Photos taken mid-day Saturday by Erik Weber for the Riverside Signal.

Nelson's Sailing Center covered and docked part of its fleet of boats in preparation for the coming hurricane.

Nearer the bay, the Island Heights Post Office, a structure originally used by the Presbyterian Camp that operated on the grounds of the former Wanamaker Camp, had its windows boarded up to protect against the impeding storm.

The interior of the post office showed a very different scene due to the boarded-up windows.

This home at Letter Park had a number of boards applied in its owners' effort to protect against Hurricane Irene.

Downtown, at the historic Mathis building, River Edge Title Company taped the lower floor windows.

Across the street and a bit north, Central Printing followed suit.

At the recently constructed Gunteski home across Summit Avenue Beach, windows were covered by plywood.

And finally, members of the Island Heights Volunteer First Aid Squad stood at the ready for any signs of trouble.

All images are (C) Riverside Signal, LLC and may not be used without explicit permission.

What follows is a general archive of the Riverside Signal, January through December 2010, when it existed solely as an internet newssite. We are currently working on combining our archive with the contemporary printed material in a way that will benefit our readers, and expect results to begin appearing this Spring.

In the meantime, the Riverside Signal can be picked up at the locations listed on the home page, and subscriptions are available to ensure our readers don’t miss a single issue, whether they live in our coverage area or far beyond it.

Please feel free to send any and all questions to RiversideSignal@gmail.com

by Philipp Schmidt

ISLAND HEIGHTS – Preparing to receive the post-Christmas storm that showered down 28 inches of snow like an unwanted guest bringing a holiday fruitcake to a family party, Mayor Jim Biggs said that borough workers, here, took steps to mitigate its impact.

“The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) stayed on top of the issue, as did the police department,” he said following this week’s borough council meeting, adding that in the days leading up to its arrival, both departments worked to gather any information they could in order to better prepare for it. “We were able to stay on top of it, and we’re very happy with the people who run OEM because they’re still excited about the opportunities to provide safety for our people, and they’re enthusiastic, well-informed and well-prepared, and so we’re able to be ahead.”

The mayor noted that the county roads that typically run east to west in this borough also helped with the snow removal process as it kept the borough public works employees generally able to clear out the north/south running side streets between the lake and river.

“They were out practically all day and night,” he said. “There’s always complaints, but when you consider the way they went to work and what they were able to accomplish, we felt for those who had legitimate complaints but some were just simply that the snow wasn’t far enough off the road, and that’s something that when you’re trying to stay ahead of the storm you can’t always do.”

While some boroughs on the southern bank of the Toms River faced gale force winds that swept snow and sand off their beaches and onto the adjacent roadways, creating six-foot high snow drifts in some places, Mayor Biggs said that problem did not present itself at the borough waterfront this time around.

“We’re fully bulkheaded, and the prevailing winds were more helpful to us than they may have been to the other communities on the other side of the river,” he said. “That happens from time to time – we’ve had some good windstorms out here where the winds come out of the west, but we’re very fortunate that wasn’t the case and we were able to stay ahead of it.”

In comparing the borough’s River Road to Pine Beach’s Riverside Drive, the mayor noted that a wider corridor also helped in riverfront snow removal.

“[It] gave us more room to put snow in other locations than simply up against the white line or out near the yellow lines, so we were just better off,” he noted.

“We made an honest attempt to make sure all of our streets are open and passable,” Mayor Biggs added, taking a moment to highlight the conditions of streets in neighboring Toms River.

“We’re quite happy in Island Heights with the job that our public works department did in removing snow, and we’re even more grateful for Toms River surrounding us on three sides,” he said. “As I have said to their mayor on a number of occasions, thanks to Toms River, Island Heights looks like a paradise, and next we’re going to plant the palm trees just so we can rub it in a little bit more.”

The next meeting of the Island Heights Borough Council will be on Tuesday, January 18th at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex on the corner of Van Sant and East End avenues.

by Erik Weber

ISLAND HEIGHTS – In the face of a down economy and state mandated two-percent tax cap, borough officials, here, came back to the January 4th open public council meeting following a lengthy closed executive session to move that all borough employees be issued Rice notices.

A Rice notice is a legal notice given to a municipal employee as a formal notice that their employment status will be discussed between mayor and council, and allows the employee to request a public hearing on the matter.

The borough council voted in favor of the motion, with only Councilman Joseph Rogalski abstaining due to a conflict, as he is married to Ellie Rogalski, the borough clerk.

“The reason for [the notices] is because of the governor’s two percent cap,” said Mayor Jim Biggs following the vote.

In July, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a bill into law that reduced the tax levy cap to a 2-percent “hard cap” annual increase, down from a 4-percent annual increase cap. A “hard cap” allows only limited budgetary items exempt from the cap.

Taxes for municipalities, counties, fire districts, school districts and solid waste collection districts were all included in the cap under the new law.

“As you know, we have tried our best, which we said well over a year ago that we’re going to try to maintain total employment,” said Mayor Biggs. “We may not be able to do that.”

