Thursday, October 26, 2006
WHAT THE DEMOCRATS WON'T SHOW YOU ABOUT BLACKBERRY BAY PARK
THE TRUTH ABOUT BLACKBERRY BAY PARK:
The Democratic Machine has recently posted a BLOG Report concerning Blackberry Bay Park at the following link. http://oceanport1-reports.blogspot.com/
First, the Photographs posted were taken from a great distance in an attempt to deceive the readers in believing that BLACKBERRY BAY PARK is a beautiful sight. Is this what the residents and the voting public of Oceanport want as leaders of the town, a politician that wishes to deceive the public? Since this was a well publicized issue during April, May and June of 2006, many of you already know the truth behind the failed BLACKBERRY BAY PROJECT.
In short, the taxpayers paid over a half million dollars of hard earned money to finance a botched project. The writer attempts to mislead the reader in believing that the money was procured through a GRANT. This is not entirely true. This money was procured through a low interest loan, which means that the taxpayer is paying for this failed project.
In fact here is an excerpt from an Article written by Vince Miller of the Asbury Park Press on October 10, 2002, titled “Borough Seeks State Cash for Parks”
THE Oceanport Borough Council has applied to two state agencies to offset the cost of improving the Blackberry Bay Park and Sommers Scout Park. “On the heels of an application for State Green Acres made by the borough Aug. 12 for $282,500 at 2 percent interest”.
As a result, again the Oceanport Democrats are attempting to mislead the Oceanport residents. Furthermore, four years after the mention of doing work at Sommers Park, there has not been any plans drafted or work completed at this particular park.
The only person who actually made out on this deal was the Democratic Appointed Borough Engineer, Birdsall Engineering, Tom Rospos. Mr. Rospos had the audacity to bill the Borough for his work at Blackberry Bay for an amount that went over $80,000.00, in which the Borough paid without hesitation.
What is more disturbing is the fact that the Recreation Committee who is comprised of William Johnson and Joe Irace, voted “YES” to a “NO CONFIDENCE” vote concerning the contractor and the Borough Engineer directly relating to the BLACKBERRY BAY PROJECT. This vote was during the AUGUST 5, 2005, RECREATION MEETING.
When this was brought to the Democratic controlled Town Government and the Borough Attorney at the time, MARTIN MCGANN JR., the Recreation Committee was shot down and given bad advice by the Borough Attorney, stating that it was not a good idea to fire the Borough Engineer. WHY NOT, is the Question to be asked? WHO WAS THE OCEANPORT BOROUGH ATTORNEY PROTECTING HERE?
As far as holding money back from the Contractor, that did occur. The contractor failed to complete work and eventually was thrown off the job and paid what he was owed. The Borough withheld about 8,000.00 dollars from this contractor. Quite honestly anyone with a pulse would have walked away from the Blackberry Bay Park Project for $8,000.00.
The Contractor was paid a substantial amount of money for a failed project. The Builder and the Borough Engineer were the only individuals who benefited from this botched job. The taxpayers and the residents of Oceanport were the losers. The total project was $550,000.00, not including the nearly $250,000.00 for the Tennis Courts. Wouldn’t you walk away from the job for $8,000.00, after you collected well over a HALF MILLION DOLLARS of taxpayer money?
However, this posting will invite you inside the park for a close-up tour of what the misleading writer calls a beautiful park. After reading this entire Report concerning the BLACKBERRY BAY PROJECT, PLEASE as the writer posted, “NOW YOU BE THE JUDGE”.
Please be warned that when you read the facts relating to the mismanaged, unsupervised, and failed project you may be disgusted as to how our town is managed under the Democratic Control Government.
The Democratic Machine has recently posted a BLOG Report concerning Blackberry Bay Park at the following link. http://oceanport1-reports.blogspot.com/
First, the Photographs posted were taken from a great distance in an attempt to deceive the readers in believing that BLACKBERRY BAY PARK is a beautiful sight. Is this what the residents and the voting public of Oceanport want as leaders of the town, a politician that wishes to deceive the public? Since this was a well publicized issue during April, May and June of 2006, many of you already know the truth behind the failed BLACKBERRY BAY PROJECT.
