Ventnor wants to rebuild the town’s aging boardwalk. The cost to replace the 1.7 miles of wooden walkway would be $26 million.
How would it be paid for?
Ventnor has applied for funding from something called the ‘NJ Boardwalk Preservation Fund’.
Ventnor could pay approx 10% of the total bill of $26mil.
Watch video from Nov. 9, 2023 Ventnor Commission:
Most of the Ventnor boardwalk was destroyed back in 1963 after the Storm of 1962, a fierce nor’easter. Longport lost most of their boardwalk too.
Ventnor has submitted plans to reconstruct their boardwalk that stretches from Jackson Ave in Atlantic City to Fredericksburg Ave in Margate.
The State of New Jersey is evaluating applications now, says grant guru, Jim Rutala.
Should have a decision by late December or early January 2024.
American Recovery Funds. Ventnor has to use it, or lose it.
Editors note: If only Margate had access to those funds. Imagine extending the Ventnor Boardwalk to the Margate Fishing Pier.
Obvious question….Why does Ventnor need a new boardwalk besides always needing repair and doesn’t feel wide enough at times? What improvements does a new boardwalk bring to the community? I’m not objecting or promoting just asking since I didn’t know this was a thing.
The boardwalk looks good; how about the Dorset Bridge? That certainly needs to be updated!!
Just because it “looks good” doesn’t mean it’s structurally sound or doesn’t have issues that aren’t visible on the top side. Have no idea whether it is or isn’t.
As long as my taxes won’t go up and it doesn’t impede on our summer. I think we need to have professional landscaping on Ventnor & Atlantic Avenue to beautify these streets. Margate has those beautiful poles with the hanging flower baskets. IMHO
It’s a Nj State Bridge nothing to do with Township, other than it being a safety issue for health issues!
If Ventnor City would actually maintain the boardwalk by replacing rotted planks they would not need a new one.
Other than there may be structural/foundational issues as well?
Yes, it’s somewhat scary to walk Ventnor boardwalk with speeding bike riders and ebikes. Riders think they have the right of way and make walkers jump out of there way with the fear of getting ran over.
Dog walkers are not cleaning up their dog’s pooh. Please enforce any and all violations to make the boardwalk enjoyable for everyone! Thank you for listening.
Would like them to maybe put LED lights under the ventnor Peir. Think it would look very sharp in the summer all white and during the holidays with holiday colors. Just a suggestion.
The boardwalk is sinking in some parts. Crews should not drive heavy trucks on it. What a dream to have it extend to margate! Would solve the crowing problem. But I can’t imagine the construction phase!
Margate should extend Ventnor Boardwalk from Fredricksburg Ave to Margate Fishing Pier.
Margate voted against a boardwalk on their ballot a couple years ago
It was pretty obvious a couple of years ago that Margate doesn’t want a boardwalk. Let’s leave them out of this discussion as their question was put to a referendum and failed. While I personally would like to see it, it’s not our choice. We still have democratic government in this country.
I would love to see a more accessible handicap access to the beach at S Newark. Is there anyway that can be incorporated in their plan?
Did I miss the news about the boardwalk needing any repair all? What minor or major repair was reported? Now I see in the news taxpayer money to fund a new boardwalk.
I think it would be more worthwhile to make the beach lots more accessible and hire more lifeguards. At Vassar many are in need of an easier path to the beach with a mat at least halfway down. Do we need a new Boardwalk? It seems fine in most places unless it is structurally unsound. Is their a report on that?
Structurally unsound? Heavy public works vehicles on it everyday. Just a case of taking money from the people irresponsibly. Not their money so why care?
Would like to see outdoor showers at more boardwalk locations so beach goers could wash off the sand from their bodies and chairs before walking or biking or gettin in their cars to go home.
new boardwalk would be great, current one stinks
Seems like a waste of money for Ventnor. Huge missed opportunity for Margate. DownbeachBuzz should investigate further.
Article says Ventnor will pay 10% of $26 Million cost, and most of boardwalk was built in ‘63. The original boards have all been replaced by now, but is 60 years the life expectancy of the pilings and timbers beneath?
