Hayden, who has swum in the race since she was nine years old, will be a competitor in the mile swim again this year. Should she be the first-place finisher, she will receive the award named for her mother, the late Amy Lynn Gill, but it will be presented by Hayden’s father, Brian Gill.
The Amy Lynn Gill Award is one of several which will be awarded following the one mile and two-mile swims, which get underway at 7:30 at Sea Bright’s public beach.
Registration for the competition is limited to 200 swimmers with the first 125 to receive the swim meet tee shirt.
The Amy Lynn Gill Award will be presented to the first-place female in the one-mile swim, the Mike Hudson Award will be presented to the first place male in the one mile swim. Awards will be given to the top five male and top five female finishers of both the one- and two-mile swims. Wetsuit wearers will be in a separate division with awards for the top three overall male and female swimmers.
For more information on the Swim meet, or to register, visit For more information visit https://raceforum.com/sbswim
All participants can download their finished certificates with award placements for each event.
Hayden, a student at Red Bank Catholic High School, trains for swimming with the NJRC in Tinton Falls. Many of her fellow swimmers at the Tinton Falls facility are registered for the Andy Rooney Meet.
Tee shirts that are for sale, along with chances on a 50-50. All proceeds will benefit the Amy Lynn Gill Scholarship for the Hazlet Board of Education where Amy was a teacher at the time of her death in January.
Raised in Atlantic Highlands, Amy Lynn Gill attended St. Agnes School and Mater Dei High School, before earning her degree at Keystone College and Kean University where she earned her master’s degree in special education. She taught for more than 24 years in the Hazlet school district’s special education program and also coached the swim program at Raritan High School.
Following the race, at 2 p.m. at the Proving Ground, Shrewsbury Avenue, Highlands, interested persons are invited to join the Gill family in celebrating what would have been Amy’s 50th birthday. Tee shirts will also be available for sale at that event.
Andy Rooney Andy Rooney Andy Rooney Andy Rooney Andy Rooney
Joshua Huddy, that Revolutionary soldier who was hung by the British in Highlands, has always been a favorite historic figure for youngsters and adults alike even before the Highlands Historical Society staged a rendering of Jo-Anne Olszewski’s story of details of his hanging . The hanging took place in the area which is now Huddy Park at Bay and Waterwitch avenues in the borough.
Ann McNeil, who lived on Navesink Avenue adjacent to what is now the Highlands Borough Hall, was a teacher for many years and often taught her young students not only local history but designed her stories into poems so they would enjoy them more.
Much later in life, when she was a resident of Care One Nursing Homeuntil her death at 105 years of age, Ann also entertained herself and her visitors with more poems she hand wrote, some of which have been compiled into a book written by John King.
Rather than writing about Huddy himself, Ann opted to identify a tree she believed was used for his hanging and wrote the following poem about the Basswood Tree.
THE BASSWOOD TREE by Ann McNeill
Oh, they hung Joshua Huddy
On that old basswood tree
Yes they did, for all to see
On that old tree.
They did it to get even,
They said the he was spying
They knew that they were lying,
But they hung him on that tree.
That old tree.
Later workmen cut it down,
Not a trace can now be found
On the ground where it grew
That old Tree.
But Captain Huddy I remember
And one day in November
I will place some flowers on the spot where it grew
First Lady Jill Biden is not the first Presidential wife to be the obvious caregiver and protector of her husband. gatekeeper
President Woodrow Wilson’s second wife, Edith, was known to have hidden her husband’s severe illnesses from not only the public but his Cabinet and advisors as well.
It was Edith Wilson who decided what was important enough to bring to her husband’s attention, and it was Edith Wilson, as First Lady, who reviewed, studied, and made decisions on communications and encrypted messages meant for the President of the United States alone.
Edith Wilson’s story is part of the history taught at The Manse, the Staunton, Virginia home where Wilson was born when his father was a minister in the Presbyterian church there.
