By MADDY VITALE
Boaters can once again navigate the Intracoastal Waterway between Avalon and Stone Harbor without worry of hitting a broken channel marker.
The marker was located near a fishing area known both as Paddy’s Hole and Paddy’s Thorofare. It sat in a narrow channel dubbed the “football field” by local boaters.
Over the summer, some boats were damaged when they hit the broken marker. The waterway, which is supposed to be an area to safely guide boaters through a waterway at the shore, had become a navigational hazard.
Boaters spoke out. Some contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They also reached out to elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, whose congressional district includes where the channel marker is located.
“As soon as I was made aware to the sunken marker, my team and I worked with the Coast Guard and Army Corps to ensure funding was secured and that they received the necessary operational permits quickly in order to conduct a removal operation,” Van Drew, R-2nd, said in a statement Monday.
He continued, “I am proud of the efficiency in which we were able to resolve the issue and I will continue to advocate for South Jersey and the safety of our constituents.”
Dave Neville, left, and Sean McNulty, of Carefree Boat Club of South Jersey, check out one of their boats in June.
In August, Sean McNulty, an owner of Carefree Boat Club of South Jersey, said the channel marker was probably damaged in coastal storms over Mother’s Day weekend. He explained in an interview that sometimes the marker was partly submerged and sometimes it was out of the water.
McNulty had said that several boats had hit the marker and were damaged and at least one boater has been injured. His family boat out of Sea Isle City was one of the first to collide with the marker. Over the summer, he noted that at least four other Sea Isle-based boats struck the sunken marker.
McNulty could not be reached for comment Monday. However, in a recent post on a Facebook forum discussing the removal of the sunken marker, he said in part,
"We also got many mixed reports about who was responsible -- USCG and Army Corps of Engineers -- for a long time until there was definitive action taken which I believe to be a result of Van Drew getting involved.”
Ed McCormick began the recent Facebook discussion by posting a letter about the removal of the channel marker and said this: "A friend of mine from North Wildwood asked me to pass this along. He was one of the unfortunate boaters who was impacted by this issue. He wanted people to know that the buoy has been repaired thanks to the efforts of one of the local politicians," McCormick wrote, referring to Van Drew.
Robert Pellini was among boaters who left comments on Facebook about the channel marker.
“Thank you, Ed. As an owner of a new boat and this area is my passage way, it is nice to know about this,” Pellini said to McCormick.
Map depicts the location of the sunken channel marker back in August, titled "broken piling," in the Intracoastal Waterway between Avalon and Stone Harbor.
