NORTH WILDWOOD – City Council passed the first reading of a $2 million bond ordinance at its Jan. 18 meeting.
According to Mayor Patrick Rosenello, the money will primarily go towards the “improvement of public property and the replenishment of the city’s beaches.”
The city’s finance office confirmed that most of the money will go towards beach replenishment and that the ordinance was worded as such to give the city wiggle room.
The bond money does not represent any new debt for the city, the mayor said.
At the meeting, City Administrator Ronald Simone said that a Jan. 16 nor’easter did significant damage to North Wildwood’s beaches.
“We lost a lot more beach… The last storm was one of the worst in history in terms of beach loss,” he said.
He noted that the storm damaged areas that the city was using to stockpile sand, and that another potential nor’easter through the weekend of Jan. 22-23 could do more significant damage.
Simone said, “There was a significant amount of dune scarping, erosion, cliffs at varying height from 14th to 16th (avenues), and for the first time that I have really seen, there’s a significant loss of sand between 20th and 17th (avenues), which was one of our main stockpile areas. Prayers that we are able to hold some form of a stockpile area to be able to proceed with beach replenishment.”