A magnificent house with a museum that is filled with artifacts and collectibles from the man who served as President during World War I, it is a popular attraction for historians and theater goers first drawn by the Shakespearean theater also in Staunton.
Emily Wilson, like Jill Biden, was her husband’s second wife, marrying him one year after the death of his wife. It was 1915, the first year of his Presidency when the couple, who had met several months earlier were married, she 15 years his junior.
As First Lady, Emily was the first woman to visit Europe during her husband’s presidential term and was with him as the Paris Peace Conference and at the signing of the Treaty at Versailles when the war ended in 1918.
The President suffered a severe stroke which left him bedridden and paralyzed in October 1919.
Edith, rather than defer to officials, took charge of her husband’s care, denying even Cabinet members any access to him and certainly keeping his severe illness out of the knowledge of the public.
It was she, a descendant of Pocahontas, who was in charge…her stewardship, she said….of her husband’s decisions during the remaining almost 18 months of his Presidency. It was she who decided which papers were important enough to bring to his attention, it was she who determined that his Secretary of State Robert Lansing should be removed from office. Lansing had called a meeting of the President’s Cabinet. But did not invite her to attend when she declined to let her husband be present.
In short, Edith said she was President Wilson’s “Vessel of Information” as she described herself. Politicians who knew of the President’s severe illness said at the time that no woman had ever had a husband who depended on her so much. They termed her the gatekeeper for the President of the United States.
Wilson remained in office for a year and a half following his debilitating stroke, and Edith handled his affairs from October of 1919 until he left office at the end of his term in March 1921.
After Wilson died in February 1924, his widow remained active in politics, headed the Board of Governors for the Women’s National Democratic Club, attended Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration and later his funeral in 1945 as well as John Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. She died in December of 1961 at age 89. Her birthplace in Wytheville, Virginia is a national historic site and museum.
Both President and Edith Wilson are buried at the Washington National Cathedral, the only President to be buried in Washington, DC.
As the United States of America prepares to celebrate the 248th anniversary of that daring time when brave patriots made the decision to oppose the strongest power in the world in order to ensure freedom and independence for a new nation, we also appear to be facing the real danger of tearing apart the very Constitution that Declaration signing made possible.
Our nation’s leaders in the 18th century made the foundation of the Supreme Court Article III of the Constitution. That Act established a judiciary system new to the world, and one that identifies “the judicial Power of the United States, SHALL be vested in one supreme Court….” together with inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”
The Constitution established the Supreme Court and gave the legislative office, Congress, permission to decide how to organize it. Hence, the Judiciary Act of 1789 created a Supreme Court with six justices.
Over the years, various Acts of Congress have altered the number of seats on the Supreme Court, ranging from a low of five to a high of 10, but shortly after the Civil War, the number was established at nine where it remains.
Members of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate, hold office for life, and remain apolitical in their actions. Congress also dictated that salaries of justices could not be decreased during their term of office as a means of ensuring their independence as a judiciary that remains clear of all political branches of government.
More importantly, Article III, Section II of the Constitution guarantees it is the Court that can hear any case that involves a point of constitutional and/or federal law. The court can make the decision to hear, or not hear, a case.
But the most well-known power of these one of three branches of government in a republic is the Court’s right to declare a Legislative or Executive act in violation of the Constitution, the right established by the Marbury v. Madison decision in 1803.
The Supreme Court plays an all-important role in our constitutional system of government. This is the court of last resort. This is the branch of government that ensures each of the other two branches, executive and legislative, realizes its own limits of power.
This week, the Supreme Court handed down its decision on Presidential privileges. That decision makes it the Law of the Land. Already, there is talk of those who look for ways to ‘get around’ what they now know the Supreme Court says.
Perhaps they will.
This is America, this is a republic, they have the right to go back to court with new arguments and new evidence.
But, for the President of the United States, the only person in that one Executive Branch of the three branches of government, to say the Supreme Court is wrong, is in error, or should not be involved, is shameful and embarrassing on any day.
