Community Corner
Berkeley Island County Park Will Rise Again
County and township officials gather in the cold for a groundbreaking ceremony for the new $8 million park.
Berkeley Island County Park didn't look very inviting in the cold December sunshine on Tuesday.
Huge mounds of sand for stabilizing areas of the park loomed over the guests who attended a groundbreaking ceremony.Weeds, tall grasses and debris littered the area. Graffiti is scrawled on the former bathrooms. Metal signs lie rusting in the sand. The picnic area and gazebo has been torn down.
Berkeley Island needed an upgrade anyway. But no one anticipated the devastation left by Superstorm Sandy. The park was inundated with four feet of water, said county Parks and Recreation Director Michael Mangum.
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Sandy swamped the park when it roared in on Oct. 29, 2012. It ate away the shoreline, eroded the parking lot and tore apart 100 percent of the infrastructure. The bathrooms, picnic area, parking lot and other park amenities were destroyed, he said.
But Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. wants to look ahead, not backwards.
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"This is a very, very happy day for the county of Ocean," he said.
The Ocean County Board of Freeholders awarded a $6.9 million to Eagle Construction of Burlington on Nov. 2 for the park redevelopment. Engineers from T&M Associates and Barlo & Associates did the design work.
Bartlett thanked Berkeley officials Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. and Ward 1 Councilman James J. Byrnes for their patience in the four years the park has been closed.
"Berkeley Township is wonderful to deal with," Bartlett said. "They had to take most of the flack."
"To say we are excited would be an understatement," Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. "I think it's going to be a great hit.
Berkeley Island County Park, a spit of land that juts out into Barnegat Bay, has always been unique in the the main attractions of the park - swimming, fishing and boating - don't interfere with each other. And that won't change, he said.
But a new attraction will debut when the park reopens in 2018. A splash park for children will be up and running by then by then. And if it's successful at Berkeley Island, the county might put up a few more at other county parks, Bartlett said.
Images: County of Ocean, Patch file photos by Patricia A. Miller
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