Sea Isle City and Avalon will cover more than four-fifths of the cost of emergency dredging aimed at clearing a sandbar that threatens navigation through Townsends Inlet.
Sea Isle’s City Council approved the agreement Oct. 13. Each town will contribute $650,000, with Cape May County providing $250,000 and the county Bridge Commission adding $50,000.
“This is the way government is supposed to work,” Sea Isle City Mayor Len Desiderio said during the recent council meeting.
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The combined $1.3 million municipal commitment represents 81.25% of the estimated $1.6 million cost.
The announced funding package identifies no federal contribution for the emergency channel work.
The project will use equipment already mobilized for Avalon’s separate, federally funded beach replenishment project, avoiding the expense of bringing in another dredge.
Sand removed from the channel will go onto Avalon’s beaches.
Officials expect the work to begin the week of Oct. 19 and take about three days, clearing a passage approximately 200 feet wide and 20 feet deep.
Longer-term responsibility remains unresolved. Townsends Inlet is not currently a designated federal navigation channel, according to local officials.
The inlet was regularly dredged for navigation from around 1950 into the late 1970s.
Later projects increasingly mined inlet sand to replenish beaches, including major efforts in 1978 and 1984 and Avalon’s removal of approximately 740,000 cubic yards in 2015.
Those projects helped rebuild shorelines but did not establish a permanent federal program to maintain the navigation channel.
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