Beach Haven Emergency Operations Center’s West Avenue parking lot closed to vehicular traffic for remainder of summer

The process to resheathe the dilapidated bulkhead in front of Beach Haven’s Emergency Operations Center began Monday, July 7, closing off the West Avenue parking lot entrance to vehicular traffic for the duration of the summer. The entrance is still open to pedestrians, but cars should be parked on the street.

Another entrance has been prepared off Pelham Avenue, around the back of the building, where vehicles may also be parked.

The $303,492 project led by KG Marine Contracting of Manahawkin is expected to take no more than two months to complete, said Richard Crane, borough manager.

Photo via Google
Repairs are being made to the bulkhead in front of
the former Coast Guard station in Beach Haven.

“We realize it might be a little bit of an inconvenience for the public that wants to come see us. However, due to health and safety concerns, we think it’s a priority to get it done,” he said.

The soil underneath the bulkhead is “literally going out into the bay. There are literally holes in the bulkhead. It’s undermining the entire area there,” Crane explained. “Quite honestly it’s only been over the last six to eight months where the asphalt out front has just gotten horrendous. Personally I don’t even park my car out there anymore,” he added.

The General Services Administration, which oversees surplus properties for the federal government, which the former Coast Guard station was, had noted the bulkhead was in need of repair when officials inspected the building three years ago. Superstorm Sandy created further damage.

Due to GSA regulations, the bulkhead must be repaired in order for the borough to occupy the site. Town officials would like to have the protective repairs finished by September, when the GSA is required to again inspect the location.

“We don’t know how much damage has been done to (the bulkhead) over the years. The asphalt in front of it has become undermined; we’re not really sure how far back that goes,” said Crane.

Although parking will be limited throughout the length of the project, the borough manager said it would most likely pose a problem only on court days. Court days during the summertime are held twice a month. This summer, municipal court will be held on Mondays: July 7 and 21; Aug. 4 and 18; and Sept. 8 and 15.

“We do get quite a volume of people during our summer court. Those are our most active months because that’s when most people are here,” Crane said. “There’s a great deal of traffic violations, court violations, those sort of things, that come to court. The deeper we get into the summer is where more and more things get generated by our police department.”

The municipal court was brought to the emergency operations center in January, after having been relocated to Harvey Cedars for about a year. The entire operations of borough hall had to be relocated after the building was severely damaged by Sandy.

“Our full intent always was to bring (the court) back down here,” said Crane. “We had to do certain things in addition to the courtroom itself and also to the court administrator’s office. She has a bulletproof door. There’s all kind of things that the state offices of the courts require,” he explained.

Plans to reconstruct the borough hall, located at Bay and Engleside avenues, are still “up in the air. We got good news, but the good news actually kind of puts some plans on hold,” said Crane.

Although the borough did not make the first cut for the Stronger NJ Neighborhood and Community Revitalization Program grant, which local officials applied for in the springtime to help rebuild the municipal building, Crane said the town was notified that it is currently number one on the list. Even though priority was given to towns and organizations that service low- to moderate-income populations, a total of $25 million from the original $50 million grant is still available.

“We’re very hopeful that we can get that grant funding to either partially fund or completely fund a new borough hall. So obviously we’re going to hold off on doing any kind of repairs if we think we might get something much better and not have to use Beach Haven property owners’ taxpayers’ money,” said Crane. “I’m not going to jump up and down and say, ‘We’re going to get it,’ but we’re certainly still in the running, and that we scored so high in points leaves me at least a little optimistic.”

Beach Haven officials have applied for $3.5 million in grant funding. If awarded, the money would be used to demolish the existing building and construct a brand-new facility.

“Unfortunately, municipal projects by their very nature are very expensive,” said Crane.

— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.