In short, the taxpayers paid over a half million dollars of hard earned money to finance a botched project. The writer attempts to mislead the reader in believing that the money was procured through a GRANT. This is not entirely true. This money was procured through a low interest loan, which means that the taxpayer is paying for this failed project.
In fact here is an excerpt from an Article written by Vince Miller of the Asbury Park Press on October 10, 2002, titled “Borough Seeks State Cash for Parks”
THE Oceanport Borough Council has applied to two state agencies to offset the cost of improving the Blackberry Bay Park and Sommers Scout Park. “On the heels of an application for State Green Acres made by the borough Aug. 12 for $282,500 at 2 percent interest”.
As a result, again the Oceanport Democrats are attempting to mislead the Oceanport residents. Furthermore, four years after the mention of doing work at Sommers Park, there has not been any plans drafted or work completed at this particular park.
The only person who actually made out on this deal was the Democratic Appointed Borough Engineer, Birdsall Engineering, Tom Rospos. Mr. Rospos had the audacity to bill the Borough for his work at Blackberry Bay for an amount that went over $80,000.00, in which the Borough paid without hesitation.
What is more disturbing is the fact that the Recreation Committee who is comprised of William Johnson and Joe Irace, voted “YES” to a “NO CONFIDENCE” vote concerning the contractor and the Borough Engineer directly relating to the BLACKBERRY BAY PROJECT. This vote was during the AUGUST 5, 2005, RECREATION MEETING.
When this was brought to the Democratic controlled Town Government and the Borough Attorney at the time, MARTIN MCGANN JR., the Recreation Committee was shot down and given bad advice by the Borough Attorney, stating that it was not a good idea to fire the Borough Engineer. WHY NOT, is the Question to be asked? WHO WAS THE OCEANPORT BOROUGH ATTORNEY PROTECTING HERE?
As far as holding money back from the Contractor, that did occur. The contractor failed to complete work and eventually was thrown off the job and paid what he was owed. The Borough withheld about 8,000.00 dollars from this contractor. Quite honestly anyone with a pulse would have walked away from the Blackberry Bay Park Project for $8,000.00.
The Contractor was paid a substantial amount of money for a failed project. The Builder and the Borough Engineer were the only individuals who benefited from this botched job. The taxpayers and the residents of Oceanport were the losers. The total project was $550,000.00, not including the nearly $250,000.00 for the Tennis Courts. Wouldn’t you walk away from the job for $8,000.00, after you collected well over a HALF MILLION DOLLARS of taxpayer money?
However, this posting will invite you inside the park for a close-up tour of what the misleading writer calls a beautiful park. After reading this entire Report concerning the BLACKBERRY BAY PROJECT, PLEASE as the writer posted, “NOW YOU BE THE JUDGE”.
Please be warned that when you read the facts relating to the mismanaged, unsupervised, and failed project you may be disgusted as to how our town is managed under the Democratic Control Government.
Again you will see that the Democratic Controlled Oceanport Government appears to be nothing more than an incompetent group of reactive individuals, who responded quickly after the BLACKBERRY PARK PROJECT was exposed as being a disastrous mess on April 23, 2006. This is when the real story was exposed to the public.
For those of you who are familiar with the Blackberry Bay Park Debacle this may seem a little repetitive, but for those of you who did not follow the story back in April of this year it should serve as very informative and very factual post. In fact there was so much controversy over this project that it made a two week series in the newspaper called the “LINK”.
Here are the articles please read before you go another further.
June 1, 2006 Article
June 8, 2006 Article
June 21, 2006 Editorial
Before these articles made the paper the following information was presented to the Oceanport Residents on Sunday, April 23, 2006, documenting the failed Blackberry Bay Park Project.
