By Donald Wittkowski
Sea Isle City will soon liven up the Promenade with decorative lighting that promises to make the popular oceanfront walkway more attractive to the scores of pedestrians and bicyclists who use it every year.
City Council awarded an $843,300 contract Tuesday for the first phase of a lighting project that will eventually see the entire 1.5-mile Promenade brightened up.
Initially, new lights will be placed between 35th and 44th streets, the heart of the Promenade that includes restaurants, retail shops, arcades and other tourist-friendly attractions.
City spokeswoman Katherine Custer said the plan is to install the lights on those blocks in time for the peak summer tourism season.
“We would like to see it done as soon as possible,” she said in an interview Wednesday.
The goal is to eventually place new lights on the entire Promenade from 29th to 57th streets, making the tourist haven both safer and more inviting.
“What will be installed will be much more attractive,” Custer said. “I think they will be very well-received.”
The decorative lighting will be similar to the black, Victorian-style street lamps that illuminate the John F. Kennedy Boulevard entranceway into town and parts of the downtown business district on Landis Avenue, City Business Administrator George Savastano has said.
A $4.4 million bond ordinance approved by Council last July included a total of $1.6 million for new lighting along the Promenade, a bigger section of the Landis Avenue downtown corridor and other commercial areas in town.
The city plans to remove the towering, utilitarian streetlights that loom over the Promenade now. Custer explained that the new lights will be more appealing and more energy-efficient.
“These new lights will beautify the Promenade,” she said. “This will be a new and more efficient way to illuminate the Promenade.”
In addition to decorative lighting, the city will also install a new public address system. Custer noted the PA system will allow the city to make announcements about concerts, bicycling hours on the Promenade or more serious issues such as alerting the public about a lost child.
“The PA system, we think, will be a worthwhile addition,” she said. “This is something we will put to good use.”
