Dear Manville Community Partners,
As you know, Blue Acres planned an in-person information session for Manville homeowners on Wednesday September 20th. The meeting was designed to give homeowners the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Blue Acres staff, partners from DCA’s Ida recovery programs (including Navicore, DCA’s contracted housing counseling services), and representatives from a long-term disaster recovery group. The goal was to provide guidance and resources specifically to Manville homeowners interested in a voluntary buyout following the State’s recent designation of several Risk Reduction Areas in Manville Borough. Late Wednesday afternoon, State representatives learned that the event was inappropriately promoted to a much wider audience, which was not the meeting’s intention. Large crowds negate the personalized approach that the meeting was designed to foster and recent upticks in positive COVID cases has led organizers to question the appropriateness of a large in person gathering.
Blue Acres will be rescheduling and reformatting the September 20th event. Nevertheless, the purpose of the event will remain the same: provide Manville homeowners with the personalized guidance and information that they seek to consider participation in a voluntary buyout and to be connected directly with long-term disaster recovery resources that meet homeowner’s specific needs.
Blue Acre information sessions will occur online with two date options to best accommodate homeowners’ schedules:
- Thursday, October 5, 5:30pm-7:30pm
- Tuesday, October 10, 5:30pm-7:30pm
Blue Acres will share a registration link with designated event partners and homeowners. Blue Acres will ask homeowners to register by October 2nd, 2023, to attend one of the two virtual sessions. These virtual meeting events will utilize breakout room functionality informed by registration data to allow attendees to speak one-on-one with program representatives and resources providers.
As always, the Blue Acres team is more than happy to respond to questions outside of formal, scheduled events, and Blue Acres invites homeowners to reach out via email at BlueAcres@dep.nj.gov or via phone at (609) 940-4140 to arrange those conversations.
Blue Acres Program
Office of Climate Resilience
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Trenton, NJ 08625-0420
https://dep.nj.gov/blueacres/