Federal funding offers $100M to Jersey shore communities to renovate boardwalks

OCEAN CITY, New Jersey (WPVI) -- If you've been to the Jersey shore, chances are you've been to a boardwalk.

"I like to go to Kohr Brothers and Castaway Cove," said James Moeller, who is visiting Ocean City from Chantilly, Virginia.

Alexa Constantine, 14, from Mays Landing, loves to hang on the boardwalk, especially at night.

"There's everything that you can do, like the ice cream and the rides and all the stores," she said.

This week, Governor Phil Murphy signed into law a Boardwalk Preservation Fund. It is $100 million in grant funding for projects to improve or repair New Jersey boardwalks.

"With the Boardwalk Preservation Fund, we're going to repair and renovate crumbling boardwalk infrastructure, remove blight along the shoreline, and invest in facilities and improvements that will make our boardwalks more accessible," said Murphy during a press conference on Tuesday.

He said this fund is made possible by federal American Rescue Plan money allocated to New Jersey during the pandemic.

Atlantic City's mayor says they plan to submit a competitive application, hoping for a piece of that $100 million.

"We created a boardwalk group that has studied what it would take to rebuild the most famous and best boardwalk in the world," said Mayor Marty Small Sr.

Action News met one mom who says she would like to see a focus on accessibility after a recent trip to Wildwood.

"There was no ramp, so we had to walk out of our way just to come up onto the boardwalk and it just made something that was supposed to be fun kind of not so fun," said Kara McGrorty Derstine from Lansdale, Montgomery County.

Wildwood's boardwalk has been undergoing renovations in phases in recent off-seasons. While the city has already received some state funding, the mayor says they plan on applying for additional money from this new initiative.

In Ocean City, Councilman Tom Rotondi says officials discussed using the potential grant money for the Music Pier. The money would allow it to expand for larger shows.

He says Ocean City plans to apply for funding.

For Mary Butenschon from Ohio, Thursday was her first time on a boardwalk.

She hopes they'll be around for years to come.

"You know, you read about it in books, you hear about it, all the history of it, and so it's really nice to see it. And I would hate to see something like this taken away," said Butenschon.

Communities have until October 31 to apply for these grants.

Murphy said decisions as to who gets what will be made by the end of the year.