LBI Mayors Drum Up Support for Beach Replenishment
Three of the islands mayors, Long Beach Township’s Mayor Diane Gove, Harvey Cedars’ Mayor Jon Oldham and Beach Haven’s Mayor Tom Stewart, traveled to Washington, D.C. this month to meet with senators and members of congress to gain support for ongoing and future funding for the beach replenishment project. Mayor Gove brought photos of Surf City’s newly replenished beaches with her to show the congressmen.
According to Mayor Gove, since the project started in Surf City the number of easements signed and returned to Long Beach Township and other municipalities has increased. In a letter the Mayor sent out to Township residents this month, Mayor Gove indicated that the project could begin in Beach Haven this fall and she reported that Long Beach Township “may have the opportunity to have the project continue into North Beach Haven and south through Holgate”. Mayor Gove encouraged everyone to visit the beaches of Surf City to see the finished project and urged ocean front property owners to return their easements as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Beach Haven seems to be working hard to ensure that the project begins there in the fall. It introduced an ordinance at its last meeting on March 12th which would make homeowners responsible for maintenance of their dunes. However, the ordinance was tabled to allow for more public comment. The public hearing will take place the April 9th meeting. Surf City adopted an ordinance like this last year because it had not gotten the easements needed to allow the state DEP and Army Corps of Engineers to access the beaches to do the beach replenishment work.
There was a lot of opposition but the opposition seemed to have more to do with the beach replenishment project itself than the ordinance. 
During the public hearing ocean front homeowners complained about the height of the dunes created by the project, having to give easements to state and the Army Corp's inflexibility in its approach to the project.