By Michelle Gladden and Amanda Oglesby/Asbury Park Press
May 27, 2013
A holiday weekend that began with cold temperatures and windy rain did not dash the hopes of Jersey Shore residents and business owners, who remained positive six months after superstorm Sandy destroyed coastal neighborhoods.
On Sunday Gov. Chris Christie visited seaside areas of Monmouth County, offering words of encouragement to throngs of supporters who gathered to shake his hand and pose for pictures.
By Rick Hampson/Asbury Park Press
May 27, 2013
Memorial Day weekend at the Jersey Shore, the start of summer in the land mythologized by Springsteen and caricatured by Snooki, was like the region itself seven months after Sandy: some good, here; some bad, there; hope, almost everywhere.
Hope in Point Pleasant Beach, where the boardwalk was fixed and the deck at Martell’s Tiki Bar was packed.
Hope in Bay Head, where Mueller’s Bakery, more than a century old, briefly reopened in the midst of renovation to sell its cakes and sweet treats on a cash-only basis (the phone lines were still down).
By Joyce M. Rosenberg/The Record
May 26, 2013
When Martin Rawls-Meehan started making adjustable beds in 2004, it was a foregone conclusion that key parts would be made overseas. It was cheaper to manufacture in Taiwan than in the U.S. And from Taiwan it was easier to ship to customers in Asia.
But this year, his company, Reverie, began making some of its beds entirely in a factory in New York. Shipping costs from Taiwan have soared between 50 percent and 60 percent since the company was founded.
By Jacqueline L. Urgo/Philadelphia Inquirer
May 25, 2013
When a hundred or so suit-wearing, briefcase-carrying business owners plunge into the 57-degree ocean at noon Friday to signify the “unlocking” of the resort’s beaches, they’ll be hoping the world is watching.
Jersey Shore towns are seeking the attention more this holiday weekend than ever in the history of the decades-old event, repeated up and down the coast annually to signify the unofficial start of the lucrative summer tourist season.
By Candy Woodall/York Dispatch
May 23, 2013
You’ve probably seen the ads.
Billboards along Interstate 83, Route 30 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike have announced the New Jersey shore is open for business.
Television commercials featuring New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, surrounded by his family on a picturesque beach, declare the state’s shore is “Stronger than the Storm.”
By Mary Ann Bourbeau/NJBIZ
May 21, 2013
Despite the economic challenges facing businesses, 25 percent of CEOs in New Jersey said the state is a good-to-excellent place to do business, up from 12 percent in 2010, according to the results of the New Jersey Economic Policy Summit’s 2013 C-Suite Survey of Garden State CEOs.
“Confidence in New Jersey as a place to do business continues to improve,” said James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, which conducts the survey. “In addition, 36 percent of CEOs participating in the survey expect to increase capital spending here over the next year, continuing a positive upward trend seen in earlier surveys.”
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s next public Board Meeting will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 36 West State St., Trenton, NJ 08625. A copy of the proposed agenda can be found prior to the meeting at www.njeda.gov/Board. Following the Board Meeting, minutes and the full agenda will also be available at www.njeda.gov/Board.
A meeting of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) Board has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 7:00 pm at the Tinton Falls Municipal Building, 556 Tinton Avenue, Tinton Falls. Formal action may be taken at this meeting. A copy of the proposed agenda can be found 48 hours prior to the meeting at the websites of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority: www.fortmonmouthredevelopment.com, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority: www.njeda.gov.
By Natasha Lindstrom/The Record
May 7, 2013
Nick and Maria Ressa still grimace as they recall the first time they surveyed their 37-year-old dry cleaning business in the wake of superstorm Sandy.
Dead fish rotted in the parking lot. Inside, the smell was so putrid that the couple could barely last five minutes without escaping for fresh air. Mud clung to the walls, mangled-up equipment littered the floor and water clogged the cash register. The customer information they’d spent more than three decades accumulating had been obliterated.
“It was like a bomb had come through here and just turned everything upside down,” said Nick Ressa, who relied on credit cards and do-it-yourself repairs to reopen in early December. “I was never optimistic… but I was never ready to pack it in.”
A Special Meeting of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) has been scheduled for Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 2 p.m. at the EDA offices at 36 West State Street, Trenton.