“So far I have the [Ocean Gate School] PTA vice-presi-dent, president, a couple family friends that live in the neigh-borhood and a couple of parents that live in the neighborhood,” he said, “plus most of the teens – they’re all for it, too, and they all actually volunteered to paint the lines out there with me.”

Hoping to get the program off the ground by the summer season with the help of borough volunteers, Mr. Moore said that those interested could call him “anytime of day” on his cell-phone at 609-891-5844.

OCEAN GATE – Two or-dinances increasing the rates for boat moorings and cat and dog license fees were approved on second reading following a public hearing, here, during this week’s council meeting.

Boat moorings were in-creased from $1 per running foot before June 15th and $2 per running foot after to a flat $2 per running foot.

Cat licenses were increased to $8 per year if neutered/spayed, up from $5; $11 per year if not neutered/spayed, up from $8; $11 for a three-year license if neutered/spayed, up from $8; and $13 per three-year license if not neutered/spayed, up from $11.

Dog licenses were increased to $10 per year if neutered/spayed, up from $8; $13 per year if not neutered/spayed, up from $11; $25 for a three-year license if neutered/spayed, up from $20; and $35 if not neu-tered/spayed, up from $30.

An earlier provision which Ocean Gate Borough Attorney James Gluck said was mistak-enly included in the moor-ing license fee increase, plac-ing a length limit of 25 feet to moored boats, was removed by amendment by the borough council prior to passage. West Point Pleasant Avenue resident Rosemary Kindon questioned its removal.

“Isn’t there a safety issue

with an unlimited boat size?” she asked.

Mayor Paul Kennedy said that he believed a limit was never included in the original ordinance, as the offshore area was generally “too shallow” for boats much larger than 25 feet, and that “as far as safety, size doesn’t matter – we had two jet ski incidents last summer.”

Mrs. Kindon asked whether something could be done with moored boats repeatedly wash-ing onto the beachfront during storm events. Mayor Kennedy admitted that the borough had seen “the same guy lose his boat four times” in a season.

Ocean Gate Avenue resident Katherine Ranuro questioned

whether the new flat boat moor-ing fee was lower, the same, or higher than surrounding river-front municipalities.

“Won’t we have more people mooring their boats to have the cheaper fee?” she asked.

Mayor Kennedy replied that while he did not have exact numbers, his understanding was that the borough’s rate was “average” when compared to the surrounding towns.

“I think the council should hold off on voting until you know [the rates from adjacent municipalities],” Ms. Ranuro replied.

The council approved the fee increase unanimously.

East Bayview Avenue resi-dent Lou Purcaro inquired whether the borough had con-sidered giving its residents a lower rate in comparison to non-residents as “people are coming from other places and residents of our community can’t put their boats anywhere

near where they live.”Councilwoman Joella Nicas-

tro explained the flat increase to be a result of the difficulty for the borough to inspect every boat on the water that applies for a permit.

Following passage,George Althouse, an East Lakewood Av-enue resident and the borough public works supervisor, stated that the borough should consid-er penalties for boats that wash up along the shoreline.

“[The council] should think about either a fine or a revoke of mooring privilege,” he said.

Ocean Gate Police Chief Re-ece Fisher agreed and had an additional suggestion.

“I think there should be a provision added that would include a declaration of when there’s a municipal emergency, all moored boats must be re-moved,” he said, citing an im-pending severe storm or other unforeseen issue.

OCEAN GATEBoat Mooring, Cat/Dog License Fee Increases Approved

Boro May See Youth Basketball Program

By Erik Weber

By Philipp Schmidt

Should the county install the drain pipe under present condi-tions, he continued, “these piles will either splinter, loosening the bolts holding our pipe sup-port system, or break (the weak-er piles), both of which causing our proposed outlet pipe to not function properly.”

During this week’s borough council meeting, Manahawkin-based Buterick Bulkheading was approved as the contractor with the lowest bid to perform the pier and walkway replace-ment at a cost of $110,881.55, with funds tentatively appro-priated from the introduction and first reading of a bond or-dinance.

Mayor Paul Kennedy stated that while the contract speci-fications with Buterick Bulk-heading calls for a “complete demolition” of the pier and walkway, he felt it would be pru-dent to utilize the county cor-rections workers to “take the decking off and try to reuse it someplace else,” as the decking itself is only two years old.

Following the replacement of the piling, he continued, the county would then be able to relocate the 24-inch storm wa-ter outfall pipe, after which the borough and county would work together on installing decking on the new support structure.

Wildwood Pier, continued from front


ADMIRAL FARRAGUT ACADEMY

A photo page from the 1935-36 yearbook shows life at Admiral Farragut Academy before World War II.

This photograph, from the 1934-35 yearbook, shows Admiral Farragut Academy’s sub chaser in the waters of the Toms River. It later served in America’s fight during World War II at Normandy.

A boys’ summer camp was run at the school from the 1930s to the 1980s, allowing interested youths the opportunity to experience a taste of naval training at an early age.

Admiral Farragut Academy, November 1933. Less than six months since the shuttered Pine Beach Inn was acquired for America’s first preparatory school with naval training, this aerial photo shows the grounds barely touched by theacademy’s presence. A snow swept and foreboding scene, its first class of cadets can be seen running drills in the newly dedicated sports field.

Cadets are shown on the academy docks in the late 1940s/1950s.


THE EARLY YEARS

Admiral Farragut Academy allowed cadets their pick of a wide range of sports, including baseball, as seen in this photograph from the 1935-36 yearbook.

This two seater plane was utilized by the school during the 1930s and can be seen parked on the Pine Beach Inn’s old front porch. rechristened for Farragut Hall.

Admiral Farragut Academy, November 1933. Less than six months since the shuttered Pine Beach Inn was acquired for America’s first preparatory school with naval training, this aerial photo shows the grounds barely touched by theacademy’s presence. A snow swept and foreboding scene, its first class of cadets can be seen running drills in the newly dedicated sports field.

