Ocean Grove's cross-shaped pier underway despite criticism: 'We are facing a crisis'

OCEAN GROVE - The Ocean Grove pier, damaged in 2012 during Superstorm Sandy, is being rebuilt by a nonprofit Christian organization in the shape of a cross, a design that has drawn some local criticism.

The pier, which will be 500 feet long and cost $1.3 million, is privately funded and will be open to the public, replacing the pier and private fishing club that was washed away in October 2012.

During a Neptune Township Committee meeting this fall, resident Shane Martins, a local attorney who lives in Ocean Grove, said he opposed the project's design because of what he termed "legal technicalities" and "the well-being of our community."

"We are facing a crisis," Martins told the committee. "The (Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association) is ushering in radical Christian nationalism and I think it is something you all need to be aware of."

Martins explained, for instance, that in 2017 the Ocean Grove badges required to go on the beach began displaying a cross.

"So for the first 140 years you didn't have to wear a cross to get on the beach. Since 2017, all the badges have had a very prominent cross. Also they have installed speakers in the parks in town, supposed to be for emergency evacuations, but instead they are blasting their Sunday services," Martins said.

Martins also expressed concern about a connection between the religious group in Ocean Grove and a group known as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which, according to its website, once represented the association. The organization, which has proposed criminalizing gay sex, has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, Martins said.

Michael Badger, president of the camp meeting association, said the association is not affiliated with the alliance and does not support such radical ideas.

"We have never, to my knowledge, paid any money to the ADF. We have no current interaction with them, relationship with them," he said. "Back in 2008, they did pro-bono work, but we have not spoken with them to my knowledge."

"This has nothing to do with (Christian nationalism)," Badger said, adding that the pier project has been in the works for many years.

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association owns the unincorporated community located within Neptune Township and is rooted in its Methodist heritage. The group's goal is to provide opportunities for spiritual birth, growth, and renewal through worship, educational, cultural and recreational programs for people of all ages in a Christian seaside setting, according to the group's mission statement.

Badger said he was caught off guard by the opposition to the pier's design.

"(The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association) is not trying to fan flames. We are not trying to create controversy and get headlines," Badger said.

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The conceptual design of the pier has been online for three years. The association's website states that "the Ocean Grove pier has been an iconic beach front landmark of the OGCMA since 1889. A completed pier will provide a publicly accessible attraction for all to enjoy. Rebuilding the current pier that is an unsightly blemish on our beach will provide new opportunities for our community and future programs."

"We have raised the money. We wouldn't build it until we had the money in hand. We've got the permits. We've got the contract," Badger said.

He added, "There was a review period for public comment that was closed. There have not been complaints for the three years the design has been online."

Badger said that the association wanted the public to be aware of the project because the group wants the public to be included.

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"We were looking to raise $550,000 towards the pier. The pier actually costs $1.3 million, and the rest of that was already coming from the camp meeting association," Badger said, adding no government funding was involved.

After reconfiguring the square-footage from the private fishing club, the cross-shape design was approved by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

"We were looking to have more technology on the pier. So that we would put on meteorological and oceanographic equipment so we can measure the tides, the wave heights, the potential for electrostatic lightning strike so we can get people out of the water, to have radios on there to reach out to the Coast Guard," Badger said.

He said there the pier also will be handicapped accessible.

He added that the design is practical and optimized to get the public to the water's edge.

"We were excited to do it with our own money. Design it. Campaign for it. And, I think the full public is going to go out there and love it," Badger said.

Construction of the pier, which began in late September, should be completed in December.

Ocean Grove was recently fined by the DEP because an inspection found sand moving activities were occurring near the dunes south of the pier. A sand stockpile was observed adjacent to the eastern side of the southern-most dune.

During the DEP investigation, sand was removed from the stockpile with an excavator and relocated to the east.

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Ocean Grove NJ cross-shaped pier faces criticism