Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Strathmere Library website
Here is the website for the Rita C. Schiavo Memorial Library in Strathmere -
http://www.strathmerelibrary.org/
http://www.strathmerelibrary.org/
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A plan for Strathmere
A plan for Strathmere
By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer,
Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
UPPER TOWNSHIP - The Township Committee amended its beach-management plan Monday with an optimistic outlook.
The plan dictates how the township will provide nesting room for shorebirds and beach-blanket room for tourists. Lately, the storm-damaged beaches have not been much good for either. Endangered and threatened shorebirds such as piping plovers, least terns and black skimmers have not nested in Strathmere for years.
Meanwhile, beaches popular with boaters have eroded to the point where there is precious little recreation room at high tide. The township hopes to change that with an
$8 million beach fill this year.
It spent $750,000 to build a rock wall last year along the north end of the island after erosion threatened to undermine several homes. The storm damage obliterated Corsons Inlet State Park from the north end of the island.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is slated to go out to bid this month on a massive project to replenish beaches in Upper Township, Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor and North Wildwood, township Engineer Paul Dietrich said.
"We're the first priority. In conversations with the state, they always said we were the first priority, and they would start in Strathmere and work south," Dietrich said.
Once the beaches are restored, the township management plan will help tourists and wildlife share the sand amicably, he said.
The township is designating a catamaran beach between Hamilton and Irving avenues.
And it will restrict Public Works and Beach Patrol trucks and all-terrain vehicles from routine travel on beaches where the birds nest, particularly around Williams and Webster avenues. The township will ban all vehicular traffic if any piping plover eggs hatch to protect the vulnerable chicks.
The rules will not apply when lifeguards respond to medical emergencies or water rescues using trucks or ATVs.
The state asked the township to ban dogs from Strathmere's beaches weeks earlier on March 15. But the ban will be lifted 30 days earlier in the season or on Sept. 30.
"There are certain areas you want to limit disturbance before the birds get there," he said.
The state also wanted the township to ban kite-flying on its beaches during nesting season for fear the kites might scare away the skittish birds. But Dietrich said he did not include this ban because it would be too difficult to enforce.
Mayor Richard Palombo suggested lifeguards could ask families not to fly kites too near the nesting grounds.
Strathmere also has seen some rare beach plants over the years, including sea beach amaranth and beach primrose.
Strathmere residents who are hoping to de-annex from Upper Township to join Sea Isle City have been critical of the township's beach management. A formal plan was first adopted in 2002 after the last beach-replenishment project.
During de-annexation hearings before the Planning Board, Strathmere witness Doug Gaffney, a coastal engineer who formerly worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, gave the Township Committee failing grades in maintaining its beaches, dunes, groins and dune fencing.
Gaffney testified that Upper Township did not have a plan in place for managing its beaches - unlike most every other barrier island in Cape May County. As a result, while Avalon, Stone Harbor, Ocean City and Cape May would be eligible for federal disaster funding to replace their beaches after a particularly bad storm, Strathmere would not.
Dietrich said this emergency-preparedness plan is different from a beach-management plan.
"They were trying to say that we did not have an engineered beach from FEMA's standpoint for shore protection. A beach-management plan is there for the protection of endangered species," he said. "They're two different things."
Strathmere resident Ted Kingston questioned township officials about the beach project's timeline.
"We're afraid it's going to be fall before they get started," he said.
Palombo said optimistically the project will begin in May. But the state's promise to expand the $8 million project to include Whale Beach is worth any delay, he said.
By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer,
Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
UPPER TOWNSHIP - The Township Committee amended its beach-management plan Monday with an optimistic outlook.
The plan dictates how the township will provide nesting room for shorebirds and beach-blanket room for tourists. Lately, the storm-damaged beaches have not been much good for either. Endangered and threatened shorebirds such as piping plovers, least terns and black skimmers have not nested in Strathmere for years.
Meanwhile, beaches popular with boaters have eroded to the point where there is precious little recreation room at high tide. The township hopes to change that with an
$8 million beach fill this year.
It spent $750,000 to build a rock wall last year along the north end of the island after erosion threatened to undermine several homes. The storm damage obliterated Corsons Inlet State Park from the north end of the island.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is slated to go out to bid this month on a massive project to replenish beaches in Upper Township, Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor and North Wildwood, township Engineer Paul Dietrich said.
"We're the first priority. In conversations with the state, they always said we were the first priority, and they would start in Strathmere and work south," Dietrich said.
Once the beaches are restored, the township management plan will help tourists and wildlife share the sand amicably, he said.
The township is designating a catamaran beach between Hamilton and Irving avenues.
And it will restrict Public Works and Beach Patrol trucks and all-terrain vehicles from routine travel on beaches where the birds nest, particularly around Williams and Webster avenues. The township will ban all vehicular traffic if any piping plover eggs hatch to protect the vulnerable chicks.
The rules will not apply when lifeguards respond to medical emergencies or water rescues using trucks or ATVs.
The state asked the township to ban dogs from Strathmere's beaches weeks earlier on March 15. But the ban will be lifted 30 days earlier in the season or on Sept. 30.
"There are certain areas you want to limit disturbance before the birds get there," he said.
The state also wanted the township to ban kite-flying on its beaches during nesting season for fear the kites might scare away the skittish birds. But Dietrich said he did not include this ban because it would be too difficult to enforce.
Mayor Richard Palombo suggested lifeguards could ask families not to fly kites too near the nesting grounds.
Strathmere also has seen some rare beach plants over the years, including sea beach amaranth and beach primrose.
Strathmere residents who are hoping to de-annex from Upper Township to join Sea Isle City have been critical of the township's beach management. A formal plan was first adopted in 2002 after the last beach-replenishment project.
During de-annexation hearings before the Planning Board, Strathmere witness Doug Gaffney, a coastal engineer who formerly worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, gave the Township Committee failing grades in maintaining its beaches, dunes, groins and dune fencing.
Gaffney testified that Upper Township did not have a plan in place for managing its beaches - unlike most every other barrier island in Cape May County. As a result, while Avalon, Stone Harbor, Ocean City and Cape May would be eligible for federal disaster funding to replace their beaches after a particularly bad storm, Strathmere would not.
Dietrich said this emergency-preparedness plan is different from a beach-management plan.
"They were trying to say that we did not have an engineered beach from FEMA's standpoint for shore protection. A beach-management plan is there for the protection of endangered species," he said. "They're two different things."
Strathmere resident Ted Kingston questioned township officials about the beach project's timeline.
"We're afraid it's going to be fall before they get started," he said.
Palombo said optimistically the project will begin in May. But the state's promise to expand the $8 million project to include Whale Beach is worth any delay, he said.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Strathmere in the Winter
Ken Weaver sent me these icy beach and bay photos.
Ken says -
It was +6 degrees for our first dog walk yesterday. I know it was much colder elsewhere in the northeast and midwest (it was -12 at Arrowhead Lake in the Poconos), but it's always interesting to see ice on the bay...
Ken says -
It was +6 degrees for our first dog walk yesterday. I know it was much colder elsewhere in the northeast and midwest (it was -12 at Arrowhead Lake in the Poconos), but it's always interesting to see ice on the bay...
The ocean was calm, so the little waves froze as they came up onto the beach...
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Press of Atlantic City story on the Dr. Rita C. Schiavo Memorial Library in Strathmere
By MICHAEL MILLER
Staff Writer, 609-463-6712
UPPER TOWNSHIP – A new nonprofit group is opening a privately funded library in Strathmere.
The library, named for its benefactor, will serve residents and second-homeowners in this island hamlet.
The late Rita C. Schiavo, a Philadelphian who spent 83 summers in Strathmere, dedicated her island estate to establish the library when she died in 2005, board President Bruce Riordan said.
“She had a dream for a number of years to found the library. Her estate is going toward it,” he said.
Cape May County loves its libraries. It has 10 scattered among its 16 municipalities. A librarian at Ocean City Intermediate School, Katherine Bassett, was named New Jersey teacher of the year in 1999.
The new library -- on the site of the family’s former summer home -- is nearly finished, he said. The library is expected to open in the spring.
Schiavo graduated from Temple University with a master’s in education before earning a law degree. She worked as director of the Franklin School for Technology and Science and was a hospital administrator. In Philadelphia, she helped establish a new public library at the former Seventh Street Police Station.
“Her endowment will help,” said Carol C. Bruno, the library’s new part-time librarian. “At this point we haven’t even put up any bookshelves yet. This is being created from the ground up.”
Since the library is privately funded, it can tailor its collection to residents’ tastes rather than general interest. The island is home to just a few children among its fewer than 100 year-round residents.
