By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Beachgoers in Sea Isle City covet the long, plastic mats that keep them from getting bogged down in the deep sand.
From time to time, residents will appear at City Council meetings to urge Sea Isle officials to buy more of the popular mats to make it easier for elderly and disabled beachgoers to get to their favorite spots near the ocean.
Looking ahead to the summer vacation season, City Council is expected at its meeting Tuesday to approve the purchase of 25 new beach mats under a $44,380 contract with manufacturer Deschamps Mats Systems Inc. of Cedar Grove, N.J.
City spokeswoman Katherine Custer said it has not yet been decided by Sea Isle’s Public Works Department which beaches will get the new mats.
“As they do every year, they will assess the beaches to see where it’s appropriate to put them,” she said in an interview Friday.
One factor is the condition of the beaches following what is usually a stormy winter and even the spring, she pointed out.
“We have to get through winter and spring to see where it is appropriate to put them,” Custer said. “The goal is to have as many as possible.”
In comments at a Council meeting last September, Mayor Leonard Desiderio promised that the city would purchase more of the mats for the 2023 summer tourism season as part of its strategy to make the beaches more accessible to everyone.
He also said Sea Isle is planning to have more employees available this summer to help senior citizens and other beachgoers who may need assistance to make their way across the sand.
The beach mat at 66th Street during the 2022 summer vacation season.
The mats lie on top of the sand, providing an easier transition from the gravel pathways over the dunes to the beaches. They are sometimes referred to as “Mobi-Mats,” short for mobility mats.
Seniors, small children, people with disabilities and families lugging strollers to the beach are all helped by the mats.
“They assist people in getting to their beach destination. It’s better footing, especially when the sand is dry and deep,” Custer said. “They assist people who may have challenges getting across the sand.”
The non-slip mats look like bright blue carpet strips from a distance. They don’t extend the entire width across the sand, but make it easier to cross the dunes and head out onto the beach. At the handicap-accessible beaches, the mats average about 70 feet long, city officials say.
Sea Isle has had the beach mats for about 15 years. At first, they were placed at the city’s six handicap-accessible beaches at 32nd Street, 40th Street, John F. Kennedy Boulevard, 44th Street, 63rd Street and 85th Street.
During the summer of 2018, the mats were installed at intervals of about every three blocks between 29th and 91st streets.
As the mats became even more popular with the public, Sea Isle announced plans in 2019 to put them at every one of the lifeguard-protected beaches.
The city then set the goal of having the mats at every beach block between 29th and 92nd streets. Now, the city says it has installed the mats at beach entrances along the entire length of the island – from First Street to 93rd Street.
The plastic mats provide an easier transition from the pathways over the dunes to the beach.
