Gas Utility Tells City of Service Upgrade; Beach Safety Remains a Concern

CAPE MAY – Cape May Council opened its Sept. 6 work session with a presentation by South Jersey Gas to install high-pressure lines in the city. 
Mayor Edward Mahaney said this project was the result of three years of discussions between the city and the utility. The utility has been working its way south from Atlantic City upgrading low-pressure systems in many island communities.
The project, initiated after the destruction caused by Superstorm Sandy, aims to strengthen the integrity of the system and provide better emergency shutoffs in the event of a major storm.
Utility representative Wes Becker, head of construction for the project, indicated that the project is larger than most similar utility replacement projects.
South Jersey Gas is seeking to replace gas and service lines throughout some areas of the city in a three-phase project. He said that the total project would seek replacement of as much as 30,000 feet of gas mains.
The phasing represents areas of the city rather than sequential work plans. Becker said that all three-phase areas would be worked on in a continuous project with some overlap.
Work would not begin until after Victorian Weekend, Oct. 7-10, to pose as little disruption as possible to the city’s shoulder season.
The goal is to have the work completed by Memorial Day 2017. Mahaney asked the Clerk’s Office to post the map showing the three phases and the impacted streets on the city website.
Beach Safety
Anita and Dennis DeSatnick used the public portion of the meeting to press the city on beach safety.
While praising the city’s educational efforts aimed at providing useful safety information to beachgoers, the couple, long advocates for more attention to beach safety, noted that the city’s recent town meeting at Convention Hall was aimed at beach replenishment not beach safety.
The meeting, which involved representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Environmental Protection, Stockton University and the city’s engineering firm, Hatch MacDonald, grew out of discussions within the Beach Safety Committee but was largely focused on the beach replenishment efforts.
Most agency representatives at the session called upon the city and the public to provide more detailed longitudinal data before safety for beachgoers could be considered as an explicit goal in beach replenishment efforts. 
Dennis DeSatnick called on the city to make an expanded Beach Safety Committee a permanent advisory group to the council. “The human element that people are suffering serious injuries in Cape May is real,” he said.
Mahaney had already announced efforts underway to partner with Cape Regional Medical Center on a data collection and analysis project to provide the type of detail on beach-related injuries that the federal and state agencies stated was needed. 
The mayor said the city would consider the make-up and charge to the committee as that project develops.
Council member Roger Furlin posed the question what should be the city’s criteria in considering beach safety? “We will never eliminate all injuries, so how do we know when our beaches are safe?” he said. 
Furlin urged that part of the effort be to define the criteria that “lets us know when the task is complete.”
Outdoor Seating
City Manager Bruce MacLeod said that the outdoor seating committee would take more time before it presented a draft ordinance to council. He indicated that work is progressing well but said the additional charge to consider options for improving parking in the city has added to the group’s efforts requiring more time.
MacLeod said the committee would meet again Sept. 13.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.