Bruno mailed surveys to Strathmere property owners asking what they would like their library to provide.
The response was what one might expect from a shore resort. Residents asked for lots of fiction and plenty of family movies for rainy summer days.
“I wasn’t really anticipating people would want to have resources to write their doctoral thesis,” she said. “A lot of people are requesting novels and beach reads.”
Bruno said she also plans to stock the shelves with books about local history and natural history.
Upper Township and neighboring Sea Isle City already have branches of the Cape May County library. The county is building a new $5 million branch in Sea Isle.
Bruno said the new library will not compete with them – or the larger public library in neighboring Ocean City. It will offer paid memberships to its patrons.
“There’s no way we can duplicate the effort of the number of books available. But this will be more than just a library. It will be an extension of the community and a gathering place,” she said.
The library will have a meeting room for Strathmere clubs.
Strathmere residents are making a bid to secede from the mainland. But Riordan said the new library is not an attempt by Strathmere to assert its independence over the mainland, he said.
“This was in the works well before any of that. It has nothing do with that,” he said.
And in keeping with Schiavo’s wishes, the library will provide a place to display old photographs and Strathmere’s historical memorabilia as a museum.
In the meantime, Bruno is getting ready to stock the new library. The board has not yet determined what its collection budget can afford. But the charity is soliciting donations, both financial and hardcover.
“For someone who loves books, this is a dream,” Bruno said. “Through the lens of what people want, I get to select things. I hope to say to people, if you like this genre or that author, maybe you would like to try this. Give them a reason to try something new.”
Staff Writer, 609-463-6712
UPPER TOWNSHIP – A new nonprofit group is opening a privately funded library in Strathmere.
The library, named for its benefactor, will serve residents and second-homeowners in this island hamlet.
The late Rita C. Schiavo, a Philadelphian who spent 83 summers in Strathmere, dedicated her island estate to establish the library when she died in 2005, board President Bruce Riordan said.
“She had a dream for a number of years to found the library. Her estate is going toward it,” he said.
Cape May County loves its libraries. It has 10 scattered among its 16 municipalities. A librarian at Ocean City Intermediate School, Katherine Bassett, was named New Jersey teacher of the year in 1999.
The new library -- on the site of the family’s former summer home -- is nearly finished, he said. The library is expected to open in the spring.
Schiavo graduated from Temple University with a master’s in education before earning a law degree. She worked as director of the Franklin School for Technology and Science and was a hospital administrator. In Philadelphia, she helped establish a new public library at the former Seventh Street Police Station.
“Her endowment will help,” said Carol C. Bruno, the library’s new part-time librarian. “At this point we haven’t even put up any bookshelves yet. This is being created from the ground up.”
Since the library is privately funded, it can tailor its collection to residents’ tastes rather than general interest. The island is home to just a few children among its fewer than 100 year-round residents.
Bruno mailed surveys to Strathmere property owners asking what they would like their library to provide.
The response was what one might expect from a shore resort. Residents asked for lots of fiction and plenty of family movies for rainy summer days.
“I wasn’t really anticipating people would want to have resources to write their doctoral thesis,” she said. “A lot of people are requesting novels and beach reads.”
Bruno said she also plans to stock the shelves with books about local history and natural history.
Upper Township and neighboring Sea Isle City already have branches of the Cape May County library. The county is building a new $5 million branch in Sea Isle.
Bruno said the new library will not compete with them – or the larger public library in neighboring Ocean City. It will offer paid memberships to its patrons.
“There’s no way we can duplicate the effort of the number of books available. But this will be more than just a library. It will be an extension of the community and a gathering place,” she said.
The library will have a meeting room for Strathmere clubs.
Strathmere residents are making a bid to secede from the mainland. But Riordan said the new library is not an attempt by Strathmere to assert its independence over the mainland, he said.
“This was in the works well before any of that. It has nothing do with that,” he said.
And in keeping with Schiavo’s wishes, the library will provide a place to display old photographs and Strathmere’s historical memorabilia as a museum.
In the meantime, Bruno is getting ready to stock the new library. The board has not yet determined what its collection budget can afford. But the charity is soliciting donations, both financial and hardcover.
“For someone who loves books, this is a dream,” Bruno said. “Through the lens of what people want, I get to select things. I hope to say to people, if you like this genre or that author, maybe you would like to try this. Give them a reason to try something new.”
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