The BERKELEY Times Vol. 27 - No. 37
In This Week’s Edition
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM
Fire Company Celebrating 100 Years
Policies Make It Tough To Help Homeless
BREAKING NEWS @
jerseyshoreonline.com
Community News Pages 10-12
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 14
Inside The Law Page 16
Classifieds Page 18
─Photo by Chris Lundy Office holders, from left, Mickey Symington, Dominick Roselli, Roger Hull, Delancey O’Connor, and Bob Tapp, discussed the fire department’s history. By Chris Lundy The borough itself was Speaking of books, teer company. BEACHWOOD – In incorporated in 1917, and those ledgers detail how “It’s something that gets a ledger, you can see the fire department was this department took care into your blood,” said past which members of the made official five years of Pine Beach and Ocean president and chief Mickey Beachwood Volunteer later. However, there Gate before they had Symington. He’s one of Fire Company responded were men in the town their own companies. three generations currently to the Hindenburg crash who put out fires before They describe calls like active. in 1937. That’s just one then, the department just the explosion of an illegal The department has 27 example of the legacy wasn’t on the books yet. still in the 1930s. active members right now. that is being celebrated “Years ago, people just While much larger Some of them, like trustwith the group’s centen- helped out because it was towns have switched ee Bob Tapp, has been nial this year. the right thing to do,” to full time fire depart- with the department for Several members sat said trustee Dominick ments, Beachwood, 50 years. down with The Berkeley Roselli. He became an which only has about Some of them joined more Times to share the rich honorary member when 11,000 residents, has recently, like Delancey history of a small town. he was 9. managed to keep a volun(Fire - See Page 8)
Local Filmmaker Promotes New Jersey Movies
By Bob Vosseller BRICK – Filmmake r T h o m D e M ic c o recently gathered w it h f r ie n d s , f a n s and members of the G a r d e n St a t e f i l m com mu n it y for t he premiere of his new short film which he hopes inspires others to make more produc-
tions in New Jersey. DeMicco’s newest film, “Kiss Me Judas: Chapter 1” premiered o n Fe b r u a r y 17 a t Di ngbatz n ig htclub in Clifton. The Brick born filmmaker, author and martial arts t rainer was inf luenced by the films of Lloyd Kaufman, Stan-
ley Kubr ick, Fran k Capra and fellow New Jersey native Kevin Smith. “I have been in the f il m i ndust r y for the past fou r years wor k i ng w it h Tr o ma Entertainment in New York and have recently struck out on my own and plan to
start shooting feature was produced by Ferri films in the state in and Gabe Romero. the coming year with Baer’s neo-noir novel my crew of New Jer- was published on Ocsey natives,” he said. tober 1, 1998 through His film covers the Viking Press and is first chapter of a novel based on a popular trilogy by Will Chis- urban legend. It foltopher Baer and stars lows the character of Johnny Ferri and Lyd- Phineas Poe (Fer ri) ia Manson. DeMicco a disgraced cop and directed the film that (Filmmaker - See Page 5)
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By Chris Lundy OCEAN COUNTY – It should be easy to reach out and help those who need it the most. Yet there are a lot of barriers that society has constructed that make it difficult to reach out. Recently, there was a Point In Time count in which local homeless were surveyed so that they could be given the help they need. The counts translate into how much money the area will get, however, the federal government has it a bit backwards, some said. Since the goal is to reduce the number of homeless, you are rewarded if your numbers go down. Essentially, you’re getting more money for fewer people. If your homeless count goes up, you are penalized, and you are given even less money to provide services to an even larger crowd. The pandemic has required social distancing, which means that there are fewer people allowed in shelters. It’s also caused staffing levels to fall because volunteers and employees can’t come in if they are possibly contagious. Everyone interviewed in relation to this issue says the same thing: the lack of truly affordable housing is the main problem. There are homes, but none within reach for the homeless. Michele Vitiello, case coordinator for Village Resources, was on hand to try for housing solutions. The difficulty is that there are few truly affordable homes in Ocean County. Someone on Social Security is given $850 a month, and most rentals are more than a thousand. “No one can live on $850 a month,” she said. While the state requires towns to set aside a certain number of homes for people with low to moderate income, even those are often out of reach, she said. “We need someone to build real low-income housing,” she said. “Ocean County needs more subsidized housing and smaller houses.” Another challenge is that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (Homeless - See Page 4)
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