LBI merchants hope beach closure doesn't dig into bottom line
By DONNA WEAVER Staff Writer, (609) 978-2015
Published: Friday, April 27, 2007
Tony Grasso displays the stock of pails and shovels that the Wave Hog Surf Shop in Ship Bottom carries.The question is,will beachgoers be able to use them this season?
Staff photo by Bill Gross
SHIP BOTTOM — The sand on the local beaches, and whatever ordnance is buried in it, was sucked up from the ocean floor, pumped through a pipe and shoved around on the beach — but officials seem concerned that a child with a plastic shovel might set something off.
After the World War II-era ordnance was found in March, Keith Watson, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said it would take a lot to set one off, although for safety's sake, the corps wanted to make sure all of it was removed.
Nonetheless, Ship Bottom Mayor William Huelsenbeck announced at a Borough Council meeting Tuesday that children may not be allowed to dig in the sand with their shovels once the beaches are open, and metal-detecting may be forbidden.
Tony Grasso works for his son Mark, owner of the Wave Hog Surf Shop in Ship Bottom. On Thursday afternoon, the store smelled of new rubber from a shipment of beach clogs, shoes and sweet surf wax. Boxes of toy sand shovels and towers of buckets lined the floor of the store. Grasso shook his head as he spoke of the possible ban on digging in the sand.
Grasso said he couldn't get very concerned about the munitions, because they're 60 years old and were underwater for a long time.
“He does quite a business in here, but if the people don't come, I don't know. Believe it or not, we have business in May. A lot of people who rent their houses out in the summer come down next month,” Grasso said.
The Exit 63 Wearhouse, formerly Beach Nutz, located in Surf City, is a short walk from the Wave Hog. Sand toys and beach gear fill the store where owner Joe Muzzillo also makes custom T-shirts.
Although toys for digging in the sand are not a big part of the Wearhouse's sales, Muzzillo said, it's always a draw, since people come in for sand toys and buy something else.
“We're coming out with a bomb-squad line,” Muzzillo said. “We're making up T-shirts, stickers and hats that say ‘Surf City' across the front and ‘Bomb Squad' on the back. I wore one the other day, and people were asking if I was from the bomb squad.
“Absolutely, I'm concerned, but it is what it is and we're trying to make the best of it,” Muzzillo said.
“I think if we can get the beaches open and people on them, we can show that they're safe. Once the beaches open there is a comfort level that will transpire,” said Rick Reynolds, director of the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce.
But Reynolds said he can understand why local businesses would be concerned about the closed beaches.
“I guess I could understand a ban on metal detecting to not encourage searching for these things. But I think they're probably just making sure it's safe. It's highly unlikely to see an issue of injury,” Reynolds said. “It's been a hard time for the business owners because they have not been able to physically see the beaches being opened.”
Meanwhile, portions of Ship Bottom and Surf City beaches will not be reopened today as had been projected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers one week ago.
A status report dated April 20 and posted on the state Department of Environmental Protection Web site states that the corps would be ready to open two taper areas from a technical standpoint by April 27. Those areas include South Seventh to South Third streets in Ship Bottom and North 25th to North 21st streets in Surf City.
Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the DEP, said Thursday that the department was provided with the report from the corps.
Corps spokesman Khaalid Walls said Thursday afternoon that opening portions of the beaches today was not going to happen.
The discovery of military munitions on the beaches last month contributed to the delay of the beach-replenishment project's completion. Walls said last week that 108 munitions have been found from Surf City and Ship Bottom beaches combined — 29 more items than the previous week.
Walls could not give a breakdown as to how many of the munitions were found in Ship Bottom.
Walls said that from a technical standpoint, portions of beach in Surf City and Ship Bottom are clear. However, the beaches cannot reopen without regulatory concurrence, an agreement on land-use controls and the consensus of all stakeholders, Walls said.
Those stakeholders, according to Walls, include the corps, the DEP, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Surf City and Ship Bottom.
“So far, we haven't been able to accommodate everyone and have the meeting in order to reopen the beaches,” Wall said. “This is not really a setback; we're just in the process of coordinating those meetings.”
Walls said the goal for reopening the beaches is still Memorial Day weekend — a month from today.
“If it could be earlier, it will be, but safety is our main concern,” Walls said.
Staff writer Rob Spahr contributed to this report.
__________________ To seek out old treasures and lost cellar holes, to boldly detect where none have detected before!