“Toms River offers a beautiful backround to the Corps of Cadets during a Sunday afternoon dress parade. Parades are held every Sunday during the Fall and Spring.”

A diving suit containing oxygen and helium is tested in the waters off Pine Beach and Admiral Farragut Academy in the late 1940s/1950s.


BEACHWOOD – Work on the water main replacement project on Locker Street hit a speed bump when last week the contracting firm in charge, DSC Construction of Bayville, twice had the borough water de-partment shut off the water to perform work without notifying residents.

Council President Ronald Roma reported that the first water main shutoff occurred on Tuesday, March 1st, and the second on the following day.

“It was not in accordance with our contract,” he said, add-ing that notification is required of the contractor to terminate water service to any area in the borough. “This could have been avoided.”

Borough Engineer James Oris, of the firm T & M Asso-

ciates, stated that the first shut-off affected “approximately 50 people,” and that the shutoff area “was larger than it needed to be.” The second shutoff was smaller, he added, affecting three homes.

Mr. Roma said that a new public telephone notification call service, which will allow the council to target specific ar-eas of the borough for routine maintenance alerts or emergen-cy situations, is currently under discussion and could have been utilized to easily notify the resi-dents prior to shutoff.

“The employees should have asked if notification was made, especially after the [first] mis-take,” he continued. “They failed to do that.”

From now on, the council president added, water shutoffs

BEACHWOOD

cont. on next page 15

cont. on page 14

Water Tower School Logo Resized

Water Shutoff Surprises ResidentsBy Philipp Schmidt

By Erik Weber

BeachwoodCommunity Calendar

Land Use Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Beachwood Land Use Board will be on Monday, March 14th at 7 pm in borough hall on Pinewald Road.

~

Council Meeting The Beachwood Borough

Council will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, March 16th at 7 pm in bor-ough hall on Pinewald Road. At that meeting, awards will be given to winners of the borough’s annual snowman building contest.

~

Municipal Alliance Dance Cancelled

The monthly dance hosted by the Beachwood Municipal Alliance has been cancelled due to ongoing annual reno-vation and cleaning work at the Beachwood Community Center. The next dance will be held on Friday, April 8th.

~

Happy Birthday, Beachwood Borough! Beachwood celebrates its

94th “birthday” as a borough on Tuesday, March 22nd.

~

Library Health Series The first in a three-part

series on health will be-gin on Monday, March 21st at the Beachwood Library, Beachwood Boulevard, with “Calcium: Are You Getting Enough?” Rutgers graduate Jenny Shubert, who is intern-ing with Sodexo-Allentown to become a registered dieti-cian, will be on hand to speak about the importance of cal-cium and Vitamin D for bone health. Please register, 732-244-4573.

~

BEACHWOOD - As work wraps up on repainting the borough name and elementary school logo on the borough’s 300,000 gallon water tower, located between Locker Street and Railroad Avenue, here, one final adjustment was made dur-ing last week’s borough council meeting to allow area residents and visitors a better look at the updated school mascot logo.

The logo and lettering work, along with the reinstallation of various cellphone service an-tennas by their respective com-panies, represents the tail end of the overall rehabilitation project of the approximately 40-year-old tower that began last fall.

Following a mid-afternoon request by Councilwoman Bev-erly Clayton to the governing body to go on-site and inspect the detailed painting work ear-lier in the week, Council Presi-dent Ronald Roma said that he and James Oris, the borough engineer, agreed to halt work on Beachwood Elementary School’s “Beachwood Bear” logo, as it appeared far too small from the ground.

The logo was originally to have been a bear’s face, painted blue, encircled with the words “Beachwood Bears.”

“It was very difficult to see,” stated Mr. Roma, who noted that while the adjacent lettering of the borough’s name around the tank was also replaced with smaller versions than originally approved, the new letters were “within an inch or two of the old letters.”

Mr. Oris stated that with council approval, he would have

the painting contractor elimi-nate the words “Beachwood Bears” in order to double the size of the bear itself from four feet to eight feet in diameter.

Mrs. Clayton asked the en-gineer to see if the contractor could make it slightly larger if possible.

The design change was ap-proved unanimously by the bor-ough council.

And in other news of the borough council:

• Berkeley Avenue resident Jeff Milewski, who recently purchased a home across from the soccer fields at the south-

ernmost end of that road, ap-proached the borough council with a complaint that the trash cans at the fields were inad-equate in retaining their con-tents, especially during windy days, and that trash had been blowing onto his property in the past few weeks.

The fields were built by the Beachwood Soccer Club in the 1970s and are today shared between that organization and Toms River Intermediate South, which opened in 2005.

“The trash cans are made of wire mesh and are very light, and they tip over,” he said.

Jakes Branch Park Programs

Nature & History: Reptiles and Amphibians of the Pines

A Nature & History program on Reptiles and Amphibians of the Pine Barrens will be held on Monday, March 14th from 7 to 9 pm at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. Learn about these creatures and get an up close look at several live speci-mens.

~Indoor “Gardens” for Kids Add color to your home to

brighten up the dreary winter days on Saturday, March 19th from 10 am to noon in the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. Decorate a pot made from recy-cled materials and bring home a new houseplant. Participants will learn the different ways that plants grow and spread and how houseplants make our homes healthier. Please regis-ter. Cost is $8 per child, ages 6 to 9 years, maximum 15 partici-pants.

~Night Jaunt & Campfire

Brave the chill and join park staff for a brisk two mile night walk to enjoy the quiet of wintertime under a full moon on Saturday, March 19th from 7:30 to 9:30 pm beginning at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. The night will end with a toasty campfire. Bring some marshmallows to roast and a comfy chair. Caution: night hike, uneven ground. Please register. Cost is $10 per person, ages 6 to adult, maximum 20 participants.