In the week when the United States of America is celebrating, with grateful memories, those men and women who suffered so much so that, 248 years later we can still have God-given rights they protected so fiercely, an Executive Branch of government challenging the Supreme Court branch of government is an insult to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and all other brave signers of the Declaration of Independence who created our United States.
Whether you were a youngster in one of her classes at Our Lady of Perpetual Help school when she was a favorite teacher there, or an educator at the Elementary School when she was on the Board of Education, or for that matter, a parent or taxpayer when she was a member of the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education, the name Joan Wicklund is synonymous with common sense, intelligence, and thinking things through before making any decision. Advice
Combining her years as a teacher in Highlands, and a member of both boards, this lovely and ever pleasant lady has given more than three decades to education of youngsters who have since grown up and frequently stop to tell her just what she has meant in their lives.
Today, Joan still lives in Highlands, still keeps up on every bit of local news, and still has very strong opinions after insisting on getting all the facts from every source possible.
These days, she is certainly happy the two local school boards are now a thing of the past, and she has serious doubts about the transitional board for the new PreK-12 district.
Always putting education at the top of her list of what’s important in a school system, Joan is on a mission to be sure both Highlands and Atlantic Highlands voters become well informed, know statistics, and follow the news of what’s been done that isn’t made public until after the fact when it comes to Henry Hudson.
She’s a strong advocate that everyone has to vote for five Highlands members for the nine-member board that will be on the ballot in November and she wants to be sure they know which five will lead the new district to provide the best education while not burdening the taxpayer.
She is a strong proponent of Sea Bright coming into the district to share in the cost and an even stronger proponent of being sure the board is open, honest, transparent and listens to the people.
That goes back to Joan’s early days on one of the boards. The late Kathleen Mendes, the lady largely responsible for the district getting that plush piece of land for a school, and also a former board member, thanks in part to her very generous father, Haak Kavookjian, gave Joan advice one day.
That advice was to always conduct all board business at open meetings, and to listen carefully to the people before taking final action on anything. Kathleen also had words for the public at board meetings, which at that time often ran late in the night. Kathleen would tell residents they had three things to do, assuring them they would be heard and any advice given. As Joan recalls, Kathleen would tell the public at meetings to “be Prepared, Be Brief, and Be seated.”
She laughs now, remembering her own explanation of why public sessions were always so long when she was on the board. “I always wanted to hear from the public,” she said this week, “because I found that my hearing was always so much better when it was a member of the public who was doing the talking.”
As the sun began to set over Sandy Hook Bay each summer evening, a man with a white beard grabbed a microphone at a seaside restaurant and began talking about pride and sacrifice, patriotism and service. He invoked the nation’s war dead, welcomed visitors from other countries, asked everyone to stand up, take off their hats, hold hands with the strangers at the next table, and give thanks.
“The freedom you enjoy did not come free,” Ed Segall said. Then he led everyone in singing “God Bless America” with the song invariably ending, to applause and a few tears, just as the sun dipped over the horizon.
So wrote Reporter Peter Applebombe in the New York Times in August 2013, the year after the famed Sea Gull’s Nest at Sandy Hook was wiped out forever after Hurricane Sandy.
Even so, Reporter Applebombe only told part of the story. The natives knew even more.
If you came up to the Sea Gull’s Nest, you better be a patriot. You don’t take your hat off for the Pledge, or sing God Bless America with fervor, you would be invited to leave. It rarely came to that. Once Ed’s practice of a nightly thank you for our country became tradition, it would be the guests who would unceremoniously invite any non-patriot to leave before he got in trouble.
This July 4, in addition to remembering Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, two Signers of the Declaration, it’s a time to remember Ed Segall, who died Feb 3 of this year at age 96.
Jefferson and Adams, the two Patriots, Presidents, political enemies and true friends, died in their homes, Jefferson in Charlottesville, Virginia, Adams in Quincy, Massachusetts on the 50th anniversary of their daring and brave declaration that Americans should not have to pay taxes without representation nor pay allegiance to a King an ocean away.
