By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City will spend $9.5 million for a series of road, drainage and dredging projects as well as other capital improvements that include a new paint job for the landmark water tower that looms 130 feet above Townsends Inlet.
City Council introduced two bond ordinances at its meeting Tuesday to finance the projects. A public hearing and final vote on the ordinances are scheduled for Council’s May 12 meeting.
City spokeswoman Katherine Custer explained that a list of individual projects and a construction timetable for each one will be developed later.
The first bond ordinance includes nearly $6.5 million in funding for a citywide road construction program, drainage upgrades to reduce flooding, dredging projects for lagoons and the municipal marina, the purchase of new equipment and improvements to city buildings and facilities.
The funding will include the design and engineering work for the city’s proposed community recreation center in place of the old public school at 4501 Park Road.
For more than two years, Sea Isle officials have been discussing the redevelopment of the old school into a recreation facility. The school, which closed in 2012 due to Sea Isle’s declining student population, occupies the entire block bordered by Park Road, Central Avenue, 45th Street and 46th Street. The school building will be demolished to make room for the new project.
The city estimates that the recreation center will cost between $10 million and $15 million. In a referendum and online survey last year, voters rejected a proposal to include an indoor pool for the center.
Sea Isle’s capital plan proposes spending $12 million in 2021 to build the facility, although that is an early estimate.
Barring any major delays or problems, construction on the recreation center is expected to get underway in the second half of 2021 and would take about 18 months to complete, putting the grand opening in early 2023, City Business Administrator George Savastano has said.
The second bond ordinance introduced Tuesday by Council is for nearly $3 million in capital improvements to the city’s public water and sewer system.
The single-most expensive project in the funding plan is the proposed $1 million replacement of the water well at the 80th Street water and distribution facility.
Sea Isle also plans to spend $520,000 to repaint and rehabilitate the 130-foot-high water tower that stands at 80th Street and Central Avenue. The timetable for the project has not yet been determined.
Painted powder blue, the water tower is by far the tallest structure in Townsends Inlet and has been dominating the skyline since the 1960s. It says, simply, “Townsends Inlet … Sea Isle City” on the side.
Sea Isle owns the tower because it is part of the municipal water system. The structure stands on the city’s Public Works Department property.
Water towers are rehabilitated as part of their periodic maintenance. In addition to being repainted and getting a new look, Sea Isle’s water tower at 39th Street underwent extensive renovations to both to the interior and exterior of its tank in 2018 at a cost of $670,000.
When the renovation work was finished, the once-faded tower sported a gleaming new aqua blue paint job and a whimsical smiley-faced sun character wearing a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses.
The 135-foot-high water tower greets visitors arriving in town on the John F. Kennedy Boulevard entranceway with a friendly “Smile … You’re in Sea Isle” slogan written in big, bold black letters on the side.
Assuming the Townsends Inlet water tower is refurbished in the same way as the one on 39th Street, the structure will be ringed in a massive metal scaffold making it appear as though it is trapped in a giant spider web.
Next, the scaffold will be draped with a huge tarp or shroud to allow the tower to be power-washed and repainted.
The city has not yet announced whether the repainting of the bland-looking Townsends Inlet water tower will include a redesign. Custer said in an earlier interview that she doesn’t believe it will get a new slogan or design put on it, unlike what happened with its counterpart on 39th Street.
Jersey Shore towns often use their water towers as a whimsical canvas to promote themselves or feature their iconic landmarks. Sea Isle adopted that philosophy with the smiley-faced design for the tower at 39th Street.
Avalon’s water tower boasts that the town is “Cooler by a mile.” In Longport, a huge smiley face peers out over the town on one side of the water tower and the words “The Best Port: Longport” are inscribed on the other side.
Margate’s water tower is adorned with an image of Lucy the Elephant, the gigantic wooden pachyderm that started as a real estate gimmick in 1881 and has since become the town’s signature tourist attraction.
