Beach Replenishment Work Gets Started in Toms River

While Toms River waits its turn to benefit from a proposed federal beach replenishment project, help for the township's dune line arrived Monday in the form of temporary sand aimed at bulking up the oceanfront before nor'easter season begins.

"We've had the first truckloads of sand being delivered today," said Councilwoman Maria Maruca at a council meeting Tuesday night.

Maruca said trucks would be delivering sand to the township's public beaches in Ortley Beach as well as sections in which property owners had signed easements allowing for the federal project.

The sand will delivered north-to-south; Normandy Beach was the first to receive sand on Tuesday.

As for the easements, Maruca said a few beach associations will be meeting in the next couple of weeks for member votes on whether or not to sign the easement to allow the federally-funded dune protection project to go through.

"If those easements come in signed, we did make prior arrangements to have enough sand to put there," said Maruca.

Easement holdouts may eventually find themselves benefiting from the federal project even if they did not want it – the township is currently making property appraisals in advance of potential condemnation proceedings.

The dune project is necessary to protect homes both in the township's barrier island sections as well as on the mainland, officials have said. A breach of the northern barrier island during Superstorm Sandy in Mantoloking is blamed for the flooding of thousands of homes on both sides of Barnegat Bay, and washovers during Sandy led to widespread destruction in Ortley Beach.