Rally in Trenton, NJ. May 14 at 8:00 am

Time to get these State issues fixed NOW.

Dunes –
– Why is the NJ Attorney General not filing Eminent Domain proceedings against the easement holdouts?
– Why are there no plans to raise dunes on IBSP?
– We need Sea Gates on the 3 inlets on the Barnegat bay to fully insulate us from future storms (Point Pleasant Inlet, Barnegat Light Inlet and Little Egg Harbor Inlet)

RREM –
– Why are NJ residents receiving 150K and NY residents receiving 300K?
– Why is RREM not paying to raise the home 4 feet above the BFE?
– Extensions should be 1 year extensions not 3 month extensions?
– What are VALID reasons for extensions with RREM?
– NY residents receive 25K UPFRONT for their for engineering, architect, survey, flood certificate and foundation plan so that they can obtain accurate estimates. Why not NJ?
– Why is the cost so high with Pathway C contractors vs. Pathway B
– Why are Pathway C contractors given RREM pricing, but residents on pathway B do not have access to the pricing?
– If you are litigating with RREM then the money should be held in escrow until the case is settled.
– ECR and WIP documents are “riddled” with errors.
– All RREM answers to our questions need to BE IN WRITING.
– The RREM grant should stand as is. RREM needs to do their due diligence up front. NO RECOUPMENT because of RREM mismanagement or mistakes.
– The rules and regulations need to be reduced and made concrete. The program continually changes. The rules and regulations on the RREM program are 180 pages long and growing.
– Changing from Pathway C to B. Why so difficult and denials for some. If the engineering cost are to be born by the resident, they should receive all the engineering reports.
– Requests to RREM – They need to be REQUIRED to answer our questions in WRITING in a TIMELY FASHION (3 working days)
– OMBUDSMAN – we need one with POWER who can get answers quickly.
– ECR needs to be correct before moving forward with construction.
– Homeowner should be given ECR pricing.
– $15,000 for “soft costs” Why are some people receiving this as an addition to the $150K grant and others as a “contingency”.
– Pathway “C” residents must have itemized cost of project.
– Pathway “C” residents “banned” from their own homes?
– Pathway “C” residents should be able to move to Path “B” easily.
– Pathway “C” contractors paid for engineering then homeowner switches to Path B but not given the engineering work performed.

Utility Companies
– Why does it take so long to cut off and turn on the utilities?
– Why are homeowners required to pay $10,000 for telephone poles?

Permits
– We need a streamlined process to approve permits in a timely fashion.
– Why is the cost of the permits not picked up by NJ Government
– Boards of Adjustment for each town need to meet every two weeks.
– Even if homes are demolished their status needs to be grandfathered

Real Estate Taxes –
– Our Real Estate taxes should be reduced until our homes are REBUILT AND RAISED.
– After raising / rebuilding our homes our taxes should not be raised because of renovations.
– Our overpaid real estate taxes since Sandy should be repaid back to Sandy damaged homeowners.

Water, Electric, Taxes and Sewer Bills –
– Should be credited to displaced victims during displacement.

Funding to raise homes –
– Low interest loans should be made available, by the state, to all Sandy damaged properties (Primary, 2nd homes, rentals and comm. properties). Irregardless of credit rating or equity in home.

Rental Assistance
– Rental assistance should be granted until homeowners are back in their home AFTER the lift.
– Extend the rental assistance period and make it more than $825 a month.

Dredging
– Many lagoon systems are still filled up with sand and need dredging

– Why is the NJ Dept. of Banking not applying pressure to NFIP WYO insurance companies writing other insurance in NJ?

– Return the $25 Million in Sandy Funds for the “Stronger than the Storm” advertisement.

– Sue HGI for the funds given to them to administer the RREM program, who were fired a few months into a 4 year contract.  They were almost paid in full after getting fired.

– We still have no transparency on the RREM and any other Sandy programs.