Thursday night’s Port Monmouth Flood Project meeting which was held at the Port Monmouth's VFW post 2179, was an embarrassment.
What was billed as a non-political meeting to inform, discuss, and update Port Monmouth residents about the long proposed Port Monmouth Flood Project and how the project would prevent widespread flooding from ever happening again, turned ugly when residents became unruly when they realized that they weren’t there to ask question or discuss what can or would be done to help them rebuild their homes and lives after Superstorm Sandy, rather they were there to sign a petition! A petition I would say, designed to hold Congressman Frank Pallone responsible for all the flooding that has taken place in Port Monmouth since 1991 if congressional funds were not secured for the flood project that has been in planning stages for years.
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| (photo from Middletown Patch) |
Honestly, this meeting seemed more like a Middletown Republican campaign rally designed to bash Congressman Pallone (who last week held a “telephone town hall” meeting with 400 Port Monmouth residents to discuss how $91 million of Hurricane Sandy relief funds had been secured from Congress to finally, fully implement the Port Monmouth Flood project) rather than a simple information session designed to inform residents of what can be done to help the neighborhoods of Port Monmouth affected by the storm.
The meeting was put together by Cathy Rogers, a GOP County Committee person for her district in Port Monmouth and whose husband happens to be Charlie Rogers, Middletown’s Office of Emergency Management director. Also in attendance were Middletown’s former mayor, Committeeman Tony Fiore, Committeeman Kevin Senttembrino, Committeewoman Stephanie Murray, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and Monmouth County Freeholder John Curley.
Rogers opened the show by telling everyone how she, herself had experienced flooding in the past and how she had worked
so hard over the years to see that flooding issues in Port Monmouth were addressed by the township (which never happened). She than passed her microphone to a representative from Congressman Pallone’s office (Pallone couldn’t attend, he was required to be in Congress this day for an upcoming vote), who read a prepared statement outlining the scope of the flood project and time frame for its implementation. The microphone was then handed back to Rogers, who went on to stated that she had spoken to Congressman Pallone and would believe what she heard from him, when she saw the work beginning. She said even though this meeting was NOT political, she wanted to stressed that it was extremely important to hold the congressman’s feet to the fire, in order to make sure that the $91 million was released and the work begun (which brought cheers from some of those in attendance and cat-calls from others, for Pallone to be thrown out of office if work doesn’t start soon). Cathy Rogers then handed off the microphone to other officials for comments.
Tony Fiore spoke about how he had worked tirelessly (a vast overstatement) on the issue during his time on the township committee and as mayor, stating how he had went down to Washington DC a couple of times to lobby lawmakers for help in securing funds to alleviate the flooding problems. Assemblywoman Handlin talked about how she also spoke with Congressman Pallone prior to the meeting and expressed her frustration with him for not doing more to secure funds for this project in his previous 20+ years in congress. When Freeholder Curley finally commandeered the microphone, he nearly turned the meeting into a frenzied TEA Party rally! Curley raised his voice and said how he was there to fight for them, the residents of Port Monmouth, and couldn’t fathom how billions of dollars a year in foreign aid could be sent overseas to places in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa with little regard to taking care of Americans first. This of course brought further hoots and howls from the audience and quickly degenerated into calls for Pallone’s ouster if the flood project did not proceed as promised.
At this point Cathy Rogers took back the microphone, amid shouted out questions that went unanswered and calls for further help and explanations as to what people are supposed to do with their lives and homes, she decided that the meeting had gone on long enough ( less than an hour) and was over. But before encouraging audience members to sign her petition and then come up and talk to the invited officials in attendance, she thanked everyone for coming out and once again stated that the purpose of meeting was not to be political,
BUT if... if, Frank Pallone didn’t come through on the funding as promised this time, she would make it so!
So much for the night being non-political.
There’s a lot that can be said about Thursday night which I won’t get into at this time but in my opinion, this event was nothing but political and was designed to insight the already frustrated and desperate residents who lost so much during and after Hurricane Sandy. To constantly say that the meeting was non-political and then proceed to bash Frank Pallone as being ineffectual, a due nothing and worthless member of Congress, who doesn’t care about Middletown or its residents - all the while, touting the many things that you and others have done (which in itself is both debatable and laughable) to bring about a resolution to the area’s flood issues is pathetic.
And it wasn’t just me or the people that I met there that thought so.
As I was walking out of the Port Monmouth VFW, I heard other groups of people who were frustrated and huddled together, talking amongst themselves and expressing the same sentiments. They thought that they were there to discuss their problems with township officials regarding assistance with issues related to rebuilding their homes, along with what township could do to help alleviate some of the flooding that is currently ongoing due to clogged drainage pipes and flood gates that don’t work properly.
Instead they attended a pep-rally that called for Congressman Pallone’s head if progress wasn’t made to end the flooding in Port Monmouth.
