Landmark Victorian home in Cape May will come out of Sea Mist
By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6711
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2007

CAPE MAY — “When was the fire?” asks a summer tourist peddling a surrey down Beach Avenue on Tuesday morning.
A neighbor to The Sea Mist, the landmark four-story Victorian on the beachfront said to be the most photographed structure in Cape May, has to tell somebody for the umpteenth time there was no fire.

What began as a simple renovation to the 1873 landmark has, well, gotten more complicated. It happens with old buildings. Much of the structure is now in a dumpster.

The good news is the new owners say that by next summer the town will have a new Sea Mist that looks just like the old Sea Mist.

“We had to do a more extreme deconstruction than we planned. We're anxious to bring it back to what we think it should be, a landmark,” said Barry Sharer, one of the principals in the company Sea Mist Cape May, LLC.

Sharer and his partners bought the Sea Mist last year with plans to turn the 15-unit apartment complex into eight condominiums. The units will range from $479,000 for a one bedroom to $2,299,000 for the fourth floor penthouse.
It would have cost simply $350,000 to replace the structure. The renovation was originally expected to cost $1.3 million, but that estimate is rising fast.

Renovations are always more expensive than new construction, but in this case, rotten wood and foundation issues complicated matters. It was originally a two-story house with an attic. A third and fourth floor, several additions and decks, were added to the structure.

“There was a lot of added weight put on the foundation it wasn't designed to handle,” Sharer said.

The job now includes new piling, footings and steel girders. None of that will be visible on the outside when the new cedar clapboard is nailed on next year. There will be trim and columns made of Cyprus wood. No vinyl siding. It will be painted. An artist's rendering at the site shows the same red and white coloring, and all five decks are still there overlooking the ocean.

Neighbors were happy to hear that. The Sea Mist has been featured in commercials touting New Jersey's tourism industry. It has been in national magazines and on a New Jersey lottery ticket.

“It's good for business. I can't tell you how many people stop and ask about this. It's helped tourism so much,” said next-door neighbor Kate Egan

The Egans have been next door since 1965 and have old photographs when The Sea Mist was just another two-story house on the beach. They credit the late Fred Morrison, who bought it after the 1962 storm, with turning it into the most picturesque building in a town full of picturesque buildings.

“Fred built it by hand,” said Mary Louise Egan.

Much of what he built was recently removed under a partial demolition permit. City Construction Official William Callahan hasn't heard the end of it.

“My phone rings every day, and they think it's a fire or a bomb hit it,” Callahan said.

The city takes some flak, but Callahan said in the end the structure will conform to modern building codes but with the same look and design of the original. Callahan noted the city's Historic Preservation Commission approved the plans. He said his whole office staff worked on it, putting in twice as much time as normal.

“If it ends up like it was, we'll all be heroes. If it doesn't, they'll kill me,” Callahan said.

Sharer said demolition work is complete and a framing crew should be rebuilding as early as this Thursday.

That will please Glenn McBrearty, a contractor working next door at the Beach Guest House. He admired what is left of The Sea Mist on Tuesday.

“It will look great when they're done, a grand old dame,” McBrearty said.

There will be some minor changes. Callahan said the front awning will span the front of the structure instead of going out towards the beach. Sharer said the columns were four inches square and they will be upgraded to eight inches square. Parking will be moved from the front lawn to the back of the structure. There will be a fire escape in the back and an elevator in the building. There are also lighting changes to highlight the building at night.

To e-mail Richard Degener at The Press:RDegener@pressofac.com

Picture-perfect park
By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6712
Published: Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Press of Atlantic City

OCEAN CITY — The city unveiled its latest park Tuesday in its bustling downtown.

Gateway Park on Ninth Street features a shale fountain surrounded by benches and flowers. It's one of the tiniest of city parks but offers a little respite from downtown traffic.

The park on West Avenue is a big step up from the gravel lot it replaced, said Leslie Skibo, of Community Art Projects, the group that initiated the mural.

She credited Georgia Arnold for overseeing construction of the park for the city.

“It's a home run. It's exactly what we wanted. It's just beautiful,” she said. “We have a little stage here. We can have picnics in the park, poetry readings. We could even have weddings here.”
And it's a good way to frame the towering mural “Daydream Junction” by artist Victor Grasso. Grasso attended Tuesday's official opening. When he painted the mural in 2005, it overlooked a dirt parking lot.

“I couldn't have pictured it better. It looks like they did an amazing job,” he said.

