The Coaster

Coaster Photo by James O’Connor

A storage building owned by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association was destroyed in a fiery blaze Tuesday night near the Ocean Grove beachfront. No injuries were reported. Read the full story here.

What are your thoughts on the candidates?

Carol Corrigan, Marily Huffman and Terry Huffman, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada


Although we are from out of the country, we’ve followed it closely.

The Canadian media seems to be more objective.

We think it’s a long, drawn out process.

In Canada, it takes six weeks from the time an election is called to when it takes place.

We’ve had a women prime minister.

We think it’s going to come down to: Do you want an inexperienced vice president to back up John McCain or an experienced vice president to back up Obama. Read the rest of this entry »

By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI

The search for a new superintendent for the Asbury Park school district is underway, but it isn’t soon enough for Board Member Thomas Pivinski or State Fiscal Monitor Mark Cowell.

At last week’s board meeting Pivinski insisted a committee be formed to address the replacement of suspended Superintendent Antonio Lewis.

“I said I’m not leaving this meeting until a committee is formed,” he explained on Friday. “I was insistent.”

Lewis’ contract will expire June 30, 2009 and the board, said Pivinski, has notified him that his contract will not be renewed.

Currently there are investigations ongoing with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the state Attorney General’s office after documents were seized from Central Administration in February of 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

By GARRETT STASSE

Tinton Falls Borough Council voted 3 to 1 to appoint Charles Lomengino to fill the unexpired term left vacant when Council President Brendan Tobin unexpectedly resigned two weeks ago.

Lomengino will serve until a special election is held on Nov. 4

Councilman Duane Morrill, the lone ‘no’ vote, offered another name but it was dropped after no other council member would second it.

Morrill said he had concerns about Lomengino’s ability to serve after making comments about two borough projects.

In one instance, he had asked that debris removal from a demolition site be put to bid some time ago. Read the rest of this entry »

By TOM SHORTELL and JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI

Local beach towns are reporting increases over last year’s total revenue in beach badges with Asbury Park seeing an increase of about 30 percent in badge sales.

“We had a terrific season,” said Gary Giberson, Asbury Park director of public maintenence.

Giberson said more than 50,000 people visited Asbury Park beaches, bringing in around $355,000 for the season, around $80,000 over last year’s mark. He attributed the improvement to a surge in daily passes. Asbury Park’s beaches will be open again this weekend, so the final number is still expected ro rise. Read the rest of this entry »

By DON STINE

A spectacular, nighttime fire at the North End of Ocean Grove lit up the sky Tuesday night as an old cafeteria building, now used for storage, burned and collapsed to the ground on Spray Avenue.

Witnesses said the fire, which began just after 10 p.m., had flames shooting as much as 100 to 150 feet into the air and large, billowing columns of white smoke rose hundreds of feet into the night sky.

The century-old building, at 17 Spray Avenue, was scheduled to have a demolition permit issued this month to be razed as part of a proposed North End redevelopment project. Read the rest of this entry »

By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI

Edward Zakerowski, a member of the Neptune City Board of Education, demonstrated his love for his mother by donating one of his healthy kidneys to her.

Frances Lovely, 64, had suffered from the deterioration of her kidneys brought on by the use of high blood pressure medicines for three decades.

“She had a long deterioration of her kidney function due to high blood pressure medicines – since her 30s, and then diabetes kicked in,” he said.

Zakerowski said when his mother’s kidney function went below 15 percent she was forced to spend four hours a day, three days a week hooked up to a dialysis machine. Read the rest of this entry »

By DON STINE

Neptune Mayor Randy Bishop, who was recently a New Jersey delegate to the Democratic National Convention held in Denver, Colorado August 25-29, said the experience was definitely an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“To be there, to be a part of it, and to be joined by a group of people who share the same sense and values of what you believe in is very empowering, and you leave with a sense that you can change the world,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »