Seaside Gets Ready For Spring

A little of this and a little of that heading into the final week of February and for many this month can’t end fast enough.

I was over in Seaside Heights Thursday where Mayor Bill Akers said he is pleased with the progress of the rebuilding of the boardwalk.  The construction company doing the work drove the first pilings into the sand last Friday and they are moving south to north and as of yesterday were in the area of Lincoln Avenue.

New guidelines call for the pilings to be closer together and also are being dug deeper into the sand but Mayor Akers fully expects the mile-long boardwalk rebuilding project to be completed by May 10^th.

Meanwhile Seaside Heights officials are still planning to proceed with off-season events like their Annual Easter Egg Hunt with details to be announced soon.  The borough will also host the Ocean County St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the boulevard on Saturday, March 9^th.

The road to Atlantic City for high school wrestlers begins this weekend with grapplers from around New Jersey competing in 32 Districts.  Wrestlers in District 24 will take to the mat at the Pine Belt Arena on the campus of Toms River North while Brick Memorial will host District 23 action and in both cases the districts will be condensed into one day…that being Saturday.

Toms River South’s B.J. Clagon is the only returning state champion from the shore area and the Rider University bound Clagon will compete at 145 pounds.

Saturday could be quite a day for both Point Pleasant Beach and Point Pleasant Borough as the two neighbors look to claim what were at one time unthinkable Shore Conference Basketball Tournament Championships.  In the 1pm girl’s final at Monmouth University the Panthers of Pt. Boro aim for their first-ever Shore title against top-seed Red Bank Catholic who is seeking their sixth championship and first since 2007.

Shortly after 3pm the Beach goes up against Lakewood in just the third all-Ocean County final in the 76-year history of the tournament and the first since the Piners beat Lacey in 1991.  While Lakewood has won 7 SCT titles and appeared in 15 championship games this is just the fourth appearance for the Garnett Gulls and the most recent since 1963.   The boy’s final will be broadcast on our Shore Sports Network’s 1160 & 1310AM and streamed live at shoresportsnetwork.com.