The park marks the first of several planned improvements to Ninth Street, the busiest by far of four entrances to the island. The city is keen to make a good first impression, Mayor Sal Perillo said.

As part of a new Route 52 causeway, Ninth Street will be elevated from Bay Avenue past Gateway Park to Asbury Avenue to prevent flooding that is common on these bayside roads now.

The county paid for the park as part of $1 million in improvements to the resort last year. The work included the new Ocean City Dog Park off West Avenue, improvements to soccer fields and new pavers at downtown intersections.

The county contributed $376,142 this year toward more improvements at recreation complexes on the island.

To e-mail Michael Miller at The Press:MMiller@pressofac.com

Jun 18, 2007 7:28 pm US/Eastern

Disappearing Beaches A Major Shore Concern
CBS 3, Philadelphia
Cydney Long
Reporting

(CBS 3) OCEAN CITY, N.J. Aside from the stretch on five mile beach, also known as the Wildwoods, Jersey Shore beaches are disappearing.

Local leaders met on Monday in attempt to figure out how to combat the growing problem.

The beaches are crucial to the South Jersey economy as tourism is the number one industry in the Garden State.

The long walk in the hot sand to your beach towel and umbrella near the surf, whether you know it or not, gets shorter every summer.

"We've probably lost 500,000 cubic yards in last two years," Avalon Emergency Manager Harry DeButts said.

Some of Avalon's north end beaches have lost the equivalent of 125 feet of sand from the dune to the water.

And that is why concerned residents, politicians, the Army core of engineers and other experts met Monday for the annual Cape May County beach conference.

"It's an effort to learn what Mother Nature is doing and to work with her, not against her," DeButts explained.

"The majority of people who come down the shore, come because they want to enjoy our beaches and our bays, if we lose that we lose that, we lose a major economic initiative in state of New Jersey," Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew said.

Ocean City, Sea Isle, and Strathmere utilize geo-tubes to create an artificial dune that will not erode.

"To protect the shore, it's simply pumping sand into a geo-textile fabric, in effect they are long sausage like shapes, and they create a barrier along the shoreline to protect the property behind it," Ocean City engineer George Savastano explained.

But they say the best alternative, though costly, is to replenish the sand and 25-year shore resident Harold Purvis may have put it best.

"The people love the beach, if the beach wasn't here, we wouldn't have any body coming," Purvis said.

Ocean City spends roughly $8-10 million a year every three years for beach replenishment.

City Council Votes In Ocean City Boardwalk Debate
Jun 15, 2007 12:18 am US/Eastern
Todd Quinones
Reporting - CBS 3

(CBS 3) OCEAN CITY, N.J. City Council voted four to three in favor of using old tropical trees to replace parts of Ocean City's boardwalk on Thursday.

The decision was a controversial one.

The boardwalk needs repair and what wood to lay down, what people walk on, was the center of a heated debate.

"I respect the opposition's position on this but they're flat dead wrong. The zoo in Washington, our national zoo, has used that. Disney World has used that," Boardwalk Merchants Association Charlie Caucci said.

"In order to cover what Ocean City wants, it's going to take 2,000 acres of rain forest to get to those trees," Georgine Shanley said.

City Council weighed replacing the old treated pine with Ipe, a much harder, more durable wood found in the rainforest.

Ipe would last longer and cut down on long term maintenance work. Over the next five years, Ocean City wants to replace five blocks of its boardwalk beginning with 9th Street next year.

However, environmentalists claim that harvesting tropical hardwood contributes to increasing green house gases.

"It's crazy for a shore community in New Jersey to be participating in activities that are increasing the likelihood of global warming," environmentalist Tim Keating said.

But others contend whether Ocean City buys Ipe or not, it would not matter to people working in the rain forest.

"They going to still cut down the trees because it's a necessity to them," one woman said.

City Council's vote to use Ipe applies to only one block of the boardwalk, the 9th Street block, at a cost of about $1.3 million.

Next year, City Council will have to vote again on what material to use in the next phase of the project.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Take that vacation — it could help your career
Down time helps workers recharge, and smart bosses understand

By Eve Tahmincioglu
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 3:57 p.m. ET June 10, 2007

Alexa Hamill, who works in human resources for the Philadelphia office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, got a voice mail last May from a partner at her firm advising her to put in for vacation time. The summer was quickly approaching and Hamill had yet to schedule some time off.

She informed the partner that she’d figure it out, but she never did.

In June, the manager paid a visit to her office.

