BlueClaws: Continued

From Page 4

Contract with the Phillies began in 2021 and runs through 2030.

Jersey Shore’s first-year manager is Greg Brodzinski, the club’s 16th manager in history. Brodzinski, 31, spent last year as the bench coach with Triple A Lehigh Valley, the Phillies’ farm club which competes in the International League. He was the Phillies’ bullpen catcher and catching coach in 2020 and 2021. Jersey Shore began play in 2001 as the Lakewood BlueClaws. Since its inception, a total of 8,118,695 fans have purchased tickets to the club’s home regular-season games. A total of 256,141 fans plunked down their money last season.

“We’re very proud to reach 14 sellouts last year, finish third among all South Atlantic League teams in attendance and finish 14th among all 120 minor league baseball teams in group sales,” Ricciutti said. “We feel we have something to offer every family, every business, youth sports team, non-profit organization and other groups and we look forward to welcoming them back to ShoreTown.”

Jersey Shore’s pitching coach is Phil Cundari, who spent the previous three years in the Toronto Blue Jays’ minor-league system. The club’s batting coach is former BlueClaws player Brock Stassi, who was with the team for 59 games in 2021 when he hit three home runs and drove in 30 runs. He made his big-league debut with the Phillies on April 3, 2017. The team’s bench coach is Chris Adamson, who was scheduled to manage the club in 2020.

He managed the team in 2021. The team’s pitching development coach is Brady Lail, who pitched for the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox and the Seattle Mariners. The team’s athletic trainer is Meaghan Flaherty, who has been with the Phillies since 2020 and spent last season as the assistant athletic trainer with Lehigh Valley. The team’s strength and conditioning coach is Mark Jesse, Jr., who joined the Phillies’ system last season.

Two Jersey Shore players, No. 5 Hao Yu Lee and No. 28 Tommy McCollum, are ranked among MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Phillies prospects.

A total of 119 former BlueClaws, including former Phillies stars Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard, have earned berths on major league rosters.

Ten former BlueClaws - Detroit’s Nick Maton and Matt Vierling, the Chicago White Sox’s Jake Diekman, Houston’s Hector Neris, Oakland’s Trevor May, Seattle’s J.P. Crawford, the Los Angeles Angels’ Logan O’Hoppe, Atlanta’s Travis d’Arnaud, the New York Mets’ Carlos Carrasco, Milwaukee’s Hoby Milner and the Chicago Cubs’ Mark Leiter Jr. - were on major league regular-season rosters at the start of the 2023 campaign. The latter pitched for Toms River High School North and the Phillies.

“We want our fans to say after visiting the ballpark, ‘That was fun. Let’s do it again,’ “ Ricciutti said. “They entrust us with three to four hours of their most precious commodity, which is time. If we do that (the team employs 300 persons when it plays home games), we did our jobs and that makes us incredibly proud.”

Blueclaws.com contributed to this report

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Ciccozzi was absent.

Township Attorney Anthony Merlino said “Bond votes require a super majority,” which would have been five ‘yes’ votes. Because of that, there were not enough votes to pass.

Lotano said the bulk of the bond was road improvement and elevation. There was also police cars and garbage trucks. “These are all items that we use to keep the town running.”

The bond would have paid for:

$7,819,000 for road paving, township-wide drainage, bulkheads, the 2023 Roadway Elevation Project as well as the Downtown Toms River Loop Road Project.

$4,385,000 for vehicles including dump trucks, a street sweeper, mower, roll-off truck, wheel loader, a tandem, pick-ups, 10 police cars, an ambulance, and other equipment and computers.

$1,795,000 for improvements to various municipal offices and parking lots.

Lamb said he voted against it because a majority of the costs have to do with the downtown redevelopment he is against. Lotano explained that the majority of it is road projects; of that, a small amount is the downtown.

After the meeting, Mayor Maurice Hill sent out a statement blasting Lamb and Rodrick for putting essential services and life-saving equipment purchases at risk.

As a result of their vote, “the Township has no funding for road paving and road elevations this year and no funding for town wide drainage and bulkhead repairs,” he said.

Furthermore, the township is at risk of losing $6 million in matching grants from the federal and state governments for these projects.

“The political grandstanding by Councilmen Rodrick and Lamb is putting lives and property at risk. These two political hacks never leave campaign mode. They are not serious about governing and serving the public. Their most recent action has real negative consequences for the residents of Toms River,” he said.

Hill said that the downtown portion of the bond was about $1.5 million of the total. The federal government has agreed to pay $5.6 million toward the project if it goes through. The project includes 285 new high-end apartments, new restaurants and retail stores and well as a banquet hall/wedding venue.

“The 285 apartments are already approved by the Planning Board after multiple public hearings. By voting against the funding for the Loop/Water Street widening, Rodrick and Lamb are not only risking a $5.6 million federal grant for the project, they are risking that the towers will be built without the necessary road improvements. That would be a traffic nightmare.”

“I will ask the Council to introduce a new Capital Bonding Ordinance, but the delay will increase costs and potentially push some road paving and elevation projects into 2024,” he said. “We lost the prime months of April and May for road improvements. Fuel prices always rise in the summer and oil prices are on the rise again which increases the cost of asphalt. We may not be able to repair all the roads we planned to fix this year. Rodrick and Lamb have really hurt the taxpayers with this stunt.”

Rodrick is challenging Hill in the Republican Primary Election for mayor in June. Geri Ambrosio and Robert Bianchini are also competing for the mayor’s spot in the primary.

Although Lamb isn’t running for office this year, he fired back at Hill in a release of his own.

“Mo Hill has been hanging around town hall for 20 years and now he’s asking for another 4 years to build massive monuments to himself along the downtown waterfront,” Lamb said. “The people of Toms River don’t want to see a little Camden on the Delaware constructed in Huddy Park.”

“The people of Toms River are upset about what’s being done to their town,” Lamb said. “Mo’s twin 10-story towers are modeled after a massive Hackensack project and they’re completely incompatible with our town.”