By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
There are no sounds of basketballs bouncing on the blacktop or of children giggling in delight while careening down the sliding boards.
Sea Isle City’s normally popular basketball courts and children’s playground on John F. Kennedy Boulevard are, of course, closed to the public now amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A small sign attached to a chain-link fence surrounding the courts says, succinctly, “Due to the coronavirus, and per guidance from the Cape May County Department of Health, this facility is closed until further notice.”
However, there is some activity going on. The basketball courts have been resurfaced with a fresh layer of blacktop and are getting brand new rims.
Jose Flores, Jaime Eugenio and John Tooley, of Whirl Construction, were busy Wednesday afternoon installing the new backboards, rims and nets for one of the courts.
Whirl Construction, of Port Monmouth, N.J., has been awarded a $195,300 contract by Sea Isle to improve some of the city’s most heavily used recreation facilities.
The JFK Boulevard playground, for instance, is getting a new spongy, rubber surface that will provide a nice, safe cushion for the kids.
“This is one of the many efforts that the city undertakes to maintain a level of safety. We are a family-friendly community and we want to ensure that our youngest visitors and residents can enjoy themselves in a safe environment,” Sea Isle spokeswoman Katherine Custer said.
The playground has had a similar spongy surface for years, but it had undergone repairs and needed to be replaced, Custer explained in an earlier interview.
“We are talking about the really soft surface, so if a child was to fall from one of the pieces of playground equipment, it would help cushion the fall,” she said. “When you walk on it, it feels really spongy.”
Sea Isle is doing the upgrades to the recreation facilities in the spring so they will be completed in time for the traditionally busy summer tourism season.
Although no one can predict when the coronavirus outbreak will subside, perhaps by summer the sounds of basketballs bouncing on the blacktop and the laughter of children at the playground will fill the air again.
