“We got a bad influx of drug dealing,” Dunlap says. “We had an abandoned building that a drug gang had set up a crack house in. So they were cooking and making and selling out of this building. We also had difficulty with not enough street lights, which exacerbated the other problem. And we had a pretty non-responsive police department.”

The new organization sought support from other local groups, and in time, he says, “good things started to happen.” Now, as president of the Home Owners Association, Dunlap wants to reach out in a similar way to a variety of organizations.

One of the first groups he approached was the Ocean Grove Area Chamber of Commerce, whose relationship with the Home Owners had been frosty for several years. The two groups had clashed over a proposal by the Chamber to expand the commercial area along Main Avenue. The Home Owners strenuously opposed any such expansion, and the ensuing struggle left hurt feelings on both sides. (In the end, the Chamber’s proposed zoning change was not adopted.)

By the time Dunlap became Home Owners president, the leadership of the Chamber had also changed. Dunlap decided to extend a hand of friendship to that body’s new president, Valerie Hegarty.

“I just went and knocked on her door,” he says. “I introduced myself, and her first response to me was, ‘Oh, I’ve been wanting to talk to you.’ ” He attended one of the Chamber’s meetings and made his pitch for better relations. Soon thereafter, Hegarty joined the Home Owners Association. Dunlap introduced her at the next meeting and made another public pitch for détente.

Dunlap says he hopes to have similar meetings of the mind with the Camp Meeting Association, Ocean Grove United, the Historical Society and any other groups he can think of. “The idea that I really want to work on is, we’re neighbors first,” he says. “I like that phrase. We’re not going to agree on everything, but we all have common interests, and if we can start identifying those common interests, things will evolve naturally.”

Dunlap’s desire for broader alliances is partly based on a fear that Ocean Grove’s political clout weakens as more homes are bought by part-time residents who do not vote here. “If you look at the last couple of elections, and you look at the number of votes that came out of Ocean Grove, it’s declining,” he says. “And the Home Owners Association, I believe, is only as powerful as the number of votes we can influence.”

The argument, then, is that when an issue arises around which several local groups can unite to speak as one, our voice can be stronger than when we speak alone. Developing more mutual trust is an important first step. But the real work lies in identifying our common interests. That way, when the moment for action comes, we’ll be ready.

This principle also applies more broadly. Dunlap wants to establish ties with neighborhood groups outside Ocean Grove, such as the Old Corlies Avenue Preservation Alliance, the Shark River Hills Home Owners and a new group that has just sprung up in Bradley Park.
“I know there are some folks outside Ocean Grove that look upon Ocean Grove as kind of uppity, spoiled, and they think we get everything we want. That’s not the reality but that’s the perception,” he says. “That’s another reason why I think we have to reach outside the gates.”

At the end of our conversation, with the coffee growing cold, I asked Dunlap how he’d like the Home Owners Association to be when his time as president ends.

“I would be thrilled to walk away from an organization that is still talking to every other organization in town,” he said. “And that what Ocean Grove is to most people who live here remains – that it’s quaint, it’s manageable, it’s not overdeveloped, it has still a very diverse population of religions and beliefs and orientations.

“If it remains like that and doesn’t get too overdeveloped,” he said, “I’d be happy.”