SPOTLIGHT ON KEANSBURG

BEACHWAY REPAVING, 10/25 RESULTS AND COUNCIL ACTION

First for this week, I would like to make all residents aware that Beachway will be partially closed from Laurel Avenue to Oakwood Place from November 1 to November 3 for a repaving project. Parking for affected homeowners will be provided in the large municipal lot during the times when the streets are blocked off for construction.

Well as I had been saying in previous articles Saturday 10/25 was a very busy day. I started out at 8:15 AM heading over to public works to pick up supplies for the Clean Ocean Action beach sweeps. Then down to bay walk west I went to wait. I was there ahead of time and at 9 AM the first car pulled into the lot by about 9:15 we had assembled about 30 adults and children to help clean our beaches. One of strangest items we found this year was a 32 inch Samsung TV Set also we found a piece of a car bumper and a discharged fire extinguisher. The people at bay walk west included members of the Keansburg High School Key Club and the Science Club, Members of troop 136 for the Lillian Drive School in Hazlet, members of council and local residents.

Beach Sweep in Keansburg

All together, we collected enough debris to fill the bottom of the small borough dump truck. Later we found that while the majority of us were working at bay walk west due to some confusion another group of about 10 people were working over at bay walk east. This group included residents from Middletown, Hazlet and as far away as Red Bank all of who came to help clear our beaches. By about 11:30 PM this group at bay walk east had accumulated enough debris to fill about a quarter of the bottom of the same dump truck. I would like to extend the thanks of myself, our mayor and council to all who helped make the beach sweeps a success.

The next event that day was the fourth annual Halloween Monster Bash. Registration for this event started at 4 PM and more then 200 children registered for the costume parade. In addition to the children 9 pets were registered and in costume for the judges. All together including children, parents, guardians and others I would say that there were well in excess of 500 people at the event.

The street activities included two new activities for this year mummy bowling and the Keansburg Police Department was doing fingerprint identification cards for the children. At about 5:15 PM the large costume parade began which was later broken down into age groups for judging.

After that, all children rode the haunted hayride featuring live actors in various scenarios. New on the hayride for this year were the "Gates of Hell" and "The Silence of the Lambs" active exhibits. Also appearing again for the second year in a row was Frankenstein. Again, many of the actors were Keansburg High School Key Club and Honor Society members along with other students. I would like to extend the thanks of the mayor and council to all the volunteers who helped make this event a tremendous success again this year.

Children of the Corn

Lastly I will briefly cover some action taken during the council meeting of 10/23, I will cover it more in depth next week. For this week, I would just like to talk about the ordinances passed or introduced at this past council meeting. Four ordinances were passed as follows: Ordinance 1346 approved a bond for the boroughs share of the Waterfront Bicycle and Pedestrian pathway; Ordinance 1347 approved a bond for the boroughs share of the Raritan Avenue Reconstruction Project and Ordinance1348 approved a bond for the boroughs share of the Laurel Avenue reconstruction project. In addition to those three, Ordinance 1350 was approved to adopt a Public Health Nuisance code.

Two ordinances were introduced and set down for public hearings at the council meeting on 11/13 at 7 PM. Ordinance 1351 for the new Waterfront Park and Ordinance 1352 for the boroughs share of the Supplemental Appropriation for Lights at St. John's Park.

Upcoming Council meetings.

Due to Thanksgiving the only regularly scheduled meeting of the Keansburg Borough council for November will be on Thursday 11/13 at 7 PM.

Upcoming Borough Events.

Basketball Sign Ups - The Keansburg Youth Association is having basketball registrations. By the time this is published, you will be down to the last two days to sign up your children! Sign Ups will be only Thursday from 7 PM to 9 PM and Saturday from 10 AM to 3 PM at the Manning Place Firehouse. For more information, please click on the link to the Keansburg Youth Association web site. www.KeansburgYouth.com

Holiday Tree Lighting - The tentative date of Keansburg's annual holiday tree lighting will be Tuesday December 9 at 7 PM in Friendship Park. At this point, the date is only tentative because we are just starting on the arrangements for the day.