The Oceanport Baseball Association has been pondering what exactly went wrong with the Blackberry Bay Park project and more specifically the baseball fields. The final cost for this project was $550,000.00 or better than a half million dollars and the Borough of Oceanport ended up with a final product that is sub-standard and far below expectation. The below listed contractor was the lowest bidder and was awarded the contract under job number 2-00009-420003. The bid was $275,594.22
RWV Land & Livestock South Inc.
351 Pfister Road
Jackson, NJ 08527
Here is where it things get a little suspicious. The bids came in as follows starting with the lowest bidder.
RWV Land & Livestock $275,594.22
Precise Construction $367,315.00
Down to Earth Landscape $369,089.50
There were also higher bids by a couple of companies going upwards to $575,000.00. The Boro Engineer assessed the project at a cost of about $340,000.00. Just a side note, the Boro Engineer, Tom Rospos was paid $80,000.00 for this flawed and unsatisfactory project. After some research it was learned that RWV Land and Livestock has no expertise in building baseball fields or parks.
However, without any background investigation or research into RWV Land and Livestock Company, the elected Oceanport officials awarded the contract. If you search the internet for RWV Land and Livestock they are typically a paving company with no expertise in the area of parks and baseball fields.
Based on this information, this begs the question of who benefited from this worthless product the citizens were sold and who should be held accountable? Of course finger pointed will always occur. However, who should be directly held responsible is the appropriate question.
Just throwing this in the air; however were there any kickbacks or campaign contributions from RWV Land and Livestock to anyone who had the power to award this contract? That is a question that always comes to light.
One needs to ask how a $275,594.00 project ended up costing the taxpayers of Oceanport upwards of $550,000.00. The project lasted well over two years when it was promised that it should not take more than a year.
Rumson had basically the same project completed this year and had a well-attended opening day ceremony for the citizens of their community to show them the final product. Although this project cost nearly $800,000.00, it was a product to be proud of, and to everyone’s surprise it was done in less than a year. That’s right less than a year.
Review the photos and formulate your own opinions. Just remember, come November what party was in control of the Oceanport Government when this project was awarded.
Oceanport spent $550,000.00 and Rumson spent nearly $800,000.00. Now this is not a trick question. And the question is,
Whose money was better spent Oceanport or Rumson?
The photographs were taken on the same day during the rain. In fact, the Blackberry Bay photographs were taken about fifteen minutes before the Rumson photographs.
Click on the Links to view Photographs. They are large files, but worth the wait for them to appear.
RUMSON PHOTOGRAPHS BLACKBERRY PHOTOGRAPHS
This just came to light that Councilman Briscione accepted a campaign donation from RWV Land and Livestock Company in the amount of $500.00, but later returned it. However, here is the timeline of this contribution, so that you can formulate your own opinion.
JUNE 2004: CONTRACT AWARDED TO RWV LAND AND LIVESTOCK
AUGUST 20, 2004: RWV LAND AND LIVESTOCK DONATED $500.00 TO ALFRED GUZZI, JAY BRISCIONE, AND ROBERT HOLDEN. IF YOU ALL REMEMBER CORRECTLY ALL THREE WERE RUNNING ON THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET IN OCEANPORT FOR THE NOVEMBER 2004 ELECTIONS. ONLY MR. BRISCIONE WAS ELECTED
NOVEMBER 4, 2004: THE $500.00 CONTRIBUTION WAS RETURNED TO RWV LAND AND LIVESTOCK.
CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO VIEW DOCUMENT RELATING TO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION
This certainly raises concerns as to how RWV Land and Livestock finds our local politicians to donate money too, and then is awarded the Blackberry Bay Park Project. What is the connection and what was promised to RWV Land and Livestock in return for a political donation?
The Borough Engineer is paid well over $80,000.00 dollars for a flawed project? Who benefited?
Is the benefit possibly a half million dollar baseball field contract? Who knows, but it certainly has the appearance of an unethical transaction from a citizen viewpoint. It may very well be an oversight, but it does not look good on paper.
The bottom line is that well over 400 innocent and unsuspecting children who play recreational baseball and their parents will suffer and will never experience playing on a home field that would be considered a showcase field like the two Rumson built at Riverside Park. If you get a chance take a ride there and see for yourself.
