Donald Wittkowski

They call them “rolling billboards,” but they don’t advertise a product or service. Instead, they carry a powerful message reminding motorists of the dangers of drunken driving. On Thursday, police departments in Ocean City, Sea Isle City and four other South Jersey towns unveiled patrol cars emblazoned with the logo of the John R. Elliott HERO Campaign, a 20-year-old initiative to promote the use of designated drivers. The ceremony, attended by local police officers and municipal officials on Sea Isle’s Promenade, launched a new sober driving campaign starting at the Jersey Shore just as the Fourth of July holiday weekend arrives.

Two incumbents and two political newcomers took the oath of office Wednesday on City Council and immediately presented a unified front in efforts to get the beach resort fully reopened amid the coronavirus pandemic. Michael DeVlieger and Bob Barr are returning to Council for new terms, while Jody Levchuk and Tom Rotondi join the governing body for the first time after winning seats in the May municipal election. Barr was appointed president and DeVlieger will assume the role as vice president in a reorganization of the leadership positions on the seven-member Council.

With some laughter, a few tears and plenty of hugs, City Council said an emotional goodbye Thursday night to Tony Wilson during his last meeting with the governing body that he served on for nine years. The Council meeting was the first one in three months that included members of the public sitting in the audience. Since April, the meetings had been held online and by teleconference during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in New Jersey. With Gov. Phil Murphy easing some of the state’s coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings, Council was able to welcome an in-person audience for Thursday’s meeting at the Stainton Senior Center. 

The corner of Sixth Street and West Avenue is bustling with activity. The site is crowded with construction workers wearing yellow hard hats, giant excavators digging into the ground and mini-mountains of dirt. In the planning stages for about five years, construction has started on a $6.8 million affordable housing project for senior citizens who are now living in a flood-prone neighborhood of Ocean City. The 32-unit Speitel Commons project is being built by the Ocean City Housing Authority next to the agency’s Bayview Manor housing complex at Sixth and West.

Over the years, countless canines and their owners have visited a nearly mile-long stretch of sand that is part of the state-owned Malibu Beach Wildlife Management Area, but is better known by its “Dog Beach” nickname. On a typical summer day, the beach at the foot of the Ocean City-Longport Bridge is crowded with dogs romping in the sand or splashing in the water. Even during the winter, the area remains popular with dog owners. Dog Beach’s growing popularity, however, has the human visitors scrambling to find parking for their cars, trucks and SUVs. Currently, there are only two small parking lots available and both fill up during the weekends. Now, drivers are getting tickets for parking illegally on the shoulder of the road next to Dog Beach on the Egg Harbor Township side of the bridge.

If you’ve gotten a bill in the mail from the Cape May County Bridge Commission for an unpaid toll, you probably should pay it right away. The bridge commission wants its money. And it’s going to take steps to make sure it gets it. “We’ll be keeping track of this,” Karen Coughlin, bridge commission executive director, said during the agency’s monthly board meeting Thursday. Motorists who don’t pay their bills within 30 days of receiving them will get slapped with an extra $25 “administrative fee” on top of the tolls they owe.

Ocean City plans to spend nearly $16 million for an array of municipal projects, including road construction, stormwater pumping stations and drainage improvements to help reduce flooding on the barrier island. During a meeting Thursday night held by teleconference due to the coronavirus pandemic, City Council voted 6-0 to introduce a bond ordinance that will finance the projects. A public hearing and final vote on the ordinance are scheduled for the Council meeting on June 25. City Finance Director Frank Donato explained to Council that the bulk of the funding will pay for road reconstruction, drainage upgrades and new pumping stations as part of the city’s flood-mitigation strategy.

On Ocean City’s beaches, cabanas are normally spread out across swaths of sand as sunbathers jockey for prime spots just steps from the water. But this summer, there are new rules limiting the location and size of cabanas as social distancing has become critical on the beaches during the coronavirus pandemic. The regulations lump cabanas, large tents and canopies into the same category. However, beach umbrellas and so called “baby pop-up tents” are not included.

There’s Betty, Nola, Susan, Lilly, Clark and Barney. Like many other out-of-towners, they will be visiting Ocean City this summer during the vacation season. You’ll see them on the beaches, the Boardwalk and in other areas of town popular with the tourists. However, these “visitors” won’t be spending a leisurely vacation at the shore. They will be working at their summer jobs – patrolling the skies and chasing away the pesky seagulls that have the nasty habit of swooping down and harassing the human tourists for their food. Betty, Nola, Susan, Lilly, Clark and Barney are raptors owned by Wildlife Control Specialists, LLC, a Lebanon, N.J., company that has an assortment of trained falcons, hawks and an owl.

Motorists crossing over the five bridges connecting the Cape May County beach towns along the Ocean Drive are able to pay their tolls with cash and coins again. The Cape May County Bridge Commission resumed cash payments at its toll booths on Tuesday after they were suspended on March 26 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Among other safeguards, toll collectors are now wearing masks and gloves to protect them and the motorists who stop to pay their fares.