If it’s really 100 years, why do this now?
If Margate voters who voted “no” to a Margate boardwalk had the opportunity for a do-over with this new info that others will foot 90% of the cost, would that flip the outcome in favor of a Margate boardwalk?
As a Ventnor resident with lot of friends in Margate who voted “no” but regularly walk and bike on the Ventnor boardwalk, I’d love more info here.
If the facts really are as the initially seem, I’d like to see Ventnor do some minor repairs to their beautiful existing boardwalk and Margate revisit extending the boardwalk for the benefit of all at 90% off.
Why are Ventnor officials aware of these funds while Margate is seemingly asleep at the wheel?
Seems like a once in a lifetime missed opportunity. DownbeachBuzz: please dig further!
The funds are for the PRESERVATION of existing boardwalks. Not creation of new ones in other towns. So Margate wouldn’t be able to use these funds, despite your verbose protestations. Margate would have to foot the entire bill, which was what the voters rejected a few years ago. READ.
These funds are coming from the American Rescue Plan, which passed in early ‘21 and had no stipulation that it could only be used for replacements. Savvy municipalities lobby at the state level for legislation to their benefit. Thus the missed opportunity.
Don’t just read. THINK and expect more.
The stipulation is that funds are used for infrastructure or repair – neither of which the extension of the Ventnor boardwalk into Margate would be. While a good idea in concept, that’s not what the American Rescue Plan will fund.
With lumber prices WAYYYY down, Margate should build boardwalk from Ventnor border to Margate fishing pier, (where taxpayer funds were used to extend that PRIVATE pier). The Amherst ‘promenade’ was also a taxpayer funded project that primarily helps private business owners along Amherst.
I believe boardwalks do qualify as infrastructure. Here’s an article about their being reclassified as highways in 2021:
https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2021/05/njs-aging-boardwalks-public-highways-transportation-trust-fund-ttf/
The boardwalk Preservation Fund provides examples of eligible projects. One of them is “expanding an existing section of boardwalk”. Who says connecting the existing Ventnor boardwalk to the existing Margate fishing pier is not exactly that?
Even if Margate missed the opportunity to utilize American Rescue Plan funds, I believe there are still funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act that came after.
These are significant changes since the Margate boardwalk referendum. New ballgame.
It’s a different municipality, not extending a boardwalk in the same one. The same new municipality that rejected it a couple of years ago.
Unless the cost is not going to reflect a tax increase, I’m not interested in redoing the Boardwalk. I can barely pay the taxes, water & sewer bills now. And I live here full time since 1999. I truly wish the Commissioners would consider Widow/Widowers and disabled who live on extremely low incomes and how it would affect them before worrying about beautifying the boardwalk. People like me do everything to stay in our homes and fret every month that they might have to give up their homes because it’s so expensive to live in Ventnor these days.
Sorry for your plight but you’re wrongly assuming the funds for Ventnor are for “beautifying” the boardwalk. It’s for necessary maintenance and repairs, both to what’s visible planks and rails) and what’s not (the underside and supports).
If you look carefully at the boardwalk when it is not crowded you can see it is beginning to have noticable swales – there are dips every few blocks which are worsening. Look at the handrails where it is most noticable. Also the wood holding up the lamp posts is rotting away, which is why one fell over south of the pier not long ago. Could have killed someone.
Maintenance is needed.
No surprises. When you walk or bike our Boards, notice the greenery that springs up between the planks in many areas, indicating that the sand has risen to that point underneath. So the wood stays wet longer and doesn’t dry. In a meeting years ago, then-mayor Kreischer declared that the Boardwalk would be replaced, using hardwood from South America. Shocking to know that Ventnor is contributing to the decimation of the Rain Forest. Anyone investigated using Trex or similar instead (like Asbury Park?)
The sand doesn’t have to be all the way up to the level of the boardwalk for the top of vegetation to go through.
All of South America isn’t rainforest. Trex brings with it a lot of microparticulate and plastic waste to at certainly is no environmental bargain.
The article speculated a decision would be made some time in December 2023 or January 2024. Now it’s mid February 2024. Any update on revised expected decision date ?