South Seaside Park Secession Hearing Only The First Of Many

by Patricia A. Miller

Donald Whiteman’s roots in South Seaside Park run deep, back to the 1930s when his grandfather and other relatives were pound fisherman. He has lived in this tiny sliver of Berkeley Township on the Barnegat Peninsula since 1953.

So he was first up as a witness at a Planning Board hearing Thursday night about South Seaside Park’s quest to ”de-annex” from Berkeley Township.

Whiteman - who is also president of the South Seaside Park Homeowners and Voters Association - and attorney Joseph Michelini outlined the area’s history and cited a number of reasons South Seaside Park should be allowed to leave Berkeley and join neighboring Seaside Park.

The reasons include the lack of amenities, township services, South Seaside Park’s ”geographical remoteness” from the mainland and the fact that 60 percent of residents signed a petition asking to leave Berkeley.

“They believe they have a very small voice in what happens in Berkeley Township,” Michelin said.

Whiteman noted a number of current towns that broke away from Berkeley Township in the past. They include Seaside Park in 1898, Seaside Heights in 1911, Beachwood in 1917, Ocean Gate in 1918, Pine Beach in 1925 and South Toms River in 1925.

“It didn’t stop there,” Whiteman said.

In 1933, Island Beach petitioned to leave the township and remained a small borough until the state bought the nine-mile tract for a state park, he said.

Whiteman knows a lot about the latest secession effort. His father led the charge back in 1978.

Berkeley fought the secession, but the matter went to court. The petitioners won their case back then when then- Ocean County Superior Court Mark Addison approved the plan. But in the end, Seaside Park refused to accept South Seaside Park into the borough.

Planning Board attorney Gregory McGuckin objected to hearing any more about the 1978 effort. He said it was no longer relevant because state statutes have changed since then.

“What happened in 1978 is not relevant,” McGuckin said. ”We are not going to go back and rehash what happened in 1978.”

“I don’t need a history lesson,” board Chairman Anthony DePaola said.

Board members voted to end the discussion about what happened in 1978, with most saying ”Let’s move on,” when asked what their vote would be.

But Michelini insisted the hearing was the only chance to get the history on the record and would be ”instructive” for the current board. And unlike 1978 - when the burden was on the township to prove why the secession shouldn’t happen, it’s now the petitioners’ duty to prove why it should, he said.

“The burdens are flipped, but the arguments are the same,” Michelini said.

Whiteman said South Seaside Park receives few services from Berkeley. Only police officer is assigned to South Seaside Park and Pelican Island. The area is the last to have roads plowed in the winter and receives fire services from Seaside Park, not Berkeley.

And he faced some terse questions from McGuckin and several board members.

Whiteman said it takes at least half an hour to get to a Township Council meeting during most of the year and more in the summer.

“Didn’t it take you the same amount of time to travel here when you bought your home?” board member Brian Gingrich asked Whiteman. ”You could buy a house two miles down the road and come here.”

Michelini has seven witnesses lined up, but only Whiteman spoke at the meeting. The meeting began at 6 p.m. and ended at 8:30 p.m.

“This will take a number of hearings,” he said. ”We are not going to make a decision in the near future.”

Although the controversial Berkeley Family Apartments application was on the agenda, it was not heard last night.