Nails in Tires: A Sign of Progress?

WILDWOOD – At the Dec. 14 Wildwood Commissioners meeting, City Engineer Tony Chadwell commented that construction was in full swing on the island.
“Yes, I know. I had four nails taken out of car tires,” Mayor Pete Byron said.
A local auto repair shop reported having repaired four of Byron’s car tires, extracting three nails from his wife’s car tires and one from Byron’s car.
“So out of eight tires, four of them had nails,” Byron said.
They were not the only ones. The shop, which was visited on the morning of Dec. 19, had repaired 35 flat tires over the previous weekend.
“They’re just out of control. The contractors are just not accountable,” the manager said.
Byron said it would be impossible to figure out from which jobsite the nail in the nail in your tire came from.
At the same time, Byron said the signs of construction seem to be everywhere in Wildwood.
“There is hardly a street where you don’t see some construction,” Byron said.
Byron said the years 2005 through 2007 seemed to be the heyday of construction in Wildwood, and people were picking up nails in their tires everywhere. He said at lease 80% of the work being done is reconstruction, which he feels is not a bad thing.
Sometimes, what seems to be a problem for people is, in a way, a positive sign for others. One former mayor of Cape May, the late Jerry Inderwies, once commented on the city’s parking problem, saying, “When we don’t have a parking problem, that is the time to worry.”
Perhaps then, when your tire picks up a nail from new construction, you should consider it taking one for the team.
Email: csouth@cmcherald.com