Stone Harbor, Avalon and Sea Isle Happenings

Kayaks

2008-02-11T09:41:00.000-05:00

Avalon considers fee for seasonal storage of kayaks
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, 609-463-6713
Published: Saturday, February 9, 2008

AVALON - The borough is considering charging $25 to store kayaks through the summer near a public access spot to the bay near 57th Street.
Avalon is building storage racks for kayaks, as well as Sunfish and Sailfish boats.

Borough officials said previous storage of private kayaks there cluttered the area and could make them more susceptible to theft.

The area had been used for years for people to keep their kayaks for a season, sometimes chaining them to a nearby fence and leaving them there, said Council President Joe Tipping.

"People would chain these kayaks to the split-rail fence," Tipping said. 'But all you have to do with a split-rail fence is you can drop it away and take it. And those things are expensive," he said.

The area is a popular entranceway for recreational kayakers to the bay.
"It was getting a bit messy looking," said Borough Councilman Charles Covington. "It'll be a little more organized."

Covington said the fee applies only to those who will store kayaks at the site.

"The history of the thing is residents have been using that area for quite a number of years and just randomly putting their kayaks in there," Covington said.

Avalon will limit the permits for kayaks to 90 in the area and 20 for the Sunfish and Sailfish.

Permit holders must also sign a waiver and indemnification form for damage claims to the watercraft.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Shore Home Prices Holding

2008-01-19T09:11:00.000-05:00

Shore home prices, sales escape brunt of market downturn

Saturday, January 19, 2008
By WILLIAM H. SOKOLIC
Courier-Post Staff

AVALON
Chip Moran just put the family vacation house up for sale.

His father died in July and his mother is in an assisted living facility. Selling the house would help offset the costs for his mother's arrangement, said the Westmont resident.

Moran and his two brothers are asking $2.1 million for the five-bedroom, beach block house on 20th Street. His parents paid about $350,000 for it in the early 1980s.

"If it sells for the price we're looking for, that's the best. But there's no rush on our part. If it doesn't sell and we end up keeping the house, great," Moran said.

The Moran situation typifies the real estate market at the Jersey Shore as the new year unfolds.

While the home-sale market nationwide has gotten hammered since the real estate bubble burst in 2005, the shore has weathered the downturn better than much of the country, said Drew Fishman, president of the New Jersey Association of Realtors.

As a corollary, the repossession market has not hit the shore area, said Lester Argus, president of the Atlantic City & County Board of Realtors. Because so much of the market consists of second homes, neither sellers nor buyers are pressed to transact a sale.

"The shore does better because buying and selling are discretionary," said Richard Perniciaro, director of the Center for Regional and Business Research at Atlantic Cape Community College.

"People are not moving in or out for jobs. Most are in a position to wait a year or two to sell," said Matthew Iannone, president of Freda Real Estate in Sea Isle City.

Yet, real estate experts say the time is better than ever to buy. Prices have come down from the bloated figures of a few years ago. Interest rates are favorable, dipping below 6 percent.

And inventory is high.

"There's more inventory than buyers by a 4-1 margin," said Alex Linsk, a Realtor with Farley & Ferry Realty Inc. in Margate. "Lenders are anxious to get the market started and lend, but they will look a little closer into the buyer's credit history. Still, it doesn't cost anything to make an offer."

Back in 2005, there was a dramatic increase in the number of homes on the market at the same time buyers throttled back, said Randy Leiser, a Realtor with Avalon Real Estate Agency.

"Demand decreased, supply increased, and there were more on the market ever since."

The ups and downs are a cyclical thing, Linsk said. "It happens every seven or eight years. I've seen it three times since the early 1980s."

A lot of professionals, steeped with cash in 2002 and 2003, were sold on real estate.

"They didn't think there would be an end to the boom. Now they're paying the price. They can't sell their properties. Those who spent $500,000 to $1.5 million and thought they can flip with a 20 percent increase, they got hurt," Linsk said.

In 2005, the last strong year at the shore, some 435 units sold in Avalon and Stone Harbor.

Last year, the figures were around 300, Leiser said. But the turnaround began this past year.

"We had a good run in 2007, much better than 2006," Iannone said.

The market experienced a 13 percent drop in the volume of sales in the last year. But prices have not taken the hit other areas did, Argus said.

In Ocean City, the number of sales was up compared to 2006. November and December numbers picked up over the previous year by as much as 25 percent, Fishman said.

"It's not 2005, but it's not bad, and the dollar amounts are well ahead," Fishman said.

Said Iannone, "The asking and selling prices are not far off nowadays. We haven't had a distress sale to any great extent." Certainly, sellers are not going below what they paid for the property, Leiser said.

"One unit came on the market at $740,000 two years ago. It came off for a while, then went back on for $649,000. However, the folks paid $200,000 10 years ago. What has happened, sellers have gotten the message and depending on the situation, are reducing asking prices."

The average sales price has declined from $1.7 million in 2006 to $1.57 in 2007 in Avalon and Stone Harbor.

"The market is not as strong as we'd like it to be," Argus said. "But indicators for 2008 are looking pretty good. Mortgage companies are getting a lot more activity. We hope that translates into sales."

"We believe barring any major economic disaster, there's no cause for a further decline in values during the next 12 months," said Ian Lazarus, president of the Cape May County Association of Realtors.

Moreover, interest rates tend to ease in a presidential election year, he said. Outside of some high-end properties, Realtors aren't seeing bidding wars anymore.

"Buyers can take their time for inspections and due diligence. I think lots of buyers are on the fence figuring when they can get a good buy. Sellers are willing to negotiate," Leiser said.

Not Moran and his brothers. Then again, they don't really have to. Properties over $1.5 million sold even when the market turned, Linsk said.

Shore home buyers come in with their own financing, and larger down payments. They come in with more income. In Ocean City, there was a bidding war for a million dollar home that sold for over the asking price, Fishman said.

So the prospects look good for Moran, a 47-year-old facility manager.

If the house sells, he has a condo on 78th Street in Avalon he'll use more often. Or he and his brothers will get together and buy something else a little less expensive.

"The Jersey Shore is great. I've been all over the country. I'll put Jersey beaches against anybody," he said.

Reach William H. Sokolic at (609) 823-9159 or bsokolic@camden.gannett.com

Library

2007-10-27T15:14:00.000-04:00

Sea Isle City picks site for new library
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, 609-463-6713
Published: Saturday, October 27, 2007

SEA ISLE CITY - Officials picked a site for a $4.5 million library this week, choosing an empty lot on 48th Street instead of the site of an existing library downtown.

A lack of available parking downtown in the summer months prompted City Council's decision, Council President Michael McHale said.

Finding a location for a new county library branch has been a matter of some contention after county library officials announced earlier this year they would build new branches for the city and Stone Harbor.

Because library funding is based on ratables, the two shore communities are the biggest contributors, each paying about $1.4 million annually.

City Council formed three committees to address location, content and whether the city was interested in the county's offer or should consider funding their own library outside the county system.

Although council has not voted on the question about pulling out of the county library system, the committee recommended the city stay in the system, McHale said.
City Council passed a resolution this week to use city-owned land on 48th Street, which was the site of a former sewer plant, for the library.

The city's branch library is now located in downtown Sea Isle City on John F. Kennedy Boulevard. Mayor Leonard Desiderio first championed the site for a new building, citing its central location.

He said Friday that he backs City Council's choice.

"If this is the location council feels it should go with, and as long as we get a new library and stay in the system, I'm happy," he said.

"We're a three-months community, and in the summer months there's no parking in the area," McHale said of the downtown location. "Between people going to the beach and the Promenade, the parking is just not there."

"Our idea is we'd like to see it as a cultural center for the town," he said.

The city also considered a location near the Sea Isle City Elementary School.

New buildings in Sea Isle City and Stone Harbor are expected to cost the county library system about $8.5 million.

Strathmere

2007-10-08T22:58:00.000-04:00

Strathmere wants out of township
By Jacqueline L. Urgo
Posted on Mon, Oct. 8, 2007
Inquirer Staff Writer

STRATHMERE, N.J. - This is a place like no other at the Jersey Shore. Its appeal may be that it's just like everywhere else used to be.
It's a place that still has a collection of ramshackle summer cottages without screens in the windows, the kind of little places where the whole house seems to inhale and exhale when the ocean breezes blow the curtains in, and then back out again.

About a mile-and-a-half long and two blocks wide, nestled on the same barrier island as Sea Isle City and across an inlet bridge from the southern tip of Ocean City, this is a town where the asphalt paving runs only so far down the street leading to the ocean before the sand and the beach grass take over.

