Times
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Inside This Week’s Edition
THE SOUTHERN OCEAN
Vol. 3 - No. 43
A
Business Directory...................19 Classifieds................................20 Community News.................8-11 Dear Joel..................................16 Dr. Izzy’s Sound News..............14 Government...............................7 Inside The Law .........................17 Letters to the Editor.....................6 Wolfgang.................................23 WWW.MICROMEDIAPUBS.COM
April 16, 2016
Your FREE Weekly Hometown Newspaper | Serving Lacey, Waretown, Barnegat, Manahawkin, LBI, Tuckerton and Little Egg
Inlet Dredging Still Under Consideration
By Daniel Nee fter a nearly three month period of inactivity, beach replenishment efforts were poised to get back underway on Long Beach Island in early April. Crews from Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company have begun mobilizing equipment on numerous beaches in Beach Haven in preparation for the return of three dredge boats, the Liberty Island, Dodge Island and Padre Island, which exited the area in January to perform work in Georgia. The hiatus caused an uproar in the island community, with local officials decrying the decision by the contractor to leave the island during the winter storm season. After the January nor’easter, Long Beach Township was forced the truck in sand to the Holgate section, which is still badly damaged following Superstorm Sandy in 2012. According to the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, the Liberty Island scheduled to return to Ocean County by April 7, with
the Dodge Island and Padre Island April 10. The exact schedule for the work to be completed
is up in the air for two reasons: pending eminent domain proceedings in Long Beach Township and
–Photo by Daniel Nee The “crab,” a piece of equipment used in beach replenishment projects, has reappeared on the beach in the Holgate section of Long Beach Township.
Residents Plead For Road Repaving
By Daniel Nee BARNEGAT – Powell Lane in Barnegat Township is known for its potholes, poor drainage and eroding surface. It’s so bad that one resident said it is preventing her from being able to sell her home. Unfortunately, township officials cite the high cost of road construction as the primary driver behind delays in fixing the issues. “My street is horrible,” said Paul Bykow, a Powell Lane resident. “You guys show up, you throw some cold patch down, and it lasts a day, maybe two days. I’m starting (Repaving - See Page 5)
a decision that is expected to be forthcoming on whether the dredge boats will use a shoal off Little
–Photo by Daniel Nee Powell Lane in Barnegat, where residents have complained of road conditions.
Egg Inlet as a donor site from which replenishment sand will be sourced. In late February, the Army Cor ps began accepting comments after releasing a draft environmental assessment on the suitability of taking sand from the shoal. Elected officials and members of the local boating and fishing communities have pushed for sand from the shoal to be used in the project primarily because the inlet has become more difficult to navigate in recent years, adversely affecting the ability of the charter fishing fleet at the island’s southern end to survive. The federal government would not normally dredge Little Egg Inlet, as it does with Barnegat Inlet, since Little Egg is not considered a “commercial” inlet. The draft report from the Army Corps suggested Little Egg Inlet would be a suitable source for replenishment sand. The inlet, according to (Inlet - See Page 5)
Barnegat Police To Go High Tech
By Daniel Nee BARNEGAT – Police officers will soon have a robust weapon in their arsenal to keep the township safe: information. The police department is going digital, officials said at a recent meeting of the township committee. “More and more of the record-keeping and functionality in the police department is now computer-driven rather than paper-driven,” said Mayor John Novak. Soon, the department will debut Spillman public safety software, a
modern dispatching and information source for officers that provides in-depth information on calls, the history of calls to a particular address or from a particular phone number. The database-driven software will allow officers to cross reference information to provide a better understanding of who and what they are dealing with on a given call. “It keeps our police officers safe,” Novak said. The recent switch to county dispatching will allow the township (High Tech - See Page 5)