Helipad court date moved once again
Zoning Officer Jerome Donlon
calls delay ‘hooly gooly
at the helipad’
Another court date has come and gone with no hearing on the helipad at Monmouth Park Corporate Center.
The latest postponement is just the latest disappointment for a handful of anxious, angst-ridden Oceanport residents who want their day in court to testify against the use of the pad after helicopters plagued them throughout the summer.
After enduring two summers’ worth of what they’ve deemed helipad hell and a complete infringement on quality of life, nearby residents, many of whom hail from Oceanport, want their chance to testify about the havoc they’ve seen wreaked, and soon.
They say they feel as if they’ve been talking for months and nobody is listening.
Since May 2000, there have been heated public meetings on the issue, several summonses doled out, one initial appearance postponement, appearance and entry of "non-guilty" plea and now, another trial postponement from Dec. 21 to Feb. 22.
Having their day in court seems as looming yet as elusive as the hovering choppers that invaded the residents’ lives.
But residents aren’t the only ones who can’t wait for that day in court.
For months, West Long Branch Zoning Officer Jerome Donlon has been compiling evidence, fielding complaint phone calls and making his case against what he calls an unpermitted use of land in West Long Branch that has made the quality of life for too many take a nose dive.
After the initial delay, then a hearing which turned out to be nothing more than the entering of a not guilty plea, a new trial date of Dec. 21 seemed a bit removed to Donlon and his host of witnesses, but palatable enough, as long as he and put-upon residents had their day.
And with what Donlon called an unacceptable lack of notice, the December date was nixed.
"I wasn’t even consulted on the postponement," he said.
According to Donlon, the delays have been attributed to a string of scheduling problems and requests for the defense to buy more time to dig up evidence to support its case.
He says that West Long Branch Prosecutor Steve Rubin said that Christopher Hanlon, attorney for helipad owners Carl P. Gross and Henry Bloom, requested this last postponement for several reasons, one of which was scheduling conflicts.
"I think the truth is that (the defense is) hoping it’s just going to go away," Donlon said.
"I can’t see that happening. In my opinion, at this point there’s just a lot of hooly gooly going on over this helipad trial," said Donlon, who was quick to cite that hooly gooly is his family’s expression to epitomize dodging a bad situation or to say "here we go again."
Nonetheless, Donlon has found out that the new court date that he hopes will stay grounded this time, is Feb. 22.
"In my mind, what the defense is trying to do with all these postponements and digging up of (what I think is) inconsequential evidence is to cloud the issue that the commuter helipad they have clearly been running is not a permitted accessory use in West Long Branch," Donlon said.
"They’re trying to come up with all these excuses for using what’s supposed to be an occasionally used accessory helipad as a commuter helistop," he said. "And there is no excuse for what I think is unlawful use of a piece of property in town and destroying people’s quality of life while you operate a business that’s not permitted. It’s like starting a car service in a parking lot just because you have a driver’s license. That’s why I think hooly gooly is the perfect term to describe these goings on. It sounds like what it is — running away."
Donlon went on to say that he intends to focus on what and where designated permitted uses are in West Long Branch.
Then, he said, helipad owners will have to ask themselves if commuter helistop use is permitted not only in West Long Branch, but specifically on the Monmouth Park Corporate Center site.
And he’s confident the answer will be no.