Take Seven Bridges Road to the end in Little Silver make a right hand turn at that Traffic light and the third right hand turn is Riverside road. Take that to the end and the park will be right in front of you.
One needs to wonder what motivates the people who are responsible for the final product at Blackberry Bay Park.
A day after the BLACKBERRY BAY PARK CATASTROPHE was made public a couple of negative responses were received by e-mail. Also you will see that since BLACKBERRY BAY PARK was so beautiful, the Recreation Committee who was planning a Memorial Day Weekend Event at BLACKBERRY BAY PARK had to cancel the event because the PARK was considered an eyesore and an embarrassment to the Town.
Click here to read the e-mails. E-MAILS
Then there was a meeting with the MAYOR. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW THE MEETING WITH THE MAYOR.
TODAY THE BLACKBERRY BAY PARK IS STILL AN EYESORE AND CONSIDERED A FAILED PROJECT WITH PLAYGROUND SAFETY ISSUES AND THE PARK IS NOT ADA FRIENDLY. THESE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2006 AND THE PARK IS STILL AN EYESORE.
CLECK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS
THE SAFETY ISSUES ARE TOO MANY TO LIST. HOWEVER, IT IS APPARENT THAT THE DESIGN OF THE BLACKBERRY BAY PROJECT DID NOT TAKE THE SAFETY OF THE YOUNG CHILDREN AND SPECTATORS INTO CONSIDERATION.
CLICK ON THE SAFETY ISSUE LINK TO VIEW THE COMPARISON BETWEEN RIVERSIDE PARK IN RUMSON AND BLACKBERRY BAY PARK.
THE BOROUGH ENGINEER IN RUMSON IS OBVIOUSLY A SAFETY MINDED INDIVDIUAL WHILE ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. BLACKBERRY BAY PARK SAFETY ISSUE
BLACKBERRY BAY PARK DOES NOT MEET AMERICAN DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) STANDARDS NOR DOES IT MEET THE PLAYGROUND SAFTEY REGULATIONS SET BY THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY.
CLCIK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION CONCERNING PLAYGROUND SAFETY AND ADA REGULATIONS. PLAYGROUND SAFETY/ADA REGULATIONS OR CLICK HERE PLAYGROUND SAFETY
And the BOROUGH ENGINEER gets a tidy sum that is over $80,000.00 for the renovation of Blackberry Bay Park. WHAT AN EMBARASSMENT…………………………………………………………………
Then a week after the botched Blackberry Bay project was exposed the Park was busy with repairs. Here are photos of the park dated April 29, 2006. April 29, 2006
As weeks went by still not much progress. Here are photos of May 23, 2006 and May 29, 2006 after a rain storm. May 23, 2006
And a Meeting with the Mayor on May 24 2006. May 24, 2006 MEETING WITH THE MAYOR.
And today the park is sitting stagnant with no further work completed. The Park looks good from a distance, a good distance, but when you enter the park it is considered a disgrace by many.
VOTE REPLUBICAN TO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN FROM THESE PLAYGROUND SAFETY CONCERNS……………………………………………………………………………..
ELLYNN KAHLE FOR MAYOR, JOE IRACE AND WILLIAM JOHNSON FOR COUNCIL
IRONICALLY, DEMOCRATIC US REPRESENTATIVE, CONGRESSMAN FRANK PALLONE INTRODUCED LEGISLATION CONCERNING PLAYGROUND SAFETY….. CLICK HERE 2001 BILL BY FRANK PALLONE HEY OCEANPORT DID YOU APPLY FOR ANY GRANT MONEY FOR PLAYGROUND SAFETY ISSUES?
For those of you who are familiar with the Blackberry Bay Park Debacle this may seem a little repetitive, but for those of you who did not follow the story back in April of this year it should serve as very informative and very factual post. In fact there was so much controversy over this project that it made a two week series in the newspaper called the “LINK”.
Here are the articles please read before you go another further.
