president's message - june 2025

Here we are already well into June, things have been really active this year and there are some great people working behind the scenes to keep the NJBBA rolling along. Paul Novello organized a get together at the Fortune Buffet and everyone who came really enjoyed the time spent together. Our Annual Meeting went very well, including a presentation and discussion from our Public Access Chairperson, George Browne. If you weren't, there you really missed out! George has been and continues to work on legislation currently in both the House and Senate. George is really involved with all kinds of local access issues and we owe him a lot of gratitude for all his hard work over the years. I know you don’t here this often enough George, but Thank You from all of us who volunteer our time for the NJBBA! Then we had that fabulous banquet in March; phew… The time that goes into that! Valerie is just unreal with all she does and thanks to all the people that came together to make it happen. ‘Covid’ really screwed things up but more people have been attending the banquet and next year should really be something. Take some time and come join us next year. Enjoy the evening with some of your fellow members, we would love to have you there. We had some new members join us for a cleanup later in March, Ray Anderson cooked some pulled pork and Valerie heated it up in our camper after the cleanup, the sandwiches were excellent. Doug Taylor headed up a Zoom Driving Class in which I monitor things and he is so thorough with everything. So many thanks after the meeting, people asked legitimate questions that give them the confidence they need to drive on the beach. While all this was going on, Rick DiTizio was working to restore our 1930 Model ‘A’ which was generously donated by the deSaules’ family’ Please find the article I wrote inside , Paul Harris was responsible for the beginning and I continued on about the present. Rick deserves a lot of credit, wait until you see it! The New Jersey Federation invited us to attend the Federation Jamboree in late April. They were glad to have us there but the turn out was a little on the weak side because of a rainy weekend, little did people know it was held inside a large arena. Everyone that did attend had a pleasant time and a lot of people looked over the mascot. Ron Woods Jr., our newly elected 2nd Vice President has formed an Advisory Committee to meet with park officials as well as our state representatives and to make the meetings a recurring event. We are going to have our NJBBA Pete D’Alessio Memorial Fishing Flea Market on January 10, 2026 thanks to Paul Novello. If you know of any vendors that may be interested in attending, please contact Paul Novello and he will take care of business. I sound like a broken record but just want to put it out there and Thank everyone who always gives their time and volunteers, we can’t do it without your help! Have a great summer, stay healthy and catch a lot of fish!