There are no traffic lights, no boardwalk, only a couple of seafood restaurants and one motel. And the people who live here year-round seem to like things the way they are.

Except for one thing: Their tiny Cape May County town is part of a sprawling 65-square-mile, mainland municipality that some residents contend doesn't provide adequate services to their beach community.

A group called Citizens for Strathmere and Whale Beach collected signatures from 115 residents - or 83 percent of the registered voters in the town - and last week presented to officials a petition to secede from Upper Township.

The group contends that as a beach town, Strathmere would be a better fit with its neighbor, Sea Isle City, because issues such as beach replenishment, police protection, and concerns about public water and sewers often overlap.

Without a full-time police force in Upper Township, when officers are needed in Strathmere - say, to deal with a rowdy group of out-of-town surfers - they are summoned from a state police station some 20 miles away instead of neighboring Sea Isle.

When Sea Isle put in new lines to provide clean drinking water and state-of-the-art sewers a decade ago, the project was halted at the Whale Beach section of Strathmere bordering Sea Isle. Strathmere remains one of the few Jersey Shore towns with antiquated septic systems.

And while Strathmere's high-school-age students have attended Ocean City High School for decades, elementary students are required to take a 30-minute-plus bus ride to attend classes on the mainland. Proponents of the secession say Strathmere's handful of students would be better served next door in Sea Isle.

But Upper Township officials are not ready for a divorce.

Township committee members rejected the petition, saying it was not explicit enough because it failed to map exactly what lands would be de-annexed from the municipality.

"We're going to act in the best interest of the township," Mayor Richard Palombo said during the meeting last Monday night.

Strathmere accounts for some $390 million, or about 18 percent, of Upper Township's $2.2 billion in property values, contributing a large amount to school and county taxes.

Now members of the petition group must decide whether they will pursue the matter in court. Mary D'Arcy Bittner, the group's lawyer, said the law requires that 60 percent of the voters there need to agree to the secession for it to become law.

After originally stating he would welcome Strathmere residents, Sea Isle City Mayor Leonard Desiderio has been more reserved in recent comments, saying he would stay out of the Strathmere controversy as it played out.

Some Strathmere residents clearly are ready for a change.

"We're basically second-class citizens to Upper Township," said Delores Reynolds, 78, whose family has owned property in Strathmere since the early 1900s, when the town was known as Corson's Inlet.

"Whenever we ask them for some help with an issue, whether it's police protection or fixing the beach, whatever it is, they act like we're bothering them. We're sick of it," said Reynolds.

Reynolds and others insist the township over the years has consistently failed to provide basic services to Strathmere.

"They have a whole mainland township to worry about, so it's rare that any attention at all is ever given to the beaches and the needs of a beach community," said Strathmere resident Frank Zimmer.

Zimmer said that three years ago, residents expressed surprise when the township embarked on a $20,000 plan to upgrade Strathmere's beach patrol headquarters.

For years, the beach patrol had to make do with a tiny shack and a couple of storage sheds to hold its equipment for the five lifeguard stands it stations on the beachfront each summer.

"That was really the first time in a long time that the township seemed to take any notice of the beach at all," Zimmer said.

Palombo, however, said officials recognize what an important part of the township Strathmere is and that some improvements have been made, including the new lifeguard station, because "we have to realize that Strathmere is a true asset to Upper Township."

Palombo calls Strathmere's apparent desire to secede from Upper Township "unfortunate" and counters the group's claim that the township has not properly responded to the town's needs as a beach community.

"Whenever they've presented us with needs or requests, we've done out best to accommodate any lists of concerns they've given us," Palombo said.

Palombo said that at Strathmere residents' request, the township has provided a full-time EMT on the beach in the summer, speed bumps in certain areas, and an agreement with the Ocean City Fire Department to assist with fire if necessary.

Palombo acknowledged that the residents have a right to sue the township to secede. He also said they are welcome to refile a petition and, if it meets all state law requirements, the township committee would "most certainly pass it on to the Planning Board."

Contact staff writer Jacqueline L. Urgo at 609-823-9629 or jurgo@phillynews.com.

Summer 2007 Almost Over

2007-08-30T23:23:00.001-04:00

Almost Over
By JEREMY W. PETERS
New York Times
Published: August 31, 2007

"EVERYTHING must go!” shouted the clerk manning a T-shirt rack outside Hoy’s Five & Ten, a purveyor of the kinds of trinkets and knickknacks that you would only entertain buying while on vacation.

Stone Harbor, N.J. Dave Hoy, the store’s owner, stood on the sidewalk trying to keep up with the swarm of customers who were snatching up the last of his snow globes, glass animal figurines and shirts advertising where their owners spent the summer.

“My whole thing is to get rid of everything while we can,” Mr. Hoy said, wiping the sweat off his brow as he faced the hot morning sun. In a little more than week, he said, “it’s going to be very quiet.”

As a year-round denizen of Stone Harbor, N.J., for the last three decades, Mr. Hoy knows what happens — or, more accurately, doesn’t happen — in this South Jersey shore town when the summer crowds vanish. Like countless other summer destinations across the country after Labor Day each year, Stone Harbor goes into hibernation. It will be a sedate, even desolate, place where it’s easy to find a parking spot, but not so easy to get a pizza delivered. Most of the million-dollar homes will sit dark, and drivers will be permitted to make right turns at red lights again.

But on a late-August weekend, the town was anything but sedate. Mobs of Stone Harbor’s summer dwellers were squeezing all they could out of their last days of summer freedom: one last round of rooftop miniature golf, one last dinner under the stars — probably something with crab in it — and one last header into the breaking waves. They were all trying not to think about the regimented lives awaiting them on the other side of the waterway.

Chris Hartzell, the 22-year-old manager of Shades of Stone Harbor, a sunglasses boutique, said leaving town never gets any easier. “It’s probably the worst feeling, driving out on Avalon Boulevard across the bridge,” he said. “Because you know your summer is gone.” He was planning to make that drive last Sunday so he could head back to school.

For the last 15 years, Mr. Hartzell, a student at East Stroudsburg University in eastern Pennsylvania, has spent each summer at his parents’ house in Avalon, the “other” town on a seven-mile spit of sand that sits just off Cape May on New Jersey’s southernmost shore, about 150 miles from New York City.

When he gets back to school, where he still has to write a term paper he didn’t finish before bolting for the shore at the end of May, he said he will do what he does at the beginning of every new school year: regale his friends with stories of his summer. “That’s all I talk about,” he said proudly. “I just tell them it’s the best place. Ever.”

Even at its busiest, Stone Harbor has an unruffled feel to it. Its 1,200 year-round residents watch their town’s population mushroom to more than 20,000 in the summer. But even in high season, it’s easy to lose yourself on a stroll down the beach or a bike ride down Second Avenue, the main drag. The island is only about two or three city blocks wide at most points, so the beach is never far.

It lacks the commercial feel of other Jersey Shore towns like Ocean City, about a 25-mile drive to the north, or Wildwood, a 15-minute drive south. There is no boardwalk. No roller coaster.

“There isn’t a bad time to be down here,” said Mary Ann Lafferty, 60, a first-grade teacher visiting from Williamstown, N.J. Like many of the town’s seasonal visitors, she has been vacationing in Stone Harbor since she was young, and couldn’t shake the sand out of her shoes. “It’s been my place as long as I can remember,” she said wistfully. “You know what they say, a bad day at the shore is better than a good day at work anytime.”

THE preferred style for beach houses, which are densely packed onto a Manhattan-esque street grid, is Cape Cod with a distinctive New Jersey accent — the more windows, balconies and gables, the better. It’s not uncommon for homes to sell for well over $1 million, yet the area is decidedly unpretentious. Flip-flops are never frowned upon, and restaurants won’t scoff if their patrons bring a cooler of beer to drink with dinner.

While many of the hotels are resort-motel hybrids, they charge resort prices — between $200 and $250 a night for a room during peak season.

Staffing the town’s hotels, restaurants and shops gets difficult after Labor Day. Stone Harbor’s businesses rely heavily on college students, many of whom are enjoying all the carefree time they can before the real world beckons.

Chloe Obando, 21, a University of Delaware senior, was working her last shift on Saturday night as a waitress at Solé, an Italian restaurant in downtown Stone Harbor. Once the last plate of crabmeat ravioli had been served, she and her roommate were planning to make the two-hour drive back to school in Newark, Del. They spent all summer working at Solé and living in nearby Sea Isle City. But this season was most likely their last together on the shore.

“I’ll probably have to find a real job,” Ms. Obando said, looking sunburned and sounding a bit forlorn during a brief break from hustling between tables. “You can’t live on the beach forever.”