June 1, 2006 Article
June 8, 2006 Article
June 21, 2006 Editorial
Before these articles made the paper the following information was presented to the Oceanport Residents on Sunday, April 23, 2006, documenting the failed Blackberry Bay Park Project.
The Oceanport Baseball Association has been pondering what exactly went wrong with the Blackberry Bay Park project and more specifically the baseball fields. The final cost for this project was $550,000.00 or better than a half million dollars and the Borough of Oceanport ended up with a final product that is sub-standard and far below expectation. The below listed contractor was the lowest bidder and was awarded the contract under job number 2-00009-420003. The bid was $275,594.22
RWV Land & Livestock South Inc.
351 Pfister Road
Jackson, NJ 08527
Here is where it things get a little suspicious. The bids came in as follows starting with the lowest bidder.
RWV Land & Livestock $275,594.22
Precise Construction $367,315.00
Down to Earth Landscape $369,089.50
There were also higher bids by a couple of companies going upwards to $575,000.00. The Boro Engineer assessed the project at a cost of about $340,000.00. Just a side note, the Boro Engineer, Tom Rospos was paid $80,000.00 for this flawed and unsatisfactory project. After some research it was learned that RWV Land and Livestock has no expertise in building baseball fields or parks.
However, without any background investigation or research into RWV Land and Livestock Company, the elected Oceanport officials awarded the contract. If you search the internet for RWV Land and Livestock they are typically a paving company with no expertise in the area of parks and baseball fields.
Based on this information, this begs the question of who benefited from this worthless product the citizens were sold and who should be held accountable? Of course finger pointed will always occur. However, who should be directly held responsible is the appropriate question.
Just throwing this in the air; however were there any kickbacks or campaign contributions from RWV Land and Livestock to anyone who had the power to award this contract? That is a question that always comes to light.
One needs to ask how a $275,594.00 project ended up costing the taxpayers of Oceanport upwards of $550,000.00. The project lasted well over two years when it was promised that it should not take more than a year.
Rumson had basically the same project completed this year and had a well-attended opening day ceremony for the citizens of their community to show them the final product. Although this project cost nearly $800,000.00, it was a product to be proud of, and to everyone’s surprise it was done in less than a year. That’s right less than a year.
Review the photos and formulate your own opinions. Just remember, come November what party was in control of the Oceanport Government when this project was awarded.
Oceanport spent $550,000.00 and Rumson spent nearly $800,000.00. Now this is not a trick question. And the question is,
Whose money was better spent Oceanport or Rumson?
The photographs were taken on the same day during the rain. In fact, the Blackberry Bay photographs were taken about fifteen minutes before the Rumson photographs.
Click on the Links to view Photographs. They are large files, but worth the wait for them to appear.
RUMSON PHOTOGRAPHS BLACKBERRY PHOTOGRAPHS
This just came to light that Councilman Briscione accepted a campaign donation from RWV Land and Livestock Company in the amount of $500.00, but later returned it. However, here is the timeline of this contribution, so that you can formulate your own opinion.
JUNE 2004: CONTRACT AWARDED TO RWV LAND AND LIVESTOCK
AUGUST 20, 2004: RWV LAND AND LIVESTOCK DONATED $500.00 TO ALFRED GUZZI, JAY BRISCIONE, AND ROBERT HOLDEN. IF YOU ALL REMEMBER CORRECTLY ALL THREE WERE RUNNING ON THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET IN OCEANPORT FOR THE NOVEMBER 2004 ELECTIONS. ONLY MR. BRISCIONE WAS ELECTED
NOVEMBER 4, 2004: THE $500.00 CONTRIBUTION WAS RETURNED TO RWV LAND AND LIVESTOCK.
CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO VIEW DOCUMENT RELATING TO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION
This certainly raises concerns as to how RWV Land and Livestock finds our local politicians to donate money too, and then is awarded the Blackberry Bay Park Project. What is the connection and what was promised to RWV Land and Livestock in return for a political donation?
The Borough Engineer is paid well over $80,000.00 dollars for a flawed project? Who benefited?
