This is an appeal to city hall, the Asbury Park Historical Society, ArtsCAP, the Merchants Guild, the Homeowners Association, and anyone else who cares about Convention Hall, the Paramount Theatre, and the Casino arcade and carousel house - including (for obvious economic reasons) our three beachfront subdevelopers.

It's time to put a stake in the ground - and a firm schedule on the city's website - for preserving these irreplaceable treasures. And, while we're at it, the city's in a prime place to negotiate further concessions, including the historic preservation of the Arthur Pryor bandshell and, perhaps, the acquisition of a senior and community center site.

Let me explain.

Last time, I described Asbury Partners' obligation to historically restore Convention Hall, the Paramount, the Casino arcade and carousel house, the south-end heating plant, and the Howard Johnson portion of the Fifth Avenue pavilion.

I also described how Asbury Partners must submit detailed construction plans to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) to ensure that every detail of those plans - from the windows to the molding to the light fixtures - complies with federal Secretary of the Interior guidelines for historic restoration.

John Clarke, Asbury Partners' primary architect, estimates that it will take a full six months just to prepare the Convention Hall and Paramount Theatre plans, and SHPO's approval will at least double that time. And that doesn't include our other endangered buildings.

The trouble is that the current schedule - negotiated in on-going meetings between the city, our subdevelopers, and Asbury Partners - shows no submission date for any of these construction plans, and Asbury Partners CEO Larry Fishman recently told me that Clarke's architectural firm has not been authorized to begin the actual planning.

Now, please don't tell me that Clarke's firm needs to concentrate on gaining SHPO approval for a few emergency fixes before it can start the overall plan. Clarke Caton Hintz is a respected firm with dozens of employees, and if they can't work on both assignments simultaneously - which I find puzzling, since the emergency plans have already been submitted to SHPO - it's time to bring in additional architects.

Also, please don't tell the city that you need to find an experienced retail management partner before you develop construction plans. Yes, I understand that it's good business sense (and doubtless good for Asbury Park) if you bring in a professional management company to help attract funding and viable retailers to the boardwalk.

I am also very aware that year-around retailers would commit suicide by opening before the beachfront area is repopulated. Similar projects in Newark, Jersey City, New Brunswick, Atlantic City, and Hoboken have proved that residential development must precede significant retail development.

But - as Don Sammet, the city's Director of Planning and Redevelopment points out - the eventual identity of your retail tenants "will not have any bearing on restoring existing brickwork or copper or repairing a roof or doing any other historic renovation to those buildings."

Suppose it takes another year to find a retail management company and the first major retailers, which it logically could? It's only good business sense to have those restoration plans approved by SHPO and ready to go - or better yet, to have the first restoration work already underway.

Because - retail partner or not - those buildings can't survive much longer, and the city, our subdevelopers, and all of us need to insist that planning begins now and that restoration work begins as soon as SHPO approval is received.

Don't get me wrong: I don't hold Asbury Partners responsible for the abominable condition of our boardwalk buildings, and neither should you. That decay has been going on unchecked for the past 30 or 40 years until, as city redevelopment attorney Jim Aaron said, "Every $5 million problem is now a $30 million problem." (Increasing monthly, he could have added.)

And no one else offered a viable plan or funds to stop the damage - not the city; not SHPO; not state or federal preservation organizations; and especially not the let's-bring-another-lawsuit, backroom bosses who often let their own properties decay for years.

Which is why we can't drop the ball now.

As Councilman Ed Johnson, who serves on the city's beachfront redevelopment committee with Deputy Mayor Jim Bruno, recently admitted, "It's time to step up to the plate."

And stepping up to the plate should include identifying real deadlines for Asbury Partners to submit construction plans to the state. It should also include negotiations to obtain further concessions to make up for Asbury Partners' construction delays on the pavilions. Such concessions could include an agreement to restore the endangered Arthur Pryor Bandshell and the contribution of a site for our proposed senior and recreation center.

Neither of these are new ideas: The city was poised to negotiate both these items when I left the council and the redevelopment committee last December, and we should have an even stronger case now. (And, yes, we had already identified an almost perfect site for the community center at that point, one that I believe is still a viable option.)

Another not-new request: I would still like to see key deadlines from the detailed redevelopment schedule posted on the city's website and updated after each committee meeting. There's no reason in the world that this basic schedule shouldn't be made public.

So, before one more copper seahorse rots and twists off in the wind, it's time to act. And that means the city council and our city professionals - with the vocal support of city organizations and our residential subdevelopers - need to hit the negotiating table and not leave until they can come up with both dates and concessions.

Please let the council - and Asbury Partners - know you agree.