Oh - sorry. I got a little distracted by that tumbledown shack at the top of my column. But we'll get to that in a minute.

First, it's kudo time for the Asbury Park city council.

Last month I wrote about the plight of our historic boardwalk buildings, and the need for the city council to negotiate firm deadlines to ensure that Asbury Partners holds good on its multi-million-dollar commitment to historically restore Convention Hall, the Paramount Theatre, the Casino arcade and carousel house, and the Howard Johnson's Restaurant.

Given their increasingly strong negotiating position, I also urged council members to re-open talks to save the Arthur Pryor Bandshell and to obtain a possible location for our long-overdue senior and recreation center.

As you hopefully know, the city council has since given Asbury Partners until January 18 to produce a concept plan, budget and timeline for all the boardwalk buildings. If not, the council plans to reopen negotiations.

Hopefully, the council will approach the talks with a strong, shared strategy and a well-defined list of requirements, and will insist that all key players participate. (For example, if the developers' New York partners have to approve any deadlines or agreements, then the New York partners should attend key negotiating sessions. Not to do so devalues the city council and staff.)

This would be a great time for council members and city staff to make the acquaintance of Lisa Jackson, the incoming Department of Environmental Protection head, and to reinforce ties with the state Historic Preservation Office. Both organizations play key monitoring and regulating roles in our boardwalk redevelopment.

This is also the time for our three residential subdevelopers and city residents - including the Historical Society, Merchants Guild, ArtsCAP, AP Action and others - to express their support. A safe and inviting boardwalk would particularly benefit city seniors and children, and both have a stronger voice than they typically realize, whether individually or in groups.

In declining to move faster on the boardwalk, Asbury Partners is citing a clause in the redeveloper's agreement that boardwalk redevelopment can be postponed if there are pending lawsuits against the redevelopment plan. (A few outstanding appeals remain.)

But that thinking is undeniably self-defeating at this stage. Over the past three years, Asbury Partners has thrown millions of dollars into the redevelopment process, and their financial survival hinges on the success of the residential development.

How many potential condominium buyers (or even potential subdevelopers) will head for safer investments if Asbury Partners remains uncommitted to a boardwalk redevelopment schedule?

On one hand, Asbury Partners is using the remaining legal appeals as an excuse not to develop construction plans for even our endangered historic buildings - a process which could take up to a year with state approvals and which will be little affected by their eventual choice of tenants.

At the same time, they're not letting those same lawsuits deter plans to demolish the collapsing Casino arena next spring - without a plan for what will replace it. (And the winner of the foot-shooting contest is.....)

So I plan to be at the January 18 city council meeting, and I hope you will be, too, or will track the council's progress in the newspapers. As much as I'd like to pop them on the head, the object isn't to derail boardwalk redevelopment; it's to show Asbury Partners and their financial partners that we expect them to step up to the plate.

The workshop meeting starts at 6 p.m. Public comments are now taken at 7 p.m., at the start of the regular meeting.

Said, "California's
The place you ought to beee..."

Oh, yeah - about that dilapidated-looking shed up there: As a condition for receiving its state CAFRA permit, Asbury Partners also agreed to preserve the Tillie and Bumper Car Lady images from the demolished Palace Amusements building and incorporate them into a future structure at the Palace site.

Because they are stored outdoors, the Partners encased the two images in "protective" sheds. I put "protective" in quotes, of course, because the sheds were slapped together of salvaged, interior-grade plywood in a "design" (more quotes) virtually guaranteed to breed moisture and mold damage.

The non-profit Save Tillie group was eventually forced to pay a nationally prominent conservator to examine the sheds (seems pretty silly, doesn't it, for something that should have been a no-brainer?), and Asbury Partners subsequently agreed to provide appropriate venting; reconstruct the roofs to eliminate ice and water hazards; and replace the indoor plywood with outdoor siding.

That was mid-September. Needless to say, the promised work was never begun, and now - four months later - the plywood walls are separating and curling, and there's as many roof shingles on the ground as there are on the sheds.

So we loaded up the truck
And we moved to Beverly....

And, please don't tell me that you're waiting because the Palace images may have to be moved to accommodate planned upgrades to the city's sewage facility. I understand that move may be 18 months away, and the sheds will be needed anyway.

So, in the interests of good faith (and good public relations on January 18), I'd like to propose that Asbury Partners come equipped that night with glossy photos of the work in process or - better yet - completed.

Otherwise, I plan to flash photos of the dilapidated sheds that night, while singing the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. (Hey - now that Frank D'Alessandro's a quietly sophisticated Board of Education member and Tommy DeSeno heads the Kill Tillie Fan Club, someone has to take up the slack.)

And you need to know that I'm a lousy singer - a real lousy singer. Consider yourself forewarned.

"Y'all come back now, ya' hear?"