She said she would miss watching lifeguard races on Friday nights and evenings out at the Princeton, Avalon’s hot spot for 20-something night life. Downtown Stone Harbor is lacking as far as night life is concerned, she noted dryly.

But leaving Stone Harbor will also be a release, in a way. The town may be a summer getaway, but many people like Ms. Obando, who uses her summer job to pay for tuition, find that Stone Harbor can be a grind. When asked the emotion she felt most strongly on her last night at Solé, she responded without having to think, “relief.”

Stone Harbor, N.J. Tom Gilardi, a 20-year-old junior member of the town’s police force, was counting the days until Labor Day, when he will head back to school. In Stone Harbor, even the law enforcement is seasonal.

Mr. Gilardi, a student at Burlington County College in Burlington, N.J., said he was tiring of the job’s mundane tasks like foot patrol, writing parking tickets and opening car doors for people who locked their keys inside. Besides, he still has another round of academy training to go before he can carry a pistol. The only weapons on his belt were a baton and pepper spray.

“It’s repetitive,” he said. “You go out, walk around, talk to business owners, check your meters and wait for something to happen. I won’t mind getting back to class.”

Most of his friends are already gone, and he said there were little ways that made it seem like summer was over in Stone Harbor. “You can already tell the seasons are changing,” he said. “The sun doesn’t set on 96th Street anymore.”

LAST Sunday, Charles and Doris Mapes sat in the sand, their chairs facing the ocean so they could catch the last bit of sun before driving back home to Lawrence Township, N.J. While most of Stone Harbor may be packing up, the Mapeses are not letting summer slip away without a fight. They plan to return to their house on 98th Street a few more times before the weather turns cold.

“Why would you want to leave this?” Ms. Mapes, 70, asked, her arms outstretched toward the open ocean. “It’s hard to go home to the normal routine of life. You can get very lazy down here.”

But the Mapeses know they can’t stall winter forever.

“It’s sad to see summer come to an end — always,” she said. “It happens every year, and it always comes too soon.”

Money Surplus

2007-08-19T22:29:00.001-04:00

High property values equal unwieldy surpluses for some libraries
8/19/2007, 5:02 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press

AVALON, N.J. (AP) — Far from crying poverty, public libraries in some well-to-do New Jersey shore towns may be getting too much of a good thing.

The booming shore real-estate market combined with a 120-year-old state law that allocates a fixed percentage of local taxes to libraries has created a surplus that has reached in the millions in some cases.

In Avalon, where taxable real estate has tripled since 2004, $2.3 million will go the town's library this year. In Ocean City, officials expect a library surplus of more than $4 million.

Now, town officials want legislators to modify the law so they can transfer some of the surplus to addressing other municipal expenses. The New Jersey State League of Municipalities plans to continue pushing for a change.

"Some of these towns, their library systems cannot possibly spend the amount of money they're collecting," William Dressel Jr., the league's executive director, told the Philadelphia Inquirer for Sunday newspapers.

But library advocates warn that the law is a necessary fail-safe because it stops politicians from cutting library budgets.

The real-estate slowdown may act as a natural regulator. And some local officials point out that library revenues fall under a state cap on how much property taxes can be raised, currently at four percent. The more towns raise for libraries, the less wiggle room they could have under the cap.

___

Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com

Turtles

2007-07-29T09:19:00.000-04:00

Dredge spoils could become terrapin nursery in Cape May County
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Sunday, July 29, 2007

AVALON — Researchers are experimenting with sand dredged from the ocean floor to determine whether diamondback terrapins will use it to lay eggs.
Their aim is to find places for turtles to nest other than road embankments — with their four-wheel hazards. But the idea has sparked interest in more than turtle researchers. Another use for the materials may prove fruitful when officials search for places to stock the spoils after dredging waterways.

The Wetlands Institute in Middle Township, Cape May County, received a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation’s I BOAT NJ program. The Richard Stockton College Coastal Research Center is also involved.

Wood said the research involves looking at potential dredge materials for nesting as well as potential sites for it to be placed to draw turtles away from the highways.

“This is really early preliminary stuff. Who knows what’s going to happen?” said Roger Wood, director of research at the Wetlands Institute and a zoology professor at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Galloway Township

Over the years, development on barrier islands and construction of roads through salt marshes changed the habits of diamondback terrapins. As humans developed the land over the past century, terrapins developed different nesting habitats: seeking road embankments to lay their eggs above the high-water line.

The Wetlands Institute is close to documenting its 7,000th confirmed road kill in almost 20 years of recordkeeping, Wood said.

Their efforts also include extracting eggs from crushed turtles and incubating them, as well as erecting mesh fencing along some roads to keep the turtles from crossing during nesting season.

But the experiments with alternate nesting habitats seek to remove roads from the equation.

The concept sparked Avalon’s interest.

The borough plans extensive dredging of its harbors, lagoons and bays over the next decade.

Dredging produce large quantities of materials, said Stewart Farrell, of the Coastal Research Center.

“The problem is, where do you put it?” he said.

Avalon is proposing to the state Department of Environmental Protection transforming a dredge disposal island it owns and building a road to it.

The road, Avalon Borough Engineer Tom Thornton said, would make it easier and more cost effective to remove dredge materials from the island once they dry.

As a result, it could be used as a recycling center for dredge materials. Otherwise, the island would be almost stocked to capacity after dredging this fall, Thornton said.

But their plan involves disturbing three acres of wetlands to build the road and then reducing the size of the existing dredge disposal island to compensate for the environmental impact.

The proposed project will also require environmental and wildlife studies, officials said.

Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi said proposing the area on Macchia’s Island as turtle nesting habitat is part of their application to the DEP to make the project more appealing.

“How are they going to say no to turtles?” he said.

Macchia’s Island is a pear-shaped island and existing dredge-disposal site located between Avalon and Middle Township.

Middle Township has also supported the idea for dredging it plans near Avalon Manor, which is in Middle Township.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Expensive Taste

2007-07-18T08:55:00.000-04:00

Marauding mink plunders plover nest in Stone Harbor Point
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, July 18, 2007

STONE HARBOR — Eggs of one of the state’s most expensive birds were eaten by minks, whose fur produces some of the world’s most expensive coats.
And this in one of New Jersey’s most expensive seaside resort towns.

State environmental officials said they believe a mink ate the eggs in two and perhaps three piping plover nests located on Stone Harbor Point.

But the appearance of the soft, furry, semi-aquatic mammal represents just one of the problems this year with piping plovers on Stone Harbor Point.

A combination of flooding and hungry laughing gulls and foxes have hurt the nesting season in the quiet, sandy habitat located in the southern end of Stone Harbor, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday.

“(It’s) not going as well as we had hoped,” said Darlene Yuhas, spokeswoman for the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.
To date, 17 nesting pairs of the tiny shorebirds produced three young, she said. Other hatches are pending, as are census results.

Piping plover eggs can prove easy fare for wildlife eyeing the early-bird menu. To combat this, biologists place cages that wrap around the nests to limit cats and raccoons, for example.

But the mink, officials believe, was small enough to sneak through the cage.

“We have predator issues at all of our sites. In this case, based on tracks that were observed at the scene, evidently we did lose some eggs to a mink,” Yuhas said.

“Most predators can’t get through that caging, but in some cases very small ones can. It doesn’t happen too often, but it has happened before,” Yuhas said. “We have had minks destroy nests previously, so it’s not unprecedented, but it hasn’t happened very often.”

New Jersey considers the piping plover endangered.

Federal preliminary estimates from 2006 listed 116 nesting pairs in New Jersey.

The tiny piping plovers were listed as federally endangered and threatened in 1986, depending which of three North American locations they breed.

Their protection warrants extensive and costly efforts on both the federal and state levels.

Meanwhile, the traces of a mink was somewhat of a surprise at Stone Harbor Point, although minks are around.

The state identifies the population of minks as stable.

State Fish and Wildlife in 2005 and 2006 reported trappers harvested 1,656 minks.

Stone Harbor Point is located in an area away from houses and roads and on the outskirts of the bathing beaches.

The nesting area is roped off to prevent pedestrians from trouncing on the sand that serves as habitat for piping plovers, black skimmers and least terns.

Nesting wildlife have also witnessed another odd occurrence last month.

In the space of nine days, two small airplanes toting advertisements made emergency landings on Stone Harbor Point. Officials said no wildlife was injured in either case.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Deserted Island

2007-07-14T07:59:00.000-04:00

Birds, boaters both fond of deserted island in Cape

By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6712
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Saturday, July 14, 2007

STONE HARBOR — The New Jersey Audubon Society wants the state to beef up protection for nesting shorebirds at Champagne Island.

