A Monmouth University Asbury Park Press poll showed public satisfaction with New Jersey’s Sandy recovery effort dropped below 50 percent for the first time since the storm. Only 48 percent of those polled say that they are satisfied, 73 percent say it is taking too long to get rebuilding funds to Sandy victims and 51 percent say that they believe that the recovery funds are being spent wisely. Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers told NJTV News Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he thinks staffing should be increased to speed up the Sandy recovery process.
“I think it always goes back to your individual situation. From a municipal standpoint, I think that our municipality has done better than most. Are we still waiting on money? Absolutely. Would we certainly like it to go quicker? Again, absolutely. But I can certainly understand the frustration, especially if you are a secondary homeowner because there is no help coming for you,” said Akers.
Akers said that he thinks the holdup is caused by a combination of both the federal and state governments. He said that when the incidents first happened, he thinks that government officials put a tremendous amount of boots on the ground and there were many people doing many different jobs, and backups to those people. He said that the further removed from a situation, like Sandy, staffing issues become a problem, both at the state and federal level, that they are trimming back the number of people that are still handling the disaster. Akers said that if he could ask for anything, it would be to have the staffing increased so that the people not only in the municipalities, but the individual homeowners that so desperately want to get back into their properties can get their money much quicker.
Akers said that he would like to see the number of individuals resolving claims increase so that there are more people that are available to review multiple claims and who can give answers faster. He said that it could be something as simple as not filling a out a document properly but by the time the document is returned for correction, the turnaround time is far greater than it was originally.
When asked where things stand in the community of Seaside Heights, Akers said, “I think we are very fortunate. I am actually very optimist about the summer. Casino Pier, I can’t say enough good things about it. They put about 18 rides in place last year and I think they will have as many as 23 rides this year, with a giant Ferris wheel and a lot of new rides coming on board. Down where we had the fire, as we sit here today, the pilings are being driven for that boardwalk to be in place for Memorial Day weekend. They will have some temporary stands and rides in place this year with the idea to have permanent ones in place for next year. We want to make sure that when people come down here, all the amenities that they want and are used to having are in place for them.”
Akers said that now is a good time to deal with quality of life issues, after the rebuild. He said that it is essentially a new town being put back together after the devastating storm. He said that he wants to make sure that not only the people who come to visit Seaside, but the people who live there year round should have some peace of mind and downtime during the off season and he wants that to be provided for them.