Smile through it all

Frederick Mueller’s House done up for the holidays.

Frederick ‘Fritz’ Mueller passed away, ending a 60-year tradition of celebrating Christmas at his home. Fritz, was the patriarch for his 16 brothers and sisters after the death of their father George Mueller. He used the family farm across Rt. 71 and the transportation hub in Newark to develop with his brothers the Mueller Flower business. Their Manasquan farm was too small, but the boys contracted greenhouses and farms in Howell, Virginia and Florida, and from the 1950s to the 1990s, Muellers was the number one US supplier of baby’s breath (gyp), to wholesale florists. They sold quick-ship cut flowers across the country. Their success allowed him to build a home in Sea Girt in 1946.

Fritz and his brothers called themselves the three jerks from Sea Girt, and Fritz shared his good fortune through generosity. When the church his father helped build, Holy Trinity Lutheran, needed repairs, he would send over a carpenter or plumber along with his donation for the supplies. Neighbors told stories at his death of how he quietly gave away $100 bills to those in town who were struggling.

He could not contain his enthusiasm, and he decorated his house for Christmas more elaborately each year. The Santa and reindeer cutouts currently displayed at the Library were from Fritz’s collection. Lines of cars drove to his house between Trenton and Washington, marked by a star on a pole each season.

Santa and his team live at the library now

Fritz only missed three years. One was during the energy crisis. In 1973, President Nixon lit a single light on the White House Christmas tree and discouraged Americans from wasting electricity on decorations. The second was in 1993 & 1994 when Mueller’s grandson was arrested and charged in an altercation with a Sea Girt policeman after a traffic stop. Hurt after all his generosity to the town over a lifetime, the Muellers contemplated leaving, but after some quiet apologies, the hatchet was buried and the displays returned until his death in 2007 at 93.

Fritz loved Sea Girt, and it was reflected in the sign he posted outside of a plot he owned at 600 Sea Girt Ave. “Smile, You’re in Sea Girt”. After his death, flags in the Borough were flown at half-staff. Council made plans to replicate the Smile sign as a permanent fixture on the Plaza green, and in their spirit of generosity, the Mueller family donated it.

The Borough replicated Fritz sign. A lovely donation by the Mueller Family

The public works and beach department had a problem in 2007. A baby plover was found in the spoils from the beach rake.

A plover pair was being monitored in the nesting area. Nancy McLearie Heyduk was at the nest on a Sunday night in June, shortly after at least two eggs had hatched. On Monday morning, she was concerned when she could not find the adults or the babies, and the beach was freshly raked. This was unusual as the parents use the sand from the nest to run to the shoreline to feed, and Sea Girt left this beach ungroomed.

When she searched the trash from the beach rake, there was a dead day-old plover chick. Councilman Bogan, Jim Freda, and the public works crew were devastated. The NJDEP and the Fish and Wildlife Service started an investigation. The adult plovers were gone, and there was no sign of chick number two. While there was no evidence that the rake killed the bird, the managers all knew raking the beach in that area violated their permits. Investigators were called in.

The reaction was swift. The DEP and FWS hit Sea Girt with initial fines of $25,000 and $28,000. If they could prove the entire family was killed, regulators promised additional fines. Lawyers were hired, as angry regulators threatened that they had the power to close the beach from Wreck Pond to the Guard Camp if necessary.

The Beach Committee instructed police to crack down on intrusions into the dunes. Kids playing ball of any kind, or attempting to fly kites, were ticketed or chased off the sand. Eating a sandwich was enough to get you banned. No explanation for the enhanced enforcement was given. No one could discuss the pending litigation.

The penalties against the borough climbed to $78,000 for the incident.

Sea Girt needed to develop a comprehensive management and protection plan for endangered and threatened birds and plants. Any activity other than sitting on the beach, walking, or fishing in the sensitive areas was banned. The town spent $178,000 on lawyers’ fees, and it took three years to reach a settlement. The fines were knocked down to $12,500, but the cost of training and supervision rose.