Dear Friends,
The 305-foot dredge Texas is moored off the north end of Ocean City and began pumping sand onto our beaches on Thursday night. This marks the beginning of a project that will bring 1.3 million cubic yards of new sand to the beaches between Seaspray Road and 12th Street. The crews also will stockpile sand to help us rebuild dunes at Fifth Street and other areas. Work will proceed from north to south, and about 1,000 feet of beach at a time will be closed. The project is expected to be entirely complete by February 2018, and I want to thank our partners in the federal Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Protection and all Ocean City residents and guests for their patience during this work.
At the same time, the work on boardwalk demolition between 10th Street and 12th Street is making good progress. On Friday, crews were using heavy equipment to knock down a final stretch of substructure near 12th Street. Sections of decking have been constructed off-site, so once new pilings are in place, we should see the new boardwalk take shape quickly. The project is on schedule for completion by March 2018. As always, we’re hoping to beat that deadline.
On the bay side, hydraulic dredging at Carnival Bayou and mechanical dredging at Sunny Harbor is underway. Dredging operations are expected to move to South Harbor during the week of Nov. 13 to 17. The contractors (see contact info ) are making private arrangements with homeowners to dredge boat slips in these areas.
We’ll have a full moon tomorrow, and tides are expected to be higher than normal on Saturday (8:45 a.m.), Sunday (8:31 a.m.) and Monday (9:19 a.m.). With strong winds coming off the ocean on Saturday and Sunday, forecasters are predicting minor tidal flooding in the hours around those tides, particularly on Sunday. I ask everybody to keep an eye on the forecast and to be prepared to move cars from streets that flood.
I want to remind everybody to turn their clocks back by an hour on Saturday night. Daylight Savings Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday.
The inbound lanes of the Route 52 causeway to Ocean City will be closed Saturday morning from about 7:45 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. to accommodate the annual Trail of Two Cities 5K run/walk. Please plan alternative routes if you plan to return to Ocean City at that time.
Finally, Michele and I would like to extend our sympathy to Councilman Keith Hartzell and his family. Keith’s mother, June Hartzell, passed away last week at age 90. The Hartzell family has always shared a love of Ocean City and a commitment to their community. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow (Nov. 4) at Godfrey Funeral Home, 809 Central Avenue. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. until the service.
Warm regards,
Jay A. Gillian
Mayor
