Race to Economic Recovery Goes to the Tortoise

After a new slate of Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce officers was installed and elected officials from local municipalities spoke, Joel Naroff, president and founder of Naroff Economic Advisors, delivered a cautiously optimistic business forecast at the 2011 State of the Chamber Meeting in Manahawkin on Feb. 24.

Naroff, who had addressed the group at the height of the economic downturn two years ago, said there's been significant change since then.  

“The problem we have with this recovery is that it is really slow, but it is also the recovery we were always going to get,” Naroff said.

"If you think of a recovery as a race, what we wanted was the hare and we got the tortoise. But the tortoise is steadily making its way towards the finish line," Naroff said.  

Rising gas prices linked to unrest in North Africa and the Middle East pose risks to the economy's improvement, he said, as do state and national budget deficits. "The state's fiscal situation continues to be a restraint to growth," he said.

"By summer," however, "the tortoise will have crossed the finish line," Naroff concluded.

In Lacey news, Joe Lachawiec, mayor of Ocean Township, said his municipality is working with Barnegat and Lacey to convince the state to declare parts of each town as an "energy enterprise zone."

"Those areas would be designated as places where solar farms and wind turbines could go in in order to bring revenue into our towns, especially Lacey because they're going to lose the Exelon nuclear plant in nine years, and we're hoping someone will come in with a natural gas plant to satisfy the electric needs," Lachawiec told Patch.

"Waretown and Barnegat have to have a seat at the table also," said Lachawiec. "We have to have areas where we also produce electric by means of wind turbines or solar farms in order to keep our taxes down also, because the sad fact is that we derive no revenue whatsoever from the Exelon nuclear plant, and yet, we are 250 feet away from the plant and we do get their tritium and we do get the fact that no one wants to live close to it."

Lachawiec said the first step is that Ocean Township is developing its own solar farm at its landfill, and within a week or two the municipality will be requesting bids from companies that develop solar farms.

"We expect that it will be a good thing, a good substantial revenue for the next 30 years for our town. We're hoping for anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000 a year, and that's a lot on a $10 million budget, said Lachawiec.  Ocean Township is working with Lacey and Barnegat to develop similar projects. 

In other news, Grace Hanlon, who was sworn in as director of of the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism on January 24, 2011, introduced the department's spring advertising campaign, which will include the first new television commercial since former Gov. Jon Corzine's administration.  

“It’s going to have energy. It’s going to be different. …It’s going to have the flair of the current administration," Hanlon said.

Hanlon also encouraged business owners to take advantage of a new business action center that was spearheaded by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

"If you’re having a problem, let us know what’s going on so we can help you," Hanlon said, as she promised that both she and Guadagno would be responsive. 

Roy Miller, director of Surflight Theater assured business owners that “Surflight shall continue on," even though the theater company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Feb. 15, 2011.  Miller said he had gotten his start in theater at Surflight when he was 15 years old and is "thrilled to be back here running the theater.”

On Monday, Surflight will announce a star-studded summer season of six plays, a "slew" of concerts, and six children's shows per week representing 10 titles. He expressed gratitude for a check that Surflight received this morning from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Ocean County Freeholder Joe Vicari said that tourism has replaced home construction as "the lifeblood of Ocean  County" and two things are important to tourism: "the quality of our ocean and the weather." He said 57 percent of Ocean County land is protected, so the county's 44 miles of oceanfront must be maximized. 

Who's who:

• Chris Schwab was installed as the new Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce President.
• Andrea Driscoll is the new First Vice President.
• Christina Ping is Second Vice President.
• John Boekell will serve another term as treasurer.