Two bidders made offers on the land at 1111 West Bay Avenue this morning, although what will become of those offers remains in question.
The 110-acre parcel of land was most recently owned by the now-bankrupt Shoreline Sand and Gravel and was being auctioned off by Sheldon Good and Company through a court sale in Trenton this morning. However, Sheldon Auctioneer Jonathan P. Cuticelli told Patch that the auction company was still awaiting a ruling from the presiding Judge Michael Kaplan.
Cuticelli declined to identify who the bidders were, or how much the bids were for, citing confidentiality. The bids were expected to open at $600,000.
Patch will update this story as a date for that ruling is scheduled.
The site had been used by Shoreline for extracting and distributing construction materials. Barnegat Township Administrator David Breeden has told Patch that there are outstanding violations from the state Department of Environmental Protection and Pinelands Commission on the site, so cleanup will be needed once a bidder is found.
Howard Effron
4:36 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
I just uploaded 4 pictures I took from the Lower Shore Road recreation area. I was wondering if any one of our committeemen could come on to the Patch and give the township an update on how this project is going. That turf does not look usable to me, but I am not an expert in the field (no pun intended). I threw these into this article because if this Shoreline land sold for less than $1,000,000.00, (monies that could have been used from our open space fund) and we used it on this. C'est la vie! Just sayin'.
Mike Howard
5:14 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
Howard, you are right on the mark as far as Lower Shore is concerned. It is a mess. It would be hard to figure which is a bigger mess,the old pit or the Lower Shore Field. It's like they are throwing good open space money after bad. I have a copy of the money they are spend from the Open Space Fund. You wouldn't believe some of the uses. Don't know if you've seen the Cox House lately, but they are starting to paint it. Another mess. It's like putting lipstick on a pig......
Howard Effron
7:18 am on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Yea Mike, it does not look good down there at Lower Shore. It looks like all work that was being done down there has been put on hold for the last month as they try to figure out what to do next. My fear is that they come to the realization that the 6 year old used turf will not go down as planned and will be unusable. So now you will be left with a huge new gravel base that will either have to be removed to plant grass or brand new artificial turf will have to be ordered to finish the job correctly.
Chances are slim that a committeman or even Mr Breeden will post on the Patch a progress report concerning this project, so maybe one of the volunteers involved can give an update.
Colleen Platt
4:44 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
Hey Howard,
Thanks for the upload. I will follow up with the mayor and committee and see if anyone would like to comment. - Colleen
KPR
7:18 am on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Does anyone know why trucks continue to go in and out of the shoreline facility loaded with dirt and its blowing allover 554 between the gravel pit and the first red light,
I thought the property was in receivership?
Capt Jacobsen Mey
6:26 am on Thursday, September 27, 2012
Exactly - over the last couple of weeks there has been MANY large dump trucks running I and. I that place... 554 has been literally covered in dirt, stones, etc.
What IS going on over there - and why all of the sudden is there a splurge in activity for an plot of property that is up for auction??
Mysterious it is, but seems like lips are sealed and no one is talking - despite the OBVIOUS hauling going on over there....
Anyone?
Laura O'Loughlin
7:18 am on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
This field on Lower Shore Road needs to get back into action! Our children deserve a nice place to play at home. We are trying desperately to travel town to town and prove our town to be respectable athletes and winners. We can't show our seriousness to other towns if the opposing teams are coming home to see this :( BARNEGAT let's step up and get this in order, our kids need us and with VERY little recreation we have for our youth in this town, our kids need us!
Rick
6:44 pm on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Mr. Effron Thanks for the pictures. We have been hearing about this wonderful "free" artificial turf. This fantastic stuff has been laying around on what were at one time tennis courts for about a year.
I drove past there yesterday and it looks like they have laid down the turf to about the 40 yard line. Sixty and goal to go.
It looks like there is more black rubber base out there than green fake grass. In addition to the megabucks the town has already laid out for this “free” field, how much more will it cost the taxpayers for spray cans of John Deere Green paint to make this thing look like a real football field?
If whoever is paying for this field had simply graded the field and planted, not even sodded, the field early last spring we would now have a usable field. It seemed to have worked on the Mirage Field of Dreams.
And speaking of the Mirage field, when I drove by there were a few seniors out there trying to play softball.
Howard Effron
6:12 am on Wednesday, September 26, 2012
No problem. A picture is worth a thousand words. I can see no way that you would be able to put that turf (let alone allow your kid to play on it) on that brand new base of gravel. Believe me, this committee is going to tell you that this is going to work, when all you have to do is see for yourself. Or maybe they will just be honest with the people and tell them they made a mistake.
Here is a quote from a previous Patch story:
The installment of an all-purpose practice synthetic field, which has been subject to some controversy, is slated to be completed by the end of July, Cirulli said.
Barnegat resident Steve Cotton, who is a vice president for a synthetic field building company, solicited the donation of an artificial field, which cost the township $28,000 to be transported from Maryland. Cotton, who also is the head of Barnegat Junior Bengals, the youth football league, offered to find volunteers and give his own expertise to the town in installing and maintaining the field, which some in town think of as a gift, while others consider a costly nuisance.
"He does it for a living, he got it for us," Bille said. "He's going to install it for us, he's going to maintain it for us, we got a $600,000 dollar field for probably one-tenth of the price."
Well, it's the end of September. Mr. Bille's statement is correct except for the 10% part. Looks like we are getting a $600,000 field for $700,00. I'd like to hear from Steve Cotton, maybe he could clear this up.