BRICK – 2024 was eventful in Brick Township.
Early in the year, Mayor Lisa Crate announced she was retiring from her teaching career to focus fully on her mayoral duties. She was initially appointed mayor in February 2023 after former Mayor John Ducey was tapped to serve as a Superior Court Judge. Crate then won the November 2023 election.
Mayor Crate was an educator and middle school librarian in Jackson for 31 years. Stepping away was a difficult decision, she said.
There was a new face on the Board of Education when Mike Mesmer took the oath of office during the reorganization meeting, alongside incumbent Alison Kennedy, who won reelection. They beat newcomer Greg Cohen and incumbent Michael Blandina.
The Board passed a $162.2 million school budget this year in a tight vote that threatened job cuts and increased class sizes. The budget included a 2.99 percent increase in the property tax levy. The township is one of many in New Jersey suffering budget cuts under S-2, a state law that lowered state aid for selected districts.
The governing body approved and adopted a $117 million 2024 municipal budget, which does not include the school, county, library and fire district taxes.
The amount to be raised by taxes decreased by about $1 million since its introduction in March due to a donation from the Brick Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA). Because of the donation, the annual tax increase for a median assessed home was reduced to $73 instead of $98 as initially proposed.
The Veterans Administration’s James J. Howard Outpatient Clinic, located off Route 70 in Brick, closed its doors for good in November when the grand opening and ribbon-cutting of a new clinic, now in Toms River, took place on November 18.
At 68,000 square feet, the new facility is double the size of the former Brick location, has a larger parking lot and offers more services to veterans.
Brick officials were hopeful that a triangular-shaped lot near Ocean Medical Center would be chosen for the new clinic, but the Veterans Administration chose the Toms River site, which is located by the Seacourt shopping center.
A 32-acre wooded tract of land was preserved in Brick after an organized public outcry resulted in a deal being struck between the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust Fund Advisory Committee, the township, and the contract purchaser developer D.R. Horton, who planned to build a 59-home development on the site.
The county paid $6.84 million of the $8.55 million deal, with Brick being responsible for $1.71 million, which was offset by a $1.2 million Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program grant.
The same grant program also awarded Brick $1.1 million this year for the Multi-Park Improvement plans for the renovation of parks throughout the township.
Some of the flood-prone areas in town will see relief as the governing body awarded contracts for two roadway elevation projects – one on the mainland on Bayview Drive – from Drum Point Road to Adair Drive – and the other on the barrier island in Normandy Beach, which includes Normandy Beach Drive, Arrow Court and Broad Avenue.
The improvements will be partly funded by a NJ Department of Transportation Municipal Aid Program Grant.
Other notable news from 2024 includes the demolition of “The House on the Island.” A once-grand home on Middle Sedge Island, valued at $8.5 million, that had been abandoned and was devastated by Superstorm Sandy.
The house could be seen from parts of the barrier island and from waterfront areas of Brick, and was only accessible by boat.
The island is known by locals as Hankins Island, named after boat builder Charles Hankins from Lavallette who, along with his wife Anna Ohlau Hankins, built the first, modest two-story colonial home there in the 1960s. The original house was shipped by barge downbay after Hankins sold the property.
The new owners built a 5,000 square foot home that included a built-in pool and helicopter landing pad. The property was described as vacant, dilapidated, having a poor exterior and poor interior before its demolition.
In other news, Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center, formerly known as Brick Hospital, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year by hosting a large event on its grounds.
The once 120-bed hospital has grown into a 357-bed facility and is part of a network recognized for excellence by U.S. News & World Report. Attendees had the opportunity to get an up-close look at the center’s medical helicopter.
The hospital partners with the nursing programs at Ocean County College and Georgian Court University and has become a teaching hospital with a residency program that began in 2018 with 20 residents. Now there are 122 residents in training.
The first phase of the Brick Township Dredging and Marsh Restoration Program has begun with a contract awarded to a Pennsylvania company for the first year of a two-year hydraulic dredging operation, which started in the beginning of November at Traders Cove Marina.
The $5 million project is being funded by a Climate Solutions Grant from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. The sediment, or “dredge spoils” will be placed in an area behind the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge for restoration purposes.
The dredging is expected to continue through the end of the year in order to comply with state deadlines when similar projects must be completed in order to comply with regulations protecting spawning winter flounder populations.
