38th Street awaits a repaving where the new stormwater pipe was buried and covered over with a temporary layer of asphalt.
By Donald Wittkowski
Separated from the hustle and bustle of Sea Isle City’s popular summer tourist attractions is a small enclave of bayfront homes that is quite possibly the most remote section of town.
Homeowners living along Sounds Avenue and the bay end of 38th Street prize the isolation and tranquility of this neighborhood tucked in the marshlands.
“It is very private,” noted Frank O’Brien, who lives at 3710 Sounds Ave. with his wife, Nancy. “We all own our homes. There are no renters here. This is probably one of the quietest places in Sea Isle.”
The O’Briens and their neighbors, though, have had their serenity disrupted in recent months by what they claim is an overloaded new stormwater system that has unleashed flooding worse than anything they’ve ever seen before, other than severe coastal storms.
“I have been here all of my life in this location. Never in my life have I seen water back up like it does now,” said Nancy O’Brien, whose grandfather bought the property in 1950.
Floodwater from a minor rain storm last week inundated the corner of 38th Street and Sounds Avenue. (Courtesy Lou Gryga)
O’Brien and two of her neighbors spoke at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to ask the governing body for help. They blamed the city for the flooding, saying that it coincided with municipal utility work done in the spring on 38th Street, including a new stormwater pipe that feeds into the bay.
“It’s a problem all the time now. It just comes out,” Gary Parks, who lives on 38th Street, said of the flooding.
Lou Gryga, of 3706 Sounds Ave., told city officials that the neighborhood floods even during minor rainstorms. He showed the Council members cellphone photos of flooding from a run-of-the-mill storm last week that swamped the neighborhood.
“You made a mistake, fix it,” Gryga demanded of the city. “What is there to think about?”
Council President Mary Tighe assured the homeowners that no city project is ever done “to negatively affect anybody in this town.” She pledged that the city engineer will study the Sounds Avenue area and recommend a solution to the flooding.
Tighe also noted the city is in the midst of a comprehensive flood-control study to find ways to protect the low-lying barrier island from coastal storms, including the construction of road, drainage and pumping projects
“I bet you everybody in this room can complain about flooding on their street,” Tighe said.
City Business Administrator George Savastano, right, spoke with neighbors Nancy O'Brien, Gary Parks and Lou Gryga after Tuesday's Council meeting.
City Business Administrator George Savastano offered to meet with the residents in the Sounds Avenue and 38th Street neighborhood to discuss the flooding. He also said he would have the city engineer give Council a flooding report at the next meeting.
“I think you’ve raised some legitimate questions,” Savastano told Gryga after he complained to Council.
Savastano, however, did not agree with the neighbors that the new stormwater system on 38th Street is the reason for the flooding. He pointed to the unusually high tides that had occurred in the past week as the likely cause.
“The diversion of stormwater to the bay is not the culprit,” Savastano said.
During a tour of the neighborhood Friday, the homeowners strongly disagreed with Savastano’s comments. They said the new stormwater pipe that ends in the bay at 38th Street has simply been overwhelmed, allowing flooding to inundate the streets.
“At low tide, you should not have a foot of water in front of your house,” said Jack Petrik, who lives on 38
38th Street awaits a repaving where the new stormwater pipe was buried and covered over with a temporary layer of asphalt.
The homeowners believe the new pipe is overtaxed because it handles stormwater not only from 38th Street, but also from 39th and 40th streets. They said an old stormwater pipe on 39th Street was inexplicably crushed and no longer works. The pipe on 40th Street also is not functioning, they said.
Nancy O’Brien said she wants the city to restore the old pipe network to ease the flooding.
“The bottom line is, there is too much water coming down 38th Street,” she said. “They’ve created a lot of problems for us as homeowners.”
Wanting more than just the pipes fixed, O’Brien’s neighbors plan to lobby the city to build an elaborate pumping station to flush out the stormwater. Gryga, in particular, believes that a pumping station is the answer.
“We want them to shut off the drains and build a pump station,” Gryga said.
Meanwhile, 38th Street awaits a regrading and repaving in the fall to even out its undulating surface as well as the temporary, asphalt patchwork that covers up where the new stormwater line was buried. It is easy to trace exactly where the line was installed by following the patch job.
The neighbors also want the city to remove dirt that was dug up during the utility work. The dirt was piled up along 38th Street to create a berm that serves as a barrier between the road and the adjacent marshlands, they said. In heavy rain, the dirt mixes with the floodwater to create a mess on the road.
“It’s really ugly,” Gryga told Council. “It doesn’t do anything to benefit us. It’s a problem.”