~Live Animal Talk

A live animal talk will be held on Sunday, March 20th from 1 pm to 1:30 pm for all ages at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. This event is free and no registration is re-quired.

~Nature Time Together

Enjoy the wonders of na-ture with your child with this program focusing on Nifty Nature Knickknacks. Children and parents will learn about nature through stories, interac-tive games and craft making on Monday, March 21st from 10 to 11 am at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. Some programs will feature live animals! Cost is $4 per child aged 4 to 5 years, $4 per adult, maximum 15 par-ticipants.

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ERIK WEBER, the Riverside Signal Vinnie Epple is greeted by Scott and Bill Stueber from Troop 70 as he crosses over from Cub Scout Pack 114 to Boy Scout Troop 70 during the former’s blue and gold banquet held late last month in the Pine Beach Fire Company’s hall.

Pack 114 Blue & Gold


ning from Cedar Point [at to-day’s South Toms River] to the head of Squally Cove, where it meets the Buhler property, now a part of the Pine Beach tract [Pine Beach not having been incorporated until 1925; the land then was mainly known to visitors for the railroad that ex-tended across the Toms River to Island Heights]. It extends back across both railroads and west to the Dover road [later, South Toms River], while on the south it abuts the Barnegat Park tract [in Berkeley Township, later the site of yet another notori-ous land promotion named Pinewald, through which was built the Royal Pines Hotel that stands today as Crystal Lake Healthcare. It’s interesting to consider that Pinewald could have incorporated itself as a borough separate from Berke-ley Township as Beachwood, Pine Beach and Ocean Gate had if it succeeded in its time].

The land then changed hands from Nickerson to Mayo to Stanley D. Brown, trustee of the New York Tribune. Mystery still surrounds these transac-tions as no money ever changed hands between the sheriff ’s

sale to Nickerson, Nickerson to Mayo, and Mayo to the Tribune, yet Nickerson had already be-gun surveying the land well be-fore a deal was set, setting aside a few choice plots, including the site where he would even-tually build his family home across from the entrance to Cold Spring and Spiles Point, later Beachwood Beach; Mayo wound up owning virtually all of the waterfront area proper-ty and 5,000 lots in the tract’s southernmost “hinterland”, all of which would eventually be sold in perpetuity in December 1917 to the newly incorporated Borough of Beachwood for the original per-lot price of $19.60 for public and municipal use.

But that wouldn’t be for a while. Mayo, Nickerson and the Tribune would first face the threat of charges brought by the U.S. District Attorney’s of-fice and U.S. Postal Service at the behest and urging of the Hearst company and its report-er, even while Nickerson was busy directing workmen to cut and blast his grid of streets out of the knotty, dense pine forest.

Over the next eight months, while Nickerson busied himself

with the land survey and subse-quent layout of the new streets and avenues, Mayo, in his office at the Tribune Building in New York, worked out the details of the promotion. An item in the October 23rd. 1914 New Jersey Courier stated:

“The Berkeley Township committee at its meeting last week abandoned a number of roads where they cross over the Beachwood (formerly known as Pine Bay) tract… the roads abandoned are: the old Double Trouble road; part of the old Cedar Creek highway; Buhler’s road; a branch of Buhler’s road; and the old road running into the old Double Trouble road, beginning where the county road crosses the [Pennsylvania Railroad].

“As part of the agreement for vacating these roads, Mr. Nickerson, who represents the new owners of the property, has announced that the tract will be laid out in streets, so that these roads will be unnecessary.”

One week later, October 30th, the Tribune announced to the Toms River area its plans in the pages of the Courier, likely when the land officially

changed hands from Nicker-son and Mayo to their owner-ship. Its headline proclaimed, “New York Tribune to Develop the Beachwood Tract at Spiles Point”. This announcement predated any such notice post-ed in their own newspaper, as well as any official promotional materials.

“One of the largest real es-tate deals that has been made in Toms River in many years was concluded this week, when the two thousand acre tract ad-joining the town and known as Pine Bay tract was acquired by representatives of the New York Tribune. This will mean much to the future prosperity of Toms River, for the Tribune intends to improve the property and make of it a large summer re-sort. A club house will be erect-ed on the shore of the river, also a yacht club building, bath-ing pavilion, bathing wharves, etc. The tract will be known as Beachwood, and it is expected that it will be the future sum-mer home of many well known New York people, who will have their cottages there. The project is under the direct supervision of B.C. Mayo of the New York

BEACHWOOD – Lt. Robert L. Tapp reported the following recent activity of the Beach-wood Borough Police Depart-ment:

• On Monday, February 28th, borough police respond-ed to a burglary at a residence on the 1300 block of Mizzen Avenue.

The unknown person(s) en-tered by breaking a window, and jewelry was reported stolen.

Anyone with information on this incident may contact Det. Sean Langan at 732-286-6000 ext. 184.

• On Tuesday, March 1st, borough police responded to a report of theft from a vehicle on the 700 block of Forecastle Avenue.

A GPS system was reported stolen in the evening hours while the vehicle was left un-locked.

• On Wednesday, March 2nd, borough police responded to a report of theft from a ve-hicle on the 1300 block of Spray Avenue.

Copper cables were reported stolen.

• On Wednesday, March 2nd, borough police responded to a report of theft from a ve-hicle on the 1200 block of Mer-maid Avenue.

Copper wiring and tools

were reported stolen. • On Monday, March 7th,

Erik Nilsen, 21, of Longboat Avenue, was arrested and taken into custody by borough police following a report of a vehicle taken without consent on the 200 block of Forepeak Avenue.

Following the initial report, the vehicle returned and bor-ough police also returned, ar-resting Mr. Nilsen for outstand-ing warrants and possession of drug paraphernalia including one hypodermic syringe.

Mr. Nilsen was brought to the Ocean County Jail.

• On Monday, March 7th, borough police responded to a report of windows broken at a residence on the 1100 block of Ocean Avenue.