But Ed Segall was a man for the 20th century, a man who grew up in Newark, the son of a Romanian immigrant and a mom who raised her nine children alone after her husband’s death.
Ed was one of four brothers who fought in World War II, one of only three who came home safely.
Ed turned to boxing as a hobby as well as college coach and ended up a Golden Gloves welterweight champ. He ran an ice cream truck to get himself through college and later concessions at state parks before founding his own trucking company.
In 1962, before it was Gateway National Recreation Area, Ed started snack bars and a souvenir shop as the concessionaire for what was then Sandy Hook State Park with all its magnificent beaches. And after the federal government took over the park as a national recreation area, they even built the building and gave Ed the concession rights to what became known as the Sea Gull’s Nest, Ed Segall’s popular and only eatery on Sandy Hook.
Hundreds of local kids got their first work experience and made their first money working at Ed’s Sea Gull’s Nest. They came back during and after college, bringing along through the years the next generation of folks who will forever keep Sea Gull’s Nest a great party of their memory.
But when Sandy destroyed the first floor of this magnificent site on the beach wiping out all the electrical stuff that kept grills and refrigerators working, and Ed’s insurance company only covered the cost of a small part of it, he knew he was in trouble. The Park Service didn’t want to finance the repairs to their own building, rather, they wanted Ed to run concession stands, kinda going back to how he started.
He fought. He fought hard. But the NPS is a big organization, they owned the land, and Ed Segall and his patriotic nightly rituals, became a thing of the past. Every Summer beachgoer cried along with Ed Segall, but the Sea Gull’s Nest became history. So did the nightly National Anthem and God Bless America at the national recreation area.
The feisty Jewish patriot did have some recognition after he lost his business though.
Fuzz Harrison was the commanding officer at NWS Earle. He knew all the stories that Ed talked about how the ships over at the Earle Pier in Leonardo would blink their lights to say thanks to him. He knew all the Sailors who could relax, be applauded by crowds and feel appreciated at the Sea Gull’s Nest when Ed called for patriotic moments and everyone complied. Capt. Harrison himself visited the Nest many times, always appreciated, always honored, and always in awe of Ed’s patriotism.
So at his own change of command ceremony, Capt. Harrison invited Ed to be his guest at the military ceremonies over in Colts Neck. He told his story and called Ed up to be recognized. Capt. Harrison led the crowd, which included two admirals, two captains and dozens of military and civilians and invited them all to hold hands, face that huge American flag ever present at Earle, and then invited Ed to lead the crowd in singing “God Bless America.” The tears in this patriot’s face flowed freely as he accepted thee honors from the people he most admired and always protected and appreciated.
When you think of July 4, you think of Patriotism. And when you think of patriotism, you think of Ed Segall. Legend Legend Legend Legend Legend Legend Legend Legend Legend Legend
In 1976 Atlantic Highlands was one of the Bayshore towns that truly went above and beyond in celebrating the nation’s 200th birthday. Besides hosting cadets on the Tall Ships that formed the Parade of Ships into New York Harbor, every polcie officer from Chief Jim Egidio down along with every borough employee took on extra work loads to be sure motorists weren’t blocked in traffic, boats were able to dock in the harbor, and families could feel save in their homes with crowds anticipated to be so large the Highlands Police Chief wanted machine guns and extra law enforcement assistance. Proud
But when it was over, it was a fine Fourth of July and we as Americans treated guests from so many countries as new friends, welcoming them, showing them why we are so proud of our country, and inviting them to come back and visit again.
The following is the editorial in The Courier in July, 1976, that gives an idea of how friendly, courteous and genuinely happy everyone was, resident and visitor alike.
USCGC Eagle
PROUD TO BE AMERICAN
The good natures, smiles, hugs and kisses and continued sound of laughter in the air told it all over the big Bicentennial Weekend. America loves a parade, especially one on the “sea”.
The warmth and generosity with which Americans greeted strangers from across the ocean, and the sincere and heartfelt reactions returned them from cadets also told a big story. We’re a people who really don’t want to make war, but rather would like to live in peace and harmony with other countries.”
