Public Works Crew's Determination Made Brick's Beach Season Possible: Mayor

BRICK, NJ -- When you go to Brick Beach this summer, take a moment to thank the township's Department of Public Works.

"It took their sheer determination and countless hours moving tons and tons of sand to get it done," Mayor John Ducey said Monday night at the Brick Township Council meeting as he honored the department and three of its employees in particular: T.J. Venterino, Joe Brancato and Darren Gissinger.  It was the work of the public works crew that enabled the township to open the beaches on time, he said.

"We had an extra bad storm season," Ducey said, and while the steel revetment wall put in place by the state protected homes and infrastructure, much of the sand on the beach washed away. 

"We were stuck with the wall and it was acting as a bulkhead," he said, with water lapping against the wall at high tide, and dropoffs of five feet to as much as 19 feet as a result.

The wall is supposed to be covered by the Army Corps of Engineers dune and beach replenishment project. But with the state Department of Environmental Protection using eminent domain to gain access to the remaining properties whose owners refused to sign easements, the Army Corps project remains on hold.

Ducey said he expressed his dismay and frustration with the slow progress on the eminent domain proceedings to DEP Commissioner Bob Martin during a meeting in April. He also asked for assistance from the state to repair the beaches.

"On April 29 I told the commissioner of the DEP, Bob Martin, that we were not going to provide a beach without help," Ducey said. "I asked for sand, for machinery, and for manpower to create safe access and I was lucky, I got one of those three things, which was the sand."

That's where Venterino, Brancato and Gissinger came in, he said.

"I knew with the sand we had a fighting chance," Ducey said. "I know our Department of Public Works utility crew would move mountains, or in this case sand, in order to create a beach."

Ducey also thanked Manchester Township's mayor, Kenneth Palmer, and Manchester's Department of Public Works for loaning Brick the use of a front-end loader to help move the sand. 

"Without that extra machine it would not have been done in time," Ducey said.

"I am so proud of these men and the other three (DPW employees) who picked up the slack while they were working on the beach," Ducey said. "I could not ask for more dedicated employees."

"Thank you for believing in us," Gissinger said at the end of the presentation. "because there were some people up here a while ago who didn't. I appreciate it."