“He asked me to lay out my calendar going forward,” she says.

Even though the summer is the busiest time for her department, the two hashed out a compromise. She would take one of the slower weeks off but call in for a midweek meeting while on vacation.

Her getaway: A trip to the beach in nearby Ocean City, N.J., with her son. “I did relax and was able to recharge my batteries. It made me more effective at work.”

Few workers have a boss who would try that hard to make sure they got their earned vacation time, but what Hamill experienced is part of a small but growing trend in corporate America. Companies are beginning to realize the benefits of vacations for their weary workers — fewer sick days, smaller health care bills and a more motivated workforce.

Unfortunately, not all employers get this, and sometimes it’s the workers themselves that don’t get this, either. They have a perverted view that not taking time off and keeping their nose to the grindstone will advance their career, or keep their jobs from ending up on the chopping block.

But in fact, it could lead to burnout, emotional and physical illness, and end up jeopardizing their careers, their lives.

So take vacation, people!

“Taking a vacation is not a luxury — it’s a necessity,” says Kathleen Hall, founder of The Stress Institute in Atlanta. “If you don’t have the opportunity to relax and reflect you get stressed, and chronic stress is the driver of most diseases — heart disease, obesity, insomnia.”

Despite the repercussions, a growing number of Americans are tempting the stress gods by bypassing their time off even though they’ve earned it. A survey taken by the Conference Board last year before the summer season kicked into gear, found that only 39.8 percent of individuals planned to take a vacation within the next six months, a 28-year low.

A more recent study taken in April by recruiting firm Hudson, found that 56 percent of the work force does not take advantage of all their vacation time. And when they get away, 35 percent of managers check in with the office frequently, often daily; and 14 percent of non-managers do the same. One-quarter of the work force says their boss expects them to be accessible while on vacation.

“We’ve become a nation of workaholics,” says Jeff Pfeffer, Stanford University professor and the author of the forthcoming book "What They Were Thinking: Unconventional Wisdom about Management." “Part of it is a macho culture of ‘I can work more than you can. I don’t need sleep or rest.’ ”

Indeed, the United States is one of the only industrialized nations that does not require employers to provide their workers with vacation or sick time.

Ask yourself, he says, why pro football players play when they’re hurt, even though evidence shows it can shorten their careers. “It’s all this think-tough attitude. That you’re more loyal or dedicated if you forgo vacation.”

“Given how screwed up the American workplace is today, giving up your earned time might get you kudos from some managers," he acknowledges. But it won’t help workers in the long run, he adds.

If your productivity declines, you won’t get raises or promotions, and you could end up losing your job. This becomes even more critical when your job involves creative or critical thought, experts says.

A good rest may even bring career advancement.

“Your vacation just might be the key to identifying the new product or strategy you’ve been struggling with for months,” says Noah Blumenthal, a consultant and author of "You’re Addicted to You: Why It’s So Hard to Change and What You Can Do About It."

For those who do pack their bags, a long weekend won’t really cut it.

"It is important for people to take their vacations — meaning vacations of a week or two long. Taking a day or two doesn't do as much good," explains Wallace Huffman, economics professor at Iowa State University. "Productivity could increase by up to 60 percent for employees in the month or two following a good vacation."

And that doesn’t mean taking along a suitcase full of electronic gadgets that keep you connected to the office or plant. You have to disconnect in order to unwind. Minimize the use of cell phones, laptops and PDAs if you want all the benefits of relaxation, Huffman adds.

“In order to have a successful long-term career, you need to manage your career, plan to take time off regularly to allow your body to regenerate so not to suffer from burnout, exhaustion, depression,” he advises. “This becomes even more important as people live longer.”

Workplace legal expert Robin Bond offered these vacation tips:

Inform others in advance. Let co-workers and clients know of your vacation time as soon as you plan it, and send a reminder of your absence as the dates approach. Advise clients whom they can contact when you are away.
Have a buddy system in place. Get projects to a good stopping place before you leave, and ask a trusted colleague to serve as a backup in case any urgent problems arise in your absence. Be sure to return the favor. Schedule around busy business cycles.

And relax!

We need to start thinking as a nation that leisure time is why we all work in the first place. No?

Maybe you’re one of those poor souls who don’t even get time off. Pfeffer’s advice if you are in this position, or if you are pressured not to take allotted time: “Find another job.” Don’t hang around waiting for your employer to become enlightened about the benefits of time off, he stresses.

