North Wildwood Beach Replenishment Underway

The following story and photos is courtesy of citizen journalist George Capua. The Herald thanks its readers for their interest in news and encourages them to continue to submit their photos and stories.
NORTH WILDWOOD – The mostly state funded North Wildwood beach replenishment is underway as of last week and it will go well into November.
The project is being worked on 24 hours per day to get the sand dunes completed. The base of the sand dunes will be 100 feet and the top will be 14 feet above the high tide level. After the sand dunes are completed the beach will be widened to 300 feet. As part of the project, at the end of each block there will be ramps to go over the sand dunes, 4 or 5 of them will be handicapped accessible. Then there will be the planting of tens of thousands of dune grass stalks. The project will extend all the way to the edge of Wildwood.
Tom McElroy, who lives on New York Avenue in North Wildwood, is very unhappy about the new sand dunes as is many others. He and his wife go to 3rd Avenue most mornings to sit on the benches and watch the peaceful ocean while they have a cup of coffee and sometimes a breakfast sandwich. He now knows those peaceful mornings are over. Tom also wonders why the state is spending this money when they are broke.
Another spectator says North Wildwood is messing with Mother Nature, she will bring in a big storm and wash everything away. A third local says they are cutting back on social security and wasting this money instead of helping the retirees.
A few others were questioning why they weren’t informed of the sand dunes. There were presentations to town council and a public forum concerning the beach replenishment. The North Wildwood residents said they thought it was only going to be adding to the beach, they had no idea about the dunes otherwise they would have been there.