Borough’s Bikeway Could Beckon More to Embark on Two Wheeling

STONE HARBOR – Stone Harbor Borough Council began its Oct. 18 regular meeting with a presentation on its bikeway initiative. Recreation Director Miranda Duca spoke on the county-wide effort to link all 16 municipalities with a regional bicycle path initiative. 
Duca said the local effort would involve better signage and designation road stripes to enforce a north-and-south bicycle path largely along Second Avenue from the area adjacent to the Bird Sanctuary through to 80th Street.
Bike rest stops, equipped with Fixit Stations, air pumps and, in some cases, water re-fill stations, would be situated along the approximately 2.5-mile distance.
New bike racks, sometimes offering covered Kolo shelters, could alleviate the buildup of randomly parked bicycles near the recreation facility and along the business district.
After discussion, council directed Duca to scale the plan appropriately to the “casual” nature of the borough’s bike traffic. Two rest stops with available parking would be included at 94th Street, close to the business district, and 82nd Street near the Recreation Center.
One goal is to have a plan which will meet the requirements for county funding and still reasonably serve and preserve the nature of borough bike riding. The reworked plan will return for discussion in November.
Duca said the intent behind the effort is to increase safety for those riding bicycles, improve the experience, enhance health through encouraging bicycle riding, and bolster tourism in the shoulder seasons.
Dredging
Borough Administrator Jill Gougher reported that the back bay dredging began its Phase 2 Oct. 7.
The contractor, Sevenson Environmental, has responded to some complaints about noise and dust from neighbors adjacent to the municipal marina dewatering site at 80th Street.
The new dewatering process, which makes use of Portland cement, is faster than the process used in Phase 1. Trucking of dredge material off the island has already begun, Gougher said.
The high cost of individual slip dredging has apparently discouraged some property owners from having their slips dredged as the work progresses.
Sevenson’s goal is to complete the dredging of many borough waterways, the first in 10 years, by the first week of January. 
Atlantic City Electric
Following a community presentation by Atlantic City Electric (ACE) at the Stone Harbor Theater Oct. 10, residents at this week’s meeting asked if new borough action was planned to delay the planned Phase 2 implementation of larger wooden poles, especially along First Avenue, intended to support a new distribution feeder system. 
Mayor Suzanne Walters said that the borough would be meeting with utility executives Oct. 21 and the borough would have better information after that meeting.
Council member Matura Gallagher asked if that meeting would include discussion of the plans for Phase II and the long-awaited response to the borough’s request for cost figures to move the Phase 1 work centered on transmission lines underground.
She was told that the borough expected those cost figures from the utility at the upcoming meeting.
A discussion the Herald had with the utility’s project team confirmed that the figures the borough would get at that meeting will not be for the total expense involved in moving transmission lines underground.
According to Atlantic City Electric personnel on the project, the utility will give the borough a cost for designing plans for underground routing of the transmission lines only. 
The figure will not include construction costs involved in implementing the design since the design itself has not yet been done. Some estimate of the cost range for construction may be available.
Karen Lane, council’s Utilities Committee chair, expects the discussions with the utility to improve given what she termed its intention to involve someone at an “executive level” representing the utility.
Still, with the effort to get the transmission lines underground not yet at the design stage and with a number of residents seeking to delay the implementation of Phase 2 beyond its January start date, efforts of the borough to influence the utility’s infrastructure implementation on the island seem far from over at this time.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.