This shifting sandbar in Hereford Inlet is home to the state's largest colony of rare black skimmers. But the deserted island is a favorite haunt of boaters, too, because they can drink alcohol, grill food and relax without worrying about being pestered by beach-badge checkers, police or lifeguards.

New Jersey Audubon would like to ban boats from the island during the skimmers' breeding season, which coincides with Cape May County's boating season.

Perhaps the biggest conservation obstacle is the island's unusual geography. It straddles the border between Middle Township, Stone Harbor and North Wildwood. No town has taken responsibility for the island.

“It's this ephemeral sandspit, just most of an acre at high tide,” New Jersey Audubon spokesman Eric Stiles said. “This site is critically important to a very imperiled species.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection regularly cordons off large sections of the island while the birds are nesting. But some people pay no heed to the barriers, especially when the rising tide shrinks the sandbar, said Don Freiday, director of birding for New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory.

The skittish birds do not tolerate people or their dogs. When the adults take flight their chicks are exposed to the heat of the sun and hungry gulls, he said.

“A lot of boaters get it. They're respectful of the signs and accept that. More than a few like the birds,” Freiday said. “But over the Fourth of July weekend, it became party town. People were there with grills and Hibachis and they moved into the colony.”

This year, royal terns are nesting on Champagne Island. This is the first breeding colony ever observed in New Jersey, Freiday said.

“That's an exciting development,” Freiday said. “Now there are over 100 royal terns around Champagne Island.”

But he and other birders are concerned about the future of the black skimmers. Not long ago, the state had two large colonies of the birds. Now the largest colony consists of just 1,400 individuals off the coast of southern Cape May County.

“Not only do we have eggs literally in one basket, but we've paved over most of the other baskets,” Stiles said.

The migratory birds are protected by law and are considered threatened with extinction in New Jersey. The black and white birds get their name from the longer lower bills they use to skim the water's surface in search of fish.

Skimmers can be fickle in their choice of nesting spots. For many years they nested off the nearby Stone Harbor Point, which has far more room than Champagne Island.

Freiday said there are no known predators on Champagne Island, unlike Stone Harbor Point, which has red foxes and raccoons.

Skimmers share the vegetated sandbar with about 700 common terns and another 100 or so royal terns.

According to New Jersey Audubon, the DEP does not have enough conservation officers to protect the state's natural resources adequately. The nonprofit group said there are 17 vacancies, a number neither the governor's office nor the DEP would confirm Friday.

The state also relies on volunteers who ask beachgoers to observe regulations designed to protect shorebirds.

DEP spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas said the agency received reports of conflicts between people and birds this week.

“We increased enforcement there. We are investigating it,” she said.

She said people who observe illegal activity such as the harassing of protected shorebirds can call the environmental action line at 1-877-WARN-DEP.

To e-mail Michael Miller at The Press:MMiller@pressofac.com

Sea Isle School?

2007-05-22T07:03:00.000-04:00

Academic question: Should Sea Isle have a school?
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2007

SEA ISLE CITY — The future of the small Sea Isle City school will soon be decided.

City officials, school leaders and residents met last month for a series of public forums about what should become of the 93-student, pre-K-to-8 Sea Isle City School District, which is facing the possibility of seeing even fewer students if the school-age population in the resort decreases as projected.

The Board of Education may make a decision this month, school board president Steve Zellers said Monday.

A school board work session is scheduled for tonight at 6 p.m., and another meeting is set for May 29.

“It's a very difficult decision for everybody involved,” Zellers said “The difficult part of it is if you vote on closing the school, basically you can never start up again.”

Last year, the City Commission funded a feasibility study by the Educational Information and Resource Center.

The study released in March estimated the school's per-student spending — already the highest in the state at $33,805 — will grow to $39,160 in five years.

For the 2007-08 school year, the city's school will cost taxpayers about $3.2 million.
Maintaining the school as it is would cost between $1.1 and $2.3 million more than sending students out of district, the report estimated.

But sending students to another district has drawbacks. It would reduce the control the residents have over school programs and future spending.

The future of the school could include keeping it operating as normal. It could also involve sending some or all of its students to other school districts — most likely Ocean City.

High school students in Sea Isle City attend Ocean City High School.

“It looked like it was pretty clear we have one of three options,” said school board member and City Councilman-elect Michael McHale. “One is looking at keeping the school as it is, two is Ocean City completely, or three just sending grades 6-8 to Ocean City.”

“The board has to make some tough decisions.”

There are other issues involved. The school building also has leaks and other problems. A long-range facilities plan from October identified nearly $2.2 million in repairs, the city's Interim Chief School Administrator Timothy Wade has said.

At public forums, residents voiced mixed feelings about the school: some said it should stay open for the good of the community; others, that the class sizes are too small.

“It's a big thing to be addressed,” Zellers said.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press: BIanieri@pressofac.com

School Days

2007-04-19T00:41:00.000-04:00

Sea Isle discusses school's fate at forum
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, April 18, 2007

SEA ISLE CITY — At tables stationed between foul lines on the school gymnasium's basketball court, residents began public discussions on the fate of the city's only school.

Enrollment at the 93-student school is declining and could drop to 61 in five years, with class sizes too small to field a basketball team, according to projections.

More than 100 residents attended a public forum Monday night, sitting in groups and brainstorming the pros and cons of keeping the small school on Park Road or sending students to other districts.

Among the considerations were decreased school taxes if the school closed, paired with loss of community if it closed. Joining another district could also mean the school loses much of its elected representation on a school board.

“I think this community has some tough decisions to make,” said Interim Chief School Administrator Timothy Wade. “My experience is that although this is hard, time-consuming and messy-in a democratic sense — it's far better than a board in isolation making a decision (the public) feels they don't have a say in.”

The city scheduled a second public forum for April 23.

The results will be put in the form of minutes and distributed to the city Board of Education, said Charles Ivory, executive director of the Educational Information and Resource Center, which published a city-funded feasibility study on the school in March.

Wade said the student population is expected to drop over the next five years, to 81, 69, 65, 64 and 61.

Class sizes of six to eight students per grade are possible, he said.

As a result, the per-student spending will go up.

Already the highest in the state at $33,805 per student, the school's per-student spending is nearly three times the state average.

City officials said the Board of Education will face an important decision.

At Monday's forum, the likeliest options included keeping the school as it is or sending all students to the Ocean City School District.

The feasibility study also included the possibility of sending students to Middle or Dennis townships. Sea Isle City currently sends it high school students to Ocean City.

“My eyes are open a little more,” Mike Boyle said following the meeting.

Boyle said he feels the city should try to keep the school open “for the spirit of our community.”
“Yes, it will have some cost, but we won't lose that spirit,” he said.
John Vliet supported sending students to Ocean City.

“Our kids need that socialization you have when you're with more students,” Vliet said.

Keeping the school has obvious advantages and disadvantages on paper.

Sending students to Ocean City would drop the school-tax rate about 30 percent, or $181 for a homeowner with a $564,000 house, which is the average assessment, Wade said.

Also, the school building leaks and has other problems.

A long-range facility plan from October 2006 identified $2.2 million in repairs “that are in the realm of must be made,” he said.

But if it joined another district, Sea Isle City would likely lose representation on the elected body that decides future tax rates and educational issues, he said.

There could be other losses as well.

Inside the school's gymnasium are banners proudly touting past successful soccer and sports teams through the decades.

Tara Crowell said she would like to see the school remain open for younger students but perhaps send middle-school-aged students to another district.

Wade said the forums serve to eliminate rumors or inaccurate information regarding the school and to allow residents to listen for themselves.

“This was really good to answer some basic questions… and now that you have a baseline of data, what do you do?”

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press: BIanieri@pressofac.com

Name Change

2007-02-08T01:02:00.000-05:00

What's In a Name?

Cape May County Herald
January 24, 2007
www.capemaycountyherald.com

STONE HARBOR - It's official. It's not North Basin anymore. From now on, the correct name for that bay area will be Smuggler's Cove, which according to the resolution adopted by council January 16 "is a much more colorful name for a popular recreational area."

Solicitor Michael Donohue gained praise for his flowery language and explained that there would be no conflict with official maps as long as North Basin is listed as a "formerly known as."

Colonnade Inn Renovated

2007-01-02T21:34:00.000-05:00

An old Victorian style building from the 1800's is renovated and re-opened for summer tourists along the Jersey Shore
Tuesday, 02 January 2007
New Age Media Concept

SEA ISLE CITY, NJ, (NAMC) - The Colonnade Inn is pleased to announce it’s post-restoration Grand Opening in 2007.

