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Nov. 18 to 24
Inlet Sand
The sand from Hereford Inlet can once again be used by the Army Corps of Engineers for authorized beach replenishment projects. That is the result of a piece of legislation dubbed the Beach Act that cleared both houses of Congress on bipartisan votes and that President Biden is expected to sign into law.
This ends a controversy that has been going on since 2016 that has seen administrative rulings both for and against the use of the inlet sand for beach replenishment.
It began when the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife attorneys said that the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, familiarly known as CBRA, prohibited the use of federal funds to mine sand in a CBRA-defined area for the purposes of replenishing beaches out of the CBRA area. There are those who will claim the policy never changed since CBRA was passed in 1982, and those who say that conclusion is patently false.
Regardless of that, sand from the inlet can, once Biden puts his signature to the legislation, be used for the replenishment of Stone Harbor beaches going forward. That helps more than just one borough.
Once there is no longer a need to supply Stone Harbor from the more remote Townsends Inlet through use of an island-long pipe with booster pumps, the cost goes down for Stone Harbor residents, and Avalon no longer has to be concerned with getting less sand than it needs because of the finite amount that can be mined from Townsends Inlet for any one project.
The story is not as rosy for North Wildwood. The Beach Act began life as an effort to expand the CBRA-designated areas through new maps. It was sponsored by a Virginia congresswoman whose purpose had nothing to do with beach replenishment.
Language was later inserted in that bill through the agency of local representatives like our own Jeff Van Drew to benefit four specific beach nourishment projects, one of them using Hereford Inlet sand for Seven Mile Island replenishments.
Initial reports left open the question of whether the new legislation would benefit North Wildwood and/or the dune and berm project across Five Mile Island.
But Warwick Group Consultants, which was hired by Avalon to help lobby for a positive Hereford Inlet decision, explain that the Hereford to Cape May project authorized for the Army Corps was not an existing federal project and was not specifically dealt with in the new legislation.
Dan Ginolfi of Warwick told the Herald that the ultimate determination of the ability of the Army Corps to use Hereford sand for beach work in the Wildwoods will depend on a process of legislative guidance and interpretation that will take time.
Another Rate Hike
Atlantic City Electric has requested a distribution expense rate increase to recover the cost of capital projects that “continue to ensure safe and reliable service across South Jersey.” This “delivery rate adjustment” would increase the monthly bill for ACE customers by 8%, or $12.96 for a customer using an average of 643 kilowatt hours per month. The request must be approved by the state Board of Public Utilities.
The request follows on the heels of an approved new fee for ACE customers to support what are known as the Triennium 2 energy efficiency programs. That fee will be phased in over the next three years, adding as much as $5.06 to an electric bill. This fee was already approved by the BPU as “a major milestone in our progress toward achieving the goals set out in Governor Murphy’s Energy Master Plan.”
This all precedes what energy and utility professionals expect will be a significant hike in the supply portion of the electric bill due to unexpectedly high bids in the most recent energy capacity auction held by the grid operator for 13 states that include New Jersey. The process here is an effort to gain BPU approval of new supply rates in early 2025 so that they can be implemented by June 1.
Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R-2) has issued a statement attacking Exelon, the parent company of ACE, for the proposed hikes. Van Drew, through a release, calls on the public to “flood your state officials with calls, messages, and concerns and demand they call on the NJBPU to reject this outrageous hike.”
The New Jersey Office of Rate Counsel, responsible for representing the interests of residents and other ratepayers, has called on the Legislature to craft funding options that do not place so much of the expense of the state’s energy transition strategy unfairly on the backs of ratepayers.
Election Turnout
We were told that the 2024 election would produce massive turnout in the face of stark choices for direction in the future. The final results are in, and the official numbers for Cape May County show that 72% of its registered voters cast ballots.
That turnout in the county topped the nearly 64% for the voting eligible population in the state and in the nation. Those figures come from the University of Florida’s election lab. However, the county did better in the last presidential election year, with a 78% turnout in 2020. While the election lab uses voting-eligible population and the county references registered voters, a quick check of census data shows that in Cape May County those two designations are practically identical, with less than a few hundred of the voting age population not registered.
The highest turnout in the county was in Cape May Point, where 85% of the registered voters cast a ballot. The lowest was Middle Township’s District 8 at 54%.
Voter turnout has long benn an issue in American politics. According to the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, no presidential election since 1900 has seen two-thirds or more of the population’s eligible voters cast ballots.
Happenings
*In a time when tourism economic figures are still being talked about in terms of pre-pandemic and post-pandemic, the Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority announced what it called historic tourism revenue growth in 2024.
*At least one member of the Cape May County Board of County Commissioners is evaluating how well that board is doing in being transparent. Will Morey told his fellow board members during their bimonthly meeting Tuesday, Nov. 12, “I think the board does a good job here in a lot of ways. And it seems to me that [transparency] would be something that we should … have some enthusiasm for, so to speak, about sharing broadly with the public.”
*Upper Township’s deputy tax assessor, an 18-year employee of the township, said she was being paid the salary of a keyboarding clerk for 15 years despite being certified under her current title.
*Avalon is considering requiring that trucks carrying construction or landscaping debris through town have secure coverings.
*North Beach Avenue is increasingly dangerous: That’s the message Reeds Beach property owners brought to the Middle Township Committee on Monday, Nov. 18.
*Lower Township plans to hire a full-time deputy manager, at a salary of $80,000 to $90,000, to assist Township Manager Mike Laffey.
*Veterans Committee Chairman Mike Marino presented Wildwood Crest with the New Jersey Governor’s “We Value Our Veterans” Community Award on Veterans Day in Holmdel.
*Avalon is planning to take action on one aspect of microplastic pollution of Avalon waterways and wetlands: those microplastics that are an unwelcome consequence of home construction.
*The Ferris wheel and carousel that have been described as iconic symbols of Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, and Ocean City itself, were on a Wonderland for-sale list at a trade show Orlando, Florida, but their owner says they are not on the block.
*A drawn-out legal battle between North Wildwood, desperate to achieve shore protection no matter who or what got in its way, and a state agency that stood up to local officials it claimed were disregarding its authority and proper procedure by implementing unauthorized coastal reinforcement projects looks to be ending.
*Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland has announced that Ruddy Narvaez, 36, of Galloway Township, has been sentenced to three years in state prison for his role in a fatal vehicular homicide that occurred in Ocean City in June 2021.
*A plan to build a 340-home residential community off Indian Trail Road that is expected to net Middle Township more than $9.7 million advanced Nov. 18 when the Township Committee introduced two ordinances needed for the project.
*Wildwood Crest Deputy Mayor Joseph Franco says he would like there to be a public meeting before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/state Department of Environmental Protection dune and beach berm project begins.
*The Nov. 21 report of the U. S. Drought Monitor shows that Cape May County has moved into the extreme drought category from the previous week, when more than half the county was one level back, at severe drought. The state has a drought warning in effect, along with stage three fire restrictions.
*A woman who went to bed with her 6-month-old son after drinking 12 to 14 bottles of airplane-bottle-size vodka, leading to the infant’s suffocation death, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
*Atlantic City Electric is seeking a rate increase that would raise a typical customer’s monthly bill by 8%.
*Some residents of Shunpike Road between Oslo and Davis roads in Middle Township are not particularly pleased with the Wildwood Water Utility’s plans to drill wells and build a treatment plant on a vacant site in their neighborhood.
Spout Off of the Week
Please remember the less fortunate this time of year. There are many local groups and foodbanks that help those-in-need in our community. Please be generous. Thanks.
North Cape May