“So that someone doesn’t get the wrong idea, it’s a difficult decision to make, but it’s something we have to make in light of the fact that our [Chief Financial Officer, Christine J. Manolio] is working on the budget,” he continued. “We have asked that every department bring it a budget that’s 10 percent less than what it was last year so we can do our best.”

Councilman John Bendel spoke out against Governor Christie’s two-percent cap following the meeting.

“It’s hurting everybody, absolutely everybody, but if I can just say in terms of fairness, it’s much worse for towns like this one who has had a tight budget for years and years and years,” he said. “We have not been profligate, and all of a sudden we have the same two percent cap that some other municipalities who have raised their taxes.”

“We have been scrimping for a long, long time, and there are a lot of things that need to be done that we’re just not going to be able to do,” he continued. “It’s totally unrealistic – look at the fuel prices going up now; they’re going to go a whole lot higher. How do we deal with that? How do we deal with insurance prices? We have no conrol over these things, we’re going to have to pay for them and yet we’re severely limited in terms of revenue.”

Mr. Bendel said that residents across the state would be waking up to a lot of changes in the future as a result of the two-percent cap.

“Services are going to suffer, and they’re the services that people actually use,” he said. “I’m talking about the cops, their waste removal, their water and their sewer – these are really important things, the things we live with every single day. This is not Washington, D.C., it’s not the defense budget, it’s not foreign aid.”

“It’s right in your backyard, it’s right in your house, and you know the state is telling us ‘Well, we’re sorry, it’s your fault,’” he continued. “Well, maybe it’s the fault of some municipalities, but not this one, and this is very unfair to Island Heights.”

The next meeting of the borough council will be on Tuesday, January 18th at 7pm in borough hall in the Wanamaker Complex at Van Sant and East End avenues.

ISLAND HEIGHTS – The Island Heights Borough Council recently voted to approve their 2011 meeting dates, which are listed here and will generally take place on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex at East End and Van Sant avenues, except where noted.

January 4th & 18th
February 8th & 22nd
March 8th & 22nd
April 12th & 26th
May 12th* & 24th
June 14th & 28th
July 1st** & 19th
August 16th
September 13th & 27th
October 11th & 25th
November 10th* & 22nd
December 13th & 27th

* = Thursday
** = Reorganization meeting

by Erik Weber

Island Heights Borough Hall entrance, night.

Discussion about the resolution was started by Councilman Brian Taboada, who wanted to know the purpose of having meetings twice a month.

Mayor Jim Biggs stated that curtailing the second monthly meeting could affect paying borough bills on time.

Councilman Jeff Silver noted that most vendors have a 30-day billing cycle, which would allow the council to make such a move to one meeting per month.

“Most are 30 days, but if we only authorize payment within the 30 days, it’s not gonna happen,” replied Councilman John Bendel, who noted that it would double the time to address matters that may need faster action by the governing body.

“I think it’s a big mistake to go to one meeting a month,” he continued. “We’ll wind up having extra meetings, special meetings that require a 48-hour notice.”

The councilman also contended that an increase in the amount of times the mayor and council would need to poll opinion via telephone would also increase, bringing forth “questions raised about council people who will express one opinion on the phone and vote another way in public.”

The governing body is not permitted to vote on borough matters in private, and phone polls are sometimes used to gauge whether an issue has enough support to devote further public meeting time to it, requiring 48 hours public notice, after which the governing body may meet and take an official vote.

Mr. Bendel felt that halving the amount of meetings and potentially increasing the number of phone polls and special meetings would cause problems, adding that previous governing body officials had set up the schedule of two meetings per month for a reason.

“They didn’t do it because they were having fun at meetings, and I think the people’s business requires that we have two a month,” he stated.

Mr. Taboada replied that the borough’s deputy municipal finance officer, April D. Elley, said that the checks to pay borough bills “are already written and are just waiting our approval to put them in the mail.”

“This checks prepared to go out before we approve them does not necessarily mean that that bill did not sit there for a time before that check was cut,” said Mr. Bendel. “People will wind up being paid beyond the 30-day limit, and if you want to make enemies in the vendor community, that’s the way to do it.”

“We need to be open to the public as much as possible, and two meetings a month isn’t too much,” added Councilman Gregory Heizler. “I think we move sluggishly enough two times a month – if we’re here once a month we won’t get anything done.”

Borough Clerk Ellie Rogalski noted that there had been changes in meeting schedules in “a lot of communities.”

“There is some savings perhaps,” noted Mayor Biggs.

“I think for the most part we’re talking about attorney [fees], and it’s not unprecedented to have meetings without an attorney,” replied Mr. Bendel, adding that the annual pay for borough officials would not change based on the number of meetings held. “So if we want to save money, give the attorney here some holidays.”

“If you’re serious, what you could do is have the attorney at the first meeting and at the second meeting be very careful what you say and do,” he continued.

Mr. Bendel made a motion to continue holding two council meetings per month. It passed with only Mr. Taboada voting against it.

The next meeting of the Island Heights Borough Council will be on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 7 pm in borough hall at the Wanamaker Complex.