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Cape May looked as anxious for change in 2008 as the rest
of the country. Changes in the city’s political landscape came early in
In other political news, longtime Cape May Point Mayor Malcolm Fraser did not seek a fifth term this year and was replaced in May by former commission member Carl Schupp. Interestingly enough Cape May Point also elected its first woman commissioner Anita vanHeeswyk. Now there’s a borough ahead of its time – it was founded in 1878. Cape May city council member David Kurkowksi will be around next year. His bid to upset the seven-term, “I believe in term limits” U.S. Rep. Frank L. LoBiondo (R-2nd) was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, in June a petition was circulated calling for a referendum to rescind a $10.5 million bond ordinance passed by the Inderwies council the previous month to fund construction of a new Convention Hall and to ask voters if they even wanted a new Convention Hall. The ordinance passed despite mayor-elect Mahaney’s objections to it. Sure enough, one of the first acts of the Mahaney administration was to rescind the bond and to set up a series of five town meetings to get public in-put on a design for a new facility. The grass roots work paid off in the end and voters, in a record turn out, approved construction of a new Convention Hall by a 2-1 margin. Demolition of the old facility is being held up pending state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approval – which could take up to as much as four months to acquire. The new facility is slated to open in 2010.
Another dismal sight is that of a closed WaWa on Bank Street next to Swain’s Hardware. It would seem that if the WaWa chain can’t have a Super WaWa, it’ll take its marbles and go home, along with a list as thick as Webster’s Dictionary regarding deed restrictions for anyone even remotely interested in buying the property.
In other not so noticeable
landscape changes – the Chalfonte Hotel on Howard Street
changed hands this year. Would be congressman, golf course owner and Cape
May Point resident Bob Mullock purchased the 132-year-old hotel built by
Civil War hero Henry Sawyer, from Anne LeDuc and Judy
Bartella, who bought the hotel from the Satterfields. Between 1888
and 1911 the hotel c Down at the other end of Beach
Avenue, the old Rusty Nail/Coachman’s Motor Inn was purchased in
the spring of 2006 by Congress Hall entrepreneur Curtis Bashaw and
associates with the idea in mind of A: demolition and B: building in its place
an upscale condo-tel called Ocean House. Naturally, the Historic Preservation Commission
(HPC) granted the group permission to demolish the complex in March, but
wait – what’s that sound? Why it’s the sound of real estate heading on a
downward spiral, particularly where it relates to condominium complexes.
Suddenly, Ocean House was being remarketed as The Beach Shack and
demolition morphed into renovation.
One project the beleaguered city manager Lou Corea did accomplish without controversy was the opening of the Cape May Dog Park on Lafayette Street in April. Doggie owners can obtain a license or permit to use the park by walking down to City Hall. And speaking of beleaguered – the
former Ponderlodge Golf Complex, taken over by the state for preservation
as a wildlife refuge was threatening to demolish the lodge unless a more viable
plan was offered by county and local officials – no problem. The lodge caught on
fire in September and burnt to the ground. Local,
The on-going Beach
Replenishment Plan made the headlines throughout the year beginning with a
clash between DEP and the city officials regarding the town’s successful TNR
(Trap-Neuter-Release) program designed to protect and neutralize the
island’s feral cat population. DEP wanted the feral cats kept at a further
distance from the beach front to protect the Piping Plover nests and wanted the TNR
program eliminated or they threatened to pull the plug on beach replenishment
financing. A compromise was finally reached between the state and city
officials to keep the cats at a “safe” distance. Not word whatsoever
on how to keep people at a "safe" distance, however. Additionally, residents and
experts were reporting
So what’s in store for 2009?The fate of the Beach Theatre is number one on the list. With the BTF’s lease coming to an end in March and the theatre already closed because of heating and electric issues, the prospects do not look good. But who knows what deals could be forged in these tumultuous economic times. The borough of West Cape May passed a referendum in November allowing them to sell two liquor licenses one for restaurant consumption the other for package goods sales. The restaurant liquor license minimum bid will be set at $650,000 while the retail store minimum bid will be $750,000. That should prove to be an interesting bidding process.
Look for some fun events to come out of the establishment of a 400th Anniversary Committee dedicated to celebrating Henry Hudson’s “sail-by” the island in 1609. |
May when incumbent Mayor Jerome Inderwies lost
a bid to extend
his six years as mayor to Dr. Ed Mahaney, who previously served both as a
council member and as mayor from July 1995 to July 1996. Terri Swain, of
Swain’s Hardware, handily won David Craig’s vacated council seat and
City Manager Lou Corea found himself out of job June 17 when city council
unanimously passed a resolution to oust him over a
mishandling of patio permits on the Washington Street Mall. The new
council endorsed the decision in August and inherited a lawsuit filed by Mr. Corea, (bringing suit against both the outgoing and incoming council members)
maintaining wrongful dismissal and demanding his full salary – about $200,000 in
salary and si
ck time – to the end of his contract which would have been January
31, 2010. Chief Financial Officer Bruce MacLeod was immediately
appointed interim city manager. The appointment became permanent in late
October. 