No burglary was reported and the damage was considered criminal mischief.

Anyone with information on this incident may contact Det. Sean Langan at 732-286-6000 ext. 184.

• On Tuesday, March 8th, borough police responded to a report by borough workers that the bathroom door handle at the soccer field concession stands on Berkeley Avenue and Cherry Street was “ripped off.”

Anyone with information on any of the above incidents may contact borough police at 732-286-6000.

BEACHWOOD


Beachwood Police Report Recent Activity

Pack 70 Blue & Gold

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside SignalWinners from Cub Scout Pack 70’s Pinewood Derby stand for a group photo during their blue and gold banquet dinner earlier this month.

Building Beachwood, continued from front

Jakes Branch Park Programs

Fireside Storytelling & Craftmaking

On Thursday, March 24th from 10:30 am to 11:30 am, join in for a story told in front of a warm fire at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. After-wards, children will get to make a craft related to the story. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Please register. Cost is $4 per child ages 2 ½ to 5 years, $4 per adult, maximum 15 participants.

~Nature Walk: Geological

Features of Jakes Branch Learn how geology played a

part in the topography, types of soil and plant species found in Jakes Branch Park during this nature walk on Friday, March 25th from 9 am to 10:30 am. Cost is $6 per person, ages 9 to adult, maximum 20 partici-pants.

~Night of the Stars

Spend the night under the stars and up on the five story observation tower overlooking the Pinelands with the Astro-nomical Society of the Toms River Area (A.S.T.R.A.) on Sat-urday, March 26th from 7:45 pm to 9:30 pm at the Jakes Branch Park Nature Center. If you’re a budding astronomer or stargazer, this night is for you. Volunteer members of the club will be onsite with telescopes to share their out-of-this-world knowledge and answer all of your questions about the great unknown. Participants who own their own telescope are in-vited to bring them along. Club members will be happy to give you pointers on how to find the planets and locate constella-tions. Free, all ages, no registra-tion required.

~Registration Information

Unless otherwise stated, all programs require registration along with payment in full at time of registration. Anyone attending a program or trip, without registering in advance, must pay by check or money or-der (cash is unacceptable). Par-ticipants will only be permitted upon availability.

Registration for programs designated as “FREE” may be placed by calling Cattus Island County Park at 732-270-6960 on or after the registration date listed.

Special assistance/accommo-dations available upon request.

For program availability or a newsletter please call Jakes Branch County Park, Beach-wood at 732-281-2750

By Philipp Schmidt


ISLAND HEIGHTS – This past weekend, the Ocean County Artists’ Guild held their monthly opening reception showing the work of two area members, Whiting-based acryl-ic artist Honey Stapleton and Debbie Jencsik, a Point Pleasant artist whose work blends oils and oily mediums “to produce rich, robust portions of paint.” The event, which is held in the guild’s 130-year-old Victorian home at Ocean and Chestnut avenues, here, welcomed a mul-titude of guests warming them-selves among the bright colors adorning the walls while the rain fell steadily outside.

Revels: Expressions in Truth

Walking through the first gallery’s exhibition space, pa-trons were greeted by an array of colors, shapes and interpre-tations from Mrs. Jencsik, who stated her intention to “cel-ebrate imperfections, thereby producing character and prom-inence.”

Recalling her first introduc-tion to art, the northern Ocean County-based artist described an aunt who she would watch paint canvases at home.

“When I was very young and we would visit her, she would be sitting in her kitchen with her easel, and I was just so incred-ibly intrigued by it that I had to run and draw something,” she said. “It started like untouch-able; the mystique about watch-ing her work behind her easel.”

“I think it’s just something that, you know, I was born to do,” Mrs. Jencsik added.

Having spent her formative years in her hometown of Iselin, Middlesex County, Ms. Jencsik studied art in Middlesex Coun-ty College under renowned art-ist Harry I. Naar.

“He was extremely inspi-rational and also predicted that I would, after college, get married and have kids and not paint for about 20 years,” she said. “That’s pretty much what I did.”

Following a degree in fine arts from Kean University, Mrs. Jencsik and her husband, Tom, had their first child, Ryan, in 1980, with Jesse and Lexie fol-lowing in 1982 and 1988, re-spectively.

“So I took care of my most treasured works of art, my fam-ily, and then re-entered the art scene through this guild may-be around 15 years ago,” she continued. “Beyond that I just rented studio space to explore my own voice in painting and

have been on that journey ever since.”

Mrs. Jencsik’s large, rich oil-based work is an integration of “imagination, expression and articulation,” according to her

printed gallery statement. “De-licious colors are individually mixed on paper plates, much like soupy ice cream, then scooped up and applied with a palette knife. In due time, there is an array of plates all across the table as if I am preparing some exotic dessert.”

“Interesting changes occur as a result of employing this process. As the painting ages, the initial smooth skin-like sur-face of the canvas transforms into a highly textured wrinkled complexion,” she continued. “I have often said that the paint-ing continues to paint itself, long after the dialogue has ended.”

Speaking about other wom-en who may have set aside their art for family, she added, “You have to carve out the time to do your art, and it’s invested time. I would recommend even a spe-cial place in your house that’s yours and where you can make your mess and leave it. For years, I would work out of my house in my basement. I would paint out of my closet if I had to – it’s just that important.”

Mrs. Jencsik’s website can be found at www.deborahjencsik.com.

This and That from Here and There

Switching gears, the sec-ond gallery offered a look at a sampling of the work Honey Stapleton, which featured ob-jects, landscapes, buildings and animals done in acrylic, some of which was influenced by her life as the child of a navy service-man station in the American

Embassy in Peiping, China.The now Whiting-based art-

ist spoke about that childhood during the reception.

“As children, you always learn the language easier than

adults, so my brother and I did all the interpreting because we spoke fluent Mandarin, which they speak in northern China,” she said. “We would go shop-ping with [my parents] and we would do all the interpretations and the bargaining.”

