Ventnor leaders celebrated the first major reconstruction of the Boardwalk in decades Wednesday.
A ribbon-cutting marked the reopening of the closed stretch as the structure was rebuilt for the first time since work following the Storm of 1962, known to those who lived through it as the time "the ocean met the bay."
"It's a beautiful day to be on the Boardwalk," Commissioner Lance Landgraf said as he stood at Surrey Avenue. "We're here to celebrate a milestone for our community."
He said he has been visiting as the project went on, and that the work done will last another 75 to 80 years.
The $12 million project benefited from a $7.1 million grant from the New Jersey Boardwalk Preservation Fund, created during former Gov. Phil Murphy’s term.
The city awarded the contract to Fred Schiavone Construction, whose crew Landgraf lauded for getting the work done strongly, quickly and through weather challenges.
Schiavone declined to speak with Landgraf pointing to the wooden way as the construction heads comments.
"We set our priorities by the way we spend our money in any municipality," Mayor Tim Kriebel said. "It's not just repairing boards and piling but preserving something that's really an identity to Ventnor City."
He talked of his own connection to the Boardwalk, as a place to try to run into friends as a kid and where he trained for crew.
"It's a place where we start our day, where we make excuses to go to lunch," Kriebel said. "It's a place where we try to end our day."
Altogether, the Boardwalk Preservation Fund provided $100 million in grants to 18 coastal municipalities for repairing, maintaining and reconstructing their boardwalks and promenades.
In addition to Atlantic City and Ventnor, other shore communities in Atlantic and Cape May counties benefiting from the boardwalk fund were North Wildwood ($10.3 million), Wildwood ($8.3 million), Cape May ($6.7 million), Ocean City ($4.9 million), Sea Isle City ($2 million), Brigantine ($1.2 million) and Wildwood Crest ($1.1 million).
Ocean City has just completed the reconstruction of an eight-block stretch of the Boardwalk from St. Charles Place to Fifth Street and a smaller section from 12th Street to 14th Street. The final piece of the project, from 14th Street to 16th Street, will be competed in the fall.
Sea Isle is giving its Promenade an extensive makeover that includes decorative lighting and a series of improvements to the structure, bulkheads and handicap-accessible ramps.
OCNJDaily.com Managing Editor Donald Wittkowski contributed to this report.
