Seaside Heights American Legion Post to Sell Property for Improvement Funding

Seaside Heights American Legion Post 351, 1400 Bay Boulevard. (Credit: Google Earth)

American Legion Post 351 is planning to sell a portion of its property and use the funds to improve their building, which a representative from the post said has fallen into disrepair after first being damaged in Superstorm Sandy.

The post’s attorney, Anthony Pagano, and its financial officer, Jerry Skinner, informally proposed their effort to the borough’s planning board this week at a workshop session. The post plans to sell a 60-by-100 swath of their property at 1400 Bay Boulevard and to subdivide the land into four parcels – three for single-family homes and one for the post’s own building to remain.

Seaside Heights American Legion Post 351, 1400 Bay Boulevard. (Credit: Google Earth)

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“The lots are all conforming with the exception of an existing nonconformity on Carteret [Avenue],” said Pagano. “That is the only variance being requested.”

Board members said there may be an additional variance required for parking, which is yet to be determined, but the lots will conform to the borough’s standard residential size of 20-by-100 feet each. The lots would be sold to a builder, who would construct three homes in an east-to-west direction on the piece of land north of the post building, which is currently undeveloped except for a parking area. The lots themselves are historical in their own way, officials said, as the post celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

“This property was conveyed to the American Legion post back in the 1970s,” said Borough Administrator Christopher Vaz, who is also the borough historian. “It was a Hiering-Tunney property and originally had a reverter clause. But the paperwork made it very clear that this is their property.”

“Where the Legion is [today] was all water before the state came in in ’55 and ’56, and pushed everything out” to build the Route 35/37 overpasses. “That area was all bayfront in the ’50s.”

Skinner said the post, which has 157 members, is looking to become more active and needs to address its building, which saw damage during the 2012 storm. The post has not had enough money to improve the building in the years since, leading its overall condition and aesthetics to decline. It was not clear if the funds derived from the sale of the property would be used to demolish and rebuild the post or improve the existing building. Regardless, Skinner said, the project was agreed-upon as being necessary by its members.

” In order for us to be able to sell it, we had to send out a letter to every member and we had a general membership meeting,” Skinner said. “There was a vote taken to sell a 60-by-100 portion of it and divide it into three lots.”

Seaside Heights American Legion Post 351, 1400 Bay Boulevard. (Credit: Google Earth)

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Seaside Heights American Legion Post 351, 1400 Bay Boulevard. (Credit: Google Earth)

Skinner is a life member of the post. His father once served as its commander. Last year, the post commemorated the life of his brother, Donald Alvah Skinner, who died while serving in the U.S. Army in South Vietnam in 1967 – just three weeks after he lost his own friend, Lavallette resident George Pollin, whose U.S. Air Force F-4 Phantom fighter was shot down. A ceremony recognized the elder Skinner’s sacrifice in November.

Skinner said he became active with the post again over the last year and volunteered to help lead the fund-raising project since he has a background in finance.

“We want to make the post like it always was,” said Skinner, with more activities and the ability to attract new members. “We’ve been barely staying alive over the past 10 years since Sandy. That’s why we felt we needed to do this project.”

The formal presentation of the land subdivision application is expected to be presented at the board’s March 25 meeting.