“So now I know how to bar-gain,” she laughed.

“We lived all over the world and you just took it for granted that you were in a new place,” Mrs. Stapleton continued. “I did have a hard time when we came back because in first grade, back in the Neanderthal age when I was in first grade, you had to write with your right hand. Well, I’m left-handed, ex-tremely left-handed, and some-how or another I started talk-

ing Chinese again and writing backwards because that’s what I knew and I didn’t know how to use my right hand.”

Before long, her parents agreed to place her in a private school.

“I was allowed to use my left hand, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” she added.

As she entered high school, her growing interest in art be-came evident to her classmates.

“If on a free period they couldn’t find me, they’d look in the art room and there I was,” Mrs. Stapleton recalled, who graduated and entered the Par-sons School of Design in New York City, after which she fol-lowed a career in commercial art, winning the first-ever inter-national display award granted to Sears while in her first posi-tion there.

Preferring acrylic as her me-dium, Mrs. Stapleton said she likes it more than oil because “other than working faster than you do in oil, you can treat it like oil, and you can treat it like watercolor.”

“It depends upon how you use it, or you can of course use it as acrylic, so that makes it a very nice medium,” she contin-

ued. “You can work in different media and come out with dif-ferent effects, [or] you can use acrylic and come out with dif-ferent effects and you’re only using one type of paint, so that is fun.”

Mrs. Stapleton’s work can be found in her online gallery at www.cybergaffer.org/aghoney-stapleton.html. A new website featuring her “Art of the Pines” work will be available in April at http://artofthepines.weebly.com.

ISLAND HEIGHTS

Eastern Influences & Exploring ImperfectionThis Month at the Ocean County Artists’ Guild:

Island HeightsCommunity Calendar

Paws for ReadingChildren ages 5- 10 can

practice their reading with trained therapy dogs on Mon-day, March 14th at the Island Heights Library on Central Avenue. Space is limited to 20 children.

~St. Pat’s Day

Storytime & Craft Visit the library for stories,

activities and treats at 4pm on Friday, March 18th at the Is-land Heights Library on Cen-tral Avenue.

~Unlacing the

Victorian Woman This program explains

woman’s roles in Victorian society, daily routines and so-cial customs and etiquette at 7pm on Monday, March 21st at the Island Heights Library on Central Avenue. Space is limited to 20 people.

~Spring: Get Your Garden Growing

A presentation will be made by the Master Gardeners of Ocean County on Monday, March 21st at 7 pm in the Is-land Heights United Method-ist Church on Ocean Avenue. Program includes free home-made refreshments and a gift basket door prize to one lucky attendee.

~Council Meeting

The next meeting of the Is-land Heights Borough Coun-cil will be on Tuesday, March 22nd at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex on East End and Van Sant av-enues.

Do you have an Island Heights community meet-ing, sports game, fund-raiser or event you’d like to see here? Write us at P.O Box 93, Beachwood, N.J. 08722, e-mail [email protected] or call 732-664-1043 and get it listed!

ERIK WEBER, the Riverside SignalOcean County Artist Guild member Debbie Jencsik poses before her painting, Beach Walk.

ERIK WEBER, the Riverside SignalOcean County Artists’ Guild member Honey (Clare) Stapleton poses before her painting, Live Oak.

By Erik Weber


Renninger’s Mid-Winter Classic Indoor Antiques and Collectors Show was held at the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, Pennsylva-nia over the weekend of Febru-ary 26th and 27th. A large show with something for every col-lector, it had over 125 dealers primarily from Penn-sylvania, but also some sur-rounding states and even as far as Michi-gan and Ontario, Canada.

The dealers from Good Earth of Cream Ridge, Monmouth County were sell-ing Victorian silverplate napkin rings, Steiff teddy bears, vin-tage costume jewelry and pa-perweights. The paperweights were exceptionally nice, espe-

cially one made by Baccarat in 1847 that was priced at over $3,000. Others were by Saint Louis and priced at $625. A number of factices were also on hand, which are huge oversized perfume bottles once displayed in department stores, and to-day range in price from $100 to

$600.Folk art,

painted furniture, cast iron mechani-cal banks from the late 1800s and carni-val items and game wheels

were on display by Finish Line Collectibles of

Campbelltown, Pennsylvania, including a Fat Lady bean bag toss game, made of iron and plated, which was priced at $4,500. The dealer, Stephan Boyer, said that collectors buy

from him to decorate their game rooms, kitchens and fam-ily rooms. He also had several redware fruit banks that were made at the turn of the last cen-tury, including a folk-painted apple bank priced at $225. Not many have survived because there was only one way to get the money out.

Imagine Antiques from New-town, Pennsylvania had histori-cal art work for sale, including portraits of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Theo-dore Roosevelt. Also on display were Bradley & Hubbard book-ends, letter holders, some Li-moges, and Roseville pottery. A large selection of historical plates by Roland & Marsellus of Staffordshire, England that were made between 1900 and 1910 for the American market were priced between $60 and $120. A McCoy dog bowl, Man’s Best Friend, from the 1940s found a buyer for $75, while a 46-star flag, which was only in use between 1908 and 1912, or the period after Oklahoma be-

ISLAND HEIGHTS

Antiques, Etc. with Patricia H. Burke

Fire Co. Wrestling Benefit

Patricia H. Burke

PHILIPP SCHMIDT, the Riverside SignalThe Island Heights Volunteer Fire Company held a fundraiser wrestling event last week that featured (above) “The Bounty Hunter” Johnny Ringo and (below, from standing) Jersey Shore Jocks tag-team member Mike Dennis and Mike Youngblood.



Business / Service Directory

Water Tower Logo Resized, continued from page 10

“They are not secured to the ground, and they can’t do the job they were designed for.”

The Berkeley Avenue resi-dent brought a large flat-screen television to the meeting to show the council images of trash on his property from a DVD.

