Comments

  1. As far as that neighborhood is concerned – 3 single family homes actually fits in better – however the 1.5 plus million will be going to a charity of the Hines family choice not the Taxpayers or the Future First Aid – that burden will once again fall on the Taxpayers of Belmar – that is the True Disgrace of of this whole situation – The Hines family ran the 1st Aid for years as their own fiefdom and again stuck it to the Taxpayers

  2. subdivision of the BFAS parcel into 3 lots would require a variance from the Belmar Planning Board at a public hearing…

  3. Hey #3 = please educate us then – tell us what we are missing – why shouldn’t the proceeds of the sale benefit those that donated and subsidized the 1st Aid for a Century – why should that Money be used for the Borough Residents

  4. #3 you talk about ‘running the first aid’ like they were the mob. It wasn’t a casino. It was a first aid service. They’re done running it, it happens. Why the sour grapes? I imagine that over the last 100 years there are plenty of families who’s loved ones where saved by the first aid cartel. I think perhaps that makes us all even. I imagine if you or anyone on here had the opportunity to sell the land for over a mil, you’d take it. I certainly would.

  5. “Master Blaster”….so so upset and taking everything the First aid does so personal and hateful; like it didn’t run for 92 years with the sweat, tears and time of volunteers to help their neighbors and visitors. What was in it for you Master Blaster that was quashed

  6. No one will argue that the first aid served the community admirably for almost 100 years. The fact of the matter is where the proceeds of the sale of the property should go. This property was initially donated and has been completely subsidized by the taxpayers and donors forever. First, the property should have been donated back to the citizens of Belmar as a public safety building. Second, now that it wasn’t. The proceeds of the sale should not fall into the hands of the select few who happen to be in charge of the first aid during its demise. Charities or not. This property belongs to the citizens of Belmar plain and simple. I’m sure Frank Mihlon would agree. Unlike Frank Hines!

  7. #17 if there is any legal recourse to your opinion on this matter, you should definitely pursue it. If it is just a question of ethics, then all we can do is wring our hands and ponder what we ourselves would do in the same situation.
    Frankly, even if the property was donated to the town, I would want the town to sell the property for private development. This town has a terrible track record of running things. It would be more efficient for this administration to take $1.6 million and toss it into the Silver Lake.

  8. 19 Believe me I’m a belmartian through and through. I was simply making a correlation between Frank Mihlon and Frank Hines being completely opposite souls. I guess it went over your simple head.

  9. #17 Belmartian or not, you’re misinformed both as to the facts and the law.

    First, the facts. The BFAS property came from two land gifts, made 23 years apart. Frank & Minnie Mihlon gifted their 50×150′ lot to the BFAS in 1929. The Van Dam family gifted their 100×100′ corner lot to the BFAS in 1952. Your statement that “the property has been completely subsidized by the taxpayers and donors forever” is baseless. The funds the BFAS used to improve their building and buy equipment came from fundraising activities run by the BFAS volunteers beginning back in the Depression. Spencer Heulitt’s article about the history of Memorial Field mentions the role of BFAS volunteers who built bleachers there in the 1930s, and sold tickets and refreshments to fans of the Negro League teams that played there. This was followed in the 1940s by Friday night Bingo games in the BFAS building. As their Bingo following grew, they moved the Bingo operation to the Neptune City Shopping Center. The BFAS invested that money remarkably well. Financial records I’ve seen from the mid-1990s (long after the addition was built with much of the labor donated by local contractors, including my electrician father), show investment balances in excess of $500,000. The BFAS still had $200,000 left in its investment account when it made the decision to close.

    Taxpayer contributions to the BFAS did not begin until the 2000s and for most of that time were a relative pittance, and reaching $33,000 in 2020. That was less than Lake Como was contributing for one-fourth the calls. Most of the $70,000 amount the current administration claimed it gave as payments to the BFAS was paid from the Beach Utility for supplies for the Beach EMS station and for wages paid to BFAS members — not to the BFAS — for staffing that office. The only contribution the Borough ever made toward the purchase of an ambulance was $50,000 in 2010, and that amount also came entirely from the Beach Utility.

    Now, the law: If either the Mihlon or Van Dam families wanted their properties to go to the Borough when the BFAS ceased to use them for EMS purposes, their attorneys would have added a simple clause to their deeds giving the Borough a “contingent remainder interest” in these properties. Law students learn how to do this in their first year property class. Indeed, the first question the Borough attorney asked me when I told him that the BFAS would not be signing over its property to the Borough, was whether the deeds had a “contingent remainder clause”.

    The law also provides that the assets of a dissolving non-profit are to be distributed to other 501(c)3 corporations or other qualified entities. The BFAS will follow that law to the letter, and will distribute its net proceeds in a transparent way for the benefit of Belmar residents.

  10. Hey Belmartian..I don’t often look at this blog, Unless someone suggests I look at it, And when I do, I’m always so shocked at everybody’s “knowledge” of the Belmar first aid squad, its members, and my husband. If you are truly a contributing citizen to the borough of Belmar, as a Belmartian, you owe it to the Belmar First day squad And the town, to research the truth, Instead you spew Your nasty simple minded opinion Of my husband’s soul of all things. Shame on you.

  11. #24 I’m sorry but it looks to me like Belmartian got, what the kids call, served.
    As for your post- let’s take a closer look. Are you suggesting that if a tax payer donates money to something, that something can be defined as tax payer funded? You know that’s incorrect right? By that logic, anything I, as a tax payer, choose to donate money to is tax payer funded. Actual tax payer funded things, like highways, cops, garbage collection, public schools, etc are things our tax dollars support. We have no choice in that matter. Donations are a choice. Hope that clears things up.
    Also, you say ‘wouldn’t you want the building donated to the town instead of seeing the town spend over a million dollars in tax payer money on a new building’- The answer is yes of course. But the building isn’t getting donated. The town was ready to spend over a million dollars on a building they do not need that sits in a flood zone. The petition effort stopped that from happening. I believe the words you are searching for are ‘thank you’.

  12. If they donated the building to the citizens of Belmar from the beginning we wouldn’t have to spend over a million dollars or waste time with all this BS.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *