Special Presentation at the Strathmere Library 10/3

This Saturday at The Strathmere Library -

Join us for a special presentation:

Cape May County Shipwrecks: the Slocum & the Sindia
Mini Museum Exhibit Opening & Guest Speakers -

October 3rd, starting 7PM

http://www.strathmerelibrary.org/

Strathmere Library Book Sale - 22nd to 26th

Schiavo Library
BOOK SALE

September 22 thru September 26
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM daily

Proceeds to benefit the purchase of
New Books for the collection

SCHIAVO LIBRARY
801 S. Commonwealth Ave., Strathmere, NJ
609.486.6265

A message from the Schiavo Strathmere Library

VOLUNTEER LIBRARY AIDES NEEDED!

If you live in Strathmere (or the surrounding area) year-round and would like to volunteer your time one or two days a week, please contact the Schiavo Library to indicate your interest and sign up for our next Training Session.

You do NOT have to have experience working in a library, just a willingness to help keep the library open this fall and winter.

Call the Schiavo Library 486-6268 today. Thank you!

CANCELED - Strathmere Star Party

Because of the bad weather, the Strathmere Star Party has been CANCELED.

Also, The *WHAT GOES UP! demonstration that was to have been given by Derrick Pitts at the Schiavo Library on Saturday will also be canceled due to the weather.

A message from the Strathmere Improvement Association

9/10/09 -



To all Strathmere and Whale Beach Homeowners and Visitors,

As you can see above, it's a little damp on Bayview Drive this afternoon! We actually saw a school of minnows swimming in the street. The northeast winds have pushed the tide in and up into the streets.

The STRATHMERE STAR PARTY, "clouded out" last May, will (hopefully) be held September 11 at 8:15 pm on the beach at Randolph. Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute, will be our Star Tour Guide. Bring your beach chairs, blankets, binoculars and kids, and encourage your neighbors to turn their outdoor lights down (or off) and away from the skies..... If the weather doesn't clear, we'll try again on Saturday evening. The Star Party is jointly sponsored by the SIA and the SFEC. Derrick will also host a program on gravity at the Schiavo Library at 10 am the next day (see "Upcoming Events", below).

Tee shirts for sale! The SFEC will be selling both Nightmare 2009 and Jane Shetler Tournament tee shirts at the Hollinger home on Bayview at Prescott this weekend. "Strathmere" tee shirts to benefit the SIA will also be available at 212 Bayview Drive.

The SFEC Kids' Surf Fishing Tournament was held last Saturday. Results and pictures are available on the SFEC website at surf fishing.

The dredging project is complete! And yes, despite our being "stonwalled" at the Township Committee meeting on August 10, through the persistence of Lynn Fayter they came back to fill in the "missing spot" behind North Bayview Drive. Here are pictures taken yesterday:

Here grading the new sand


and here, from the bridge, putting on the finishing touches...
(this was taken at a very high tide)

They are now cleaning up all the pipes to begin dredging in Stone Harbor and North Wildwood. In case you missed it, there was an interesting article in yesterday's Press of Atlantic City reporting that some "ordnance" was dredged up from Corson's Inlet on August 13 but caught in the safety screen.

Presentation at the Schiavo Library: The General Slocum disaster is known as the “Poor People’s Titantic” and the remains of this vessel eventually sank off Strathmere – almost directly offshore from the Schiavo Library. Cape May County resident, Captain Sinn, is working tirelessly to preserve and protect the site. He will be one of the speakers featured October 3 at 7:00 pm at the Schiavo with a representative of the Ocean City Historical Museum, who will be sharing a PowerPoint presentation about the Sindia shipwreck.

If you missed the fascinating presentation of "Sea Creatures with Amazing Features" at the Schiavo on August 18 by a marine biologist from the Wetlands Institute, check out pictures of the event here.

Upcoming Events (update your calendars):

*Star Party on the Beach at Randolph, 8:15 pm, Friday, September 11 (alternate date is Saturday night)
*WHAT GOES UP! A lively demonstration of gravity by Derrick Pitts, 10 am, Saturday. September 12 at the Schiavo Library
*SFEC Meeting 5:00 pm Saturday, September 12
*SIA Election Meeting 8:00 pm Friday, September 18
*Glenn Cunningham Weakfish Tournament (SFEC), Saturday, October 3
*General Slocum Shipwreck presentation at the Schiavo, 7:00 pm, Saturday, October 3

The Strathmere Improvement Association includes all owners in Strathmere and Whale Beach and many visitors. It was founded over 50 years ago as a community organization with the simple objective of making Strathmere a better place. We are proud of the organization's many accomplishments over the years.

Please let us know if you have comments or suggestions for the newsletter or for SIA in general, or if you'd like us to change (or add) your e-mail address in our records. You can contact us by responding to sia6@comcast.net or mailing SIA at PO Box 57.

Thanks to all for your continuing support!

Butch Vandegrift - President
Ken Weaver - Vice-President
Donna Diefenderfer - Treasurer
Debbie Vandegrift - Secretary

More photos from Nightmare in Strathmere

A message from the Strathmere Improvement Association -

To all Strathmere and Whale Beach Homeowners and Visitors,

This is a follow-up to our August 31 newsletter that showed pictures of the winning Nightmare boats. We now have pictures of the rest of the winners (many thanks to Jimmy Callahan, Kandy Kruse, Ella Diamond and Kate Weaver for their pictures!).

To see more winners' pictures, including the awards at the Deauville, go to the SFEC website at Nightmare Winners.

To see additional pictures, go to the same website at More Nightmare Pictures.

The Boat Parade was led by our Grand Marshalls, Joan DiFiore and Ed Andress, both of whom were born right here in Strathmere!

Winners were as follows:

Houses, Docks on the Bay:
Grand Prize - Stephenson, Cooper, Kubiak and Furey Families, "Gilligan's Island"

First Runner-up - Mike and Beth Clifford, "Woodstock" (Strathstock)

Second Runner-up - Mike and Sharon Silcox, "Strathmere Under Construction"

Houses off the Bay:
Grand Prize - Ella and Roy Diamond, "Real Housewives of Strathmere"

First Runner-up - Strathmere Motel, "Pirates' Nightmare" - No picture available

Again, check the SFEC website to see many more pictures.

Upcoming Events (update your calendars):

*Star Party on the Beach at Randolph, 8:15 pm, Friday, September 11 (alternate date - Saturday 9/12)
*WHAT GOES UP! A lively demonstration of gravity by Derrick Pitts, 10 am, Saturday. September 12 at the Schiavo Library
*SFEC Meeting 5:00 pm Saturday, September 12
*Eagles @ Carolina Panthers, 1:00 pm Sunday, September 13
*SIA Election Meeting 8:00 pm Friday, September 18
*Glenn Cunningham Weakfish Tournament (SFEC), Saturday, October 3

The Strathmere Improvement Association includes all owners in Strathmere and Whale Beach and many visitors. It was founded over 50 years ago as a community organization with the simple objective of making Strathmere a better place. We are proud of the organization's many accomplishments over the years.

Butch Vandegrift - President
Ken Weaver - Vice-President
Donna Diefenderfer - Treasurer
Debbie Vandegrift - Secretary

The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!

It's really funny how 'experts' and alarmists can get rumors started on the internet. Below is a national news story that Tina C. made me aware of. It involves Strathmere and a 'Russian Submarine'.
It started after a guy posted a photograph taken of a surfer at Strathmere, with a mysterious object in the background. He posted the photo online, and the Russian submarine theory developed. Read the full story and check out the links below.

By Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor
msnbc.com
updated 4:08 p.m. ET, Wed., Sept . 2, 2009
Posted from - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32660909/ns/us_news-life/


The Russians are NOT coming. At least not to the Jersey Shore.
That’s the word from the Coast Guard about a photograph that some Internet users believe shows a nuclear-armed Russian submarine surfacing a few hundred yards off Corson’s Inlet near Strathmere, N.J., in the heart of the state’s beach resort area.

“They’re doing a lot of dredging in Corson’s Inlet and that’s part of the dredging operation,” said Petty Officer Jesse Ellison of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Ocean City, N.J., station after he viewed the photo online.
The photo has been creating a bit of a buzz on the Web since it was posted on a Philadelphia NBC station’s site last week by amateur photographer Andrew Ferguson. “I was down the Ocean City shore in New Jersey, Corson’s Inlet, on Sunday photographing the wave and surfers,” Ferguson wrote. “When I got back home to view the pics on my computer, I noticed something odd in the background so I enlarged the photo, and there it was: a ‘submarine’ had surfaced.”
A fellow user of the NBC Web site confidently stated that the image was of a “Soviet Typhoon Class "Nuclear Submarine.”
Although other users pooh-poohed that notion and mentioned the dredging work that was under way, a reporter with the Web site followed up with a 500-word piece about the "shocking photo" that lent credence to the sub theory by noting recent reports in the New York Times that two Russian submarines had recently been patrolling near the East Coast.
The article was quickly spread around the Internet by Twitter and Digg users.

But Ellison, the Coast Guard officer, said the water in that area is far too shallow for a 575-foot-long Soviet Typhoon, which requires a depth of nearly 40 feet just to stay afloat. From his own observations of the dredging, he recognized Ferguson’s image as some kind of barge or other floating platform. “Those yellow barrels in front of it are what they use to anchor,” he said.

Indeed, a check with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revealed that, at the time Ferguson shot his photo, Corson's Inlet was being dredged as part of a $6 million job to replenish the sands of nearby Strathmere Beach.
Furthermore, photographs of actual Russian Typhoons and U.S. attack subs don’t bear a great resemblance to the object in Ferguson’s photo.
And if the Russians had been coming, would a sub carrying nuclear warheads pop up less than a mile off the U.S. coast?
“I don’t even know how to comment on it,” Ellison said. “That’s definitely something for the Navy.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nightmare in Strathmere winners and upcoming events

To all Strathmere and Whale Beach Homeowners and Visitors,

We hate to say it, but summer is drawing to a close. Nevertheless, there are still exciting events coming up!

This Saturday, from 9 am to 11 am, is the SFEC KID’S SURF FISHING TOURNAMENT at the Prescott Street beach (parking available at Mildred's parking lot). The tournament is open to all children age 17 and under (kids under 12 must be accompanied by an adult), so bring your children and grandchildren! They need to bring their own fishing rod and tackle. After being registered, they will receive bait and a tee shirt. This is a catch-and-release event, so all fish caught will be measured and released unharmed. At the conclusion of the tournament, the kids will be treated to hot dogs and cold drinks, winners announced and prizes awarded. Shown above is a picture of last year's event. Even if you don't know anyone participating, it's great fun to watch 150 kids fishing! Come on out!

Saturday evening, the STRATHMERE ENSEMBLE will present a concert titled, "Art of the Waltz" at 7:00 pm at the church.

The STRATHMERE STAR PARTY, "clouded out" last May, will be held on Friday Evening, September 11 at 8 pm on the beach at Randolph. Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute, will be our Star Tour Guide. Bring your beach chairs, blankets, binoculars and kids, and encourage your neighbors to turn their outdoor lights down (or off) and away from the skies..... The Star Party is jointly sponsored by the SIA and the SFEC. Derrick will also host a program on gravity at the Schiavo Library at 10 am the next day (see "Upcoming Events", below).

Nightmare in Strathmere Results: We had a hot, steamy night for Nightmare, but the storms held off and a great time was had by all. The Boat Parade was led by our Grand Marshalls, Joan DiFiore and Ed Andress, both of whom were born right here in Strathmere! Winners were as follows:

*Houses off the Bay: Grand Prize - Ella Diamond, "Real Housewives of Strathmere" (Swine Floozies); First Runner-up - Strathmere Motel, "Pirates' Nightmare"
*Houses, Docks on the Bay: Grand Prize - Stephenson, Cooper, Kubiak and Furey Families, "Gilligan's Island"; First Runner-up - Mike Clifford, "Woodstock" (Strathstock); Second Runner-up - Mike Silcox, "Strathmere Under Construction" (Dredge Pipe)
*Boats: Grand Prize - Dave Townsend, "Off the Wagon"; First Runner-up - Bill Wedler, "Wine Flu"; Second Runner-up - Brian Riordan, "The Dredgers"
Here are the winning boats:

We're still hoping to get pictures of the docks and houses winners (e-mail them to sia6@comcast.net).

Upcoming Events (update your calendars):

*Last day of Flounder Season, this Friday, September 4
*SFEC Kids' Surf Fishing Tournament, 9:00 - 11:00 am, Prescott St. Beach, Saturday, September 5
*Strathmere Ensemble Labor Day Concert at 7:00 pm Saturday, September 5
Monday, September 7 (Labor Day): Trash and recycling pickup.
*Star Party on the Beach at Randolph, 8:00 pm, Friday, September 11
*WHAT GOES UP! A lively demonstration of gravity by Derrick Pitts, 10 am, Saturday. September 12 at the Schiavo Library
*SFEC Meeting 5:00 pm Saturday, September 12
*SIA Election Meeting 8:00 pm Friday, September 18
*Glenn Cunningham Weakfish Tournament (SFEC), Saturday, October 3

The Strathmere Improvement Association includes all owners in Strathmere and Whale Beach and many visitors. It was founded over 50 years ago as a community organization with the simple objective of making Strathmere a better place. We are proud of the organization's many accomplishments over the years.

Thanks to all who have made their dues payments. Dues for the SIA are $10 per adult per year. The dues and the fund raisers provide for printing the newsletters and trash regulations, mailing the post cards, funding the Fourth of July Parade, and our share of the Star Party and Christmas Party. We also donated money to help pay for extra State Police protection. If you have adult children or relatives (or visitors) who visit Strathmere, please forward this message to them - perhaps they'd like to get these newsletters directly. Please send dues payments to SIA at PO Box 57, Strathmere, NJ 08248. Remember to tell us your e-mail address!

Please let us know if you have comments or suggestions for the newsletter or for SIA in general, or if you'd like us to change (or add) your e-mail address in our records. You can contact us by sia6@comcast.net or mailing SIA at PO Box 57.

Thanks to all for your continuing support!



Butch Vandegrift - President

Ken Weaver - Vice-President

Donna Diefenderfer - Treasurer

Debbie Vandegrift - Secretary