Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Federal funding is coming to finish the job.
It's still a surreal sight. Heading to Sea Bright over the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge, a panorama of sand mountains accosts the horizon. It looks like a foreign apocalyptic Sahara of sorts. Knowing that the beach lies beyond them is a consolation of familiarity. But, even after Hurricane Sandy's clean-up pushed the sand back off the streets and piled it high and the borough underwent an $8.5 million beach replenishment project, a couple of storms and high tides later, it's all gone — an awful lot of it, anyway. It was the fourth Sea Bright replenishment in just over a decade, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which handles all beach replenishment projects from giant barges in the sea. More than a million cubic yards of sand …
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The town has vowed to fight back following Hurricane Sandy, but recovery could take years.
There's no question in Mayor Dina Long's mind. Sea Bright will come back. Its downtown businesses, many of them still shuttered, their signs hanging on buildings some of which will have to be torn down, will open again, someday, somewhere. The beach clubs, crushed by the surging flood waters during Hurricane Sandy, will welcome visitors back to their new cabanas and beaches eventually. In the meantime, residents should brace themselves. It's not going to be pretty. Long assured residents during a public post-Sandy information session Wednesday that the recovery effort would not wait. But it will take years, she said, for the town to recover a ratable base decimated by the late October storm. In the interim, Long asked for residents to be …
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Word came to Woody's owner and Sea Bright Rising founder, Chris Wood, from Freeholder Director Thomas Arnone that the bridge will be open on weekends.
On the eve of his restaurant re-opening, faced with the oxymoronic joy of post-Hurricane Sandy progress and pain of a pending Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge closing, Woody's Ocean Grille's Chris Wood got some great news — he was told the compromise he'd rallied for in staggering the bridge's closing days was coming. And, as of Wednesday morning, when Wood said he got the confirmation call he had been waiting for from Monmouth County Freeholder Director Thomas Arnone, that compromise became a reality. That compromise, he said, looks like it's going to call for the bridge that funnels traffic in and out of Sea Bright to still close on weekdays starting "on or about Jan. 28," but to be open on weekends, or Friday nights through Sundays, and closed …
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Woody's Ocean Grille is fifth business to open in Sea Bright; Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge closure pending for five days after opening.
As Chris Wood hustles to lighten and liven up a Hurricane Sandy-dimmed downtown Sea Bright with the re-opening of his restaurant, Woody's Ocean Grille, on Wednesday, his spirits have been daunted by the prospect of the looming Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge closure. With Monmouth County officials estimating that the bridge will be closed off to traffic for a few weeks starting "on or about Jan. 28," right after now-closed Oceanic Bridge is re-opened, it's like telling Wood that the lifeblood of a major artery in and out of town, to and from his and the only four other open Sea Bright businesses, is clotted. "This is killing me. It's knocking me and the other Sea Bright business that just got back on their feet down after reviving ourselves from …
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School junior Charlotte Nagy releases new video to benefit Sea Bright Rising
It may still look dark and dismal in Sea Bright when night falls on the downtown strip of the small Hurricane Sandy-ravaged town, but there's a bright spirit that prevails. Of the some 30 businesses by the ocean, there are only four open: Dunkin' Donuts, Bain's Hardware, Harry's Lobster House and the new Ama Ristorante at Driftwood Beach Club, which, a bit apart from the downtown strip, was the first to re-open. And not too many residents have yet settled back into their homes. "It's like a ghost town here," said Claudia Cantor, who lives and works in town, but was displaced until recently and is still jobless. "People are trickling back in, but there's something very sad about it all. It's quiet and just about the only lights at night are…
Friday, December 14, 2012
Governor convenes Business Impact Assessment Group to survey merchants' needs after Sandy
Statewide business groups will begin this weekend to survey the needs of local merchants seeking to recover and rebuild after superstorm Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie said Friday afternoon. The formation of the Business Impact Assessment group was announced at a news conference at the Sea Bright firehouse, which until recently had served as a "Food City" center for provisions for the local responders and residents in this devastated oceanfront community. Local and state officials joined residents to hear the governor describe the value of small businesses, especially those at the Shore. "The heartbeat of the economy and the fabric of the culture are all these small businesses," he said. Small businesses are the "backbone of the Garden State …
Businesses from Red Bank, Rumson, Sea Bright, Little Silver, Long Branch and more to offer samples of their cuisine to benefit Sea Bright Rising.
There will be food and drink and dancing, of course, but this weekend when Sea Bright Rising holds its sold-out Beach Bash fundraiser at Ocean Place Resort and Spa, the main item on the menu will be a break from Sandy's wrath. "I think people are just looking for an escape, especially down there in Sea Bright, and I think that's why we sold out so quickly," said restaurateur George Lyristis. "People just want a little bit of normalcy, and we're going to give it to them and raise a little bit of money in the process." The Sea Bright Rising event is backed by Red Bank Flavour, a culinary alliance that spotlights Red Bank restaurant, bars, lounges and eateries. All are donating their food and staff, away from their businesses on what is …
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
The popular recording artists played a benefit for area first responders and Sea Bright residents Wednesday night.
It started with a Tweet, just a heads up from a local high schooler to the lead singer of mega-popular music mainstay for the last decade that he check out a video online. Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School student Charolotte Nagy’s simple request that Train lead singer Pat Monahan watch her documentary on the devastation of Hurricane Sandy culminated Wednesday night with an intimate free concert for the first responders and residents of one of the shore’s most devastated towns, Sea Bright. Wednesday’s outdoor concert, held in the parking lot of the Sea Bright Police Department, bookended by a ravaged beach on one side and a darkened downtown retail row on the other, attracted a crowd of about 500 people, all of them first responders, …
Jennifer Pricci
9:55 am on Friday, January 25, 2013
MOVING / ESTATE SALE TO CONTINUE SATURDAY & SUNDAY in Highlands! New and Like-new furnishings, yard furniture, grill, gym, jewelry, autographed music memorability (Bon Jovi, Springsteen), home decor, kitchen appliances and more. 10% of proceeds to benefit Sea Bright Rising Get Directions and More Info at www.tinyurl.com/navesink PLEASE SHARE! more ›