The biggest change in the physical
landscape of Cape May was the completion of the Washington Street Mall
renovation which began in November of 2007 despite a referendum the previous
year demanding the project be downscaled and a failed lawsuit by “concerned”
taxpayers which strived to stall the project once more. The June 21 rededication
of the mall also celebrated the first dedication in 1972 when a tired and worn
Washington Street turned into a pedestrian mall. Mayors both past and present
gave speeches and the controversial $4.5 million project could finally be put to
rest. In its place, a new controversial project down on the beachfront stood
ready to capture the headlines.
April 4 saw the
unceremonious closing of Convention Hall. An independent engineering firm
out of Philadelphia, Pennoni Associates Inc., recommended the
40-something Convention Hall – built as a “temporary” measure when a destructive
’62 nor’easter came through and felled its old and more elegant predecessor – close
the facility. The report said, “The present condition of the Convention Hall is
structurally unsound. Due to the amount of deterioration observed, the
structural integrity of the floor framing is severely compromised. It is our
professional opinion that this building be closed to public use until repairs
can be performed in accordance with the recommendations outlined in the RVWE
reports.” This left organizations like the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, the
Chamber of Commerce and the Jazz Festival, not to mention all the programs
sponsored by the city’s Recreation Department, scrambling to find alternative
locations like the Cape May City Elementary School. Other activities like the NJ
Audubon Society’s Bird Show held in the fall, cancelled until a proper venue
could be found.
So it could be a dismal sight down
on the beachfront next summer because the city’s Planning Commission at a
Dec. 23 meeting approved development of the Beach Theatre, (right across
the street from Convention Hall) which includes demolition of the 1950 movie
theatre built by William C. Hunt and designed by movie theatre architect William
H. Lee. In its place would be a retail stores complex with six
condo/apartments above. The Beach Theatre Foundation (BTF) has been
trying to save the building since the owners, Frank Enterprises, closed the movie theatre in the
fall of 2007. BTF leases from the Frank family and has an
option to buy the property. The organization has until March of this year to get
the deed done, but have been hampered by adverse economic times
and restricted
in their protests of the demolition and development of the building by a gag
rule imposed by the Franks.
On a more positive note – although
the word around town was it would never happen – renovation of The Sea
Mist came to fruition this summer. You know the house – it looks like a red
and white wedding cake and often had a Phillies flag flying at the top of the
cupola. Well, new owner Barry Sharer bought her, tore her down and
rebuilt her again – good as new. She is a condo now not a guest house, but she
is also intact and still providing breathtaking views of the ocean and the
island, and will continue to provide inspiration for photographers for many
years to come. If you don’t already know it, The Sea Mist is one of the most
photographed houses in Cape May.
hanged hands six times and was sold at Sheriff’s sale twice.
Fortunately for the Chalfonte, the Satterfield family of Richmond, Virginia
stepped in and put a stop to all that nonsense. Mullock plans to keep the grande
dame just as she is, but with some improvements to the structure with particular
attention to those pesky fire codes. It is the oldest continually operating
hotel on the island.
county and states officials
have been bickering back and forth since 2006. The state acquired Ponderlodge
Golf Course under its Green Acres program for a purchase price of $8.4
million thus trumping Lower Township and Cape May County's efforts to purchase
the property and lease it to a private concern to maintain it as a golf course
and keep the leasing revenue. DEP got into the mix and that, as they say, was
that. The fire put the finishing touches on any efforts to use the lodge for
community activities.
the beach replenishment has caused unnatural breaks in
the sand making some spots in Cape May and Cape May Point’s beaches unsafe for
surfers and swimmers. The Cape May Beach Patrol (CMBP) reported an
unprecedented number of “spinal” injuries this summer. And sand for this year’s
project will be trucked into the city and stored at the U.S. Coast Guard Base.
The cost of dredging the sand barges off Cape May and Cape May Point’s
coast was cost prohibitive this year. It was estimated that between 300-350
trucks would be needed. 
The City of Cape May passed
an ordinance in November setting up a Business Improvement District (BID) for the
Washington Street Mall. An annual assessment on the participating merchants
of either $500 or $800, depending on the square footage, per mercantile license,
could net as much $65,000 for the management, operation and promotion of The
Mall. All eyes will be on the BID board, to be established via internal election
sometime in January, to see how well this new venture fares. Look for this to be
a citywide effort in the coming years. Once Convention Hall opens in 2010, the
merchants in that district will most certainly set up a BID for beachfront
operations. And the politicians? Well, they’re absolutely gleeful – it puts more
of the burden of maintenance and promotion on the shoulders of the merchants and
takes the heat off city council members.