By MADDY VITALE
When it comes to maintaining a home, dredging doesn’t typically come to mind on the to-do list.
But when owning waterfront property complete with a private boat slip, Sean Scarborough, owner of Scarborough Marine Group, said dredging to remove muck and silt could make all the difference in the world.
“It increases the value of your home,” Scarborough said in an interview Friday. “It is just like maintenance to replace your roof, or cut your grass. It is the same thing. And when you own waterfront property, you don’t want it to be mud front property.”
Scarborough’s company has been doing work in Margate and Cape May to unclog the channels for bayfront homeowners, making boat navigation easier.
“We started in Margate in October,” he said. “We have been busy. We are on our way to Stone Harbor and Strathmere and back to Ocean City in February, where we will do work through March.”
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection extended the dredging season to March 31 back in 2019, giving homeowners an extra month to have their boat slips cleaned out.
Scarborough estimated work to begin dredging private boat slips along Ocean City’s bayfront around Feb. 16. He noted that they will begin at Tennessee Avenue.
Thick sediment has been clogging Ocean City’s lagoons and channels along the back bays for years, but with city projects as well as private dredging contractors such as Scarborough Marine, the channels are cleaner.
https://youtu.be/5_q6Xuk8QQ4
Video Courtesy of Scarborough Marine Group
Ocean City Public Information Officer Doug Bergen said of dredging the private boat slips, “It's in everybody's best interest to have as much material as possible removed from private slips.”
Scarborough, whose family-owned company dates back 75 years, specializes in doing private slips.
“We do about 40 jobs in one year. Our jobs have ranged from 50 cubic yards to 15,000 cubic yards,” Scarborough said.
He said the city’s work to remove muddy silt from the channels with an aggressive dredging program has greatly improved the lagoons and the channels.
“The city’s consistent maintenance helps out all of the bay area because it enhances the water flow. That is what we all want and it helps with the dredging of the private boat slips.”
Scarborough’s company does a lot of dredge work on private slips in Ocean City year after year.
“We have booked many jobs in Ocean City and we are actively taking new contracts in Ocean City,” he noted. “The Ocean City market is good.”
Dredging the boat slips makes properties more attractive for homeowners, renters and boaters, Scarborough added.
And typically, depending on the location, a dredging job lasts five to seven years before it has to be done again. Some jobs last seven to 12 years, he said.
“I think that the Ocean City project is getting closer to a maintenance program now,” he said. “I think people recognize that dredging your boat slip is no different than having to cut your grass. You need to keep up with it or it will overgrow.”
For more information call 609-904-5444 or visit scarboroughmarinegroup.com
A boat operated by Scarborough Marine Group pushes one of the containers, called "hoppers," that hold the muddy sediment after it is removed from the lagoon back in 2019.
