By Donald Wittkowski
Motorists will be forced to endure lengthy detours during the shutdown of the Townsends Inlet Bridge for eight months, but for local businesses the loss of such a vital transportation link is even more profound.
It cuts them off from their customers and threatens their livelihood.
“It turns us into a dead end. And dead ends are suicide for business,” said Ross DelRomano, owner of Blitz’s Market at the corner of 86th Street and Landis Avenue in Sea Isle City’s Townsends Inlet section.
Blitz’s, an iconic Sea Isle business, was reborn this year when a new market opened on the same spot where the old store formerly stood. The new market is part of a three-story complex combining commercial space on the first floor with upscale condominiums on the top two levels.
DelRomano said the new market had a good first summer during the height of the tourism season. He had planned to keep the store open during the quieter off-season through Thanksgiving, but it now appears it will close next week because of the Townsends Inlet Bridge.
“This past week was a big drop-off,” DelRomano said of a decline in sales he blamed on the bridge’s closure.
Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio believes that the bridge’s scheduled closure through May 2019 will have a serious impact on businesses throughout the entire town, not just those located in Townsends Inlet.
“The Townsends Inlet Bridge is an equal opportunity pain in the neck,” Desiderio said. “It just doesn’t affect one business. It affects the entire island.”
Local residents, who were used to direct hops between Sea Isle and Avalon over the bridge, are now forced into taking a 16-mile detour on the Garden State Parkway or Route 9 to travel between both towns.
Desiderio said the long detours disrupt the flow of commerce between the neighboring towns. Sea Isle residents will be discouraged from shopping at businesses in Avalon and vice versa, he noted. In that sense, both towns are equally harmed by the bridge closure, the mayor pointed out.
“It’s an equal opportunity pain in the neck affecting both Sea Isle and Avalon,” Desiderio said.
The bridge closed on Sept. 17 and is expected to remain out of service until May 22, 2019, while undergoing an $8.6 million renovation to replace seven deteriorated spans on the Avalon side.
The antiquated bridge, built in 1939, has a history of shutdowns in recent years for structural repairs, maintenance projects and related road work. In 2017, it was closed for emergency repairs from April to late June after a structural crack and deterioration were discovered during an underwater inspection.
With the latest closure, local businesses in Sea Isle are frustrated that their link to their customer base in Avalon will be severed for eight months.
The bridge closure has been a double whammy for Blitz’s Market. In addition to being cut off from Avalon, the store has lost its Sea Isle customers who would normally stop in to buy groceries during commutes to their jobs in Avalon, DelRomano explained.
Toni Grdinich, private events coordinator for the Breakwaters at the Dunes, a ballroom in Townsends Inlet, said she has had two cancellations and lost another potential booking because the bridge is no longer available.
A family reunion that had been scheduled at the Breakwaters, but was later canceled, typifies the trouble caused by the bridge closure, Grdinich noted.
“One half of the family lives in Avalon and the other half of the family lives in Sea Isle. They said they wouldn’t be able to have it at our location. It wouldn’t be feasible,” she said.
Grdinich works on commission for booking reunions, weddings, birthday parties and other special events at the Breakwaters. She said the bridge closure is costing her money, making it more difficult for her to earn a living during the slower off-season months at the shore. She suspects other local workers are also being hurt by the bridge shutdown.
“It’s hard enough to get a job in Cape May County,” she said.
Grdinich, a resident of Townsends Inlet for four years, appeared at Sea Isle’s City Council meeting on Tuesday to complain about the bridge.
Now that the bridge is closed, she said she has to detour 20 miles roundtrip to drop off her son, Luka, in Avalon to catch his bus to St. Augustine Prep, a private school he attends in Buena Vista Township, Atlantic County.
“There’s the economic impact on me and the community, and the added cost of wear and tear on my car,” Grdinich said.