People who live on or by the sea are a whole different breed. They recognize the beauty of nature, the solitude of the sea, the vastness of the earth. And they react accordingly.
They know the important things in life are not whether or not you speak the same language, but whether you can transmit your ideas and feelings with no need of a- common tongue.
They know a smile and a warm handshake will go a lot further towards crossing the sea. They know committee people like the Wallaces, the Wheatons, the McCallums and the Ruddys, and many more like them, organized their own homes and dinner plans so as not to miss out on any of the excitement of the town while still providing home cooked meals for the cadets.
Dedicated people like John Fox, head of the harbor commission, harbormaster Lou Papa, and employees at the harbor, went about the job of keeping things running as smooth as greased wheels while still having the time to smile, welcome every visitor, and enjoy themselves.
Sunday night’s fireworks were spectacular.
The parade on Monday was beautiful, a colorful array of floats and people proud of their heritage, proud of the celebration, and proud of their community. The family fun time was excitement, smiles, gossip and good food, just like family days are supposed to be.
The town as a whole, and the Bicentennial Commission in particular, deserve a great round of applause for a job well done. There’s got to be great satisfaction in knowing your neighbors at home are pleased and delighted.
And the new friends you met from the tall ships carried back with them, besides the apple and pecan pies, the platters of Virginia baked ham and turkey, the buckets from the Clam Hut dinner they won’t forget, hearts full of love, admiration, and respect for the American people because of lasting impressions you gave.
Patriotic long hours of deliberation and talk. They know there’s a big difference between politics and people. And they prefer the latter.
It was a good time for America, too, because no one was ashamed to be patriotic. No one seemed to care if you didn’t know all the words of the national anthem, or sang Columbia the Gem of the Ocean slightly off-key.
Everybody felt good about wearing red, white, and blue and draping flags from open windows or on a stick perched in a tub of flowers. Just about everybody felt a special affinity towards Thomas Jefferson and the other 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Our nation’s birthday party was a huge success, partially because of a feeling of warmth and patriotism, partly because of the rousing Happy Birthday accorded us from across the sea.
Let’s hope the happy feelings and the new friendships stay behind when the whites of the sails are far beyond the horizon.
Dick Stryker, in addition to being the former Mayor of Atlantic Highlands and first generation owner of the 60-year-old Bayshore Pharmacy in the Foodtown Shopping Plaza, is also a local historian who loves sharing stories from earlier ages, how things began, and other snippets of fun stories that make for entertaining reading.
Dick Stryker
Dick shared the story about how pharmacists not only invented Coca Cola and Pepsi, but also Dr. Pepper as well. And if that isn’t enough, it was pharmacists who first introduced the soda fountain!
Born in 1859, the soda fountain came about since it was the custom of people with any variety of physical ailments to seek out their pharmacist for a drunk to cure whatever they had. A quarter of a century later, in 1886, one of those concoctions made by John Stith Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia, became the drink known as Coca Cola.
Patients with headaches and other mild but uncomfortable illnesses liked the concoction of flavored drugs like caffeine and cocaine, the popular cure at the time for headaches. People liked the formulas as each pharmacist concocted himself and came back again and again. So pharmacists started putting in ice cream sodas and milkshakes made with carbonated water, a raw egg, and sweetened flavored milk on their list of things to make.
In the meantime, two years earlier, over in Waco, Texas, yet another pharmacist, Charles Alderton, who worked in a pharmacy owned by Wade Morrison, created what is regarded as the oldest major soft drink in the United States, Dr. Pepper.
Charles Alderton
But in 1914, Harrison Narcotics Act banned the use of cocaine and opiates in over the counter products, so business fell off at the drug stores. Then Prohibition began in 1919, putting a closure to bars and pubs, so folks began to socialize at ice cream parlors instead of soda fountains and taverns, and business declined even more at drug stores.
It was a pharmacist who began manufacturing carbon dioxide in tanks that ice cream parlors could use for their soda fountains and the Soda Jerk was born.
