$11M+ More in Fed Funds for LBI
$16.6M available for next LBI phase; Another $15.7M for Surf City
TOMS RIVER, N.J. - As retiring House Member, Congressman Jim Saxton (NJ-3rd), closes a 24-year career in the House, Congress has allocated the most federal funds ever to continue the beach erosion repair project on Long Beach Island, Ocean County, N.J. Saxton announced $11.7 million in new funding for beach replenishment.
"This $11 million is more than twice as much as we’ve ever obtained in a single year for beach replenishment," said Saxton, who embarked on the long-term project with the late Ocean County Freeholder and Long Beach Township Mayor, Jim Mancini, in 1992.
Saxton said $11.7 million is in the "Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2009," a continuing resolution appropriations bill that funds the government through March 2009. It passed the House Sept. 26, and the President signed it Oct. 1. The previous highest amount of funding for beach replenishment had been $5 million in 2005.
"We hope to see the Army Corps of Engineers award a contract for the next phase of beach replenishment in the next few months," Saxton said.
On a separate track, Saxton has obtained funds to clean up World War I fuses in Surf City. In early 2007, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers construction project to rebuild eroded beaches unintentionally dredged up offshore sands that included the ordnance, and distributed it on the beaches of Surf City.
Earlier this year, an additional $11.7 million to the 2008 defense supplemental appropriations bill for the Surf City clean-up was approved. Saxton also added an amendment to the 2009 Defense Authorization Act, H.R. 5658, which provides that the federal government assume 100 percent of past and future costs of cleaning up fuses discovered on the beach. The legislation was signed by the President Tuesday.
From previous years, there remains some unspent funding. An additional $4 million from the FY2007 emergency supplemental bill is available for the Surf City clean up. Also, from the FY2008 budget, there remains $4.9M for LBI beach replenishment.
"We’ve overcome some hurdles," said Saxton. "The bottom line is there is a total of more than $32 million in federal funding available for future work on LBI."
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