‘Lighthouses’ on Cape May Bridge Likely to Remain

CAPE MAY – The signboards, lighthouses or outhouses, whatever you want to call the structures on the bridge entering Cape May from Schellenger’s Landing, are likely to remain in place.
A committee assembled to find a replacement for the “lighthouses,” has not come up with any other designs and seems to have moved in a different direction: oversight of any city project that may be historically incorrect.
In April, Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. asked Historic Preservation Commission member Tom Carroll to select five persons to form a committee to look at a replacement for the “lighthouses.” The final recommendation was to come before the HPC and City Council.
The committee was comprised of Carroll, developer Curtis Bashaw, real estate broker John Fleming, shop owner Hilary Pritchard and restaurateur/preservationist Dave Clemens. Councilwoman Terri Swain represented the city.
At a June 1 City Council meeting, Carroll told council the “lighthouses” should be removed until funding or an appropriate design for a replacement is found. He said the committee wished to review designs of the “publicscape” of the city.
Carroll said in the past the city put a chain link fence around the Madison Avenue Water Tower, concrete planters on the Washington Street Mall and undersized fountains in Rotary Park. He said those who know the city’s design standards should have been involved with those projects from the start.
Council had a resolution before it Tuesday establishing a policy for a committee of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission to review future city projects against HPC design standards but it went down in defeat in a 2-2 vote. Councilman David Kurkowski and Councilwoman Linda Steenrod voted for the resolution while Swain and Mahaney voted against it.
Deputy Mayor Niels Favre was absent from the meeting, recovering from knee surgery.
Mahaney told City Solicitor Tony Monzo the resolution did not reflect his wishes or that of Favre and was placing too much restriction on the city. The mayor said the resolution held the city to a higher standard than the city’s residents and exceeded municipal land use law.
Kurkowski suggested the resolution be rewritten and brought back at council’s next meeting.
Carroll said there was a difference of opinion if his committee was only supposed to be looking at the “lighthouses” on the bridge or finding a way to “prevent this in the future.”
“It was made very clear when the committee was formed that the sole purpose of this particular committee was to review the light piers on the bridge…” said Mahaney.
He said the committee was supposed to find something more appropriate including a design and cost estimate. The mayor said Carroll had indicated that Rhodeside and Harwell, landscape architects and consultants that produced a design plan for Cape May’s public spaces, had a design for the “lighthouses” on the bridge.
Mahaney said City Manager Bruce MacLeod found a conceptual design from Rhodeside and Harwell with a notation the contractor for the project would make the final design. He said City Engineer James Mott brought the conceptual design to council last year.
Bashaw had volunteered to raise funds to replace the “lighthouses” since there was no money left from an original county grant of $252,000 for the gateway project, said Mahaney. He said the city could not fund replacements for the structures.
Carroll said it was hard to come up with a new design when the committee felt the “lighthouses” currently on the bridge were not going to be removed. He said the longer the structures stay, the more they will be generally accepted.
Mahaney said public response to the “lighthouses” has become more favorable since they have been illuminated at night. He said the designs were presented to the public at a city council meeting.
The mayor spoke of removing the structures in April after a wave of criticism reached the media as far away as Philadelphia. The two structures that bear the words “Welcome to Cape May,” have been described by critics as Port-A-Potties and miniature golf course decorations.