A Town is Its People

Elected Council to Protect and Serve the People OR Themselves?

1. A town is its people. We elect council to protect and serve the interests of the community’s people. We, the residents of 8 Center Street have NOT been protected since we moved here in 2006. Today, we actually need protection from you, the town’s representatives! On April 6th, we had several council members, along with T&M Associates, in our home to reassure us that we would be “protected” throughout this project. You promised that all of you would look out for us and make this as painless as possible. This could not be further from the truth.
2. The Grant Agreement will also specify that “the property owner must hire experts to prepare all needed construction drawings, must obtain all necessary permits and pre-project review approval (including building permits), and must hire and oversee the contractors that conduct the work. Throughout the process, the Borough of Sea Bright Administrator will remain available to provide technical assistance to support the project process and will provide staff to manage the grant and submit all necessary progress reports and billings.” This couldn’t be further from the truth! The town of Sea Bright and T&M Associates, hi-jacked the responsibility of the Grant and its usage. They hired T&M to take over the project — allowed them to make all decisions without the homeowners’ consent, decided where the money would be allocated and monitored the work to be performed. The result? A poorly mismanaged and unprofessional project! Along with the incredible waste of funding and damages to our property and our neighbors’ properties, there have been countless lies told to us. We were told to stay out of it. Yet, after our findings of numerous construction and site defects, including “beach” sand in the block work instead of mortar, our concerns go mostly unheard. When speaking with the building inspector, he advised that “WE police” this project more closely. A little difficult to do when you’re consistently thrown off your own property or hung up on by those “professionals” involved.
3. T&M Associates altered the contract, we signed without our knowledge or approval — putting us at great risk. The Borough and its engineer chose to modify this agreement with NJ state OEM without our knowledge or consent, effectively moving the architectural and engineering costs from 9% of the Grant total – to over 31%. Basically, Sea Bright and T&M refused to tell us how they were going to spend the money, yet made desperate and aggressive attempts towards us, as to how they will get more money from us. This agreement was broken early on when we were mistreated, misguided and shunned from any and all operations. Their design and engineering process would provide: (a) Costly, excessive and inappropriate construction methods; (b) A complete lack of understanding of the Borough’s codes (House isn’t high enough! The maximum allowable building height presented to us was miscalculated by 3 feet); (c) Management by T&M did not benefit the needs of the project or the safety of homeowner (property not properly inspected, fenced in – unsafe, left unlocked, broken into).

On Week 17 of a 4-6 Week Project!

Furthermore, we are on week 17 of a 4-6 week project. That is over 4 months of this nonsense. To date, we have yet to receive a timeline or project outline as requested and repeatedly promised. We have literally changed seasons 3 times and are supporting 2 households, since this nightmare began. We did not prepare to be ostracized from our home, let alone this community, for this long. It has affected our work and our lives. Ironically, the emotional effect has been greater than that of the flooding, itself. Fix it!

Perhaps you can provide an explanation as to the reason for the ommittance of my important facts and concerns in the final meeting minutes as well! More cover-ups? You have added insult to injury by ignoring our Lawyer. You are clearly in way over your heads.

Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.

Henry Clay