Located 1.5 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean in Sea Isle City, the Colonnade Inn is an old Victorian hotel that was originally built in 1883. It is the only remaining testament in the beach town of Sea Isle City to the architectural style of a time that has long since passed.

In 2004, the Colonnade Inn was purchased by the Colonnade Investment Group who carefully restored the building with an aim to preserve it’s Victorian style and history. Today the Colonnade gives its visitors a glimpse into the past of not only Sea Isle City but of most shore towns on the Jersey Shore.

For much of its history, the Colonnade Inn has been operated as either a hotel or bed and breakfast. It has 19 rentable units most of which feature jacuzzi tubs and fireplaces. Units range from 1 room studios to 3 room suites. All unites are available for rent year-round.

In the Summer, the Colonnade Inn is run as a bed and breakfast. Coffee and baked goods are provided in the mornings, and daily cleaning services are offered. Most units feature cable television and high-speed wireless internet.

The Colonnade Inn is located only 1.5 hours from Philadelphia and 2 hours from New York City. It is less than one hour from Rowan University and only 25 minutes from the heart of Atlantic City.

Because of its accessibility and location along the Jersey Shore, Sea Isle City has become a thriving beach town in the summers and popular weekend vacation spot even in the fall and winter. The Colonnade Inn is regularly booked throughout the year for weddings, family gatherings and holiday events.

With its recent restoration, The Colonnade Inn is now able to provide modern amenities such as central AC, cable and wireless internet into each room. Additionally, there is a victoria style common room with a big screen tv and a beautiful wraparound porch with an ocean view.

No Parking Here

2006-11-16T09:40:00.000-05:00

County says no sale to offer from Avalon condo group to buy land
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Thursday, November 16, 2006

AVALON — Cape May County freeholders on Tuesday night rejected a $61,000 bid by the Windward Harbor Condominium Association to purchase county property for additional parking.
The county's asking price was $1.1 million.

There were no other bidders at the Oct. 27 auction because the land — located on the county right of way off Ocean Drive and capable of adding 17 parking spots — cannot be built on.

Windward Harbor on Ocean Drive and Seventh Street burned down in a December 2003 fire.

The 45-unit complex has since been rebuilt. However, when the Avalon Zoning/Planning Board approved its plans in 2005, it asked the association to look for more parking spaces.

The association was not required to find them.

County Administrator Stephen O'Connor said the county's appraiser Metro of Marmora appraised the 4,535–square-foot land at $1.1 million.

Its value included the additional units that could be created by the additional parking, he said.

Because zoning requirements changed since it was built in 1970, Windward Harbor required more parking spots when it was rebuilt 35 years later.

Board Chairman Neil Hensel said the county's appraisal number seemed especially high for an unbuildable piece of property, and he would not expect the condominium to purchase that property at that price.

“We asked them (Windward Harbor) to pursue it to the best of their ability,” Hensel said. “They've done their job of trying.”

The condominium complex, located on a 71,900 square-foot parcel of land, sits off the bay in Avalon's northern end.

The condo association had previously and unsuccessfully sought room for additional parking from nearby property owners.

“Even with county land, Windward Harbor will rely on ... on-street parking,” according to the Planning/Zoning Board's approval, dated February of 2005.

The condominium association is represented by attorney Michael Fusco.

A woman answering the phone at his Ocean City office Wednesday said Fusco does not speak to reporters.

Anthony Taormina, president of Windward Harbor's board of directors, could not be reached Wednesday.

On Dec. 3, 2003, a fast-moving fire struck Windward Harbor.

It took 125 firefighters from 10 fire companies almost five hours to contain the blaze. The fire was so hot it melted parts of nearby fire trucks and houses.

There were no injuries, but the fire destroyed seven of eight buildings that comprise the complex.

The eighth building was demolished in May 2005 to make room for the new construction.

“This is one of those disasters that happens to a town once in a lifetime,” Hensel said.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Elevator Approved

2006-11-15T12:19:00.000-05:00

Spirit willing but knees weak: Sea Isle OKs church elevator

By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, November 15, 2006

SEA ISLE CITY — For years, pallbearers have navigated the steep steps at St. Joseph's Catholic Church with particular care. But as Americans have grown heavier, the short trip down 12 concrete steps has grown even more precarious.

The quick drop from the church to the sidewalk on Landis Avenue means pallbearers must hold the weight of caskets above their heads, and it has become more difficult as caskets have gotten heavier, the Rev. Stephen Carey said.

Because of that, and because the congregation is growing older — with knee replacements and sore backs unable to climb those stairs — the church sought and received site plan approval at a city Planning Board meeting Monday night to construct an elevator at the quaint 104-year-old church.

“I dread to see the day when a casket goes down the front of that church, because they're very steep and caskets are getting heavier,” resident John Henry said, speaking before the Planning Board and asking the elevator be approved.
Entering or leaving the church means walking up the steps. With a heavy casket, that walk can be difficult.

Carey said even young, strong pallbearers have trouble carrying the casket up the stairs and to the back of the church.

An estimated 65 percent of adults 20 years old or older are either obese or overweight, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the size of caskets has not increased “Once in a while we have to order an oversized casket,” Radzieta Funeral Home Director John Radzieta said Tuesday.

The church's plans call for the elevator to be 8 feet 5 inches by 5 feet 8 inches — deep and rectangular in order to accommodate coffins and those carrying them.
The elevator had the support of parishioners who attended the Planning Board meeting.

Many were concerned that the steep stairway was keeping the elderly from attending daily Mass.

The church's parishioners include 1,050 families — “good, bad and indifferent” — and includes year-round and seasonal populations, Carey said. More than half are senior citizens.

“I hope I'll have plenty of chances to come to church and use it (the elevator). And not necessarily in a casket, but that is a good feature,” said Jack Gibson, a parishioner and former state assemblyman.

“It's for a necessity. I'm becoming older, and I look forward to riding that elevator,” Ernie Marcacci said.

Michael McHale, a former Sea Isle City mayor who serves on the parish council, said the church hopes to have the elevator built and in use by May

Emergency Repairs

2006-10-21T09:38:00.000-04:00

Sea Isle City to repair geotube to protect Landis Avenue from sea

By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Saturday, October 21, 2006

SEA ISLE CITY — The city on Friday authorized $95,000 for emergency repairs to its geotube — the sausage-shaped sandbag that lines its northern beaches to prevent erosion and keep waves from hitting the streets.
City Engineer Andrew Previti said storm damage badly ripped three sections of the artificial sand dune at Seventh, Eighth and Ninth streets last week.

Previti said he believes the waves carried a piece of timber or metal, puncturing the geotube's lining.

“So many things are out in the ocean either dumped from ships or pilings that break loose from different locations,” he said.

The city will replace 25-foot and 10-foot portions of the geotube, while other sections between First and 10th streets have smaller tears and can be sewn together, he said.

The geotube is the last line of defense between the Atlantic Ocean and Landis Avenue. Although designed to be covered by sand, the geotubes are exposed from the erosion. The geotubes were installed along a stretch of Landis Avenue in Sea Isle City in 1998, after a February storm caused $645,000 in damage to 3,900 feet of the road.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio called the latest repairs a Band-Aid for a larger problem — needed beach replenishment from Townsends Inlet to Great Egg Harbor.

“The ocean has not breached with this geotube, and it's done a remarkable job protecting Landis Avenue and the city in the north end,” Desiderio said.

Earlier this week, Desiderio met with Ocean City Mayor Sal Perillo and Upper Township Mayor Richard Palombo to talk about future appeals to federal lawmakers to push for beach-replenishment money.

A project that would include Sea Isle City, Strathmere and Ocean City could cost more than $50 million, Desiderio said. There is no funding in place yet.

Those towns are not alone when it comes to finding funding for beach replenishment.

In March, Avalon paid $2.8 million to pay for stocking beaches.

Avalon officials felt that, without the dredging, part of their town — as well as the beach, its main tourist attraction — would have been destroyed by the ocean.

Before this year, Avalon's last beach fill was in 2003, when it entered a 50-year partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Under that agreement, the federal government pays more than half the costs.

But this year, Avalon went it alone, concerned about severely eroded beaches and aware that a federal government project might be almost three years away.

Avalon Public Works Director Harry deButts said strong west winds have been helping restock beaches damaged by storms this fall.

However, Avalon's northern end will require some work in the spring, he said.

This may include backpassing (pushing the sand from one area to another) or perhaps another dredge project, deButts said.

A beach fill through the Army Corps of Engineers was supposed to be funded in 2007, but that has been delayed, he said.

