A great season to celebrate:

Not since the 1977 season have the Bradley Beach Elementary School girls team reached a final in the Monmouth County Athletic League National Division title game.  The 12-2 Seagulls (the new mascot name (old-Breakers)) faced a very tough Brielle team last Friday in front of a sold-out home court.  We lost the game; but what a season!  Congratulations on a great year for the girls!

A Senior Club Thank you to a special treasurer- Gloria Pagliuca !

The Bradley Beach Senior Club has been going through a “rebirth” in the last year.  Membership had dropped in recent years; and the COVID pandemic put a stop to meetings for almost 2 years.  Now, there are nearly 40 members in attendance at the monthly meetings and 2024 and beyond looks quite promising.  

One constant through the last 20+ years has been the club’s treasurer- Gloria Pagliuca!  Gloria has faithfully managed the finances of the club.  This year, Gloria has turned over the reigns to another long-time member- John Mok.  Gloria has done a great job; and is an example of volunteerism in our wonderful community.  We thank her and look forward to her continued participation in the club!

Infrastructure improvements from JCP&L

Recently, our Acting Borough Administrator, Meredith DeMarco, Frank Luna- a Jersey Central Power & Light External Affairs Consultant, and I met to discuss a proposal JCP&L is proposing.  JCP&L want to invest in 3 major areas- GRID MODERNIZATION, SYSTEM RESILIENCY, and SUBSTATION Modernization.  This will be a five-year effort, with spending of $935 million.  Our primary benefit will come with SUBSTATION MODERNIZATION- enhancing “switchgear” components at coastal stations.  We are supportive of these enhancements and look forward to these positive changes!

Beach Lockers 🏖️🏖️🏖️

We have just opened the Community Pass system for our 2024 Beach Locker rentals.  The 2023 Locker renters should have received a link for their Community Pass access.  After April 1st, any unrented lockers will go to the waiting list.  The waiting list did reduce significantly in 2023; and we hope to open it up either this year or next.   Since 2020, we have increased lockers by about 20% to almost 600 lockers on our beaches each summer.  In addition, we have:

Back to Winter Precautions- Rules of the Road and sign-up for Automated Notifications!!!

Please use off-street parking if available during all snow emergencies.

REGULATIONS FOR SNOW PLOWING – ALTERNATE SIDE OF THE STREET PARKING

If your street runs EAST TO WEST: While snowing and prior to being plowed, parking is prohibited on the South Side of the street until the plowing of the South Side is complete. Once completed, parking is prohibited on the North Side of the street until the snow is plowed off the North Side. If the street runs NORTH to SOUTH: While snowing and prior to being plowed, parking is prohibited on the East Side of the street until the snow is plowed off the East Side. Parking is prohibited on the West Side of the street until the snow is plowed off the West Side.

SNOW REMOVAL

Sidewalks and Parking Lots: Snow and ice shall be removed from sidewalks and private parking lots within 24 hours after cessation of precipitation.

TRASH

Trash and Recycling should not be placed curbside during a snow emergency.

PLACING SNOW OR ICE INTO THE STREET (S) IS PROHIBITED

No person or other entity shall throw, place or deposit any snow or ice into or on any street in the Borough, and no owner, tenant or occupant shall cause or allow such throwing, placing or depositing or any snow or ice to remain in the street, being the intent and purpose of this provision to prohibit all such persons and entities from throwing, placing or depositing snow or ice which accumulated on the private property of adjoining sidewalks into the streets of the Borough.

PLEASE CLEAR FIRE HYDRANTS OF SNOW FOR EMERGENCIES

SIGN UP FOR EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

You may receive alerts about emergencies and other important community news by signing up to the Bradley Beach Emergency Alert System above. You may also sign up for alerts through the Bradley Beach Police Department at any time (open 24/7). The emergency notification system enables us to provide you with critical information quickly in a variety of situations, such as severe weather, unexpected road closures, missing persons, and evacuation of buildings or neighborhoods. You will receive time-sensitive information by text message, cell phone and/or email.

2024 Budget

Since the last quarter of 2023, we have been working on the 2024 budget, as promised.  We have had all departmental reviews and are now organizing and summarizing the budget.  We will be reviewing the Capital Budget over the next few weeks with the Council members, as we complete internal reviews and summarizations with our new CFO, Ricky Gaetz.  We are hopeful that we complete the process within the next few months and have an adopted budget by May.  We’ll keep you posted.

Borough Council Meeting- format for 2024- something new! /hopefully improved!

Just as we are looking at WHAT we will be doing in 2024, HOW we do things can improve, too.  With that we are assessing two different meeting formats for 2024.  “Meeting 1” each month would be a combination of Workshops and Departmental report-outs”.  This would keep a good focus on improvements and initiatives.

“Meeting 2” each month would be the “business meeting”- resolutions, ordinance introductions and adoptions, approval of bill lists, etc.  We had our “first run” at this at our January 24th meeting; and we made good progress.

We will be working together (Council members, Acting Business Administrator, Clerk, Department Heads) to make these changes.  We will be reviewing Public Works, Engineering, and a Main Street survey conducted by the Bradley Beach Business and Community Alliance at our February 14th meeting.

We will continue to focus on Service and Progress as a Municipal Team.

Thanks, and see you around town.          

Mayor Larry Fox