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Another place for conversations and updates about Barnegat, Manahawkin

Hello, Barnegat! Greetings From Your New Editor

We're here for you — get in touch on issues you care about

As of this morning, I am honored to say I am the Patch’s new local editor in your town. Before we hit you with the stories we are working on today, I would like to introduce myself. Born and raised in the former Soviet Union, married to a Frenchman with family in Italy, having traveled a little to some of Europe’s most proud capitals and hidden villages, I feel I am an international person, and yet, deeply American at the same time. I fell in love with this country years before I even set foot in it, and my love only deepened when I arrived to New York City in 1993, a wide-eyed teen on a grand adventure.  And what an adventure it has been. I married young, graduated from NYU, had my first child and my first job as a reporter and business …

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Katia Raina

10:42 am on Friday, April 13, 2012

Thanks Capt Jacobsen Mey for your welcome. The questions you're asking are all tech things that I have no idea how to address -- content is basically my focus. But I think they're definitely worthy questions with some great ideas thrown in, and I will forward them to one of our regional editors, and see if they can help. Looking forward to more of your comments on our future posts -- always …   more ›

Farewell From the Local Editor

Your Barnegat Patch editor says goodbye

Dear readers, For the last 15 months, I've had the pleasure and honor of serving as the local editor of Barnegat Patch. Today, I bid you all a fond farewell. Next week, I start a new chapter in an old home. I'm headed to my native city of Charlottesville, Va., where I'll be the news editor for the C-Ville Weekly, a great paper in a bustling university town. I'm thrilled to be taking on a new challenge in a place I love, but leaving is bittersweet. Being both your neighbor and your source of news has been a joy – and so much more than a job. Some days have been more or less like those of any small-town reporter, spent standing in the rain at the scene of accidents and fires or staying late at marathon zoning board meetings, clacking away on…

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Trash and recycling schedules for 2011

New route added with Tuesday pickup; see if your street is affected

New year, new trash pickup route for Barnegat. The following trash and recycling schedule details – including a new Tuesday route – have been provided by the public works department. Remember that there's a limit of six containers per household, no larger than 32 gallons each. Route #1 (Monday): Town Route (all areas east of Route 9) including Pebble Beach, as well as Gunning River Road, Cherry Stree, Aphrodite Drive, Railroad Avenue, Hillside Avenue, Brook Street, Memorial Drive, West Bay (east of Barnegat Boulevard), Burr Street and Burr Street Extension, Molnar Lane, Pacific Avenue (off Gunning River Road), West Thorn Avenue, Town & Country Estates, Blue Claw Estates, Holly Oaks, Old Main Shore Road, Route 9 and Hampton Ridge Estates. …

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Plans for solar projects at township schools move ahead

Five of six district schools to be outfitted with solar panels as part of energy cost-cutting measure

The Barnegat Board of Education will start seeking bids in January on a district-wide solar project, according to Board Administrator Dean Allison. The project, which will ultimately lead to solar installations at five of the district's six schools, is part of a larger initiative to cut in half the $1.5 million the district spends annually on energy, Allison said. While it may be a year before solar panels start showing up on school roofs and parking and walkway canopies, "our savings are really going to start to jump within the next couple of years," he said. The district's architectural firm, Trenton-based Spiezle Group, is completing bid specifications for the solar project, said Allison, and the board will then seek a third-party-…

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Some say Bay Avenue redesign bad for business

The 2010 widening of the county route draws the ire of some at Settlers Landing shopping center

Bay Avenue is bigger these days, but not everybody thinks it's better. The addition of a concrete median in front of the Settlers Landing shopping center on Bay Avenue just east of Barnegat Boulevard irks some who work and shop in the plaza. The median, part of the county's $6.7 million Bay Avenue reconstruction project, makes it impossible for the route's eastbound traffic to make direct left turns into the shopping center, which houses a Wawa convenience store, dry cleaning business, lottery shop, restaurant and nail salon. Cars are also blocked from making left turns onto East Bay Avenue from the lot. Drivers heading east can still get into the center's parking lot, but they must first take a signaled left onto Barnegat Boulevard South …

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John B Taxpayer

7:15 pm on Friday, March 4, 2011

Many States allow "Right Turns on Red" from the extreme right-hand lane in dual right hand lanes.... that would be a good start!   more ›

Lacey Stifles Barnegat at Christmas Classic

#8 Lions beat #9 Bengals, 43-28

The Lacey Lions opened big and then won big in the first round of the WOBM Christmas Classic this past weekend. Lacey defeated the Barnegat Bengals 43-28, jumping out to a quick 8-1 advantage. The Bengals would not quit despite the early hole, and were able to keep the game fairly even throughout the first half as they fought back from a slow start and found themselves within 5 at the half, trailing 20-15.  Lacey pulled away in the second half and began to take control of the contest, led by the standout play of senior Deon Smith, who would go on to score 24 points and lead all scorers. Barnegat had trouble finding answers to the Lacey defense, as the Bengals were held to just 2 points in the first 11 minutes of the second half.  By the …

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Shoreview

In Barnegat, I Was No Longer Bored

Here is Where I Got My Real Start as a Journalist

Just four years into my career, I already thought reporting was boring. I was a guy with a writing pedigree who broke big stuff while working as a top editor at the Rutgers University paper, The Daily Targum. My girlfriend liked my writing so much that she'd sit in my New Brunswick apartment and read my stories aloud. I hated it when she did that. But I guess she saw something in the cadence and rhythm of the language that was envigorating, because I sure didn't. I was always a little too shy to accept my own attributes. Out of college, I worked two-plus-years at a small daily in Delaware, then nearly two years at the Ocean County Observer. My cadence and rhythm and writing skills were restricted to stories on council meetings, wastewater …

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Township to notify residents of property tax reassessments

Notification letters to arrive as early as the first week of January

Residents should be on the lookout for letters informing them of new property assessments in the first week of the new year, Township Administrator David Breeden announced at the Dec. 20 Township Committee meeting. The reassessment, conducted over six months by members of the tax assessor's office with help from an outside contractor, was a not a full revaluation of properties, Breeden said. Assessors visited and inspected 40 percent of Barnegat properties, he said, and used the data to establish new assessed values township-wide, aiming to bring assessments closer to actual market value. "The purpose of the reassessment is to fairly distribute or allocate the tax burden throughout the community," Breeden said. "We are very confident that …

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Howard Effron

2:05 pm on Wednesday, February 9, 2011

If you you want more information on this idea of eliminating medical benefits for part time elected public officials, go to my website at www.letstalkbarnegat.com and go to the February 3rd column. As I wrote, there is legislation sitting stagnant in the Trenton statehouse on this very subject. I will be writing an update on this about some responses I got from certain legislators concerning …   more ›