Just in time for Summer Season 2017: the dreaded Downbeach dune building project. It’s back in primetime.
On May 2, the Army Corp of Engineers, DEP, Gov. Christie & Congressman Lobiondo announced for a 3rd time, the dune build schedule for Margate & Ventnor has changed. This time, it’s worse. Much worse.
Dune work begins next week in Atlantic City, where they really need and want it. The portion of the Absecon Island project is closer to the inlet, in front of REVEL & Showboat. Most of those beaches are literally gone. So, we’re cool with that. But we absolutely loathe what comes next.
Starting June 8, Ventnor sunbathers & summertime visitors will share their beach towels with hard hats operating an array of diesel dredgers, pumps and bulldozers. Yuck.
Environmental disruption. Sweeping back the ocean with a broom. An expensive, mis-diagnosed, band-aid solution to a chronic problem. 1,000 feet at a time, 24 hrs a day.
Ventnor will get royally hosed with dune work from June 8 to July 12.
This is why the current administration wants to kill these kinds of federal & state agencies. They do more harm than good.
Dredging & dune building. A perfectly hideous sideshow as you enjoy the 4th of July festivities in Ventnor.
The Margate dune nightmare will begin by July 15. Lucy will get an Elephant’s eye view of the mess from Mid-July through til the end of September.
By Oct 1st, dune dollars will finally reach Longport, a town that really wants them.
These Sandy Relief tax dollars will protect Longport multi-million dollar homes riskily built on shifting sands that Mother Nature regularly hammers.
Ventnor, Margate and Longport will get 100-foot-wide beaches and 13 ft dunes.
The State of NJ thinks engineered beaches and dunes make shore towns like Margate & Ventnor more resilient to storms and flooding. That’s just not true.
We think it’s a simple case of ‘use it.. or lose it’. If this chunk of Hurricane Sandy relief cash isn’t spent, it goes back into the bucket for some other needy state to use.
Everybody knows, except for our NJ state agencies, that back-bay surge is the real culprit in regular Absecon Island flooding. It’s always been that way.
Crashing waves from the ocean side, that do real damage, is a rare occurrence. The last time the Ventnor’s boardwalk was damaged was way back in 1962.
Is this multi-million dollar dune spend an epic waste of taxpayer money? Most think so. In the long run, it could actually HURT real estate values and economic growth along the Jersey shore.
Even die hard Gov. Christie supporters are shaking their heads over this one. Some call this ‘Bridge-Gate By The Sea’.
Christie wing-man; Congressman LoBiondo, is gonna feel the heat too. Big Frank has been pushing for this dopey dune spend since 2013. A project that will have direct, negative consequences for Downbeach restaurants, attractions, rental and real estate business.
As a related aside, LoBiondo is also facing flack from those who make a living from fishing & boating. On May 11, Frank will passively watch as insanely restrictive rules & regulations regarding summer flounder, go into effect. You’ll need to catch an elusive 19-incher if you wanna take home dinner. Did you know fishing is part of NJ’s 2nd largest industry?
Note: Dredging has good uses, like when it opens critical channels & waterways. But dredging also has severe environment downsides too. It can have detrimental effect on clam, crab and fishing eco-systems.
Dredging also kicks up toxic sediment that settles and gets buried just beneath the ocean floor.
As we, and many others see it, Congressman LoBiondo is not protecting the best interests of coastal South Jersey as he should. Again, even die-hard SJ Republicans can’t believe how our elected representatives are dropping the ball. No if, ands or buts. This is a major fail.
If Congressman Frank LoBiondo runs again for the __th time, he’ll have a much tougher time retaining his seat. Actually, we kinda forget how long Frank’s been in office, but we do remember he supported term limits.
Getting back to the dune issue….. Atlantic City boardwalkers haven’t seen the beach & surf for decades. What an economy killing travesty for those struggling small business adjacent to the Boardwalk. But sand mountains were a strategic, competition killing slam dunk for the casinos.
Starting by mid-May, AC will get 200-foot-wide beaches, also known as ‘berms’….which is a great idea. Too bad those berms come attached to mountainous, 15 ft dunes pumped onto the beaches of Atlantic City.
Atlantic City can thank the under-assessed casinos for those foolish dunes. Mountains of sand that effectively kill off tourist-friendly views from the world famous Boardwalk.
If you owned an Atlantic City casino, would YOU want potential gamblers enjoying attractions, food & beverage that WASN’T connected to your casino?
Casino moguls know it’s much better to have visitors drop quarters in the slots, than enjoy a picturesque stroll along the boards…and possibly buy something from a non-casino business.
Tourists don’t come to AC to sit behind manmade berms. There are plenty of other resorts that have managed to survive without these things some in NJ. The State and the Feds could widen the beaches and maintain them and back these widen beaches with sea walls /bulkheads like in Cape May and Ocean City MD Virgina beach etc. Even Ocean City , NJ didn’t go for view destroying manmade dunes. Only in AC where the leadership if you want to call it that doesn’t even understand the reason the town exists in the first place and has allowed this farce to continue. If that wasn’t bad enough they had to also heap hypocrisy and greed / corruption on top of all of this by allowing the Casinos to build permanent bars on top of the Federal project. Was this even legal? They could care less they just did it. Margate voted twice to stay out of the Project to no avail. For 17 yrs. the State and the Feds. just kept moving the goal posts until they decided to just smash and grab what they wanted from Margate.