High Hopes For $38 Million Project In Pleasantville

Map of New Jersey highlighting Atlantic County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. – This down-on-its-luck stepsister town to neighboring Atlantic City has struggled economically for decades, languishing without a redevelopment plan or the ability to attract private investment.

But a $38 million project that includes two apartment buildings and retail space on a vacant Main Street block is expected to set the cornerstone for economic growth and expanded development in the Atlantic County city, according to Jacqueline Amado-Belton, economic development director for the City of Pleasantville.

“We feel like we have borne the brunt of a lot of issues that have spilled over from Atlantic City over the years,” Amado-Belton said. “In terms of perception and other factors, it’s been a struggle and a challenge to get to this point.”

The Pleasantville City Center, expected to be completed by next summer, will add 135 apartments and 18,000 square feet of retail space and will be bordered by Main Street, Washington Avenue, Milan Avenue, and South Second Street.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20141006_High_hopes_for__38_million_project_in_Pleasantville.html#ZlSiLKCqFZQAdj9H.99

Long Beach Islanders Eager To Show Off Rebuilt Businesses

Map of New Jersey highlighting Ocean County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The members of the iconic Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club were determined to open their new building before the start of summer, the second since Hurricane Sandy washed out their former home.

They got their certificate of occupancy Friday afternoon, just in time for a planned grand opening the next day, coinciding with an annual striper fishing tournament known as the LBI Cup.

On Sunday morning, the day after 500 people flooded the club’s new three-story headquarters, Vice Commodore Tim Irons walked around the bare rooms, proudly showing off the bathroom tiling and the views from the top floor.

“It’s completely paid off,” he said. “We just don’t have any furniture yet.”

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140526_Long_Beach_Islanders_eager_to_show_off_rebuilt_businesses.html#gb5PvxZu02CUrVaA.99

PECO: Montgomery County Ice Storm Second Worst For Power Outages Since Hurricane Sandy

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NORRISTOWN, PA — A PECO spokesperson said they are looking into a multiple day restoration process for 67 percent of customers without power in Montgomery County.

At 1 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, 181,902 of the 302,600 PECO customers in Montgomery County are without power—not all Montgomery County residents are PECO customers— and crews are in the area trying to turn the lights back on.

“We’re looking at the second worst storm for power outages since Hurricane Sandy,” PECO Spokesperson Cathy Engel Mendez said on Wednesday.

Mendez said the most common cause of the outages have to do with tree limbs coming down on power lines.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/general-news/20140205/peco-montgomery-county-ice-storm-second-worst-for-power-outages-since-hurricane-sandy

Well Before Summer, Hamptons Luxury Real Estate Is Scorching

Editor’s note:  Just is case you were wondering how the other half lives….

The emerald hedgerows that are a natural euphemism for Hamptons exclusivity (out here, good hedges, not good fences, make for felicitous neighbors) are hanging tight.

Most of the double-decker dunes that define the East End’s ocean coastline ar

English: MONTAUK POINT LIGHTHOUSE, LONG ISLAND, NY (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

e hanging tight, too.  That unfortunately can’t be said for patches of Long Island, Fire Island, New Jersey and Connecticut, where the extraordinary weather events of autumn 2012 transformed undulating beaches and waterfront homes to sodden pancakes.  On the South Fork of Long Island, where the array of villages and hamlets includes Southampton, Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor and Montauk, agents and town officials say only one home, owned by the Lauder family and precariously perched at water’s edge in Wainscott, drowned in the maelstrom created by Hurricane Sandy.  But erosion is a perennial enemy, and efforts to rebuff it, continual.

Otherwise, it’s back to business bolstering the bulkheads and merchandising the seductive strata of housing stock (from darling shingled cottages to resorts-masquerading-as-mansions), with brokers forecasting yet another pricey summer season.  “Nobody really suffers from Hamptons sticker shock anymore,” said Judi Desiderio, the founder of Town and Country Real Estate.

Harald Grant, a senior vice president of Sotheby’s International Realty, has already rented out an oceanfront house in Southampton for $550,000 for the month of August alone and has a stack of 14 contracts and purchase memos on his desk representing pending sales of $4.5 million to $25 million.  Not to worry: the most expensive oceanfront property in the Hamptons, on East Hampton’s Lily Pond Lane and co-listed by Tim Davis of the Corcoran Group and Diane Saatchi of Saunders & Associates, is still available for $40 million.