It is now anticipated for late 2008 or early 2009, he said.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:
BIanieri@pressofac.com

Lawsuits

2006-10-07T23:00:00.000-04:00

Suits fly over chip king's beach house

Suits fly over chip king's beach houseA group sued to halt construction of Utz potato chip magnate Michael Rice's mansion in the dunes. Rice is suing Avalon

By Jacqueline L. Urgo
Inquirer Staff Writer

AVALON, N.J. - A group of property owners trying to preserve a coastal anomaly known as the Avalon High Dunes has sued a Pennsylvania potato chip magnate, the borough and New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection in its latest effort to halt construction of the chip king's 14,000-square-foot beach mansion.

At the same time, Utz Quality Foods president Michael Rice has sued Avalon for denying his application to add one more luxurious amenity to his Dune Drive property - a large swimming pool.

The lawsuits are the latest salvos in a saga that has pitted hundreds of local and summer residents against Rice, and his wife, Jane. Jane Rice is marketing vice president of the Hanover, Pa., snack-maker.

Placard-toting demonstrators, printed flyers and outbursts at municipal meetings denouncing the mansion have punctuated life in the tony beach town for months. The mansion is being built on more than an acre of the Avalon High Dunes - a two-mile stretch of mostly undeveloped sandy grasslands and maritime forests that is one of the few such natural areas left on the East Coast.

The Rices already own one of the largest beach houses in Avalon, a 7,000-square-foot home assessed at $8.75 million, located a few blocks from the new mansion.

Rice's attorney, Richard Hluchan of Voorhees, said this week that the Rices would use the opulent new mansion as a summer residence. Construction began last spring.

"People can oppose whatever they want and say whatever they want about the property, but Mr. Rice has lawful approvals and permits from the DEP and from the borough to continue the construction of his home," Hluchan said. "And he will."

Hluchan said Rice's lawsuit is based on approval the snack king received in 2001 from the DEP to replace a 1,429-square-foot dwelling on the property with a single-family home, swimming pool and cabana.

When completed, Rice's mansion will be six times the size of the average U.S. home and will include 40 rooms, 15 bathrooms, and maids' quarters.

The mansion under construction is a scaled-down version of the 20,000-square-foot home the couple originally wanted to build on the 1.2-acre dune-top property they purchased in 2000 for $3.5 million.

In 2001, the couple reached a legal settlement with the DEP allowing them to build a 14,000-square-foot home on the site.

The mega-size mansion has sparked a trend in Avalon, where the median price of a home is more than $1 million. In the last several months, the borough has fielded applications and queries about construction of other huge homes and restaurants in the dunes and in other areas of the barrier island community.

That has prompted a group of more than 150 property owners called Save Avalon Dunes to kick into high gear.

This summer, members of the group held several demonstrations outside the Rice mansion construction site. The group also tried unsuccessfully to get the borough and the DEP to impose stronger regulations against development in the high dunes area.

But by the end of the summer, SAD founder Elaine Scattergood said the group, now incorporated as a nonprofit, felt it needed to take legal action.

"We don't want to look like Wildwood, and the borough is basically doing nothing to prevent this," Scattergood said. "It's not just this one issue or this one house, it's a pattern of development that could forever change the way Avalon is and has been for a very long time."

The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the April 2001 agreement between Rice and the DEP that allows the construction of the mansion. The suit alleges that the state failed to properly notify Avalon and the public about the agreement as "required by governing regulation" and that the permit was granted without "rational determination that the proposed construction will result in 'minimal practicable degradation' of the High Dunes."

The lawsuit also says the Rice property is subject to the terms of a 1994 state aid agreement between the DEP and Avalon that prohibits the construction of swimming pools, tennis courts and similar structures in the dunes. The agreement was a contingency to Avalon receiving millions in state and federal aid for a beach replenishment project.

Superior Court Judge Steven Perskie this week denied a request by the residents' group to immediately halt construction until the lawsuits are litigated.

Avalon Borough solicitor Stephen Barse declined comment on either lawsuit, as did the DEP

No Pool

2006-09-27T10:33:00.000-04:00

Avalon denies pool for mansion in the dunes
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Published: Wednesday, September 27, 2006

AVALON — The borough has denied an outdoor swimming pool for a mansion under construction on Dune Drive, but that may not be the last word from the owner, whose lawyer says he has already obtained the necessary permits.
The denial opens another chapter in the controversy surrounding construction of a 15,000-square-foot home for the president of Utz Quality Foods Inc. in Hanover, Pa.

In a letter issued last week, Avalon's zoning office said the planned swimming pool in the high dunes was not allowable.

Avalon officials said the borough has a 12-year-old agreement with the state as part of an effort to receive state funding for beach-replenishment projects. A provision of that agreement forbids construction of swimming pools in the dunes, officials said.

“It's a complicated situation, and we're damned if we do and damned if we don't, like we have been continually,” said Neil Hensel, chairman of Avalon's zoning and planning boards.

Richard Hluchan, an attorney representing the property owner, Michael Rice, said pools are a permitted use under Avalon's zoning ordinance.
Rice received all the necessary approvals for the project and the house has been under construction since the spring, Hluchan said.

“He intends to continue construction until completion,” Hluchan said Tuesday. “His rights are vested. I know there's a lot of noise in the community about this project, but there's really nothing they can do about it because all the approvals are in place. We intend to preserve Mr. Rice's rights.”

Hluchan said he recently wrote to Avalon zoning officials and asked them to reconsider.

The high dunes run alongside Dune Drive for several miles. Unlike most of Avalon, which has been heavily developed, the high dunes are heavily wooded with trees and vegetation that look like they belong somewhere other than on a beach block.

The issue of development on the high dunes has been stirring since a local activist group — Save Avalon's Dunes — began mailing out fliers protesting construction of the house earlier this year.

Avalon officials opposed construction of the mansion, which will be the largest in the borough, since 1999, when the local Environmental Commission objected to the project's size and potential effect on dunes, plants and wildlife.

The state Department of Environmental Protection initially rejected the property owner's plan. But Rice took the matter to court, where it was mediated. Rice and the DEP negotiated a settlement in which the house would be smaller than originally sought, officials said.

But Avalon officials said they knew nothing of these negotiations until several years ago.

Last month, Mayor Martin Pagliughi said the borough planned to fight the installation of swimming pools in the high dunes.

Moving Day

2006-09-08T14:42:00.000-04:00

Location, location...The Avalon house was a steal, but moving day was quite the ordeal

By Alan J. Heavens
Inquirer Real Estate Writer
Posted on Sun, Sep. 03, 2006

David and Elizabeth German had the chance to buy an architect-designed house in Avalon for $1.

That's right, Avalon, the ritzy Jersey Shore community where offering $1 million for a house is considered a good starting point and $1 seems like the stuff of 999,999 dreams.

There was a catch, though. The Germans had to move the house out of town.

"It's really not all that unusual to find a house for $1 in Avalon," said David German, 57, a woodworker who makes his living crafting Adirondack chairs and picnic tables. "It's cheaper for a developer to clear a site that way than to have the house torn down."

The land - right in the middle of the island, not even spyglass-distance from the beach - went for $1.4 million. A McMansion is rising on the site, which is adjacent to a church parking lot.

Meanwhile, for their dollar, plus $50,000 in transport costs and lots of sweat equity, the Germans will be moving - in a couple of weeks, give or take a month - into a 1930s-era, Colonial-style, 1,700-square-foot house on the Tuckahoe River in Corbin City.

"We have a bet when move-in day will be," said Elizabeth German, 55, a dietitian. "He says Sept. 15, I say Oct. 15. I won't tell you what the prizes will be, but to win, he's been reaching out to anyone who can swing a hammer."

The dwelling was designed by Philadelphia architect Richardson Brognard Okie, and built in 1931 or 1932 for a Main Line matron. It cost $60,000 in the middle of the Great Depression, when the typical house cost $5,000 in 1930s dollars.

Okie (1875-1945) specialized in the restoration and reconstruction of Colonial Pennsylvania-era buildings, including the Betsy Ross House. Constructing this house also required a teardown - the Germans have been told that it may have been the first in Avalon.

"We also have been told that the woman spent just a few weeks here every year with her maid to escape the heat," David said.

The Germans have been buying and rehabbing 19th-century "wrecks" for years: two houses on Main Street, including the one they're living in now and have sold in anticipation of move-in day - whenever that will be.

"We were looking for a teardown to buy and move last fall, and we came across this one," David said.

Buying it was easy. Finding a place for it 20 miles away in Corbin City wasn't so tough, either. The Germans own property on which were sitting his workshop and a rental house. David German razed the workshop, dug a foundation for the teardown, and converted the rental to a workshop.

Moving the house? Now, that's where things got tough.

