Subject: LNG Resolution
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:12:57 -0500
From: iksnivip@aol.com
Dear Friends of the Environment:
The Asbury Park Environment and Shade Tree Commission invited Attorney David Byer of Clean Ocean Action to present information about the proposed installation of LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) ports 16 miles off the Asbury Park coast. Installation of these ports has been vetoed by the Monmouth County Freeholders following the advice of the Monmouth County Environmental Commission. Mr. Byer's presentation was intended to assist the ESTC in order to encourage our City Council to adopt a resolution that opposes the project.
The ESTC will be working on a formal resolution and will present it to the City council in the very near future. In the meantime, if you would like to add your support to this before time, please go to the Clean Ocean Action website ( www.cleanoceanaction.org/lng) and sign the petition voicing your disapproval of LNG ports off our coastline. Please feel free to forward this email to your own lists. This is a critical issue for the environment and especially Asbury Park.
Thank you,
Tom Pivinski ESTC Chair
- The Voice of Asbury Park ~ matters vital to justice, environment, equality, culture and pursuit of happiness.
Showing posts with label environmental. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environmental. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Dery Bennett: Huge Loss to Environmentalists
Dery Bennett, who passed from this life Tuesday, December 15, at the age of 79, was a larger than life individual in his physicality as well as his contributions to our awareness of the fragile link between natural life and the actions of human beings.
Tall and thin, Dery's head nearly touched the ceiling of WYGG's tiny studio, when he appeared on Asbury Radio to talk about the Littoral Society's concerns about dense development along the ocean. He reminded me at once of my Scottish relatives, absent the bristles.
Although Bennett grasped the urgency of our environmental situation decades before it became fashionable to take up the cause, he never seemed to view his own role too seriously. He acted from a solid sense that what needed to be done could only be accomplished by steady plodding and often saw the humor in that.
I remember calling Dery when I found a fallen sea gull that had been pushed to the side of the Norwood Avenue bridge here. "Can you see if there's a metal band on its leg?" Dery asked. I reluctantly ventured out to sneak another look at the remains and sure enough there was a silver-colored band. (The bands contain code numbers that should be called into the tracking station so their movements and lifespans can be monitored.)
"Is there some way you can get it off?" he asked. Silence on my end of the phone. "Well, I doubt he's going to mind if you have to cut off his leg at this point." That was Dery, an unflappable realist as he went about the humble business of saving the planet.
Tall and thin, Dery's head nearly touched the ceiling of WYGG's tiny studio, when he appeared on Asbury Radio to talk about the Littoral Society's concerns about dense development along the ocean. He reminded me at once of my Scottish relatives, absent the bristles.
Although Bennett grasped the urgency of our environmental situation decades before it became fashionable to take up the cause, he never seemed to view his own role too seriously. He acted from a solid sense that what needed to be done could only be accomplished by steady plodding and often saw the humor in that.
I remember calling Dery when I found a fallen sea gull that had been pushed to the side of the Norwood Avenue bridge here. "Can you see if there's a metal band on its leg?" Dery asked. I reluctantly ventured out to sneak another look at the remains and sure enough there was a silver-colored band. (The bands contain code numbers that should be called into the tracking station so their movements and lifespans can be monitored.)
"Is there some way you can get it off?" he asked. Silence on my end of the phone. "Well, I doubt he's going to mind if you have to cut off his leg at this point." That was Dery, an unflappable realist as he went about the humble business of saving the planet.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Resident: Planning Board "Totally Uninformed"
M. Berman, S.A.Towery, City Mgr Terry Reidy, Chair D. DiBenedetto, Councilmember J. Loffredo, Vernice McGriff, Dave Parreott.
Planning Bd member Sara Anne Towery
Drawing shows gate across access point to beach and replacement boardwalk. Planners say this was in error.
A seemingly innocuous three questions posed by Asbury Tower resident, Mickey Schwartz, dressed in purple and sporting a flower in her hair (pictured) (Was there an environmental study done? Was it published? And, can I have a copy?) erupted in an angry accusation that the board is "uninformed" about the details of its plans to build 15 town houses on Ocean Ave.
When Schwartz, an art instructor at the Tower, asked the questions, planning board (PB)members did not respond. Board Chair Dan DiBenedetto and councilmember John Loffredo exchanged puzzled looks.
Then CMX (formerly Shoor DePalma) engineer, Bob Curley, advised that the board that an environmental impact study would have been done at the time the plans were originally presented to the Department of Environmental Preservation (DEP).
The board had reopened the public portion to allow Schwartz to speak. Then another resident, Carole Gorman, came to the mic to ask if the fact that the board did not know the answer to whether the study was done had been recorded. Hear sound file from that portion of the meeting.
The board had reopened the public portion to allow Schwartz to speak. Then another resident, Carole Gorman, came to the mic to ask if the fact that the board did not know the answer to whether the study was done had been recorded. Hear sound file from that portion of the meeting.
The planning board approved the application by unanimous vote. Application proceeds now to DEP's Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) division, which is responsible for coastal land use. (Hear the DEP's Mark Mauriello's interview on Asbury Radio in 2003, prior to the division's review of the waterfront building permit, below. Mauriello was asked how the fact that the waterfront plan's chief negotiator, former city manager Terrance Weldon, had pled guilty to extorting developers in return for greater density in their Ocean Twp projects, would affect the DEP's review process.)
Another flare up occurred when PB member Sara Anne Towery told the audience that if she lived in Asbury Tower, which is a few yards from the planned site, she'd be happy to have the development there. Some audience members vowed to retaliate at the polls this May when the city council is up for re-election. Click to PB Comments. Click to hear PB Vote.
Larry Fishman, COO of Asbury Partners, his representatives attorney Alfred Faiella (hear on CAFRA), John Clarke of Caton Clark and Hintz, and Curley, showed new drawings of a widened corridor between the buildings, which members of Oceanfront Preservation say is still not up to the DEP's minimum for a view corridor, and a wider turnaround for vehicles on Ocean Ave., which will be reconfigured and greatly narrowed to make room for the development.
Additional sound from the meeting: Opening; Resident Roger Krause; View Corridor Discussion; and Public comments including Joe Woerner, science teacher representing Surf Riders Fdn. and the Littoral Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to water quality. Please share your comments on this board.
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