Mrs. Clayton stated that the cans belonged to the school and that the resident should call Principal Paul T. Gluck as the council did not have direct su-pervision of the fields.

Mayor Ronald W. Jones, Jr. suggested Mr. Milewski ap-proach the school board about the trash, but council members were quick to state that the principal would be sufficient and is willing to work with the resident.

Councilman Gregory Fee-ney noted that the garbage cans were not getting emptied out as much due to lack of use from the cold weather, and that he anticipated a return to regular trash removal once the warmer seasons arrived.

Mr. Milewski left and later returned with a copied disc containing the photographs he took for Mrs. Clayton to bring to the school’s attention.

• Mrs. Clayton reported that the borough was awarded with another grant for the bike path located on the old Central Railroad of New Jersey right of way, in the amount of $25,000, for continued improvements. Later this decade, the bike path is slated to become part of the first Ocean County linear park, the Barnegat Branch Rail Trail, which will encompass a 15.6-mile connected path from Bar-negat to Toms River for recre-ational walking, running and biking. Work has been under-

way on the park since at least 2007, when the southernmost Barnegat leg was opened to the public.

• Councilman Steve Komsa reported that the borough’s an-nual Easter egg hunt will take place on Sunday, April 17th at 1pm in Mayo Park.

• Councilman Gerald W. “Jerry” LaCrosse noted that the borough’s annual budget is approximately $16 million, of which approximately $800,000 to $900,000 is set aside for property owners who do not pay their taxes or do not pay them on time.

Borough Chief Financial Officer John Mauder stated the amount to be approximately eight pennies on the municipal tax rate.

“I realize that we do have an economy that’s limping along, but that is a fairly large por-tion of our tax bill,” said Mr. LaCrosse.

Later in the meeting, dur-ing open public session, Anchor Avenue resident David Lipton disputed Mr. LaCrosse’s overall assessment that the amount set aside was bad for the borough or any other municipality, as “the Borough of Beachwood and every town in New Jersey is making a king’s ransom” by charging a high interest rate on delinquent tax bills.

Mr. Mauder confirmed that delinquent tax bills over $1,500 are charged 18 percent interest after a ten day grace period.

• Mrs. Clayton noted that the borough was “going green” in its purchase of fertilizer and weed killer this year, and is cur-rently seeking quotes for an en-vironmentally-friendly product that public works may use.

• Mr. LaCrosse inquired whether it would be possible to remove the social security number from documents of ap-plicants approaching the land use board, as he felt it was a potential security risk since the documents are copied multiple times when being forwarded to land use board members, and that while he was not concerned with board members utilizing the numbers for illegal reasons, he was concerned over multiple copies that may be misplaced and illicitly used by others.

Borough Clerk Bette Mas-tropasqua suggested that the original documents submitted to the borough could retain the social security numbers, as it is required by federal law, but that the numbers could be redacted prior to copy and distribution for board review.

Mr. LaCrosse said he would

suggest it at the next land use board meeting.

• Mayor Jones inquired with Mr. Oris whether a stormwater management system like the one recently installed in Ocean

Gate, which catches and retains solids and various other pollut-ants for removal before washing into the Toms River and Bar-negat Bay, was something that Beachwood could look into. Mr. Oris replied that he believed the installation was to hold test-ing on the device and that there were several other models that could also be looked into for the same purpose.

• Mr. LaCrosse spoke out against a proposed $50 fee from the New Jersey Mayors Annual Conference and Exposition that will be held from April 27th and 29th in Atlantic City for its “board of directors reception and dinner” that Mayor Jones will be attending. He did not contest a second fee of $175 that would cover the overall confer-ence, as the governing body regularly sends its members and members of the borough

staff to educational conferences throughout the year, and Mr. Roma noted that this was the first time he’d seen the con-ference explicitly separate the overall conference from one of

its dinners.Mr. LaCrosse stated that he

did not want Beachwood tax-payers to be paying for his din-ner, and therefore asked that the reception and dinner fee be rescinded and that the mayor pay for it himself. Mr. Roma pointed out that Mayor Jones was already paying for his own transportation and rooming at the event, and noted that the dinner was a “training dinner.” Mayor Jones added that typi-cally the governor or lieutenant governor would speak during the dinner to inform its partici-pants of things relevant to local government.

The borough council ap-proved all the conference, training and seminar fees pro-posed in the agenda, including the reception and dinner, with Mr. LaCrosse casting the lone dissenting vote.

Later, during the public portion of the meeting, former councilman and Mayor Jones’ ex-campaign manager, Robert DiBella, scolded the majority of the borough council who had approved the $50 dinner fee.

“The way I looked at it is if it was an official meeting and the $50 fee was to attend the meet-ing, we’ve approved other con-ference thing here with fees for other employees,” replied Mr. Roma.

The next meeting of the borough council will be on Wednesday, March 16th at 7pm in borough hall on Pinewald Road. At that meeting, awards for the borough’s annual snow-man-building contest will be presented.

ERIK WEBER, the Riverside SignalThe Beachwood water tower, as it appeared up until last fall.


PB Police Report,continued from page 5

Antiques, Etc.,continued from page 13

Published byThe Riverside Signal, LLC

P.O. Box 93Beachwood, N.J. 08722

~Advertising ~ 732.664.1043

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Editor, the Riverside Signal:

Just finished reading the Feb. 4th issue of Riverside Signal and really enjoyed all the ar-ticles on ice boating. I grew up in Pine Beach watching the ice boats on the river almost every winter. My father even built an ice boat. Also enjoyed seeing all the ice boating pictures on your website. Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,Fran (Jardel) ShaefferHartville, Ohio

Continued From & Letters to the Editor

Ice is Nice

This postcard, sent August 1913, depicts Ocean Gate’s Pennsylvania Railroad station (see the front of page 6), which was in operation until the late 1940s when the postwar boom and age of the automobile dismantled many of the mass transit rail systems that current public officials are trying to reinstall today. Its message reads “We are all well and having a good time, Yours, Lou.”

