Sea Isle City residents complain about construction projects

They are tired of construction dust and dirt swirling in the air and coating the outside of their homes.

Even worse, their houses shake from vibrations caused by the big excavators and other heavy machinery that has been installing a new drainage system in their street, they said.

Perhaps even more unnerving is the flooding that swamps their neighborhood during coastal storms or unusually high tides.

“The street is an absolute disaster. It’s two and a half years of horror trying to live there,” Sea Isle City resident Terry Propper said.

Propper and other residents who live on 46th Street near the site of Sea Isle’s new $21 million community center are pleading with city officials for relief from the construction that has invaded their neighborhood.

Culminating about two years of construction, the city will hold a grand opening celebration for the community center on March 28. The two-story building dominates the block of Central Avenue and Park Road between 45th and 46th streets.

Residents of 46th Street and Central Avenue appeared at a City Council meeting March 10 to tell the governing body and Mayor Leonard Desiderio just how difficult it has been to live in their neighborhood during the community center’s construction and an ongoing drainage project.

Propper described the entire experience as “absolutely frightening,” especially when her house shakes from the construction machinery.

    Sea Isle City's new $21 million community center will open to the public on March 28.
  

Beth Pearce, another resident of 46th Street, said there are times when construction equipment parks right at the end of her driveway.

The disruptions include dust and dirt kicked up by the construction machinery and the noise that begins early in the day, Pearce said.

“My house is completely damaged and no one cares,” Pearce told the Council members at the March 10 meeting.

However, in a follow-up interview with SeaIsleNews.com last week, Pearce said the drainage construction is not as intense as it was earlier this month.

She also said that she has been speaking to City Business Administrator George Savastano and was happy with his response about the construction-related damage to her home.

“They are trying to do the right thing for the damage that was caused,” she said.

After listening to Propper, Pearce and other residents of 46th Street at the March 10 meeting, Council President Mary Tighe assured them that city officials are sympathetic about the flooding and other problems.

“We hear you. Flooding is scary,” Tighe said. “We will do what we can to get things moving.”

The city’s construction contractors have been installing a new drainage system on Central Avenue to ease flooding in the neighborhood surrounding the community center at 46th Street. The harsh winter weather delayed the drainage project, but the work is expected to be substantially completed this month, Desiderio said.

Originally, the drainage improvements were supposed to include a new stormwater pumping station to protect the neighborhood from flooding. The city has delayed building the pumping station while it studies the best place to flush the stormwater collected by the pumping station into the bay.

“As we’ve committed to the public, our engineer will make a presentation on his analysis of various options for the discharge of the pump station stormwater. This is in response to the significant public response and feedback the city received regarding the discharge of stormwater from the proposed pump station into our lagoons,” Desiderio told residents during the March 10 meeting.

Desiderio said that the engineer’s presentation to the public should happen within the next couple of months.

    At its height, the drainage work on Central Avenue at 46th Street involved heavy machinery while the road was being excavated.
  

The pumping station will protect the area from Park Road to Landis Avenue between 43rd and 47th streets, all the way to the bay.

Sea Isle would award a contract in the future for construction of the pumping station if the city decides to go ahead with the estimated $2 million to $3 million project.

“I totally see the pump station project advancing,” Savastano assured residents at the March 10 meeting.

In the meantime, Savastano explained that the city wants to see how the new $881,000 drainage system under construction now on Central Avenue will work before moving ahead with the pumping station.

He noted that the new drainage system should alleviate flooding in the surrounding neighborhood as much, if not a little more, than how it was before.

Residents on 46th Street, though, want the city to move ahead with the pumping station immediately – not months from now – to help ease flooding in their neighborhood.

“It’s 10 times worse than it used to be,” Propper told city officials. “It’s very unnerving. You’ve reneged on the promise of the pump.”

Propper said there are times when her neighborhood has been “swallowed” by flooding. Six inches of floodwater has been in her garage four times since construction of the community center began, she noted.

She colorfully described being trapped on her front porch by floodwaters like a passenger standing on a cruise ship in the ocean.

    The new community center serves as a backdrop for the drainage construction.
  

Pumping stations intercept floodwater and channel it back into the bay much faster than it would normally take to drain off the streets after a coastal storm. They have proved effective in Ocean City, Avalon and other shore communities vulnerable to flooding.

Sea Isle built its first pumping station in 2019 in the flood-prone area at the bay end of 38th Street and Sounds Avenue.

Altogether, the city is considering 10 areas throughout town that are vulnerable to flooding for pumping stations in the next five to 10 years.

Brad Hermansky, a resident of 46th Street who was an engineer for nearly 50 years, also urged city officials to build the pumping station proposed next to the new community center.

He said he fears that floodwater will cascade down the community center’s sloped asphalt driveway like a waterfall, inundating the neighborhood in the process.

“You’ve got to do something with the flooding,” Hermansky told city officials while predicting that conditions will get even worse.

Hermansky also complained about all of the construction activity that has occurred in the neighborhood, including the community center and the drainage project.

“It looks like the Mississippi Delta. We live in mud and dirt. It’s been affecting us for three years now,” he said.