Subscribe
Community
North Beach dedicates its new boardwalk
Friday, Oct. 16, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by DARWIN WEIGEL
Kimberly McHugh of North Beach enjoys the town's refurbished boardwalk with her 11-week-old rottweilers Madison and Jet.
|
E-Mail This Article
The Town of North Beach dedicated its recently refurbished boardwalk Tuesday afternoon amongst dignitaries, town council members and employees and boardwalk contractor representatives.
A $250,000 bond bill, initiated by Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., paid for a large portion of the boardwalk, a project that was first on the town's list for projects requesting stimulus funds, Mayor Mike Bojokles said.
Bojokles recognized Miller (D-Calvert, Prince George's) and Del. Sue Kullen (D- Calvert) "not just for what they've done, but for what they continue to do for North Beach.
"The bond bill allowed us to complete the entire project," Bojokles said. Along with the bond bill, the town paid an additional $159,800 for the project that began in the end of June and finished up with the replacement of boards on Atlantic Avenue in August.
"This project came in on budget and ahead of schedule," Bojokles said. He thanked the contractor, Pioneer Construction of Kingsville, which replaced rotting wooden boards with composite boards made of limestone that have a 25-year guarantee.
The mayor also unveiled a directional marker inlayed in the boardwalk with both Miller's and Kullen's names etched in it along with the phrase "Jewel of the Chesapeake."
The town is creating a map for a trail system with markers to follow around town to points of interest, Bojokles said.
"When we create a map, this will be our first marker," he said.
"When they say this is the ‘Jewel of the Chesapeake,' I truly believe it is," Kullen said, adding, "I don't have my name on anything yet."
Miller shared some personal stories of North Beach talking about staying at Breezy Point as a child when only the adults were allowed to venture to North Beach.
"It was always the hidden garden. I knew there was something special here," he said.
Today his grandkids and wife walk the boardwalk so he said he "knew about the boardwalk, splintering in your feet and everything else."
At the culmination of the ceremony, a ribbon was draped across the boardwalk for the cutting, but after several tries, the large ceremonial scissors could not cut the ribbon, and instead, a small pocket knife was used to cut the ribbon.
