Township still calculating sand loss from storm, gets $29,000 dividend check
PETERSBURG — Township officials and members of the Strathmere Fishing and Environmental Club gathered Oct. 24 at Bayview Avenue and the boat ramp to break ground on the living shoreline project.
“It’s a wonderful partnership and it was done single-handedly by the Fishing and Environmental Club and the township facilitated a grant with a partnership and it’s worked out well. It’s just a fine example of private sector and public sector working hand in hand to accomplish a great goal,” Mayor Curtis Corson said Oct. 26.
The SFEC received a $915,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to facilitate the construction, which aims to alleviate erosion south of the boat ramp.
Calling it a “fantastic event,” Township Administrator Jimmy Van Zlike noted that the township has submitted documentation for phase two of the grant, seeking an additional $1.8 million of federal funds to extend the project’s scope.
“Private-public partnership is how we get things done and this is going to be money well-deserved to add resilience to our coastline,” he said.
Island resident Alice March thanked Township Committee for facilitating the project.
“That was a great community event and it’s great to see that we’re working together to make sure that the wetlands do not disintegrate,” she said.
Beach erosion
Van Zlike said the township still is trying to accurately calculate the loss of sand from the nor’easter in late September, which wiped out some of the sand placed during a beach replenishment project over the summer.
It is “an effort to piggyback on a Gov. (Mikie) Sherrill initiative, which is seeking assistance through the Army Corps of Engineers, and asking them to do supplemental disaster funds to restore beaches to pre-nor’easter conditions,” he said.
Just weeks after a beach-replenishment project wrapped up in the island community of Strathmere, a major nor’easter battered the region Sept. 25-27 during a full moon, generating astronomical high tides and strong winds that led to flooding and erosion.
Van Zlike said Oct. 13 that the township was working in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Protection and Stockton University’s Coastal Research Center to quantify the loss of sand during the storm.
Sherrill has requested expedited emergency federal assistance to repair and restore beaches in eight Army Corps of Engineers project areas that were severely damaged during the nor’easter that hammered the state late last month.
The administration specifically requests the Army Corps to provide emergency assistance for seven Coastal Storm Risk Management Project areas under the purview of the Philadelphia District and for one Coastal Storm Risk Management Project area under the purview of the New York District.
A post-storm assessment by the DEP’s Office of Coastal Engineering noted that while many beaches withstood the impacts of the nor’easter, the storm left many areas with heavily sloped erosion, exposed groins (coastal protection structures constructed perpendicular to beaches) and increased wave run-up frequency to upper beaches, seawalls and/or dunes.
Dividend check
CFO Barbara Ludy reported the township is set to receive a $29,699 dividend check from the Joint Insurance Fund. She said the township can use the money in a number of ways, including putting it toward next year’s insurance premium or adding it to the aggregate excess loss contingency fund.
Ludy said the latter is what has been done in the past, noting the fund has about $218,000 in it.
“I would recommend we do that again this year,” she said.
Corson said it is important to keep money in the fund, noting “we do have a couple of things that are pending.”
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