Read more:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/realestate/another-pricey-summer-season-in-the-hamptons.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnl=1&hpw&adxnnlx=1364236942-aFd3D8FKOG7ZWJiPOfjrnQ

South End Residents Call For Ocean City, NJ Beach Rebuilding

Map of New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OCEAN CITY, N.J. – At the north end of town, a 309-foot dredge operated by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Oak Brook, Ill., has been operating 24 hours a day for several days, in a project that will pump 1.8 million cubic yards of sand from the ocean floor onto the beaches.

There’s no such whoosh of beach-rebuilding at the south end, leaving homeowners there puzzled and upset, especially since Sandy left their shoreline in even worse shape.

City officials said that the north-end project was in the works even before the storm struck and that they are unsure what federal aid might be forthcoming to do more right away.

That’s not a good enough explanation for south-end homeowners, many of whom also depend on vacation-rental income.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20130221_South_end_residents_call_for_Ocean_City_beach_rebuilding.html

Macabre Dumping Grounds Amid A Storm-Altered Landscape

English: Looking southeast on a sunny spring afternoon in western Forest_Park_(Queens) along abandoned Rockaway_Beach_Branch at Myrtle Avenue overpass. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A forester working for New York City’s parks department made a horrifying discovery last week, beside a huge pile of fallen trees destined for the wood chipper.

A dead man.

And with that discovery, add this to the huge list of troubles Hurricane Sandy has brought to the neighborhoods of the city hit hardest: wreckage from the storm seems to have created inviting spots for killers to dump bodies.

Hours after the discovery, in Forest Park in Queens, a second body was found on storm-ravaged Rockaway Beach. Workers cleaning up around O’Donohue Park heard a shriek of fright from one of their own, standing over a dune near the shoreline. There, a man’s elbow protruded from the cold sand.

Read more:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/nyregion/macabre-dumping-grounds-amid-a-storm-altered-landscape.html?hp&_r=0

More New Jersey Shore Residents, Students Return

Map of New Jersey highlighting Ocean County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The slow process of recovery from Hurricane Sandy continues in New Jersey.

Students were reportedly back at school this morning on Long Beach Island, where residents were allowed to return Saturday and stay, if conditions permitted.

Power is back on for 99.8 percent of the 2.7 million who lost power after the Oct. 29 superstorm.  Still in the dark this morning were about 4,400 Jersey Central Power & Light customers, and only about 80 between PSE&G and Atlantic City Electric.

Traffic backed up this morning heading into Seaside Heights, in northern Ocean County, as residents were allowed to return to assess damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Read more:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20121112_More_Shore_residents__students_return.html

Not Chris Christie’s Fault Mitt Romney Lost To Barack Obama

English: US_Attorney_Chris_Christie.jpg‎ cropped as square headshot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Interesting opinion piece from the Trentonian on Chris Christie.

Hey Dick Morris:  You live up to your first name.

The political commentator lives up to his name not because he predicted a Mitt Romney electoral college romp, although that’s probably reason enough.  But nope.  Reason is because of his blog post about why he was so miserably wrong in his prediction.

“I did not take full account of the impact of hurricane Sandy and of Governor Chris Christie’s bipartisan march through New Jersey arm in arm with President Obama,” Morris wrote.  “Not to mention Christie’s fawning promotion of Obama’s presidential leadership.  It made all the difference.”

To recap: Morris blames Romney’s loss on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.  Many Republicans are also starting to believe this line of reasoning.

Read more: http://www.trentonian.com/article/20121108/OPINION03/121109650/not-chris-christie-s-fault-mitt-romney-lost-to-barack-obama

Will Jersey Shore Ever Be The Same After Sandy?

English: A view of the beach in Seaside Heights, New Jersey north of Funtown Pier (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. — It is one of the icons of America, the backdrop to a thousand stories — the place where Tony Soprano”s nightmares unfolded, where Nucky Thompson built his “Boardwalk Empire,” where Snooki and The Situation brought reality TV to the ocean’s edge and where Springsteen conjured a world of love and loss and cars and carnival lights and a girl named, incongruously, Sandy.

But after the storm of the same name passed through last week, the seaside towns of the Jersey Shore, a place that popular culture has picked to exude Americanness, have been upended, and some of the boardwalks have been pushed into the sea.

And those who live there, those who spent their childhood weekends there and those who experience its stories from afar are asking different versions of the same question: What happens now?

“This is just a heartbreaking experience seeing all these places we love that are just decimated,” said Jen Miller, a blogger about the Jersey Shore who lives in the Philadelphia area. “It’s just what you do every summer: You go ‘down the shore.’

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-us–superstorm-jersey-shore-20121104,0,519822.story

Thousands Still Without Power In Altoona And Surrounding Area

English: Undetailed map of Altoona, Pennsylvania and some surrounding areas From my talk page: :I drew the map of Altoona in xpaint from a map on the Internet and a Rand-McNally atlas. It’s in the public domain. — Djinn112 04:40, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC) –$ 02:38, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC) Category:Altoona (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Four buildings partially collapsed Monday night in Altoona, according to city police.

