Robbinsville police chief Marty Masseroni, Sea Bright police chief John Sorrentino, Robbinsville mayor Dave Fried and Robbinsville council president Ron Witt stand in front of a 2007 Ford police vehicle Robbinsville donated to the town of Sea Bright in late April.
Last October, Superstorm Sandy swept the Northeast, devastating entire towns and leaving many without jobs and homes.
The Jersey shore sustained colossal damage; businesses were destroyed and small shore towns were left picking up the pieces of their communities and putting their lives back together. One of these communities, Sea Bright, was wiped out entirely and has been working tirelessly to reconstruct the homes, businesses, parks and shore front that make the small Monmouth County borough a destination during the summer beach season.
Acting borough administrator Joseph Verruni promised Sea Bright will be ready come summertime, and it’s due in part to help from Sea Bright’s new sister municipality: Robbinsville Township.
Verruni said aid from Robbinsville has been invaluable over the past few months. Robbinsville officials have encouraged residents to donate to Sea Bright Rising, a nonprofit relief organization that provides grants to residents and businesses in the shore town. But Robbinsville went a step further, adopting Sea Bright as a sister city and providing it with many other forms of assistance.
“Robbinsville has truly adopted us as a sister, taking so many bites off of Sea Bright’s plate and helping us get back on our feet,” Verruni said.”
One of the biggest challenges, in addition to funding, has been the sheer volume of work to be done. Verruni said, as such a small municipality, Sea Bright has few community employees and even fewer police to keep up with the ongoing projects. Just a tad more than 1,400 people live in the 1.1 square-miles that make up Sea Bright. (Robbinsville, in comparison, is 20.49 square-miles.)
“There are a myriad of problems and reconstruction to be dealt with and everyone is working hard, but one of the greatest obstacles is that there are just too few employees,” he said.
This is one of the ways that Robbinsville Township has answered the call for help. In addition to resources, Robbinsville has dedicated time and manpower, helping prepare grant proposals in Sea Bright’s name in order speed up the recovery process and help get the beach town ready for Memorial Day weekend.
“One of the biggest projects the [Robbinsville] administration is helping us with is, the sea wall that runs along the north and south of the shore, and the stairs that lead up to the beaches,” Verruni said. “Our engineer is knee deep in work fixing problems with our sewer systems and utilities. The mayor of Robbinsville [Dave Fried] and the administration realize how key the summer season is to our town, and they are doing everything possible to help us get ready.”
When asked why he has taken such an interest in Sea Bright and made the recovery project such a priority, Fried tried to put himself in Verruni’s shoes.
“I hope that if our community was in a similar situation, our neighboring mayors would pull together and support us,” Fried said.
Fried has been doing just that. At a recent town council meeting, the mayor asked council members to provide a used police car to Sea Bright. The Monmouth County town’s police cars, which were damaged by Sandy, are under public contract. Since all bureaucratic processes have been slowed due to high volume, Robbinsville’s old police car was a significant contribution.
“This donation has made a tremendous impact,” Verruni said. “Working with Robbinsville Township has been great. Life won’t be the same for Sea Bright for awhile, but the administration has been directly working with us to help us get there.”
In fact, Fried and Council President Ron Witt dropped off the police car themselves. Witt said he was happy to be able to help.
“I am pleased we took this step to assist the ailing community,” Witt said. “This is what makes human being unique; people pitch in and make a difference for those that need it. “
This kind of empathy has motivated Fried and the township administration to do as much as possible for the beach town, like working on grants to replant trees in Sea Bright’s parks.
“All of their trees had been wiped out,” Fried said. “We had recently been granted funding to replace some of our own, but the need there was much greater, and we have decided to use some of this to help make improvements in Sea Bright.”
Indeed, Robbinsville has been tackling just as many projects as it can. In addition to the larger projects, Robbinsville Township has employees working on a grant application for Sea Bright’s firework program.
“They come to us and generously ask what else they can do,” Verruni said.
While Verruni says that beaches, life guards and public parking are all set for vacationers, he notes that only a few business are currently up and running.
It’s not surprising, considering the amount of reconstruction needed in Sea Bright.
“Having toured the town, it is evident that one of the things they still need is building materials,” Witt said.
But Fried said many Robbinsville Township residents have expressed interest in helping out in the relief efforts, and it appears Robbinsville is sticking with Sea Bright for the long haul.
“One of our biggest hurdles right now is trying to get Sea Bright residents in homes,” Fried said. “We are sharing our inspectors with them, in hopes of speeding up this process. Once more people have housing, there will be a need for donations that I’m sure our residents will step up to meet.”
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