Freeholders Approve, 4-1, Beesley’s Point Bridge Buy for $1

CREST HAVEN — Cape May County freeholders on Tuesday, Dec. 9 agreed, 4-1, to buy the Beesley’s Point Bridge for a buck.
It’s projected to take $20 million to fix up the 4,829-foot bridge, and freeholders unanimously agreed to seek federal funding to help offset the expense. A coordinated string of officials, including Sen. Jeff Van Drew, Assemblyman Matthew Milam, (both D-1st), county Emergency Management Director Frank McCall and Freeholder Director Daniel Beyel testified the bridge buy was the right thing to do for the public‘s safety and well being.
Freeholder Gerald Thornton, although sold on the need to reopen the span that’s been closed for four and a half years, cast the vote of opposition.
“I disagree with the position that Cape May County should take responsibility for the Beesley’s Point Bridge,” said Thornton.
“We heard the county engineer (Dale Foster) say the 80-year-old bridge had limited repairs over the years. They make it simple, $20 million sounds good now…but we have no idea when we get into the work what is going to be there. We’re not sure what is underneath. I have a lot of reservations,” Thornton said.’
Part of Thornton’s opposition stemmed from his belief that the bridge connects a state highway, Route 9, on a national highway system that has been a private span for over 70 years.
“If this were in Essex or Bergen, we wouldn’t be sitting here today; the state would have done whatever they had to do to keep it open. I hope I am wrong that in the future this doesn’t cost the county a great deal of expense,” he continued. He cited the “upkeep and repairs of an 80-year-old bridge with a 30 year bond for $8 million guaranteed for 15 years.”
“I have a lot of difficulty with that,” said Thornton.
The man at Thornton’s right hand, Vice Director Ralph Sheets, took an opposite view.
“It’s paramount we do this. I’ve been in public safety all my life. It’s paramount with a bridge like this that we make sure it’s back in action so we can move people out of the county and get emergency help back in if a disaster of any type happens,” said Sheets.
“As far as I’m concerned, I offered this resolution. I definitely see this as something we should be doing, protecting the citizens of Cape May County,” Sheets added.
“I never said this bridge should not be open,” countered Thornton, “Mr. Sheets is absolutely right. The bridge should be open. It’s the state’s responsibility for the safety of the residents of Cape May County. They have not accepted their responsibility in four years the bridge was closed. All of a sudden it will cost the county a great deal of money without secure plans.”
“I will not dicker over whose responsibility it I have the opportunity to sit on the Board of Freeholders who have something to do with opening it,” said Freeholder Ralph Bakley. “We have a responsibility to our citizens in Cape May County to get that bridge open as quickly as possible and as safely as we can,” Bakley added.
With projected $1.50, one-way toll over the span is estimated to bring in $1.3 million, said county Administrator Stephen O’Connor, also executive director of the Cape May County Bridge Commission, which would operate the bridge.
With the state Department of Transportation paying 60 percent of the cost, and tolls to offset some of the expenses, and if federal aid can be secured as part of a public works stimulus package, O’Connor said, “The operation comes out flat. The county doesn’t contribute anything.”
“Based on the agreement the county made with the DOT, and projected $872,000 (two-way tolls),” O’Connor said the parkway and Beesley’s Point Bridge tolls would be equal in 2012, when the bridge is proposed to be in operation.
Owners of the bridge, which has maintained a keeper for all its years of closure to vehicular traffic to enable the drawbridge to open for marine traffic, agreed to repay $900,000 to the state Department of Transportation, money they secured to repair the bridge.
One of the key points made by all who supported the purchase was that Cape May County needed a second link to points north, including Shore Memorial Hospital, which would be inaccessible if an accident closed the Garden State Parkway bridges over the Great Egg Harbor bay.