Emergency crews kept busy tonight with flooded basements, damaged structures and downed trees and power lines as now-post-tropical Sandy continues its march into the mid-Atlantic states.

The humongous storm also brought a wintry mix as far north as Johnstown.

Around 9:45 p.m. Monday, police said they would likely close Fifth and Sixth avenues near Union Avenue in Altoona for the entire night after winds blew a huge chunk of a brick building onto the roadway.

High winds whipped against nearby pedestrians as emergency vehicles blocked the roads.

Read more: http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/565627/-Updated-11-45-p-m—Thousands-still-without-power.html?nav=742

One Dead, Thousands Without Power; Roads Remain Closed In NEPA

Locator map of the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Metropolitan Statistical Area in the northeastern part of the of . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

8-year-old Susquehanna County boy died Monday when wind from superstorm Sandy knocked a tree limb onto him north of Montrose, authorities said.

And while widespread power outages have left nearly 150,000 in the dark, Northeast Pennsylvania, for the most part, escaped the devastation Sandy left in many other areas.

“We can report back that everything is in really good shape,” Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien said at a 6 a.m. briefing.

In Lackawanna County, eleven 911 dispatchers and two supervisors handled 1,313 calls from 3 p.m. Monday through 6 this morning, with downed power lines being the main source of problems.

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/one-dead-thousands-without-power-roads-remain-closed-1.1395736

Philadelphia, Suburbs Emerge From Sandy

English: This is my own work, Public Domain Photograph, not copyrighted Ed Yakovich http://www.flickr.com/photos/10396190@N04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The scene at the corner of Chelten and Wissahickon avenues in Philadelphia said it all: A blue mountain bike, badly mangled and turned upside down, but still somehow tethered to a bicycle rack.

The city and its suburbs emerged shaken but largely intact Tuesday morning, after taking a night’s beating from Sandy’s high winds and rain. Some people remained in shelters, but waterways were receding in certain areas, and many residents were coming outside to survey the damage and take a deep breath of relief.

Travel remained challenging, with downed power lines and trees closing streets. SEPTA began resuming services at noon, hoping to bring the system to full strength piece by piece. Shopping malls planned to reopen Tuesday, though an estimated 1.2 million were without power across Pennsylvania.

A Peco spokesperson said total outages for Southeastern Pennsylvania reached more than 800,000 at the height of the storm, shattering previous records, and as of Tuesday morning 585,000 were without service. Restoration could take days.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20121030_Philadelphia__suburbs_emerge_from_Sandy.html

A.C. Hammered, But An Overall Sigh Of Relief At The Jersey Shore

Atlantic Ocean shore at Atlantic City, New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Officials in Atlantic City scrambled this morning to fully assess the extensive damage caused by Sandy, which launched a direct hit there last night, submerging most of the city in water.

But they let out a collective sigh of relief: No deaths had been reported as feared when thousands were trapped in the city.

And other Shore towns found less damage than thought.

Authorities in Atlantic City were going door to door throughout the city early this morning. Some streets were still impassable.  And parts of the boardwalk were torn away in the north end.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20121030_A_C__hammered__but_an_overall_sigh_of_relief_at_Shore.html?viewAll=y

Thousands In Lancaster County Still Without Power In Aftermath Of Sandy

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Creeks and rivers are rising, roads are closed and thousands of people still are without power, but Lancaster County awoke today relatively unscathed from Sandy.

The storm dumped anywhere from 2.5 to 5 inches of rain on the county and unleashed steady winds of 30 to 40 mph, with gusts of up to 50 mph.

About 5,800 people were without power in scattered locations from West Cocalico to Drumore townships early today, down from about 8,500 earlier in the day.

At sunrise, about 40 roads were closed, mostly due to downed trees and utility poles.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/767458_Thousands-here-still-without-power-here-in-aftermath-of-Sandy.html#ixzz2AnbC94A8

Sandy’s Lehigh Valley Impact: Two Deaths, Power Outages, Damaged Trees, Closed Roads

Hurricane Sandy left about 400,000 homes and businesses in the Lehigh Valley and Poconos regions in the dark and without as many trees and has been blamed for the death of a 17-year-old Wind Gap boy and a Berks County man.

Robert Mills of 81 Eighth St. died in Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest after crashing an all-terrain-vehicle into a fallen tree about 9:30 p.m. Monday in Plainfield Township, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim reported. Grim said Mills was thrown off the ATV when he drove into the tree which had fallen on W. Center Street near Route 33, and he suffered fatal head injuries.