"No one seemed to want to take it on," David said, until Brian Gallagher, of Brian's Quality Plus Moving in Barnegat, agreed to do it for $50,000.

"The average rancher costs about $20,000 to move, but this is a special house, and even though he could have moved 20 ranchers in the time it took us to move our house, he stuck to his price," David said.

The design of the house forced them to cut the top floor from the bottom and move it in two pieces. David had to cut several holes in both sections to insert the beams to which the trailer wheels were attached for the move.

They had hoped to move it in December, but for various reasons the two sections of the house sat in the church parking lot for two months, covered by tarps.

In March, after all the permits were obtained, each section was moved separately (bottom floor first) 20 miles on Route 50 to Corbin City, making its way successfully over the often-unforgiving Avalon Parkway Bridge.

"We made it with a few inches to spare," David said. "A lot of things aren't so lucky."

Elizabeth German didn't watch the move or the house being assembled in Corbin City.

"Didn't want to look at it," she said. "If something went wrong, I didn't want to see it."

The bottom floor had to be lifted nine feet to sit on the new foundation. The second floor went on top of that.

Work was delayed a month, because March is the start of the chair- and picnic-table-making season.

"The foundation has a basement garage that uses the four doors from the garage on the Avalon site that couldn't be moved," David said.

"We couldn't take the chimney and the fireplace, either, so it left a hole in the center of the house through which we could run the ductwork for the gas and wood furnaces, all new plumbing and the utilities."

The 900-square-foot mahogany and cedar deck that goes about three-quarters of the way around the house has as its railing a Louisiana yellow locust fence salvaged from the Avalon property.

David German collects discarded lumber from mills as a sideline, and that's where the deck wood came from.

High-end, or "yacht," craftsmanship is a hallmark of the original house, and that manifests itself in oak tie and chestnut beams, Pennsylvania sugar pine paneling, random-width pine floors, and hand-forged nails, Elizabeth said: "They had a blacksmith on site who did the work."

"A lot of the wood used in the house no longer is available," she said. "And there is so much of it that it makes the house kind of dark, so what we have done is add just enough white paint to lighten things up without spoiling the wood."

David sanded a lot of it, too, to lighten it. He was lucky because nothing had been stained or painted, so it was all light sanding.

"By the way, we also sanded the floors on the second floor," he said. "It goes much faster when there are no walls."

They'll be adding French doors along part of the deck and opening a couple of windows to bring in more natural light without sacrificing the integrity of Okie's design.

The small kitchen was enlarged by knocking out a couple of walls. The 20-by-30-foot living room got a wall to accommodate a bedroom and bathroom.

"I like to move walls, so this job was perfect," David said.

Whoever wins the bet, the work won't stop after they've moved in.

"There's a lot of landscaping to do," Elizabeth said, "and I'm a bit nervous about it because you really need to achieve the right look."

David really wants a lap pool, "so I think that's somewhere down the road," she said.

What about moving another teardown?

"I wouldn't think twice," David said. "Of course."

"Absolutely," Elizabeth agreed. "It's been very exciting. But David has been working so hard, so he's going to need a vacation first."

Contact real estate writer Alan J. Heavens at 215-854-2472 or aheavens@phillynews.com

Noise Control

2006-08-09T19:18:00.000-04:00

Sea Isle civic group wants crackdown on noise
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, August 9, 2006

SEA ISLE CITY — A local watchdog group wants the city to get tougher on noise issues and write more tickets.

Jack Glancey, a member of Town Watch/Town Pride, asked City Commissioners and police at a meeting Tuesday to issue noise-violations citations, because the fines and community service would deter the rowdy.

Glancey said in many cases police have been issuing tickets for other matters under tenant registrations but not noise violations, which pose heavier fines and community service.

A city law requires rented and leased apartments to list the names of the tenants.

James Iannone, the Commissioner in charge of police, said officers use their discretion. If an officer is unable to issue tickets for noise violations, that officer may issue tickets if a group is violating another local law.

“We cannot legally order a police officer to write a ticket for a certain matter. You have to leave it up to the patrolman,” Iannone said, and police will address the matter appropriate to the situation.
The issue of noise in Sea Isle City, as well as neighboring resort towns, becomes an issue each summer as more people flock to the ocean and live in buildings and condominiums that are side by side.

A city ordinance sets permissible decibel levels based on the time of day and location in the city.

Sea Isle City even designates noise-free zones — 18 residential areas marked with red street signs warning that noise fines are doubled.

Glancey said there were only three summonses issued specifically for noise between Memorial Day and late July.

“It looks like the town was quiet,” but it wasn't, he said.

At a recent Town Watch meeting, property owners reported loud and unruly tenants in a number of rental properties, according to the group.

Iannone listed police statistics from May to late July.

In that period, there were 346 noise complaints, but those include reports that turn out to be nothing, he said. During that time, 36 summonses were issued for tenant registry issues and noise, he said.

There were seven noise violations during the past weekend, he said at Tuesday's meeting.

“We're doing our job. We're doing it the best way we can, in a legal way,” he said.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Whale of a Tale

2006-07-27T01:37:00.000-04:00

Beach Goers Save Whales In Sea Isle City

John W. Morris - Action News Executive Producer

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - July 26, 2006 - Two pilot whales were pushed back into the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday night after they beached themselves in Sea Isle City.

The whales were rescued by dozens of beach goers.
The mother and her calf were spotted in very shallow water, just off the on the beach at 25th street around 5:00 Wednesday afternoon. People on the beach immediately jumped to help the whales, and were able to puch the calf back in the water.

They had a much more difficult time getting the larger mother off the sand and past the breakers.

People of all ages gathered around the whale and pushed for two hours, all while children stood on the beach chanting "save our whale."

Among the rescuers were workers from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.

To protect the whale from the sun, they covered her with wet t-shirts. All the while, her rescued calf, stayed nearby, circling in the ocean about 30 yards away.

Shortly after 7:00, the people, described by the Coast Guard as Good Samaritans, threw up their arms and cheered. They'd gotten the whale out deep enough that she was able to swim on her own, and she went back out to see.

She was 20 to 25 feet long and weighed several tons.

There is no reason to think that she and the calf will not be able to recover and rejoin the rest of their pod in the Atlantic. Experts think the two ran into trouble while feeding too close to shore, and then got stuck in the shallow surf.

The workers from the stranding center remained at the beach for an hour after the rescue to make sure the two didn't return.

In all, more than 150 people took part in the rescue.

Action News reporter John Rawlins is in Sea Isle City and will have a live report on Action News at 11.

(Copyright Action News and 6abc.com. All Rights Reserved)

Stone Harbor Allowing Wine Sales

2006-07-19T09:07:00.000-04:00

Stone Harbor allows eateries to sell N.J. wines
Press of Atlantic City
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Published: Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Updated: Wednesday, July 19, 2006

STONE HARBOR — Borough Council passed a law Tuesday that will allow BYOB restaurants to start selling Garden State wines later this summer.

Better known for its blueberries and tomatoes, New Jersey allows local wineries to sell their product at many eateries to promote the winegrowing industry.

Borough Council allowed the sales by enlarging its existing alcohol zone, which excludes most restaurants, to include sales of New Jersey wines.

Deanna Ebner, who owns Sea Salt on 83rd Street with her husband, said the ordinance will allow her business to offer another option to patrons.

They already incorporate locally grown fruits and vegetables in their menus, so the local vino made sense, she said.

Ebner doesn't know how much it will affect her business, where people can bring their own wines from far more diverse regions around the world.

Several other restaurateurs spoke in support of the decision.

But Stone Harbor's wine decision didn't go down very smoothly.

It left a bitter taste in the mouths of some.

Martha Conlin, who lives on 84th Street, said there was no reason to introduce more alcohol sales in the area, particularly those near residences.

“We've never had it before. I don't see the reason for having it now,” she said. “We are a family-oriented town, and I feel that's the way we need to stay.”

Borough Solicitor Michael Donohue said Stone Harbor has been approached about a half dozen times in the past four years by restaurants seeking to sell New Jersey-produced wines with dinner.

But those establishments were outside the downtown alcohol zone, which centers around 96th Street and 2nd and 3rd avenues, and requests were denied.

Recently, the borough sent the issue to the Planning Board, which in June week voted to recommend such sales anywhere in the business districts, which run for several blocks along 2nd and 3rd avenues and in two satellite districts at 83rd and 107th streets.

The law only allows the sale of New Jersey wines and only at restaurants.

Borough Council voted 5-1 on the ordinance.

Councilman Karl Giulian dissented, stating that wine is alcohol, no matter how you look at it, and the ordinance is bringing alcohol to the neighborhoods.