If you get tons of time off at your job and are still not taking it, you may have self-esteem issues, he suspects. Some workers believe that their company will fall apart if they’re not there, and managers can play into that. The bottom line, Pfeffer says, is that it’s all just an “ego trip.”

“You have to say to yourself, ‘I can go away for a week or two, and everything will be fine.’ ”

Seat-belt tickets don't click with Cape May merchants

By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6711
Published: Tuesday, June 5, 2007

CAPE MAY — As tourists streamed into town during Memorial Day weekend, there was more than a day of fun at the beach awaiting them.

There was Cape May's finest waiting on Lafayette Street, the main entrance into town. If visitors didn't have their seat belts fastened, a summons was issued under the city's annual “Click It Or Ticket” campaign.

That brought Robert Steenrod of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May to City Council's meeting on Monday afternoon.

“This town is spending a lot of money to bring these tourists here and to have them pulled over for a $46 ticket doesn't send them the right message,” Steenrod said.

Steenrod reminded council of recent city efforts to be friendlier to tourists, to win business back after some soft tourist seasons. He said one tourist who got a ticket told the chamber it “was sneaky and underhanded.” He said the town was shooting itself in the foot.

“We're reverting back to our old behavior of telling them we don't want them here,” Steenrod said. “We don't need the money that bad, do we?” Steenrod said.

The chamber president got some sympathy from council, and also some comments about how it is the law to wear a seat belt. While the chamber was inundated with calls, Mayor Jerry Inderwies said he also received six or seven at his house. Inderwies said the seat-belt tickets are not a moneymaker and are part of a statewide program.

City Manager Lou Corea said the city received a grant from the state for the effort. He said the state picks the dates and locations for the seat-belt checks.

While Steenrod urged the city to only issue traffic warnings, Corea said that under the grant there is a zero-tolerance policy.

“There are no warnings,” Corea said.

Actually, there were some warnings, well in advance, Corea said. The city posted a sign explaining that Click It Or Ticket was coming and even advertised it on the radio. Some people never got the message.

“It's not something where Cape May said, “Let's spring it on the tourists.' We issued 22 tickets. We were told when, where and how by the state,” Corea said.

Four of Cape May County's 16 municipalities got Click It Or Ticket grants this year. The money is actually from the federal government, but the program is administered N.J. Division of Highway and Traffic Safety. Neighboring Lower Township ran a Click It Or Ticket program from May 21 to June 3.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine's failure to wear a seat belt in a recent car accident was, of course, mentioned at the meeting.

To e-mail Richard Degener at The Press:RDegener@pressofac.com

Cameras keep Northfield traffic rolling

By MARTIN DeANGELIS Staff Writer, (609) 272-7237
Published: Monday, June 4, 2007

NORTHFIELD — In a parking lot at the new-look intersection of Route 9 and Tilton Road, Amanda Larsen has a perfect view of the new cameras sitting on top of the traffic-light supports. And sure, she knows what those cameras are doing there, she said confidently the other day.

“It’s to catch people who run red lights,” said Larsen, who lives in Northfield and works in a store at one of Atlantic County’s busiest corners. “That’s what it’s there for.”

A few minutes later, Shirley Clark said she hadn’t noticed the new cameras, but she also immediately thought she had figured out what they’re all about.
“They catch people going through the light and teach them not to do it again,” said Clark, another Northfield resident.

But across town at City Hall, Northfield Police Chief Robert James said there’s just one problem with that logical-sounding and popular explanation: It’s wrong.
“It has nothing to do with us,” the chief said after the cameras showed up on the corner. “There are no red-light cameras there at that intersection.”

Tim Greeley of the New Jersey Department of Transportation — which maintains Route 9 and oversaw a $6.9 million rebuilding project that left the crowded crossroads with new lanes and lines, new traffic lights and timing patterns and those new cameras when the job ended last month — confirmed that the cameras “certainly have nothing to do with police activity or anything like that.”

The real answer, he said, is a bit more pedestrian.

“They’re basically used as detectors — they detect when a vehicle is waiting at the crossroads, and they send a signal for the light to turn green within the already designated timing” of the traffic lights, Greeley said.

You’ve probably seen the same technology at work for years, when you pull up to a red light at an otherwise empty intersection and, after a few seconds, your light turns green to send you on your way.

Greeley explains that the old way of keeping traffic moving was to bury the sensors under the stopping line at a traffic light. But the new system improves the sensors by making them easier to deal with, he said.