A fallen tree also caused the death of a 62-year-old Berks County man Monday night.  The Berks County coroner’s office said Gerald Witman was killed when a tree fell on his home in Pike Township near Boyertown,

Local officials did not report any significant damage to buildings or public structures except for three house fires Monday night in Buck County in the 1300 block of Old Bethlehem Pike near Quakertown and in Tinicum Township and Chalfont.  Though it was not immediately clear if they were linked to the storm, an emergency radio dispatcher said no injuries were reported in the fires.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-superstorm-sandy-allentown-lehigh-valley-storm–20121030,0,2995804.story

Superstorm Weakening, Worst Has Passed For Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA — A one-two punch of rain and high wind from a monster hybrid storm that started out as a hurricane battered Pennsylvania, leaving more than a million people without power as officials prepared to assess the damage Tuesday.

The storm soaked Philadelphia and its suburbs Monday night but forecasters said the worst was behind the state by daybreak Tuesday.

Major interstates around Philadelphia reopened Tuesday morning although some speed and vehicle restrictions remained in place across the state.  Additional road closures were likely in the day ahead, as the center of the storm was forecast to turn north from the Harrisburg area.

The severity of the storm in Pennsylvania expressed itself during the day Monday through a set of increasingly worrisome numbers, from the hundreds of people who fled their homes in the southeastern part of the state to the power outages affecting more than 1.2 million customers by early Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20121030/NEWS03/121039970/superstorm-weakening-worst-has-passed-for-pa-

Pottstown / Tri-County Hurricane Sandy Aftermath Information

Location of Pottstown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Updated at 11:08 p.m.) POTTSTOWN, PA — Numerous power outages and downed trees are making travel dangerous this morning after Hurricane Sandy blew through the area.  Route 100 is closed in several locations due to wires including at Pughtown Road, Route 23, Prizer and Flowing Springs roads in Chester County.

The Perkiomen Creek is rising fast and is expected to crest later this morning.

In a press conference Tuesday morning, Gov. Tom Corbett asked residents to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary, though this did not stop a crowd of people from lining up for coffee and donuts at the Pottstown Dunkin Donuts on East High Street.

Around 9 a.m., the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation lifted speed limit restrictions on most major highways in the state except for Interstate 90 and 79 in the northwest.  The remains of Tropical storm Sandy were slowly heading northwest toward the Great Lakes Tuesday morning.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20121030/NEWS01/121039979/trees-cause-havoc-after-sandy-hits-(video)&pager=full_story

Reports Of Damage, Road Closings Caused By Hurricane Sandy

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Several local roads are closed because of downed trees, utility poles and wires, emergency officials said this morning.

Route 61 is closed between Route 73 and Ashley Way in Ontelaunee Township, and Route 183 is closed between West Leesport Road and Palisades Drive in Bern Township.

There were also reports of trees blocking secondary roads and scattered power outages throughout Berks County and surrounding areas, dispatchers said.

The West Shore Bypass, Warren Street bypasses and Interstate 176 and 78 were open in all directions.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=424252

Thousands Without Power In Berks County

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Met-Ed spokesman R. Scott Surgeoner said utility crews from as far away as Michigan were fanning out this morning across Berks County assessing the damage from the remnants of Tropical Storm Sandy.

By 9:15, Met-Ed reported more than 67,000 customers were without power, including more than 8,800 in Reading; nearly 5,800 in Exeter Township; and more than 4,000 in Cumru Township.  PPL Electric Utilities reported about 4,000 outages, of which about half were in Wyomissing.

In order to get a jump on storm damage, Met-Ed had crews out Monday night and early today during the height of the high winds and sometimes heavy rains.

“Once the winds reach 40 mph we can’t have anyone in a bucket up in the air,” Surgeoner said.

“We still had crews out doing ground work.”

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=424274

Bedford, Blair, Center And Huntington Counties Brace For Hurricane Sandy

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Blair County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As Hurricane Sandy continued to batter the East Coast and mid-Atlantic states, county officials in central Pennsylvania moved Monday to enact emergency disaster declarations ahead of the storm’s expected turn toward the area.

Bedford, Blair, Centre and Huntingdon counties issued emergency disaster declarations, and other Pennsylvania counties are expected to follow suit.

The declarations mean emergency management officials and first responders have greater access to resources necessary for relief efforts without the “red tape” of soliciting bids or other typical government procedures, Bedford County Director of Emergency Services Dave Cubbison said.

“We’re definitely going to have water,” Cubbison said.

Read more: http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/565622/Counties-brace-for-Hurricane-Sandy.html?nav=742