He also feared that the state would expand its New Jersey winery program to include local breweries or more intoxicating liquors.

New Jersey — no Napa Valley, Calif., by any stretch — has more than two dozen wineries, including several in Cape May County.

According to the Garden State Winegrowers Association, the state produces more than 1 million gallons a year.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Reassessment in Sea Isle City

2006-07-18T13:18:00.000-04:00

Sea Isle City to reassess properties

By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Updated: Tuesday, July 18, 2006

SEA ISLE CITY — City Commission on Monday authorized a reassessment of city properties, making it the second valuation of expensive shore real estate here in fewer than five years.

Mayor Leonard Desiderio said the reassessment will bring property values in line with their current worth following several years of rocketing land values in shore communities.

Neighboring Avalon underwent a similar process last year.

The city's last revaluation was based on property values from 2003, said George R. Brown III, Cape May County tax administrator.

The citywide revaluation in 2003 increased the city's tax base by about $2.3 billion.

The county tax board hasn't officially ordered Sea Isle City to revalue its properties, but Brown said it seemed to be something coming down the road.

In Sea Isle City's case, assessments performed less than five years apart do not require inspectors to examine the interiors of homes — one of the most costly aspects of a revaluation, Brown said.

“I believe that's part of what prompted the (city's) assessor, not just the rapidly rising values and high-end sale prices, but him recognizing the need would arrive soon based on those sales, and could save the city (money),” Brown said. “I think Sea Isle's taking a pre-emptive step to try to get prepared.”

City Commission passed the $200,000 emergency appropriation to fund the assessments, drawing criticism from the Sea Isle City Taxpayers Association President Tom Henry, who said the expense should have been included in the city's budget earlier this year.

Henry said the revaluation is a good idea, but that the city knew of the situation several months before the budget passed and the funding should have been included in the city's spending plan, which directly affects taxes.

Desiderio said the city was already in its budget process when it found out about the assessments.

The revaluation will be completed by 2007 and be included in the 2008 budget, Desiderio said.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Preserve Avalon's Dunes

2006-07-17T23:32:00.000-04:00

Defending Avalon's high dunes
As beach mansions rise, there are fears about this unique coastline. A house going up now has 40 rooms. Some ask: "How big is big enough?"
By Jacqueline L. Urgo
Posted on Sun, Jul. 16, 2006
Inquirer Staff Writer

AVALON, N.J. - The high dunes of Avalon, a mostly undeveloped stretch of sandy grassland and woods thick with bayberry, Atlantic white cedar, and pines that soar 50 feet above the beachfront, are unique along the southern New Jersey shore.
Mostly by luck, Avalon's high dunes have survived the development that has all but erased similar strands that once lined the entire 127-mile coastline.
Until now.
The high dunes of Avalon are under attack.
It turns out that the same characteristics that environmentalists and local officials want to protect - beauty, uniqueness, and a buffer for the coastline - have attracted investors to this upscale Cape May County municipality who want to build dune beach mansions.
A Pennsylvania potato-chip magnate is building a 14,000-square-foot beach house - six times bigger than the average U.S. home - on Avalon's high dunes. Another landowner has applied to the borough zoning office to build a 4,200-square-foot house two blocks away. Plans for a 10,000-square-foot house in another area of the dunes were recently withdrawn, but may be resubmitted later, officials said.
"We have an incredible national treasure here in our high dunes, and there doesn't seem to be any mechanism in place to make sure they remain," said Elaine Scattergood, who can still remember when many of the paved streets on the island were dirt roads.
"We've seen big houses here for a long time, but they are getting bigger and bigger, really to the detriment of everything else around them," said Michael Collins, whose roots in the town date to the 1940s, when his father was a beach patrol captain here.
"The question becomes, 'How big is big enough?' Do people really need summer houses that are this big and use up this much of a natural resource?"
Scattergood and Collins are among those who have organized a 100-member group of locals and summer residents called Save Avalon Dunes.
The group, Scattergood said, asks local officials: "How did this happen?"
Why, wondered Scattergood, did regulations protecting the dunes give way to the gigantic home being built by Michael Rice, president of Utz Quality Foods?
Environmentalists say that without stronger regulations, development could gobble an additional 10 percent of Avalon's remaining high dunes - the last ones in New Jersey - over the next decade. Unlike most coastal dunes, high dunes rise steeply to a height of 30 to 50 feet above sea level.
Local officials are so concerned by the citizens' questions that they have hired a public relations firm to answer criticism, said Neil Hensel, chairman of Avalon's planning and zoning boards.
"I don't think there is a single person on this island who doesn't understand that these dunes are our lifeline," Hensel said. "But people come here, make a big investment, and want to use that asset. In many ways, our hands are tied by the regulations that we have.
"If they don't need a variance to do what they want to do, then we are often in a position where we can't say no."
Although large, expensive beach homes are nothing new in Avalon - the $1 million-plus median home price here is among the highest at the Shore - the 40-room dune-top mansion being built by the potato-chip heir is.
Rice runs his family's Utz snack company in Hanover, Pa., which was started by his grandparents in 1921. His wife, Jane, is vice president of marketing.
The couple also own a 7,000-square-foot house on the beach at 38th Street that has an assessed value of $8.75 million.
Six years ago, the Rices paid $3.5 million for a 1.2-acre lot in the 5200 block of Dune Drive.
Their first plan was for a 20,000-square-foot home - even bigger than the one they're now building. The Avalon Environmental Commission, which oversees the town's natural resources, rejected that plan, citing the home's size and effect on dunes and wildlife.
The Rices appealed the decision to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which regulates some new oceanfront construction. The DEP upheld Avalon's ruling.
The Rices then appealed to a state administrative law judge, who strongly advised the DEP to settle with the couple.
"It's not often we see an application for a project the size of what the Rices originally proposed building on the site. The scope was unbelievable," said Mark Mauriello, assistant DEP commissioner of land use management.
Mauriello said the DEP chose to settle instead of fight because of the costs of the continued litigation and the risk of losing. The DEP couldn't argue, as it usually does in coastal construction litigation, that the house would be unsafe, because the high dunes protect it from the tide line, Mauriello said.
The Rices asserted their property rights, arguing that they have a right to build on their land.
In 2001, the DEP and the Rices compromised. The couple could build a 14,000-square-foot house on a 9,000-square-foot piece of land. They also would file deed restrictions on the rest of their property that forever prevent further construction.
Mauriello said the settlement wasn't "everything we could have hoped for" and involves destroying some dunes on the Rices' property. He said the compromise is "very big" in preserving the rest of the property.
Neither the Rices nor their lawyer would comment.
In April, the Rices began construction of their three-level house with 40 rooms, 15 bathrooms, and maids' quarters.
Mauriello said a landscape mapping project completed by the state in 2002 and new regulations protecting Avalon's high dunes would give the DEP "sharper teeth" in negotiating future residential development along the coastline.
Avalon officials say they also plan to vigilantly protect the remaining dunes.
"We do have these historic dunes that are unique to Avalon, and my personal feeling is that when you take one shovelful of sand out of them, you are negatively affecting the entire infrastructure," Avalon Borough Councilman Dave Ellenberg said. "We have to do whatever we can to preserve them."

Community Center

2006-06-22T15:40:00.000-04:00

Stone Harbor Council approves concept of community center
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Updated: Wednesday, June 21, 2006

STONE HARBOR — Borough Council on Tuesday backed the concept of a 12,000 square-foot community center.

The vote does not approve a community center or authorize funding, said Councilwoman Anne Wannen, chair of the Beach and Recreation Committee.

Wannen said the committee wanted to know whether council wanted it to proceed with the work.

“This is moving forward with just the concept,” Wannen said before Tuesday's meeting. “A recreation center or community center has been talked about and talked about to death. We either move forward or we don't.”

The borough's Recreation Advisory Committee provided preliminary renderings of a community center and estimated how much it would cost to build and maintain. It also listed activities from basketball to bingo and possible revenue the center could raise.

Wannen said there are several borough-owned properties being eyed for possible sale that would finance the $2.4 million center on 80th Street.

A new community center has remained a hot topic in Stone Harbor.

Last year, talk of a new recreation center sparked two petitions: One supported selling borough-owned land to buy a building, and the other petition opposed that.

Last year, Stone Harbor considered selling an L-shaped parcel with a $3 million starting price to buy land to expand its public works yard, but later quashed the idea.

One petition from last year asked Borough Council to sell that land for the recreation center.

The 12,000-foot recreation center preliminary plan includes an indoor basketball court, fitness center, space for billiards and Ping Pong tables, a kitchen, game room and an arts and crafts room.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:
BIanieri@pressofac.com