Jonathan Leshynski, 27, of Ocean Township, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated.

Ptl. Longhitano observed a black 2007 Toyota heading north on Route 9 in excess of the speed limit.

In addition to the DWI charge, Mr. Leshynski was charged with speeding and reckless driving.

• On Saturday, February 12th, Michael Marold, Jr., 22, of Toms River, was arrested and charged with driving while in-toxicated.

Ptl. Longhitano observed a silver 2003 Hyundai heading north on Route 9 in excess of the speed limit.

In addition to the DWI charge, Mr. Marold was charged with speeding and reckless driving.

Water Shutoff,continued from page 10would not be made by the bor-ough water department until workers first confirm that no-tifications were made properly.

Mr. Oris noted that an in-spector did attempt to make no-tifications later in the day, but it was after many residents had already left for work.

The next meeting of the borough council will be on Wednesday, March 16th at 7 pm in borough hall.

came a state and before Arizo-na and New Mexico joined the union, generated a lot of inter-est but no takers at $80.

Jane and Larry Nyce, of Nyce Collectables from Po-tomac, Maryland, specialize in Victorian glass and railroad memorabilia and were on hand with a number of offerings; in-cluding clear glass syrup pitch-ers priced from $80 and their color glass counterparts at be-tween $600 and $700. There were also barber bottles, cruets and ruby-stained glass plus dif-ferent colors of Wedgewood for sale. The railroad memorabilia

included railroad china, silver, paper, lanterns and linens. The Baltimore & Ohio silver syrup server was selling for $145, while a 1935 schedule from the Central Railroad of New Jersey that featured the route of the famous Blue Comet was $35.

Next up is the 30th Spring Antiques Show at West Mor-ris Mendham High School in Mendham, Morris County on April 9th and 10th. Admission is $6. Glass repair and apprais-als will be available for a fee. For more information, call Da-vid Cowell at 973-226-1733 or e-mail him at [email protected].


continued...

Building Beachwood, continued from page 11

Farragut Book Review, continued from page 5Fiumara, cont. from page 5

Tribune and the local work is in charge of A.D. Nickerson.”

Here we can pick up Butler’s 1924 Beachwood Directory, who compiled the largest sec-tion, “A Chronological History of Beachwood,” stated to be “Pictures, in Brief Paragraphs, of the Rise and Progress of the Beautiful Resort in the Pines on Barnegat Bay, and the Social, Economic and Political Life of its Summer Population of 1,500 or More People.”

According to Butler, “the first official map of the Beach-wood tract, comprising 1,763 acres, 18 lots to the acre, was filed November 11th [1914].”

November is also the month that the Tribune issued a spe-cial advertisement, dressed up to appear as an extra edition of its regular publication, “con-taining many illustrations and the… announcement, in large letters, on its first page: “Sub-scribe for the New York Tribune and secure a lot at Beautiful Beachwood. Greatest subscrip-tion premium ever offered by a newspaper – nothing equal to it was ever attempted in the Unit-ed States. Act at once – secure your lot in this Summer Para-dise now.” On another page came the assurance that “The Tribune does not do things halfway. A fortune has been put behind this offer. Already plans are being made to start a build-ing company.” The price of lots was placed at $19.60 apiece, each lot carrying with it a six months’ subscription to the pa-per.”

On December 1st, the Mayo-Tribune promotions rolled out further, this time in a Tribune article titled “Roads to Beach-wood” and depicting a large illustration of the auto routes between Manhattan and Beach-

wood, as well as the Central and Pennsylvania railroad lines.

Ten days later, the New Jer-sey Courier and New York Tri-bune ran articles on the bur-geoning resort. The Courier’s, headlined “Marine Names for Beachwood Avenues”, recount-ed a Tribune article that “Nau-tical terms prevail in the se-lecting of street nomenclature adopted for Beachwood… the street signs will also bear out the meaning of the town’s name by a series denoting a variety of trees… Plans for the construc-tion of the buildings which are to be erected on the waterfront, such as the yacht club, dining hall, club building, etc., are al-ready under way. It is expected that the railroad station… will be completed in January.”

The Tribune’s article, ti-tled “Fine Railroad Station for Beachwood”, verified the Courier account. “Residents of Beachwood… are to have a rail-road station of their own. Plans for the building have been made and its site chosen. It will be ready for occupancy in Janu-ary. The building will have the excellent accommodations of a typical suburban union railroad station… the structure itself is to be of attractive design and calculated to meet all the re-quirements of Beachwood resi-dents.”

Around this time, Victor A. Watson, a New York City native living on the Lower East Side who had made his living for the previous 17 years as a newspa-per reporter with Hearst’s New York American, claimed to re-ceive “complaints from a num-ber of persons who wrote let-ters… to the effect that the New York Tribune… was backing a notorious real-estate swindle. In the course of office business

the matter was turned over to me to investigate.”

Looking into the matter, Watson noted that the Tribune was claiming to be making ab-solutely no profit off the land deal, opting instead to run the promotion purely as an act of friendship in an effort to boost its circulation. Skeptical, Wat-son looked at the numbers and found this to not be the case. After consulting with his peers, he took the information to the office of United States District Attorney H. Snowden Marshall. The case was soon assigned to two United States Postal Inspec-tors, [Hugh] McQuillan and [Oliver] Schaeffer.

Together with the inspec-tors, Watson produced what he claimed to be direct evidence of mail fraud. This consisted of mailed materials produced by the newspaper that stated they were making no money off the land deal but wished instead for good friendship by increas-ing their readership. Watson insisted that the Tribune was committing mail fraud because a survey of the money paid for the land tract versus what they were charging showed a high degree of profitability set to flow into Tribune coffers should the promotion be successful.

