That's the last time I end a column (as I did six weeks ago) with a naive statement like, "Here's hoping for a quiet October..."

As you hopefully know, this past (and overly eventful) month ended with the signing of the Redeveloper's Agreement, which means that we are another giant step along the way towards revitalizing our neglected beachfront and, consequently, finding the revenue to restore the rest of our city, as well.

Asbury Partners, our master redeveloper, has now officially purchased our deteriorated beachfront pavilions for restoration, and their $3.5 million payment will ensure we have a balanced budget for 2002.

And, while this seems like a great time for a soda and cookie break (at least to me), we still have several major challenges facing us in coming weeks:

1. Subdeveloper Qualification. Asbury Partners will soon introduce the City Council (acting as the city's redevelopment agency) to the companies interested in developing our three "fast track" beach properties - the old Monterey Hotel site north of the Berkeley Carteret Hotel, the vacant land along Wesley Lake, and the C-8 high-rise site - and we'll need to ensure that the right experts evaluate these proposed subdevelopers based on the financial and technical criteria described in the Redeveloper's Agreement.

2. Technical Review Committee (TRC). Once the first subdevelopers are confirmed, they'll need to submit their building plans to the city's Planning Board and to the TRC, a new advisory arm of the Planning Board that will include an architect, planner, Planning Board president Ben Schneider, Council and Planning Board member John Loffredo, the city engineer, two state representatives, and one appointee of the redeveloper.

The TRC and Planning Board will ensure that the proposed building designs meet the criteria described in the June Redevelopment Plan and the October Redeveloper's Agreement, and they will make recommendations to the City Council, which has the final vote on all proposed designs.

It is now up to the Council is to select the TRC architect and planner, who will be compensated through escrow fees paid by the subdevelopers.

3. Redeveloper's Voluntary Contribution. Asbury Partners has pledged $7 million to the city over the next several years, to be used for affordable housing and community development projects.

The first $1 million will be deposited within the next six months, and the City Council now has the enviable but daunting task of developing guidelines to ensure that this substantial nest egg will do the most good for our community.

4. Senior Center. Asbury Park's Senior Center is located in the leaky and non-handicapped-accessible southern pavilion and, over the next 7 months, we'll be working on the hopefully happy task of identifying a comfortable new home with better programs to attract more seniors from every corner of the city.

5. City Manager. The city manager position is the most critical and powerful one in our form of government, and our massive redevelopment plans make it vital that we attract a beyond-average candidate. The Council will begin advertising the position through outlets like the NJ League of Municipalities, the NJ Municipal Management Association, the Asbury Park Press, the Star-Ledger, and the New York Times, and we are networking with other towns and organizations to find the ideal candidate.

6. And a Few Dozen Other Major Details.... What else is immediately facing us? Before the first shovel goes in the ground, our redevelopers must receive all necessary state permits, and the city is assisting in this substantial effort. Our dilapidated boardwalk is scheduled to be rebuilt in the coming year, and we'll need to review the plans and agree on specifications for new lighting, benches, gazebos, and a boardwalk-level bandshell.

Most critically, we'll also begin discussing the Workable Relocation Assistance Plan (WRAP) - the detailed, state-approved document that will ensure that displaced residents or business owners in the beachfront redevelopment area are relocated to equal or better quarters. And we'll need to approve the detailed rules for the "payments in lieu of taxes" (PILOTs) described in the Redeveloper's Agreement.

7. Beyond the Beachfront. Even without the twin challenges of finding a new city manager and kicking off beachfront redevelopment (and it's my feeling that we'll need a full-time redevelopment manager in coming years), the next several months will be busy ones, by any town's standards.

The 2003 budget-planning process is already beginning (again?), and we need to take the next steps on the STARS redevelopment plan, the scattered sites redevelopment plan, and the downtown redevelopment plan. (And, yes, as a downtown building owner, I cannot discuss or vote on the downtown proposal, which means you'll see me sitting in the audience biting my tongue during public discussions.)

And, realistically, I expect additional arrests in the FBI corruption probe that is spreading across several Monmouth County towns. Does the publicity surrounding these arrests concern me?

As much as I obviously regret the timing, I still firmly believe that this investigation is the best insurance we have that our beachfront plan will be carried out in an above-board manner and that no one will divert our recovery - or the millions of dollars in tempting revenue that will now flow through our city - in a dishonorable way.

And, hopefully, the message will finally be clear: It's no longer "business as usual" in Asbury Park.

Probably the sagest opinion on our impending redevelopment came from Mayor Kevin Sanders on the night we approved the Redeveloper's Agreement.

Kevin noted that this redevelopment will be exactly what we expect it to be. If we want to surrender to gloom, doom, and suspicion, then Asbury Park will still be a pretty sad place in another 10 years.

But if we believe that the universe has given us a truly amazing opportunity, and we work together to make the absolute most of it, then people will be writing about this as the "Golden Age of Asbury Park" in another 100 years.

A few weeks ago, I was filling my parents in on Dave's and my latest adventures in Asbury Park, with the careful editing that daughters use to provoke parental sympathy, rather than hysteria or admonitions.

When I finished my tales of adventure and woe, there was a long silence on the line.

"You know," my father finally said, in a statement that echoes my secret sentiments about Asbury Park, "I hope you two never become normal."

I guess he isn't holding out hope for a quiet November either.