Jolly Roger Motel in the Holgate section of Long Beach Island (credit: Peter Haskell / WCBS 880)Jolly Roger Motel in the Holgate section of Long Beach Island (credit: Peter Haskell / WCBS 880)
LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – In Holgate, the hardest hit part of Long Beach Island, a woman is racing against time to reopen a motel and save her family’s business.
“What you’re standing on used to be a 12 foot clearance and now it’s probably six and a half foot,” Judy Lobrutto told WCBS 880’s Peter Haskell as they stood in the basement of the Jolly Roger Motel.
“We’re up at 5 and we are probably asleep by 8:30 at night, but there’s not much stopping in between,” she said.
The effort is a tribute to her parents. They owned this place for 42 years.
“I want to continue their dream. I want to live up to their dream,” she said. “This is my family’s business. This was their passion. This was their love. I have got to honor what they worked so hard [for] and I benefited from.”
With her mother sick and her father having died, Lobrutto quit her corporate job in Atlanta to run the business.