Construction of a new playground at 29th Street and West Avenue will begin on May 15.
The work will be part of the Sandy Ground Project, an effort to rebuild playgrounds that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 and to pay tribute to the 26 teachers and children killed soon after in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn.
Ocean City Firefighters FMBA Local 27 and the Ocean City gift shops Old Salt and Sting Ray helped to bring the project to Ocean City.
Bill Lavin and the New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association started Sandy Ground and partnered with multiple businesses, volunteer and non-profit organizations to help fund and construct a playground in memory of each Sandy Hook victim.
Ocean City’s will be the 22nd of 26 planned playgrounds. Ocean City’s will be named for Benjamin Wheeler, a 6-year-old first-grader killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.
The Wheeler family will be in town for the groundbreaking, and their son, Nate, will be honorary foreman of the job, according to John Murphy, president of FMBA Local 27.
After the city clears existing equipment, the job is expected to take about three days. The entire cost of the project (including an estimated $70,000 to $75,000 of material) is a paid for by the Sandy Ground Foundation. The work will be completed by volunteers with the help of construction companies. Ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday, May 18.
Sandy damaged the 29th Street firehouse, adjacent to the playground site, and the city faces as much as $750,000 in repairs to fix the existing building and add a new elevated living quarters next door. But the project is not expected to cut into the playground area.
For information on how to help or donate, visit the Sandy Ground Project website.
