It’s Thanksgiving week, and in addition to gathering with family and friends on Thursday, for many folks it’s also a short work week - an opportunity for family, friends, football, and feast. We have much to be thankful for here in Sea Isle. As your mayor, I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve what I truly believe is a wonderfully blessed island, whose inhabitants share important values. In addition to family and faith, we share those values embossed on our city seal…our commitment to respect, integrity, tolerance, and excellence.

Along with our shared values, your city government has a vital mission that includes keeping our city safe, clean, and desirable; as well as maintaining and improving our infrastructure.

With that mission in mind, I want to give a brief update on some of the projects going on in town.

While we don’t have the same level of disruption from closed streets as we’ve had in recent years as we work to put in new underground infrastructure and resurface our roads, we still have projects in the pipeline.

Our contracted forces are continuing with road construction at 38th Street – on a project that also includes 58th Street from Landis to Central, 59th Street from Sounds to Central, and Sounds Avenue along the parking area on the west side of Dealy Field. As I’ve mentioned before, the project at 38th Street will include construction of an underground drainage system that will address the chronic problems associated with groundwater there that continually create ponding water along the gutter lines.

We’ve substantially completed the bulkhead installation project at the 75th Street bayside street end.

Council recently awarded the contract to resurface Cini Avenue from JFK to 36th Street, a project partially funded by a grant from the state. That roadwork will be completed by next spring.

In the 4500-block of Park and Central, we continue to see outstanding progress on construction of our Community Center, as work has begun on erecting structural steel; and we’ll soon see the skeleton of the building completed before moving forward with the building envelope. This is an exciting project, and we’re less than a year away from opening the doors to everyone.

This Friday we’ll have our annual Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting Ceremony; along with the always anticipated visit from Santa and Christmas song sing-a-long at Excursion Park.

Also Friday, the Chamber of Commerce will host the Winter Village at Excursion Park, where folks will have a chance to shop in the Shopping Village from 2:00 PM to 9:00 PM while enjoying the tree lighting and parade. Saturday’s Winter Village event will take place from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM and will feature winter-themed bounce houses, an ice sculptor, holiday crafts, and more. There will also be a Food Court for people to grab a bite to eat while enjoying the festivities.

Finally, I must mention that we’re beginning the 32nd Annual Mayor’s Holiday Toy & Food Drive, from Thanksgiving Weekend to December 16, and I hope everyone will join us as we spread holiday cheer to families in need.

For more information about the Toy & Food Drive, please call 609-263-4461, extension 1245.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone; and as always, please remember, we are one Sea Isle City, and together we’ll be stronger than ever.

Mayor Leonard C. Desiderio