ASBURY PARK PRESS

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MONDAY 02.15.16

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Spring Lake finance adviser helps pro athletes,
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3 towns, 3 paths
to Sandy recovery

Was public
misled about
Lakewood
busing cost?
SHANNON MULLEN @MULLENAPP

PHOTOS BY THOMAS P. COSTELLO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The newly constructed Lavallette town hall on Feb. 1. To see a video about three towns decisions to rebuild, visit APP.com.

LAKEWOOD - The $6.2 million that residents were

asked to pay to save courtesy busing for some 10,000
school children was millions more than is needed to
cover the cost for the rest of the school year a fact
that has angered some in the community, with one former official saying the district lied to residents.
But the revelations that the actual cost is only $3.5
million also means a deal is possible one where the
Township Committee would provide the school district with $2.5 million in surplus funds, $1.5 million
above its previous commitment in order to avert
the busing crisis this year. The district would absorb
the other $1 million in costs.
Its something we are considering, Township
Committeeman Meir Lichtenstein confirmed Sunday,
saying that no deal had yet been reached.
But the proposed terms of the deal, and the actual
cost of what was needed to pay for courtesy busing
this year, have raised a host of questions about why
taxpayers were asked to pay $6.2 million in the Jan. 26
referendum if the number was that much less. Many
here believed that $6.2 million was the amount needed
to cover the cost of courtesy busing through the end of
the year not the amount needed to cover busing for
an entire year.
In emails obtained by the Asbury Park Press, Michael Azzara, the districts state-appointed monitor,
See BUSING, Page 8A

$2.9M

After their town halls were destroyed

in superstorm, officials in Bay Head,
Lavallette and Mantoloking had to
decide whether to repair or rebuild

BAY HEAD MUNICIPAL BUILDING

Loren Marino speaks about her battle with

cancer Sunday in Toms River. She is taking
part in this weeks Westminster Kennel Club
Dog Show.

JEAN MIKLE @JEANMIKLE

Forced to decide whether to rebuild or repair town

halls flooded by superstorm Sandy, Bay Head, Mantoloking and Lavallette all chose rebuilding.
But the path to opening new municipal offices
and securing the money to pay for them has been
quite different in the three small towns on northern
Ocean Countys barrier island.
Lavallette recently opened its state-of-the art, $5
million municipal building, but more than three years
after superstorm Sandy struck, the borough still is
fighting with the Federal Emergency Management
Agency to recoup some of the funds it spent to rebuild.
Bay Head officials hope to move into their $2.9 million modular building this summer, much later than expected.
Then theres Mantoloking, where months of discussion and dispute about the $5 million price tag of a new
borough hall led to a recent decision to abandon the
plans. Committees of council members and residents
have been formed, tasked with redesigning a lowercost municipal building.
Mantoloking has inked an interlocal service agreement with Lavallette to use its new municipal building
for court sessions. Since Sandy roared through Mantoloking, destroying or damaging nearly every property
in town, the small borough has held court sessions on
the mainland in Brick.

One last show for

dog handler dying
of ovarian cancer

$5M?

MANTOLOKING BOROUGH HALL

See SANDY, Page 8A

The regional office has rejected our

$5M

claims, saying we were not

substantially damaged. More than two
feet of water in our building and we

LAVALLETTE TOWN HALL

werent substantially damaged?

WALTER G. LACICERO,

LAVALLETTE MAYOR

Top right: Pilings mark the spot of the under-construction Bay

Head town hall, seen Feb. 4. Middle: An empty lot marks the
spot where the Mantoloking Borough Hall once stood along
Downer Avenue. Bottom: Construction department employee
Corless Royer walks through her departments office at the
newly opened Lavallette municipal building on Feb. 1.

Even before the flag outside

the Supreme Court had been
lowered, the fight to replace
Scalia heated up. STORY, 1B

ADVICE
BUSINESS
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
LOCAL

3C
6A
5C
4C
3A

LOTTERIES
OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
WEATHER

2A
7A
9A
1D
8D

VOLUME 137
NUMBER 39
SINCE 1879

"6<;<3
 










"TCVSZ
1BSL
1SFTT
EBJMZ

LLLLLLLL

ERIK LARSEN @ERIK_LARSEN

For almost a decade, Loren Marino and her 12-yearold Cesky Terrier, Hector, have been fixtures at the
annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New
York.
This week, Marino and Hector will be there again.
But she expects that this one will be her last.
Marino, 42, of Manchester, is dying of cancer.
The Navy veteran who once helped train dogs to defend her country has decided to forgo all further medical treatment and enjoy the remaining months she
has left. She does not know what that length of time
may be but she wants to enjoy her life and the collection of Ceskys and West Highland Terriers she regards as her own children.
Sitting on the edge of her bed in her parents home,
where she has come to live out her time, Marino
speaks with a disarming cheerfulness about life and
death. Surrounded by family and watercolors she has
painted of her beloved Hector, she is at peace.
See DOGS, Page 8A