Is the benefit possibly a half million dollar baseball field contract? Who knows, but it certainly has the appearance of an unethical transaction from a citizen viewpoint. It may very well be an oversight, but it does not look good on paper.
The bottom line is that well over 400 innocent and unsuspecting children who play recreational baseball and their parents will suffer and will never experience playing on a home field that would be considered a showcase field like the two Rumson built at Riverside Park. If you get a chance take a ride there and see for yourself.
Take Seven Bridges Road to the end in Little Silver make a right hand turn at that Traffic light and the third right hand turn is Riverside road. Take that to the end and the park will be right in front of you.
One needs to wonder what motivates the people who are responsible for the final product at Blackberry Bay Park.
A day after the BLACKBERRY BAY PARK CATASTROPHE was made public a couple of negative responses were received by e-mail. Also you will see that since BLACKBERRY BAY PARK was so beautiful, the Recreation Committee who was planning a Memorial Day Weekend Event at BLACKBERRY BAY PARK had to cancel the event because the PARK was considered an eyesore and an embarrassment to the Town.
Click here to read the e-mails. E-MAILS
Then there was a meeting with the MAYOR. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW THE MEETING WITH THE MAYOR.
TODAY THE BLACKBERRY BAY PARK IS STILL AN EYESORE AND CONSIDERED A FAILED PROJECT WITH PLAYGROUND SAFETY ISSUES AND THE PARK IS NOT ADA FRIENDLY. THESE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2006 AND THE PARK IS STILL AN EYESORE.
CLECK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS
THE SAFETY ISSUES ARE TOO MANY TO LIST. HOWEVER, IT IS APPARENT THAT THE DESIGN OF THE BLACKBERRY BAY PROJECT DID NOT TAKE THE SAFETY OF THE YOUNG CHILDREN AND SPECTATORS INTO CONSIDERATION.
CLICK ON THE SAFETY ISSUE LINK TO VIEW THE COMPARISON BETWEEN RIVERSIDE PARK IN RUMSON AND BLACKBERRY BAY PARK.
THE BOROUGH ENGINEER IN RUMSON IS OBVIOUSLY A SAFETY MINDED INDIVDIUAL WHILE ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. BLACKBERRY BAY PARK SAFETY ISSUE
BLACKBERRY BAY PARK DOES NOT MEET AMERICAN DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) STANDARDS NOR DOES IT MEET THE PLAYGROUND SAFTEY REGULATIONS SET BY THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY.
CLCIK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION CONCERNING PLAYGROUND SAFETY AND ADA REGULATIONS. PLAYGROUND SAFETY/ADA REGULATIONS OR CLICK HERE PLAYGROUND SAFETY
And the BOROUGH ENGINEER gets a tidy sum that is over $80,000.00 for the renovation of Blackberry Bay Park. WHAT AN EMBARASSMENT…………………………………………………………………
Then a week after the botched Blackberry Bay project was exposed the Park was busy with repairs. Here are photos of the park dated April 29, 2006. April 29, 2006
As weeks went by still not much progress. Here are photos of May 23, 2006 and May 29, 2006 after a rain storm. May 23, 2006
And a Meeting with the Mayor on May 24 2006. May 24, 2006 MEETING WITH THE MAYOR.
And today the park is sitting stagnant with no further work completed. The Park looks good from a distance, a good distance, but when you enter the park it is considered a disgrace by many.
VOTE REPLUBICAN TO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN FROM THESE PLAYGROUND SAFETY CONCERNS……………………………………………………………………………..
ELLYNN KAHLE FOR MAYOR, JOE IRACE AND WILLIAM JOHNSON FOR COUNCIL
IRONICALLY, DEMOCRATIC US REPRESENTATIVE, CONGRESSMAN FRANK PALLONE INTRODUCED LEGISLATION CONCERNING PLAYGROUND SAFETY….. CLICK HERE 2001 BILL BY FRANK PALLONE HEY OCEANPORT DID YOU APPLY FOR ANY GRANT MONEY FOR PLAYGROUND SAFETY ISSUES?
# posted by Stop The Corruption @ 5:19 PM
