Charities, concerts, beach cleaning,dune replenishment a princes visit and a burned down boardwalk just to mention a few things that have happened in a year after Sandy.
But where are we now? Some businesses returned to this area only to be handed a huge new tax bill, namely in Stafford Township. Numbers this summer on Long Beach Island way off. Bridge grants for marina owners still to have not surfaced from the murky political promises. The boardwalk though in Seaside seems to be an endless money pit. God forbid we don't have a Custard Hut in Seaside Heights. The same business that burned the boardwalk down because of a rush to open by all caught with faulty electrical wires that were not replaced . Yet an even bigger blow the same owner that helped destroy the Boardwalk was awarded a 4 million demolition contract to remove the wreckage. Hence the term "burn it and they will come."
Locally, Causeway Marina or Wally's as we all know it first was handed plans to disrupt his business even more with the New Bridge Project with entrances to his business to be blocked on and off for the next three to four years. Even more horrendous he was handed a $20,000 tax increase. Is this Jersey strong?
Stafford Township has raised the taxes on almost all commercial businesses except for some like the Stafford Enterprise Zone. Target, Best Buy, Costco - these giants not affected.
Building a bridge to nowhere. The north east side of the Rt. 72 causeway remains unguarded and forgotten with no flood mitigation plans even begun or on the drawing board. The Island of Cedar Fox, the land the Mallard island Yacht Club sits on and where the famous railroad used to run through today sits unguarded and eroding into the Bay.
Images of the Mantoloking Bridge comes to mind .You see, the marsh here protects the Rt. 72 mainland side entrance to bridge . During Sandy this marsh and street that Railroad Avenue protected the highway but just barely. The water did make over the highway . I can attest to this as my mailbox was found a 1/4 mile away on the other side,the south side. Homes here took the brunt of the storm, blocking the mass effects of surge. But with that taking three houses with it and further dislodging two others.
The problem now that those houses are gone, the Bay is free to roll right into Railroad Avenue and it has. The recent seven-day Nor'easter broke through the road and let the Bay in and filled the marsh with water.If this had been a lunar high tide, guess what, not only Bay Avenue but Rt. 72 would have been flooded .
The road and marsh did receive help from the town in the beginning with the promise that they would return. They have not. There has been no Flood Mitigation on the mainland here . No plan to protect the Bridge, Mud city, Dock Road, Beach Haven West, Cedar Bonnet Islands nothing. No bulkheads have been raised, no roads repaired.
And Railroad Avenue was cleaned mostly by volunteers and donations from Sailors for Sandy with the Town of Stafford providing us with free dumpsters. Now it has remained untouched and ungraded. The huge sewer project here did not address the raising of the three main hole access points that remain below sea level.
One of the main pump stations at the end of the road remain, the shoreline eroded, no rip rock to protect it and the access road to service it completely unprotected. It's not a matter of will it happen again but when. The gas main that feeds Long Beach Island as well was once threatened by a loose barge that broke free during a Nor'easter here still remains unprotected at the base of the first little bridge. A huge disaster was averted but what was done to protect it - nothing . It remains open to the Bay with no pilings blocking it.
Mill Creek Road houses facing the Bay took a huge blast from the storm, an area that let a lot of the water into the Beach Haven West area and destroyed the Community Center, by the way, earmarked to be rebuilt with flood mitigation monies that could be used to strengthen our weak coast lines and infrastructure.. It also remains unprotected with no mitigation plans for it. Even a simple wave break in the marsh would help this area. None is planned.
One year later and there is not one house has been raised with the mitigation monies and grants. Of some 18,000 applicants in the RREM programs some 3000 have been funded but only a handful awarded or funded.
Mitigation grants if you can jump through the hoops, get an appraisal or a height certification or have the money to front the contractor if you can find one to raise your home, have yet to be awarded as well . What homes that are being raised and rebuilt, and there a lot in the area, are funded by loans, personal money and Insurance money that is finally being released. The hidden effects will be when you go to get your new CO and get your new tax bill. What we will see is a lot of new homes up for sale within a year.
Raise your house we are told or your insurance will force you out . But what good is all this money, the Bridge, the BHW Community Center, fixing a failed sewer system when our government is leaving the front door open to the next storm.
We would like to thank the endless volunteer efforts that have taken place, the efforts of individuals in our town's services, the DPW, the Mayor's Office and Offices of Ron Capp . We may be cleaned up but the real work remains and without a Revised Flood Mitigation Plan now when the monies are here we are throwing good money on top of bad .What we are working with is a patch in the dike that is leaking people everyday.
Photos John Eric Mangino founder Sailors For Sandy