The soda jerk could add fruit juices and syrups, along with flavorings, and make a Cherry Smash or an Orange Crush, Peach Fizz or similar carbonated drink which prompted syrup companies to give pharmacists free dispensers in exchange for advertising. Those dispensers also enabled pharmacists to mix their own therapeutic concoctions simply by mixing medicinal syrup with carbonated water for the sure to cure drink.
Not long after that, bottling soda companies came into people and soda fountains became less popular. But those Dr Pepper, Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola names had been made famous in drug stores, so once bottled, they became popular purchases at markets.
Photo Courtesy of Navesink Maritime Heritage Association
The recent very well attended Jersey Speed Skiff races in Highlands gathered the enthusiasm of a crowd few of whom remember or were around for the actual first Jersey Speed Skiffs, the ones much larger and made of wood and popular along the Bayshore beginning in the 1920s.
One of those was the Lasting Impression built of mahogany and white oak back in 1967.
Photo Courtesy of Navesink Maritime Heritage Association
As reported in the Asbury Park Press in July, 1990, the skiff was so named because that’s what speed boat races did for its owner, Nat Garratano, who loved the history of the original skiff that was used during Prohibition powered by World War I airplane engines, plenty fast enough to outrun federal authorities as men who clammed or fished but other nights went out to the three mile limit and brought in illegal alcohol for others who trucked it up to willing buyers north of the shore.
In 1990, Garratano sat near the Navesink River watching his son Rob, the world record holder in the straight-away at over 82 mph and the five mile-four lap record at over 70 mph at the National Sweepstakes Regatta in Red Bank. Rob, a veteran of 15 seasons on skiff racing, finished fifth in the race heat and had to sit out the finals. But he didn’t stop him from talking about the rush of driving a Jersey Speed Skiff.
“It’s just a rush. It’s like people driving race cars or parachutists. It’s just that rush and thrill of going that fast and having boats around you going that fast. Once you drive you never want to go back to being a mechanic,” this mechanic said.
But he admits “I was obsessed to go out and race and be the best there was. It became a job and as much as I love it, I had to get away from it,” explaining his semi-retirement from racing.
The Lasting Impression was built by Rob Garratano’ s mentor, his father-in-law, George Wolcott. It took first place in the special class of classic boats in Lake Hopocatong Boat Show as well as best in show in the 1990 competition.
Photo Courtesy of Navesink Maritime Heritage Association
How Can They Run a School District … When They Can’t Even Do The 2 Step?
Cheers and praise to Highlands Council President Jo-Anne Olszewskifor taking such giant steps to ensure the public has the right to vote.
Highlands Council President Jo-Anne OlszewskiRug
Once the Superior Court Judge told her she needs to provide more information in order to get an injunction, she immediately decided that is exactly what she is going to do.
Obviously, this is a lady who isn’t about to take a back seat to anyone.
As it should be, but it’s hard to find elected officials who are that dedicated,and have that much integrity. Ms. Olszewski said she did it because she believes everyone has the right to voice their opinion, the right to hear everything that impacts them at all levels of government, and the right to vote with full knowledge and intelligence.
All that being said, there is a necessary burden that must be placed on the shoulders of the electorate. You’ve got a fighter willing to do her job; but it’s the residents’ job to pay attention.
The entire injunction question is over whether the people of three bayshore towns can vote to see whether Sea Bright wants to come into the new Henry Hudson Regional School District (Pre-K through 12) and whether Highlands and Atlantic Highlands want them to.
Those who advocate told voters that bringing in Sea Bright means lower taxes for the two towns already in the district, simply because Sea Bright would be bringing in a couple of million dollars with them but not enough kids to mean building extra classrooms or anything costly. So having three towns pay for the same things two towns have been paying for….YOU do the math….
Those who did not want the public to vote for Sea Bright last September kept saying FIRST STEP. then the SECOND STEP.
They wanted the appeal of a lawsuit brought by Oceanport and Shore Regional settled before they wanted Sea Bright in.
