By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Barring any ferocious coastal storms hitting the shore between now and the arrival of the summer tourism season, visitors to Sea Isle City will likely be greeted by wide, powdery beaches during their vacations.
Sea Isle’s shoreline survived the normally brutal winter weather in good shape, suffering only a small amount of erosion from storm damage.
“Sea Isle has had minimal erosion this past winter, and overall our beaches are in great condition,” city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said Wednesday.
The beaches were widened and replenished in 2020 with more than 750,000 cubic yards of new sand between 28th and 52nd streets in the midsection of town and from 74th to 93rd streets in Townsends Inlet at the southern tip of the island.
It appears that the replenishment project is still paying dividends by keeping the beaches in good condition. Even two blizzards in January that dumped more than a foot of snow on Sea Isle each time didn’t cause severe erosion to the beaches.
City Business Administrator George Savastano reported to City Council during a meeting Tuesday that in one area of town, the beach actually gained more sand over the winter.
“Overall, our beaches fared pretty well over the winter and we even experienced a good buildup of sand at the south end in the Townsends Inlet beach, where, as many will recall, we had serious concerns last year with the erosion that had occurred there,” Savastano told the Council members.
After being swept away months ago by torrents of water, the beach on the bay side of the Townsends Inlet Bridge appears to have filled in naturally with huge amounts of sand.
Perhaps of one of the best ways to gauge the condition of the Townsends Inlet beach is a sign that reads, “Submerged Objects. Keep Off Jetty.”
The sign is nowhere near a jetty. It is sticking out of the sand on the beach overlooking the bay side of the bridge.
Several months ago, the sign was standing tall on the beach. Now, it is nearly buried in new sand, with only a small portion of the sign’s base poking out of the beach.
About this time last year, the beach on the bay side of the bridge was stripped of its powdery top layer of sand – washed away by the inlet’s powerful waters. Dunes overlooking the beach were also badly eroded, collapsing in an avalanche of sand and trees.
Ultimately, the city hopes to persuade the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to include the bay side of Townsends Inlet in Sea Isle’s next beach replenishment project, which likely won’t be done until 2023, Savastano said.
The Army Corps, a federal agency, replenished the beaches on the ocean side of the Townsends Inlet Bridge in 2020. However, the eroded beaches and dunes on the bay side of the bridge were outside the boundaries of the project.
In the meantime, with Memorial Day weekend only about seven weeks away, Sea Isle is preparing for the summer tourism season by making improvements to the beaches.
The Public Works Department is gearing up to clear and grade all of the dune crossovers leading to the beaches to make them more accessible, city officials said.
In addition, City Council on Tuesday approved the purchase of 20 new handicap-accessible mats that will be placed at pathways leading to the beaches. The popular mats make it easier for senior citizens, disabled people and families with young children to get to the beach without getting bogged down in deep sand.