In laying out these calcu-lations, Watson said the land was drawn out to encompass thirty to thirty-five thousand 20×100 lots to be sold at $19.60 each. Adhering to the original plat map of 1,763 acres and 18 lots to an acre, that number was exactly 31,734 lots. $19.60 multiplied by 31,734 becomes $621,986.40. He estimated that between the purchase of the property at $90,000 and adding another approximately $35,000 to developing it for the lot own-

ers, they would have invested only $125,000 total, meaning they stood to reap an estimated profit of $496,986.40. At the time, Inspector McQuillan esti-mated it lower, at $300,000.

Suspicions were raised fur-ther when Watson stated sales-men working the promotion for the Tribune would take “them down to the beach, and [then turn around] and sell [them] something back in the woods that is almost like Afri-ca.” Watson later reflected that Beachwood was so remote that it would be still be an undevel-oped and undesirable patch of land one hundred years in the future. He was so sure of this that he told the judiciary com-mittee he would make a bet on it if he could.

As a result, Watson and the postal inspectors began a series of covert visits to the Beach-wood tract while it was under development in early 1915. Se-cretly, Watson also conscripted a number of men to work within the Tribune offices as spies, quietly writing up daily reports for the New York American re-porter. Meanwhile, Bertram Mayo and Addison Nickerson moved forward with their work, unaware how dangerously close they were to being arrested and brought up on charges of mail fraud.

Next Issue:Read about the first resort

buildings, reaction from a near-by community, and the further investigation of Watson and the postal inspectors, focusing in particular on one Dr. E.P. Rob-inson, whose home stands to-day at the southwest corner of Beachwood Boulevard and Bar-negat Boulevard, in the next edition of the Building Beach-wood series.

1942 of the Admiral Farra-gut Academy: You are the first group from this institution to set forth, as a class, into the life of a nation in the throes of a struggle for its very existence,” he wrote. “I do not wish the Class of 1942 Farewell. I wish them Godspeed through peril-ous waters to a secure haven.”

As the book shows, in the years and decades that followed, Admiral Farragut Academy en-joyed the postwar economic boom and military interest that proved strong enough to estab-lish the southern campus and expand its northern progenitor, both of which marked climbing enrollment through much of the 1950s, 60s and early 70s. By the mid to late 1970s, however, the

unpopularity of the Vietnam War and changing social mo-res created a decline in military institutions across the nation, causing rifts in the finances of the two campuses noticeable even to then-Pine Beach May-or and current Ocean County Freeholder John C. Bartlett, Jr., who made it publicly known his concern for the future of that borough’s campus in a local newspaper article. Fifteen years later, Freeholder Bartlett’s fear came true when the northern campus was shuttered, having never fully recovered from the losses suffered during this pe-riod and made even weaker by the sudden drop in enrollment of the early 1990s.

Printed on glossy stock and

in a size and format similar to a traditional school yearbook, this publication provides a steady overview of the found-ing of the school in Pine Beach through 1945, at which point it blends the history of the north-ern and southern campus in a way that reflects the current administration’s campaign to bring the whole of the school’s public image under a singular heritage, though without shy-ing away from addressing the sometimes contentious circum-stances behind the Pine Beach campus’s early demise.

Above all, A Tale of Two Campuses is an enjoyable read for anyone interested in learn-ing more about the dual history of Admiral Farragut Academy,

though local history diehards might find themselves wanting to root out more information than is present regarding spe-cifically the Pine Beach cam-pus. For that special breed, this author recommends visiting the Ocean County Historical Soci-ety in Toms River during their limited research center operat-ing hours and requesting a look at the yearbooks formerly held by Coach Stan Slaby and the Pine Beach campus’s athletic department, covering the years 1951 through 1994. For all oth-ers, it is possible to purchase a copy of A Tale of Two Campuses directly from the school by call-ing the Alumni/ae office at 727-343-3678.

in heating and cooling. This [pointing to an eastern window in the original bungalow] is single strength glass, so it’s ice cold. We can match these win-dows, match the sash layout, but have insulated glass. And the moldings, we can produce the exact same look. Floor, ceil-ing, we could definitely go into an era but with upgraded mate-rials. They didn’t have it then, so, yeah, I think it’s great, and I do all phases. If someone has a house that’s contemporary, I could fall right into it. If they like the Colonial, Early Ameri-can? No problem, the materials are there. As for this house and the one she’s building, I mean, you’ll be able to tell it’s not as old as this, but she’s going to match it. She’s going to be do-ing the same type blue cedar shakes, only these cedar shakes are going to be vinyl.

A realistic look. Absolutely, and we’re going

to have the Anderson windows that are going to have insulated glass. Instead of possibly hav-ing R-3 [insulation] in the walls, we’re going to have up to R-15. We’re going to have up to R-30 in the ceilings. Just totally effi-cient and strong.

The other thing is, hey, we haven’t had a hurricane here since Donna [that hurricane, which struck the every state along the eastern seaboard in early September 1960 still holds the record for retaining a ma-jor hurricane status of Catego-ry 3 or greater for the longest amount of time]. The biggest one to come close to the Jersey Shore. Although we had the March storm of 1962, the one that separated the island [Long Beach Island, at Harvey Ce-dars, was separated in two and nearly obliterated by the Ash Wednesday storm], we haven’t had a really good storm here since. We’re building today to withstand it, sometimes a little overbuilt [but] I see places like Homestead, Florida where Hur-ricane Andrew wiped them out. Some of our codes right now are a direct response to that.

When I build, I tell my cus-tomers: I build it as if I were building the home for myself, and I don’t make decisions other than guide them with my opin-ion but they do all the picking of what they want. I make sure it’s done the way I would want it for myself. Workmanship pride is everything to me, and that’s why I go by my name. I don’t have a name like, you know, Fast Construction or High-Rise Construction. I’ve been using my name since I went into busi-ness in the Eighties. If you’re gonna put your name out there,

Riverside Signal - March 11th - 24th, 2011

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