North Wildwood that's still struggling to maintain safe Shores for beachgoers and the towns locked in a legal battle with the state over how best to replenish the beachfront after storms North Wildwood already struggles with some of very narrow beaches making it more prone to erosion and as Township officials say typical replenishment strategies simply won't work for them Ted Goldberg visited the beach town to bring us a closer look at the challenges facing the shore front just north of Wildwood the beach gets perilously thin when the ocean is at high tide water comes up to the walkway and that erosion forced North Wildwood to do some last minute maintenance Before Memorial Day Weekend the area I'm standing right now a week ago you would have been taking your life into your hand standing here there was a 10 to 12 foot sheer Cliff behind me North Wildwood mayor Patrick rozinello says the city hired a private contractor to build up the sand dunes smooth them over and create entrances to the beach intense erosion is nothing new for North Wildwood one of New Jersey's few municipalities to not receive state funding for beach replenishment after asking for it we're really struggling for protection very fortunately we didn't have any storms this this past winter and spring otherwise we would have been in really bad shape North Wildwood has spent more than 20 million dollars on projects to protect its shorts the depart women of Environmental Protection has alleged for years that those fixes were done without a permit and they're actually hurting the environment finding the city more than 12 million dollars in February meanwhile North Wildwood sued the state in January asking them to pick up the tab for the unpermitted work just this week the dep approved emergency repairs just for the sand dunes and the beach entrances they have just proven to not really be good stewards of the Jersey Shore in this in this regard and as the mayor of the town I simply could not allow the dep to let our town wash away there is a state-funded project to bring Beach replenishment to North Wildwood but it won't start until next year at the earliest North Wildwood had to make agreements with surrounding municipalities to finish the application and commissioner Sean La Tourette says it took years for the Wildwoods and lower Township to come to the table the communities on that barrier have refused to engage with one another and the dep in order to get that program moving a program which is free funded by the state and the federal government because of fears of of what it may or may not do la Tourette says the Wildwoods had to come to an agreement because of their proximity the project involves moving sand from Wildwood where the sand stretches much further than the sand found on its northern neighbor the best uh rate of success for an engineered Beach and dune system is for contiguous uh barrier-wide adoption of the strategy otherwise all you're doing is refracting water down onto your neighbor no other town in the state of New Jersey is dependent on the agreement of a neighboring town to get your protection they don't want to see the town wash away or any additional damage either we just have to come to agreement and terms in the best way to provide that Coastal protection not to be dramatic but we can't get wiped off the face of the map Michelle Rakowski owns elby's Variety Store a few thousand feet north of Wildwood's northern border she depends on beachgoers to keep her business going so she's hoping the legal issues resolve soon our community relies on this tourism there's no doubt about it we've been doing it for years we we're going to provide an amazing experience to any visitors in the summer of 2023.

North Wildwood had a hearing last Monday for its lawsuit their next step is a case management conference with the dep in North Wildwood I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news [Music] [Music]