Frustrated by not being able to attend, see on ZOOM and not being able to clear everything a day or two later on the recording of the meeting of the Mayor and Council, I’m grateful for a copy of the Mayor’s monthly report which is always read at the meeting and explained in detail to anyone who is able to attend a Council meeting and asks for more information.

But every month the list seems almost endless with everything that’s going on in town and how well the Mayor stays connected and  up with it all.  September’s statement, read at the October 6 meeting is as comprehensive and full as every other one.

For instance, the Mayor reminded everyone that while a lot of construction is going on, and proceeding timely, nonetheless, she told resident:. All constructions dates are weather and supply-chain permitting, just a reminded of how so many projects and plans have been thwarted in every business because of not always being able to get the supplies needed to proceed.

How much new construction is going on and how is it proceeding?  Well, for a starter, at the North St pump , a new breaker panel is completed but they’re waiting for First Energy to connect new electric.  At the new municipal building, steel installation is continuing, and it’s fascinating to see it rise and even more fascinating to see those workers walk across those beams. At South Bay and Hillside Ave, the storm and sanitary work is completed, next it’s concrete and paving.  By the bank there is a large sanitary sewer project for Waterwitch Area in Phase 1 and they’re waiting on materials.

At Snug Harbor Park,  Work was scheduled to start Sept. 12 on the playground area, basketball and tennis courts. The Mayor probably updated whether it did start Sept. 12, but couldn’t hear that on the meeting recording.

Work is supposed to start this month on the  Twin Lights Terrace Gabion and it’s also supposed to start at Ederle Park since the Pre-construction meeting which was held in August.

The  Marine Place Elevated Walkway West  at Snug Harbor  started this month and they were actively working on it the week of the meeting.

With the electrical work at the Waterwitch Pump Station done in September, the prefab structure is due to start this month as well

Concerning the Skate Park , the mayor said the application review has been submitted to CARFA, and the borough is waiting for their ok to proceed, expected by Oct. 17.

Monmouth County will do the easterly portion of Jones Creek  once again after the borough gets its CAFRA permit from DEP.

The borough was going out for bid this month for an EV Charging Station at 171 Bay Avenue, the parking lot where the borough hall used to be, a bit of irony in itself since it certainly wouldn’t work if the parking lot is under water,  the reason Borough Hall isn’t there now.

And the borough is waiting on the County to repair the guard rail along Portland Road

With all these projects in various stages of completion, there are still more projects planned. Including an upgrade to Frank Hall Park which will be a joint venture with the Open Space/Lions Club/Green Team looking for grants.

Plans for the Veterans Park improvements are with Engineering along with a Local Recreation grant from DCA $75,000 for funding it.

There’s another plan to create an Overlook Park on the empty lot on the highway  and more plans for an elevated walkway East  at Sea Drift Ave, a Monmouth County Open Space grant, ,another grant for design and engineering for a living shoreline and bulkhead at Veteran’s Park., seeking funding for the Snug Harbor pump and surrounding area.

On the all-important topic of  School Regionalization, the Mayor pointed out again Highlands has agreed to go to mediation on the cost haring. But now has to wait while the attorneys are negotiating who will be the mediator.

Good news in the report is the fact the borough has received $771,518 so far this year and is working on the FEMA BRIC [Building Resilient Infrastructure & Communities] grant funding for the Snug Harbor Pump station and to mitigate the runoff from Monmouth Hills. The public meeting on this project will be at the next meeting Oct. 19 r, in the meantime there are on-going discussions with Monmouth Hills HOA, State, County and Middletown officials and the promise , according to the mayor that “we look forward to working on a solution together.  The borough will enter the Community Rating System [CRS] program for lower flood insurance.

Gregory Valesi, Pe, PP, CME will be named CRS Coordinator  on Nov. 11 and the next step is  for FEMA to conduct a visit or contact the Borough to review National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) requirements.

That ‘s one heck of a comprehensive report. Too bad Highlands residents are not interested in knowing not only the bad things, but also the good things that are happening in their town

When is an author not THE author?  When she’s an American romance novelist.

Having met the brilliant British author of The Radium Girls, Kate Moore, and knowing she was coming out with a new book she couldn’t talk about at the time I met her, I was anxious and eager to read that book, “The Woman They Couldn’t Silence”  when I finally saw it advertised.

I knew the reviews  all said how spectacular it is; Kate’s Radium Girls had won dozens of awards and acclaims for her story of the women, mostly young,  who worked at the factory in Orange, NJ in the early 1940s painting the faces o watches so the numbers cold glow in the dark. No one told the girls the paint was radium and the cause of their broken bones, pains, agonies and terrible deaths.

I also knew Kate was more than a sensational author; I knew she loved theater and wrote The Radium Girls because their story was in  play and she was drawn to tell the story of the horrors of their life. I also knew she was an actress, was  an editorial director for a leading publishing company in England and had written an earlier book  published as “Roses are Red, A Book for Lovers.”

And after meeting and chatting with her, I knew she was an incredibly wonderful person with as much kindness and British sophistication as she had talent in her writing.

The library had a waiting list for the newest historical novel, so in waiting for that, I heard of two other titles by Kate Moore that were in the library, “To Tempt a Saint” and “To Seduce an Angel.”  Unusual titles, it’s true, but after the Lovers Book, I figured what the heck.

Starting to read “To Tempt a Saint,” I immediately saw Kate’s different writing style; great, an easy read, set in the 19^th century, and interesting. I marveled at Kate’s ability to be able to write in a completely different style. I didn’t know the history of the setting for the story, so I liked learning some  more about the English courtiers of the 1800s. But the book had a lot of sex and sex related interludes in it as well and I was surprised that this very proper British wonder woman could write the heartbreaking story of the Radium Girls  as well as the sex-laden story of the wealthy in England and their habits.

I wrote to Kate to tell her I had to wait for that newest book, and that I had been thinking of her on a recent trip to Ottawa, Illinois, which Kate had also visited because of the girls working in that city’s radium painting factory as well. I told her how touched I was by the statue in a park in Ottawa commemorating the Radium Girls.

Then I told her how exciting “To Tempt a Saint” was, what a great book it was, and how much I enjoyed her different writing style, even though I was still waiting for “The Women They Could not Silence.”

That’s when Kate wrote back: She referenced the time we met, when I brought Rose Penta from Highlands to chat with her when she was in New Jersey a few years ago. Rose’s mother and four aunts were among the Radum Girls Kate had written so well about and Kate wanted to talk with Rose as well.

So here I was. Praising my favorite author for a book she did not write simply because I admired the fact that she I thought she could write in two different styles. So I researched “the other “ Kate Moore.” She identifies herself as “the American Kate Moore” and does indeed write romance novels, a lot of them, though I do not know how historical they are.

In the meantime, The Woman they Could Not Silence became available at the library, and I began reading immediately.

As much as I loved The Radium Girls  possibly in part because it was about a friend’s relatives were the basis of the story, this newest novel is hands down even better!

The Woman They Could not Silence” is set in the 19^th century, Civil War era, in Illinois. Elizabeth Packard is a women married for 21 years with six children. Her husband, a preacher, had her committed to an insane asylum because he felt she talked too much, disagreed with him too much, and dared to have her own opinions!  Men could do that to their wives in the 19^th century in the United States.

But the likes of Elizabeth Packard, housed in an insane asylum or not, would not let this happen and indeed, she would not be silenced. And Kate Moore, the British wonder, tells her story with heartbreaking detail and empathy.

You have to read it!  It’s one of those books you simply can’t put down!

That American Kate Moore? She writes well and holds your interest.

But that outstanding British Kate Moore? She is simply spectacular.