“They require much less wiring, and you don’t have to dig underground to fix or adjust them,” he said. “With the old style, the wires were all underground. The new cameras are very much more accessible.”

That also means they aren’t connected to the theory that popped up among some locals when they saw the lenses.
The DOT does post and regularly update pictures from busy state-highway crossroads on its Web site, www.njcommuter.com/

A button on that page connects to more than two dozen roads with traffic cameras around New Jersey, although the current southernmost choice seems to be in Camden County. U.S. Route 30 — which starts (or ends) in Atlantic City, and runs through many Atlantic County municipalities — is one of the options, but its farthest camera to the south is in Lindenwold, Camden County.

Erin Phalon, also of the DOT, said the agency is considering adding several traffic-camera locations farther south to the state Web site in the next few years, but has no definite spots set yet. Still, she added that traffic reports are available now when needed in printed form on njcommuter.com from all over New Jersey, including Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties.

“Even where you can’t see the traffic cameras, you can get information from them,” Phalon said.

But again, the new Northfield cameras aren’t those cameras anyway. And no, they aren’t what another Route 9 regular suspected when he stepped out of his music shop the other day to see what was new in his neighborhood.

“I thought it was some kind of terrorist thing,” said Terry Shellock, the owner of the CD Exchange in Center Point Plaza, shielding his eyes for a look at the camera facing south on Route 9. “And it’s not like those tollbooth cameras?”

No, it’s not. And it’s not. It’s just a way to help you make it through the light.

To e-mail Martin DeAngelis at The Press:MDeangelis@pressofac.com

Affordable-housing options provoke fear, dissent in Upper Twp.

By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6712
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Friday, June 1, 2007

UPPER TOWNSHIP — The Planning Board's solution to the township's affordable-housing conundrum proved controversial during Thursday's meeting.

Several residents painted a grim picture of beer-swilling, drug-addicted criminals filling the schools with their special-needs children. The influx of low-income residents would lead to crippling property taxes, drained educational resources, higher crime rates and congested roads, they argued.

But not even the Planning Board was pleased with its options. The board was still considering changes to its zoning ordinance at 11 p.m.

The township must find a way to provide about 341 affordable homes or face lawsuits by builders who offer to solve the problem at the expense of local zoning rules. The township successfully defended itself against one builder's lawsuit already, but only because the housing project would have encroached on wetlands in Tuckahoe.

Another proposed development called Shaw Farms would provide about 134 homes, 20 percent of which would be dedicated to low-income residents. The board and Township Committee are considering many other options and at least 12 other locations for low-income homes, assisted-living centers and other ways to meet the obligation under state law.

“I feel for everyone in this room. I wish we didn't have this burden, but we do,” Mayor Richard Palombo said.

Some residents in neighboring Shore Acres balked at the idea of low-income residents moving next door where the board is creating a Mobile Home district. They suggested that low-income families would be more likely to have special-needs children requiring triple the educational resources and costs. And they questioned whether the township would have to create its own police department to address the higher crime rate they anticipated.

Township Engineer Paul Dietrich interjected, “There are good rich people and good poor people, just as there are bad rich people and bad poor people.”

But for some residents, the issue was the possibility of school taxes skyrocketing with an influx of children.

“I'm going to be taxed out of my home. That scares the hell out of me,” resident Linda Jones said.

Palombo acknowledged the residents' concerns about school taxes. Upper Township does not have a local-purpose tax. But educating a single child costs significantly more per year than a typical family pays in property taxes.

Tuckahoe resident Stephen Martinelli suggested rezoning the township's campgrounds to allow for year-round habitation by low-income residents. Palombo said he would keep that option open.

Likewise, he said he would consider paying a poorer town for affordable-housing credits as nearby Ocean City is doing with Salem City.

Palombo noted that this rural township has traffic problems now. The township has been lobbying for more than a decade for a full interchange off Exit 20 of the Garden State Parkway. And one of its busiest highways, Route 9, has become a cul de sac with the closure of the Beesleys Point Bridge.

Not everyone was opposed to providing more affordable homes in this bedroom community. Shore Acres resident John Frame said he would accept more affordable homes as long as the new development had its own street access to take pressure off his narrow roads.

“We're not all doctors and engineers and mayors,” he said. “This is the only place we can afford. We have teachers with $500,000 homes who are knocking us.”

More than 100 people packed Township Hall, parking on the berm of the county road and on the dirt access road behind the building.


To e-mail Michael Miller at The Press:MMiller@pressofac.com