By Sunayana Prabhu
LITTLE SILVER – A storm July 3 not only flooded parts of the borough and brought widespread power outages but also dislodged the floating dock at Santelle Park, briefly shutting down the boat ramp. But these setbacks have not slowed the borough’s progress on long-term upgrades there and elsewhere in town.
In a recent interview, Mayor Bob Neff said the borough is moving ahead on several fronts, from emergency dispatch upgrades and storm-response coordination to improvements at Santelle Park and development near the train station.
The rainfall “knocked out” the floating dock at Santelle Park, Neff said. The dock then floated out across the boat ramp and blocked it. “We had to close the boat ramp for a couple days while the dock got fixed,” Neff said, noting that there was no damage reported.
The kayak racks at Santelle Park were unaffected.
Even as the borough manages storm impacts, it is advancing larger plans to improve Santelle Park, located at 190 Riverview Ave.
Proposed features at the park include additional dock space, a shade structure/boat storage, a permanent
restroom, a bocce court and a beach volleyball court.
The borough is now working to define the project, apply for grant funding and prepare to go out to bid. Although changes will not be immediate, Neff said the borough administration is “on board with moving these improvements forward as quickly as possible” and hopes to see significant progress “within the next six months or so.”
Power Concerns
The same storm brought flooding and more troubling power outages to Little Silver and neighborhoods around the Two River area.
“There were kind of two phases to it. You had the power outage and then you had a bit of flooding,” Neff said. Flooding appeared in the “usual places” at high tide, including Seven Bridges Road and Prospect Avenue, he said.
The power outages, which lasted several days for some residents, raised concerns about health and safety. “People were worried about the loss of air conditioning, about the loss of items in the fridge, and I think some really relied on the electricity to operate medical devices and things like that, so it was a real issue,” Neff said.
Neff joined Two River area mayors to discuss shortcomings in both utility infrastructure and communication with Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) and the state Board of Public Utilities, especially relating to power restoration estimates.
“There were a number of times where JCP&L would list a return to power time on a website or put it out to the resident that seemed almost arbitrary, and JCP&L has acknowledged that they can do better than that,” he said.
The utility may be using third-party contractors and a potential communication gap between the workers on site and the company may have caused communication delays to residents, he said. However, he remembered the utility’s swift action during Super Storm Sandy when JCP&L met with officials, made infrastructure upgrades and improved communication. He said he hopes to see a similar response now.
“It seems like there may have been a little backsliding since then,” Neff said. “But, you know, I’ve got some confidence that JCP&L understands the gravity of the situation and is going to work with us to improve it.”
Shared Dispatch Grant
As Little Silver looks to improve storm resilience and emergency response, a $262,600 Local Efficiency Achievement Program (LEAP) grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) last month is helping fund the borough’s shift to a countywide emergency dispatch system.
“The purpose of the whole LEAP grant, of course, was to assist in the startup expenses of moving to the county for emergency dispatch, and that’s gone extremely well,” Neff said.
The borough had estimated about $340,000 in startup costs for the move and the grant will help offset some of those costs.
“Our dispatch was working very well as it is, but the county has a much broader network of information, of emergency responders,” Neff said. “Our emergency responders felt that it would be more helpful to use the countywide system.”
The grant helped pay for new radios, equipment and the work of connecting to the county’s communications network. Over time, Neff said, the change should save taxpayers money while improving efficiency and safety.
Development Updates
A 13-unit townhouse development that includes three affordable units on a long-vacant lot at 1 Sycamore Ave. is moving ahead. The development required a zoning ordinance adopted by the borough council early this year.
“The main reason really for approving that development was that it includes three units of affordable housing, and Little Silver, like every other town, has an obligation to allow for the construction of low- and moderate-income housing,” Neff said, referring to the state’s affordable housing mandate that must be fulfilled in 10-year cycles called “rounds” by all municipalities in New Jersey.
Little Silver’s fourth-round obligation is 98 affordable units, which includes 25 new units to be constructed over the next decade and 73 units carried over from prior rounds, classified as the borough’s “unmet need.”
According to borough plans, three units at 1 Sycamore Ave. – in addition to the developments at Carriage Gate and 43 Birch Ave. that also qualify for bonus credits – together help meet the 25-new-unit need.
To address its unmet need, the borough has adopted seven Inclusionary Housing Overlay (IHO) zones and plans to add an eighth along White Road. The new townhouse development at 1 Sycamore Ave. replaced one of those IHO zones.
The borough, in coordination with Monmouth County, is planning traffic and drainage improvements on Willow Drive bordering the site to address long-standing concerns.
“There are obvious traffic concerns there,” Neff said. “We’re making some improvements in conjunction with the county to the street so that the ingress and egress from that lot will hopefully be relatively smooth.”
Drainage work is also planned to reduce ponding on Willow during storms, he said, with changes expected “over the next six months or so.”
The article originally appeared in the July 23 – 29, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
