2021-10-30 - The Toms River Times

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The Toms RIVER Times Vol. 23 - No. 24

In This Week’s Edition

MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS

JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM

Open Space Tax And Development Is On Ballot

Homes Destroyed By Sandy, But Land Preserved

BREAKING NEWS @

jerseyshoreonline.com

Community News Pages 10-13

Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 19

Dear Joel Page 20

Inside The Law Page 21

─Photo by Chris Lundy Construction going on near the Seacourt Pavilion will eventually be homes, shops, and a veterans clinic. By Chris Lundy TOMS RIVER – One topic keeps coming up in some form or another at every meeting, every political mailer, and every Facebook page: development. Residents complain

about too many residential developments going into town, driving up school taxes and clogging roads. Meanwhile, the ease of buying everything online has led to a lot of brick and mortar stores

closing. On the ballot in November is more than just a choice for council. It’s a choice on whether you want to increase the open space tax rate by a penny. Taxpayers currently

pay 1.5 cents per $100 of equalized valuation. The valuation is not what the house was purchased for; this is the assessment of each property based on current market values. (Space - See Page 4)

Hunger Still Major Issue In County By Stephanie Faughnan T OM S R I V E R – Nonprofits and school of f ic i a l s m e t w it h Cong ressman A ndy Kim (D-3rd) to provide insight on food insecurity issues. T h e US D e p a r tment of Agriculture ( U S DA) p r o v i d e d all child ren with free meals in school

and th roughout the su m me r rega rd le ss of financial circumstances. The program expanded through this school year and Kim hopes to extend it further. K im int roduced t he Su m me r Meals REACH Act of 2021 i n C ong re ss at t he end of September. The Senate refer red the

bill to its Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Hunger relief efforts heightened during the onset of the pandemic, with greater amounts of people struggling to put food on their t a bl e s . S o m e n e ver expected to f ind t hemselves i n such dire circumstances. According to Jim

Kroeze, interim CEO for Fulf ill in Monmouth and Ocean County, the organization serviced 136,000 p e o ple a nd 50,0 0 0 child ren before the pandemic. “ I t ’s n o w a b o u t 250,000 people and 7 0 , 0 0 0 c h i l d r e n ,” Kroeze said. “For t y percent of the people who came

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October 30, 2021

through our lines at t hat t i me were first-time recipients of fo o d a s si s t a n c e during the height of the pandemic,” added Greg Loder, Director of Marketing, Food Bank of South Jersey. Participants in the round table discussion painted si m i la r pict u res of thei r (Hunger - See Page 9)

By Chris Lundy BERKELEY – There are shore neighborhoods where you can walk past tall reeds on the side of the road and think about how nice it is that this land so close to the water is open space. Then you see a fence that has been reclaimed by nature and you realize: this used to be somebody’s home. After Superstor m Sandy devastated bayfront communities, some of the land is being pu rchased and preser ved as open space. Usually, large areas of land are purchased to keep it from ever being developed. But something different is happening here. These are individual, buildable lots that at one time had homes but are now being turned into open space. There are a few programs in play. One is the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust Fund, which is fueled by a tax on every property in Ocean County. Throughout the years, it’s been used to take property off the market. 14 individual properties between 2015 and 2021 were acquired under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The funding for these properties is provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State Department of Environmental Protection. Approximately $6.5 million in grant funds are to be reimbursed in 2022. These properties, once developed with residential homes, have been or are in the process of returning to their natural state in order to further buffer the coastal marsh from development and reduce the risk and impact of routine coastal f looding, common to the area, said Commissioner Virginia Haines, liaison to the Trust. “All proper ties are preser ved open space,” she said. They will eventually return to their natural state. Following Superstorm Sandy, the more developed section of Good Luck Point in Berkeley (east of Bayview Avenue on Dorrance and Good Luck Drive) became (Sandy - See Page 5)

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