By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
A chair, a mattress and even a 2-by-4.
What sounds like the odds and ends of someone’s home are actually some of the slightly bizarre things Mayor Leonard Desiderio has seen discarded on Sea Isle Boulevard from time to time.
“How does a 2-by-4 fall out of someone’s vehicle?” Desiderio asked after spotting the piece of lumber while driving on the road Wednesday.
As mayor, he stressed that he is adamant about keeping Sea Isle’s main entryway as trash-free as possible to create a good first impression on visitors arriving in town.
“This is our gateway. I’m going to make sure it always stays clean,” Desiderio said.
This weekend, he is getting some help. Members of Sea Isle’s Boy Scouts Troop 76 are pitching in to clean up litter and trash along the nearly two-mile road on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Cape May County will provide a trash truck for the scouts. The county Sheriff’s Office will have a patrol car to follow the scouts while they are picking up litter to protect them from traffic, Desiderio said.
Afterward, Desiderio plans to treat the scouts to lunch to thank them for their community service.
Sea Isle Boulevard, the primary artery in and out of the resort town, offers panoramic views of the surrounding bays and marshlands teeming with wildlife. But that vista can be spoiled if unsightly litter is allowed to accumulate along the road.
“It’s very important. That’s why I’m taking such a big lead. It is our important entryway,” Desiderio said of the need to keep the road clean.
Despite its Sea Isle name, the boulevard is a Cape May County road. In the past, the county would have inmates from the county jail pick up litter one or twice a month to maintain the boulevard’s normally inviting appearance.
But the inmates are not being let out of the jail for roadside cleanup duty during the coronavirus pandemic, Desiderio explained. In the process, the litter has become worse.
Desiderio discussed plans to have the Boy Scouts clean up the road during Tuesday’s meeting of the Cape May County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the elected body that oversees county government. He is a member of the freeholder board, in addition to serving as Sea Isle’s mayor.
While expressing his thanks to the Boy Scouts, Desiderio also said he would be willing to talk to other organizations that might be interested in helping to keep the boulevard clean.
He suspects that some of the litter has been blowing out of the back of trash trucks or construction vehicles heading out of Sea Isle en route to the county landfill.
While some trash has been swirling around on the road and shoulders, other litter has gotten trapped underneath the guardrails in metal fencing that was installed to prevent turtles from crawling across the boulevard and being struck by cars.
Diamondback terrapins emerge from the marshlands each summer in search of dry sand or soil in which to lay their eggs. The slow-moving turtles often cross over local roads – frequently with deadly consequences.
County engineers, though, devised a novel way in 2019 to protect the diamondbacks from summer traffic on Sea Isle Boulevard, one of the shore’s busiest roads. An intricate barrier of chain-link fencing was installed under the guardrails along both sides of the boulevard to prevent the turtles from venturing out on the road and getting run over.
The turtle fencing was required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as part of the regulatory permits issued for the road’s $12.7 million reconstruction project. Both sides of the boulevard have been raised by 4.5 feet to protect it from flooding during coastal storms. The multiyear project was completed in 2019.
The turtle fence, though, acts as an unintended litter trap, marring the appearance of the road. But it also prevents trash from being blown into the environmentally sensitive bays that surround Sea Isle Boulevard.
