Fair Haven marks completion of dock overhaul

PHOTO BY LIZ SHEEHAN Dock at the foot of Fair Haven Road FAIR HAVEN — There will be music again on the banks of the Navesink River in the town, where vaudevillians from New York City once spent their summers.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the refurbished dock at the foot of Fair Haven Road, Mayor Michael Halfacre spoke of the history of the area where the dock stood and said that it was adjacent to the site of the dock used by the visiting vaudevillians who took steamboats from New York to the town in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Looking from the riverbank, an observer can see the pilings of the old dock that still stand to the right of the renovated dock

Just down the river from the old dock was the clubhouse used by the vaudevillians, now the Shrewsbury Yacht Club, the mayor said.

Borough officials and residents, several accompanied by their dogs, clustered at the foot of the newly refurbished 250-foot-long dock on April 11 for the ribbon cutting.

Plans for the dock include summer concerts, said Charlie Hoffman, the borough's recreation director. He said the River Road Band, which he described as "a couple of dads," would be giving a concert on the gazebo on the dock on June 6, with more concerts to follow.

Hoffman said later that there already had been one concert on the dock and that about 75 chairs had been placed on it for spectators.

Borough Administrator Mary Howell said after the ribbon cutting that the total cost of the dock was $251,000 and it was paid through bonds.

The dock was splintered and had not been worked on since it was built in the 1970s, according to borough officials, but the superstructure under it was in good condition.

On Friday, Howell said the work on the dock revealed that the bulkhead needed to be repaired and that that had added to the original estimated cost of $224,000.

According to the borough history posted on its website, boats like the Albertine and Seabird brought summer visitors including the vaudevillians from New York to the old dock and the town, where they stayed at boarding houses and hotels.

After the ceremony, the mayor, council members and other borough officials returned to Borough Hall for the scheduled Borough Council meeting.

At the meeting, two resolutions for purchases

were approved by the council that will provide equipment to be used in implementing the shared service agreement with Little Silver. Under the agreement, Little Silver will provide dispatch service to the borough.

The agreement, which was approved

by the council in February,

met with opposition from some residents.

On Friday, Howell said that all the dispatches "will be done in Little Silver," and Fair Haven will pay $42,000 a year to Little Silver.

She said that presently the borough's yearly salaries are $114,500 for dispatching services.

Before passing the resolutions, council members asked that there be a written agreement from the state that funds for the purchases would be eligible for state grants, even though the purchases had been approved prior to the time that the grants would be issued.

Howell said Friday that the state Office of Information Technology had said the town would be eligible for the grants

She said the equipment approved for purchase by the council was a point-to-point system that would provide telecommunications between the two towns with a dish in each borough and a computer-aided dispatch software and records maintenance management system.

The point-to-point system would be provided by Motorola for $19,351 and installed by Quality Communication for $13,970, which includes a three-year maintenance agreement, Howell said.

She said the computer and dispatch software system would be purchased from and installed by Enforsys, for $48,850, which includes a three-year maintenance contract.