So the original question that a lot of people thought was going to be on the ballot, simply, Can Sea Bright Join? Which would required a simple yes or no answer, switched to a question about whether the three schools already in the districts should come under one board, or whether they shouldn’t. The Second Step, those folks said, would let Sea Bright in … Soon after.
So first step is over and done with. The people voted, two school boards are out, and Henry Hudson is now a Pre-K through 12 district. The First Step is over.
But here’s the glitch.
A couple of weeks before leaving forever, the three boards that no longer exist, as their parting shot, took more action in the back room and without telling the voters, or heck, even the people who attended the public meeting, that what they agreed to was a deal with Oceanport and Shore Regional. The deal they all agreed to make would make it next to impossible for Sea Bright to ever join Henry Hudson.
There was not one single vote against it by any of the board members out of office June 30.
In essence, the Second Step that had been promised and touted so proudly before the vote a few months ago is now wiped out by the very same people who made the promise… and they did it just before their boards were ended forever.
Olszewski said “I have heard from so many people they only voted for regionalization between Highlands and Atlantic Highlands schools (“STEP 1”) because they were promised the next step (“STEP 2“) would be Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and Sea Bright with a second referendum vote on Sea Bright’s inclusion. It is a promise that was made to the people, but it has been made impossible to keep by the secret action the four boards took this month, and I plan on continuing my fight so the American right to vote is protected here in Highlands, Sea Bright and Atlantic Highlands.’”
Indeed, there’s more. It should be noted that the defendant’s attorney, Jonathan Busch and the Busch Law Group were part of the Kean University state-funded Feasibility Study Commissioned by the Boards of Education.
In his presentation before the Tri-District Regionalization Town Hall to present the Study’s findings, Mr. Busch’s advice to residents and Board members present was to bring Sea Bright’s students into the Henry Hudson District “as soon as possible”. That could only happen once the Henry Hudson District was PK-12, which is right now.
But in that Superior Court hearing this week that same Mr Busch was the defendant’s attorney, the four Tri-District Boards of Education named in Olszewski’s action who were instrumental in negotiating the secret “settlement agreement” Olszewski Exhibits that nobody got to see. He’s the attorney who advised the four Tri-District Boards of Education that approved the secret vote and the agreement signed by the presidents of all six Boards of Education involved in the Shore Regional/Oceanport appeal litigation. So much for that SECOND STEP.
Superintendent Tara Beams
Did I mention the Superintendent of the Henry Hudson PK-12 Regional Board of Education resides in Oceanport?( That Story Can Be Read HERE)
Or that these same boards just approved a brand new contract for her for five years? (That Story Can Be Read HERE)
Even though it was only last year when they approved a contract that could have stood in place even with the regionalization? (That Story Can Be Read HERE)
Only in this brandy new contract they upped her salary even though she has touted how the regionalization would save her time and work. Now her time and work for her 260 day year will cost the taxpayers $191,000+ for the first year PLUS benefits for her and her family. And guaranteed increases for the next four years after that.
The settlement agreement these boards made in secret, only made public because of Olszewski’s demand in court, makes it impossible for the voters of Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and Sea Bright to EVER get to vote on a STEP 2 referendum to bring Sea Bright into the new district. You wouldn’t know that if the feisty councilwoman had not demanded information in court.
Mr. Busch is a great attorney, apparently a great mayor of Metuchen, and well recognized for his legal work on education issues across the state, kind of his firm’s specialty.
But here, he flip-flopped from Sea Bright coming into the new district “as soon as possible” to ‘never!’
Your neighbors, the ones you elected over the years to the Boards of Education approved it, unanimously. A parting shot in secret as one of their last actions.
It’s my guess Councilwoman Olszewskiand her attorney, Vito Gagliardi, are going to come up with enough additional evidence to get the injunction she is seeking to protect the rights of residents.
So you the people need to keep informed, register to vote, and be at the polls in November to elect board members who will vote for the people, not for what they’re told by employees.
