WILDWOOD CREST – The beach patrol managed to make it through the 2023 summer season with the leadership working off a folding table and lifeguards working without a locker room and modern plumbing facilities.
The headquarters was cleared out around this time last year in preparation for a $2 million rehabilitation project, and the beach patrol moved into the Nesbitt Building behind it, into the space that formerly housed the tourist information center. The tourism center was moved to the Crest Pavilion.
Beach patrol chief Buddy Johnson said it is amazing how everything worked out considering that, on any given day, there were 70 lifeguards working without locker rooms.
“We even managed to stay out of the way of the construction workers,” Johnson said.
The headquarters is expected to reopen next summer, with more space and updated facilities.
For the time being, the beach patrol has been depending on the kindness of other departments, such as the police, fire and EMS units. The beach patrol is storing its equipment in containers and in pods on the fire company lot.
The unit also had to work in the shadow of a major hotel rehabilitation project across the street and all of the traffic associated with that. Johnson said it was a major project for the police department and public works to set up the traffic plan – and it worked, he said.
“The chief managed to pull all this together,” said Commissioner Joe Schiff, the borough’s director of public safety.
“People were more than willing to help us out,” Johnson said.
He said despite all the changes and inconveniences, none of the services the lifeguards offered changed, including transportation services for the handicapped and medical assistance. The beach patrol continued its training and its protection of the beaches.
The headquarters footprint is essentially the same and was several decades in the making. In the 1950s the beach patrol building was a box, and it was added onto three times, including a garage and a second floor.
“About every 10 years it changes,” Johnson said.
However, there has not been anything done to the headquarters for 30 or 40 years. It has looked as if it needed a makeover, but was found to be structurally sound. The decision was made to renovate it, because if the building were demolished, there was no guarantee a new one could be built within the same footprint.
Schiff said the architect came up with a good design for the project, with the building’s exterior mimicking the Nesbitt Building and the bike rental building – a white exterior with a blue metal roof. The headquarters’ flat roof will be replaced with a pitched roof.
Johnson said one of the major changes is that there will be a women’s locker room for the first time, with room for 30 female lifeguards. There will also be an outside shower to rinse off sand, something the headquarters never had.
Schiff said he has worked with the beach patrol for a dozen years as a driver in the transportation program for the handicapped. He said he worked with Johnson and the other beach patrol officers to develop the best plan for the remodeling project.
At the same time, the building will be purely functional, Johnson said, with “no fluff,” no wasted space and no unnecessary expenses. Like the old headquarters, it will not have heating or air conditioning – just open garage doors to let the sea breeze run through the building. Johnson said he thinks everyone will be happy with the rehabilitated building.
“It will be similar to what is there now, except there will be new plumbing and electric,” he said.
Contact the author, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
