Officials confident beach replenishment will be bid in fall

Written by Columb Higgins Wednesday, 29 June 2011 08:49

STRATHMERE – Just a few years after a $6 million beach replenishment project left much of Strathmere high and dry, the township is looking at another beach fill some time before next summer.

The beach fill in 2009 was the largest in Upper Township’s history, pumping 203,000 cubic yards of sand onto the state-owned natural area on the north end of Strathmere and 691,000 cubic yards on Strathmere and Whale Beach beaches. Much of the sand remains, but portions of the beaches on Strathmere’s north end have eroded due to severe coastal storms.

Strathmere resident Ted Kingston said “it’s time” for another beach replenishment project.

“The beach has been a quiet place,” he said. “There weren’t any issues in town because of the beach fill. But if you had a storm now you’d be in trouble. It’s time.”

Officials said the next beach replenishment is probably closer than residents realize. There is a meeting this week between Upper Township, Sea Isle City and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. That meeting could set a tentative time for when the next project will go out to bid, said township solicitor Dan Young.

“We’re meeting this month,” he said. “We’re confident that in August or September the project will go out to bid.”

Mayor Richard Palombo said the township has been mum about the prospects of a new beach fill because it didn’t want to raise false hopes. But he agreed a project would likely be bid in the fall.

“We’re dealing with a federal agency and a state agency,” he said. “After this meeting I think we’ll be reasonably confident saying this fall.”

Committeeman Curtis Corson said the project would then probably start after hurricane season.

“We’re going to turn that channel again,” he added.

Corson was referring to the channel that flows through Corson’s Inlet, which had drifted further and further south over the years before the 2009 beach fill turned it back north. Dr. Stuart Farrell, director of Stockton College’s Coastal Research Center and a consultant on coastal erosion for Upper Township, said before the 2009 beach fill that the channel was shaving off the beach of Strathmere’s north end.

Young said the north end homes should also benefit from the planned beach replenishment of the state park, which will be fully funded by the state.

“The state park will be even larger than what was there before,” said Young.

The township has as much as $5 million available to it from FEMA, which was authorized when storms over the past several years were declared disasters. FEMA will fund 75 percent of the project up to $5 million, officials said.

Palombo said the township will have to bond for the entire scope of the project, however, and then be paid back by FEMA.

“We’re eligible for a substantial amount of FEMA money and we’re going to use it,” he said. “That’s 75 cents on the dollar. The only thing is we have to pay for the whole project and then we get a check from FEMA.”