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AVON y BELMAR y BRADLEY BEACH y BRIELLE y LAKE COMO y MANASQUAN y SEA GIRT y SPRING LAKE y SPRING LAKE HEIGHTS y WALL
Spring Lake school
chief and two BOE
members resign
‘Confidential separation
agreement’ prevents
explanation, officials say
BY TYLER SPRINGSTEEN
THE COAST STAR
SPRING LAKE — Superinten-
dent Raymond Boccuti and
Board of Education members
Christine Valori and Alan
Ferraro all resigned from
their positions in the Spring
Lake School District during
a special board meeting held
Tuesday, July 15.
The board accepted a con-
fidential separation agree-
ment with Mr. Boccuti.
Board Attorney Paul Griggs
said he and the board have
no comment in regards to
the agreement.
Mr. Boccuti and Mr. Fer-
raro were not present at the
meeting.
Dune project mulled
for shore beaches
Army Corp project
would stretch from
Bradley Beach to
Manasquan
BY MICHAEL NUNES
THE COAST STAR
MONMOUTH COUNTY — The
increasing severity of coast-
al storms has the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers [ACE]
taking a new look at an idea
shelved in the 1990s — con-
struction of a dune along the
southern Monmouth Coun-
ty shoreline that would in-
clude Bradley Beach, Avon-
Astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who grew up in Wall
Township and graduated from Manasquan High School,
helped pave the way for the Apollo 11 moon landing when
he piloted a lunar module during the Apollo 9 mission in
March 1969.
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Questions about the res-
ignations were raised by
members of the public at the
meeting but they went unan-
swered.
“The separation agreement
is confidential,” said Board
President James Worth. “We
are not allowed to talk about
it for legal reasons.”
The legality of Superin-
tendent Boccuti’s contract
with the district was recently
challenged by former school
board member John Clark, in
a letter to The Coast Star.
Mr. Clark, referring to
the board, wrote, in part:
“they signed a five-year,
million-dollar contract with
the superintendent without
holding the legally required
public hearing… There were
dozens of emails about this
contract flying back and
SEE RESIGN PAGE 9
By-The-Sea, Belmar, Spring
Lake and Manasquan.
The chosen alternative
was the berm system creat-
ed between 1994 and 2001
by the Coastal Storm Risk
Management and Erosion
Control Project. The project
area, which stretched from
Sea Bright to Manasquan,
is due for renourishment
this year with beach towns
in the northern portion of
the county, including Long
Branch, Monmouth Beach
and Sea Bright, considered
the most in need.
SEE DUNE PAGE 2
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THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2019
The state Department of Transportation plans to add new signs and restripe the Manasquan
Traffic Circle. Route 35 and Atlantic Avenue intersect at the circle in Wall Township.
Better flow sought
for traffic at circle
NJDOT to restripe, add
new signage at busy
Manasquan Circle
BY SANNE YOUNG
THE COAST STAR
WALL TOWNSHIP — Plans are underway to
restripe and add new signage to improve
the flow of traffic at the Manasquan Cir-
cle.
The New Jersey Department of Trans-
portation [NJDOT] will do the work at
the circle, situated at state Route 35 and
Atlantic Avenue [county Route 524].
“NJDOT, working with township offi-
cials, has developed a project to improve
the safety and operational performance of
the Manasquan Circle in Wall,” said Steve
Shapiro, NJDOT deputy director of com-
munications.
“The striping changes will provide two
through lanes for Route 35 northbound
Astronauts’ local ties recalled, 50
years after historic moon landing
Buzz Aldrin summered in
Manasquan; Rusty Schweickart
graduated from MHS
BY SANNE YOUNG
THE COAST STAR
Countless beachgoers have left their
footprints in the sands of Manasquan
beaches. Only one also left footprints on
another celestial body.
Saturday, July 20, marks the 50th anni-
versary of the day humans first set foot
on the moon, when astronauts Neil Arm-
strong and Buzz Aldrin descended the
ladder of Apollo 11’s lunar module and
stepped onto the lunar surface.
Mr. Aldrin, originally from Montclair,
summered at Manasquan beach during FROM FARM TO SPACE
his childhood, and he wasn’t the only lo- In a March 19, 1978, article in the As-
cal person to figure prominently in the bury Park Evening Press, Mr. Schweick-
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PAGE 6
SINCE 1877
COURTESY OF GOOGLE MAPS
and southbound, and flared, two-lane ap-
proaches on Atlantic Avenue,” Mr. Shap-
iro said.
Traffic in the northbound and south-
bound Route 35 lanes will continue to
have the right of way, and yield signs will
be placed at the Atlantic Avenue entranc-
es to the circle, Wall Township police Lt.
Chad Clark said.
“The project will enhance safety and
improve traffic flow,” he said.
The township committee on July 10 ap-
proved a resolution supporting the modi-
fications.
“The plans were just approved by the
town and NJDOT is moving the proj-
ect forward. The next step is developing
a construction plan to implement the
changes,” Mr. Shapiro said.
No date has been set yet to start work
on the restriping and new signage, he said.
There are no plans to reconfigure the cir-
cle.
race to the moon. Astronaut Russell L.
“Rusty” Schweickart, who piloted a lunar
module during Apollo 9, was raised in
Wall Township.
“2 Area Men on Moon Team” was the
headline in the Oct. 24, 1963 edition of The
Coast Star.
“Two men with strong area ties, one of
them a Manasquan High School graduate,
may be the first Americans to set foot on
the moon! Russell L. Schweickart, son
of Mr. and Mrs. George L. Schweickart,
Eighth Avenue, [Wall Township], and Air
Force Major Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., who has
spent many summers with his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Edwin E. Aldrin Sr., at their vaca-
tion home at First Avenue, [Manasquan]
have been selected as astronauts,” the ar-
ticle reported.
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“We’re mandated to
do this but at least we
can control what is
going to happen.”
MAYOR KEVIN P. ORENDER,
Wall Township
Housing
deal eyed
in Wall
Includes 17 percent
fewer affordable units
than first
ordered by state
BY SANNE YOUNG
THE COAST STAR
WALL TOWNSHIP — The mu-
nicipality has reached a ten-
tative court settlement that
sets the number of mandated
affordable housing units it is
obligated by the state to al-
low. Township officials said
they negotiated a new man-
date of 1,250 units, which is
about 17.3 percent fewer than
originally ordered by the
courts.
A public forum to ex-
plain the plan and to answer
any questions citizens may
have is set for 7:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, July 24, during
the township committee
meeting at the municipal
building at 2700 Allaire
Road. The tentative settle-
ment is expected to be voted
on by the township commit-
tee at the conclusion of the
meeting.
“An important point is part
of this public forum is to pro-
vide a basis of understanding
as to why we are where we
are, what the numbers are
… what affordable housing
is and what our obligations
are,” Kendra Lelie, the town-
ship’s professional planner
for affordable housing, said
SEE HOUSING PAGE 4
art recalled growing up on a farm in Wall
Township, attending a one-room school-
house and then Allenwood Elementary
School.
“I was assigned to general chores on
the farm, played with kids and went to
church. Typical life in a rural setting,” he
stated in the article. Mr. Schweickart said
that he dreamed of becoming a pilot, and
would read science fiction books and lis-
ten to radio broadcasts such as “Captain
Midnight.”
After graduating Manasquan High
School, he enrolled at age 16 at the Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Technology, where
he earned bachelor’s and master’s de-
grees in aeronautics. After a stint as an
Air Force pilot, he was chosen by NASA
SEE ASTRONAUT PAGE 7
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