In the Bayshore, there is more to doing business than meets the eye.

A group of business people met at the Cullen Center, in Hazlet, for a planning session on Jan. 30 at 3 p.m.

The idea is to organize a forum in April, and the group met with the purpose of further defining the time and paring down the general number of events to be held at the forum. In attendance were Tom Kelly, HBA; Andy Bace, Hazlet Planning Board; Fred Rast, mayor of Atlantic Highlands; Mark Mocarski, a new Bayshore business operator; Jim Purcell, publisher of The Courier; and Somdatta Sengupta, editor of The Courier.

Prior to the session, Jim Purcell received a telephone call from John Ciufo, the county planning and economic development director.

Purcell notified Ciufo that the group was calling the event the Bayshore Business Conference, and the intent of the group was to involve grassroots businesses, business organizations and community leaders from the 10-town area that is the Bayshore in a 2-night event to be held at the Cullen Center during the third week of April.

Ciufo confirmed the freeholder first connected about this was Deputy Freeholder Director John D'Amico, who was contacted by Purcell and Hazlet businessman Victor V. Scudiery about a Bayshore event similar to what was put on in Red Bank.

Purcell explained to Ciufo that the event was intended to be a forum for business and government to interact, which he thought was a good idea in a positive light. Purcell explained that by placing governmental and business entities together in a cooperative manner in the group the intent was to avoid miscommunication through inclusion.

Ciufo emphasized the need for structure.

"I noted to him there would be detailed briefings about a water-based transportation plan by Mayor Anna Little, of Highlands, included in the event, as well as the explanation of a potential grant intended for use by Bayshore businesses through Rutgers University the contact person for which is Dr. John Pavlik at Rutgers. He asked me to include him on event planning material, and I affirmed that this meeting, the previous and all others would be sent to him via his email," Purcell said.

Following the telephone call to Ciufo, the issue became the date, which Rast, especially, believed poor should the event be held on a Monday or Tuesday, because those are bad for certain business and might prevent attendance by some. This was acknowledged by the group and it was confirmed that Barbara Ronchetti (who was out due to illness) would be asked about the availability of the center for the third week of April, Thursday and Friday.

The issue became about broad topics that could be constructively discussed with the county, and the issue came to some paperwork (township and county level) that could be addressed to assist business owners without cost. Additionally, there were minor jurisdictional issues insofar as road maintenance that could assist business (e.g. through the alleviation of some common spots of flooding in the Bayshore — like leaves covering the drains along the Rt. 36 area of Belford and creating problems.

Middletown does not clear the drains because they are part of the Henry Hudson Trail, a county property, despite the relative ease of doing this to alleviate some flooding and the leaves are onlly problem areas to a few drains). Consequently, it was approved that County Public Works Director John Tobia would be invited to the event to see if there could be any light shed.

The group acknowledged that the overall emphasis of the event should not be a gripe session between individual or groups of businesses and governments but should be a place where active, productive (and cost free) discussions can be begun to achieve with the prospect of creating some low level successes in business/government discussion.

Thereafter, it was discussed that the next session of the group would be dedicated to: identifying issues that will be discussed during the conference and creating smaller groups to focus on conference events (other than Rutgers' or Little's).

"The point is productive dialogue that is positive, possible and cost free, with room for individual business owners and attendees to ask some random questions from the audience in the interest of public participation," Purcell said. "The point of this conference is to make new partners of people, revisiting issues that might improve the businerss posture in the Bayshore for smaller businesses overall."

It was noted that Purcell would try and reach out for Pavlik at Rutgers to see if a representative from Rutgers can attend the next session, which is tentatively scheduled for Fri., Feb. 6 at the Cullen Center, pending availability confirmed by Ronchetti.