Dozens gather to bid adieu to iconic symbol of home
BEESLEYS POINT — Wind in her hair, mud on her shoes and a can of spray paint in her hand, Cheryl Kreutz welcomed Jack and Lauren Smith to the former power plant site Saturday to put their mark on the iconic smokestack ahead of its demolition Oct. 26.
The children’s father, Mark Smith, a lifelong Upper Township resident, was looking up from the base of the stack, wondering at its height.
“It’s progress, I guess,” Smith said of the impending implosion of the iconic concrete stack, which has stood as a beacon marking home for Cape May County residents for the past 40 years.
The demolition, set for 10 a.m. Thursday, symbolically marks a transition at the property from polluted industrial site to a blank slate where the Beesley’s Point Development Group envisions a marina, hotel, restaurant and retail shops, along with housing and an extensive natural element open to the public.
The site was home to the B.L. England Generating Station, which provided jobs, electricity and enormous tax incentives to the township for decades until it closed.
“The first order of business is getting the site clean and flat, and this is part of that,” BPDG partner David Kreutz said. “Once that stack is down, once it’s crushed, this entire site will be cleaned up. That’s the next step in moving forward with what the development is going to be.”
Dozens gathered on a wet and windy morning for a smokestack sayonara of sorts, during which the public was invited to make their mark on the structure.
“I plan to sign it ‘Marmora Volunteer Fire Company’ to honor all of the times we were down here,” said Mayor Jay Newman, chief of the Marmora Volunteer Fire Company.
Talia Frisco of Oceanview put a painted handprint on the tower.
Frank Donato, Ocean City Emergency Management coordinator, was there with daughters Mia, 11, and Tessa, 10, along with niece Caden, 5, to sign the stack, while Stephanie Hauck of Ventnor brought daughter Penelope, 3.
Beesleys Point residents Taylor and Kristen Hadley brought sons Jude, 3, and Ezra, 2, who were decked out in pint-sized hardhats. Taylor Hadley’s grandfather Phil DuBruille was a foreman during the stack’s construction.
Sorry to see it go
Kreutz said the day was emotional for some people.
“A lot of people are sad to see the stack go and a lot of people are really happy to see the stack go, so it’s kind of a mixture,” he said. “This is obviously very cool to be standing here next to the stack before it gets blown up.”
Standing on her tippy-toes, trying to write her name more than 5 feet high, Margie Barham was among those sorry to see it go. She has been painting scenes of the smokestack in multiple mediums for years.
“I just think it’s beautiful against the sunrise, sunset, clouds,” Barham said. “I’m going to miss it. I think it’s nice when you are riding anywhere, even if you’re on the Expressway you see it in the distance. I live in Beesleys Point, so I know that’s home,” she said, adding that she hopes the developers include something iconic in their design to replace it.
Mike and Holly Bolicki moved to nearby Highland Avenue in 1983 and witnessed construction of the stack, which replaced three shorter stacks still on the property.
“We saw the three smoke stacks originally and we saw it slowly gradually build up, around 1985,” Mike Bolicki said. “We saw the concrete being poured in slowly, slowly up to where it is now.”
Mike Bolicki was among those who will miss it.
“The power plant was such a benefit to the community when it first opened up, and the golf course and the pool, the softball field,” he said.
“We held birthday parties here at the pool,” his wife added.
“I’m not happy to see it go, it’s a lighthouse,” Mike Bolicki said, noting its crown was designed to resemble the navigational aid.
He said Cape May County had two lighthouses, one at the beginning in Beesleys Point and one at the end in Cape May Point.
“This was a welcome signal,” he said.
Others, such as Andrew Shawl, Jeff Galupo and Tom Engle, former longtime plant employees, were reminiscing about hours, days, weeks and years working there. Engle also lamented the loss of the aid to navigation.
“It’s sort of sad because we use it for navigating when coming back from fishing. Hopefully they get this all cleaned up and make something worthwhile out of it so everybody can enjoy it,” Engle said, noting he spent many days working atop the smokestack.
A new beginning
Newman called the smokestack “the last of the iconic symbols.”
“It’s going to be an interesting day,” he said of Thursday, when the stack will come down, noting he is “old enough to remember when it wasn’t here.”
The mayor said the demolition marks a new beginning.
“It’s the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end,” Newman said. “I think it’s going to work out and we are really looking forward to working with Beesley’s Point Development Group to get something in here that will be beneficial to the township and the community.”
BPDG founder Chris Wilson called the demolition “the last step of the plant but the first step in the waterfront coming back.”
“This is as an exciting event as we have had since we got the property. Everybody recognizes the tower as the recognizable landmark for the site, so this coming down is just as exciting as can be,” Wilson said.
He credited former longtime township mayor Rich Palombo with facilitating the site’s redevelopment.
“His vision of what he wanted to see just by happenstance aligned perfectly with what we saw here, and that opened the door for what proved to be a fantastic opportunity,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s company ERS Investments specializes in brownfield remediation.
“Development as an overall rule is about what you see occupying something that’s different. You have to have a vision and then go and figure out how much money it’s going to cost you to get there, what has to be done and what hurdles you have to get over,” he said. “It’s such a long path, very onerous, a heavy lift. This is the part of the process that it most exciting.”
Demolition set
Controlled Demolition Inc. has drilled dozens of holes in the exterior of the stack that workers will fill with explosives before a chain-link fence is wrapped around it to reduce rubble spread.
“Everything is right on schedule. These guys are the best at what they do and everything will come off without a hitch,” Kreutz said, noting it should fall toward the three older smokestacks.
Newman said all of the emergency preparations are in place, noting they have experience from the previous implosion of the cooling tower and boiler units.
“This is going to be the third implosion they have had. The first one was a little more involved because we had never dealt with that before,” Newman said.
Before the cooling tower was imploded in fall 2022, Marmora Volunteer Fire Company Deputy Chief Russell Barham attended meetings with the Controlled Demolition to “figure out how we were going to do this,” Newman said.
“The second time it went a little bit smoother. We don’t expect any problems. We are basically using the same plan, same notifications, the same personnel will be here and everybody knows what’s going on,” he said. “We will be here and ready to go.”
Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian noted the demolition in his weekly newsletter.
“In preparation for the demolition, Atlantic City Electric is planning a brief service interruption that will affect areas of Ocean City for up to 10 minutes between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 25,” he wrote. “The implosion on Thursday will be heard from Ocean City. Please know that this event is planned and controlled, and it will pose no risk to the safety of anybody in town.”
He said another brief service outage is planned for Wednesday, Nov. 1.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
