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The SandPaper/Wednesday, December 3, 2014 27 BETWEEN A BAY AND A WET PLACE: (Top) Sections of asphalt haven’t been dry in years. Sure, it’s marshland, residents admit, but shouldn’t the township keep roads passable? (Above) Township Administrator Jim Moran points out decades-old mosquito ditches that could help ease drainage, if only neighbors would grant access. Continued on Page 35 Photographs by Ryan Morrill Stafford Can Only Do So Much Supplied Photo NEW PERSPECTIVE: Friends urged Kelly Ford to write her recently released book. Author on Santa Claus: Don’t Stop Believing W ho says young children are the only ones who believe in Santa Claus? A Barnegat Township author says adults can, too, in her recently released book, I Heard Santa: A Story About Santa That Ev- eryone Can Believe In. “This 21-page book tells a story that allows both parents and children to keep believing in Santa,” said Ford. “I started telling my version of Santa Claus 10 years ago to my kids, and I’ve never found a book out there like it. So I decided to make the book myself.” A curriculum director for a charter school in Newark, Ford recalled that believing in Santa Claus does not have to be limited to the jolly, corpulent man with the red outfit and the big, white beard. By VICTORIA FORD C ertain sections of roadway in the Mallard Island and Mud City sections of Stafford Township are always underwater, according to residents who say the perpetual puddles are damaging not only to their vehicles but also to their quality of life, and they want the township to do something about it. But Township Administrator James Moran says it is not that the town is unwilling to help – just that solving the problems is neither sim- ple nor inexpensive, given several limiting factors including budgetary and bureaucratic obstacles, as well as the laws of physical science. “We keep trying, and we intend to keep trying, but I don’t know that I can solve it,” Moran said. Maryann and Jim O’Neill, origi- nally from Philadelphia, bought their East Mallard Drive home in 1991 and moved there fulltime in ’94. In that time they have gone through five trucks and one SUV. John Pfeiffer, a North Jersey trans- plant, moved in across the street in 2007. They all acknowledge the perils of living at the edge of the bay, flooding being the most obvious, and, sure, many who live there con- sider driving and wading through water to be a way of life. “We all have our boots by the door,” Maryann O’Neill said. But the difference, as they see it, is floodwater recedes. Or at least it should. Water that collects as a result of poor drainage is another issue. It makes leisurely strolls and bike rides an impossibility; it can freeze and make driveways inac- cessible; for school students, even getting to and from the bus stop is dicey – all of which, they say, spells municipal responsibility. After a severe rain or a flood tide, the recesses fill up and the water stays for weeks at a time. In some places the water never goes away, becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes. No Simple Cure For Flooding On Mallard Island “I signed up for a few things when I moved here,” Pfeiffer said. “But we’re citizens of Stafford, too.” He feels he and his neighbors deserve the same basic consideration by the governing body. “No one should have to drive through roads like these.” The solution seeming the most logical to him would be to resurface with added blacktop that is peaked to allow water to drain off properly. “The residents are tired of trying to get it done in the face of inaction,” he said. Numerous efforts have been made over the years to request the town’s help, to varying degrees of success. Pfeiffer began a correspondence with Mayor John Spodofora a few years ago, and by summer 2012 progress was measurable. “Thank you for beginning a pro- cess to alleviate our problem,” Pfeiffer wrote to the mayor in an email. “We have noticed the right-of-way survey markers put up by the town at various locations around Mallard Island.” He then asked the mayor to sum up the town’s “game plan.” “The initial phase is a base line or demonstration of current conditions,” Spodofora wrote back. “Once we fully understand all of the topography and locations of pipes and inlets, we will better understand how to modify or enhance the existing system. … We are currently doing a comprehensive study with our township engineers to develop an engineering solution to the issues of storm water control.” But Superstorm Sandy brought a change in priorities. Pfeiffer reached out to Spodofora again in January 2014 but the stalled progress has not resumed. He expressed residents’ frustrations and asked the mayor to provide possible solutions. “This is a problem that can and should be fixed,” he wrote. “New asphalt raised an inch or two, drainage pipes to the bay, grinder pumps that actually work (referring to observed sewer overflow at one residence)…. whatever it takes!” He beseeched the mayor to give Mallard Island and Mud City the same attention as Beach Haven West, whose residents often speak publicly at town meetings, vocalizing their complaints and demanding answers. “The problem isn’t going to go away,” Jim O’Neill said. “I don’t know why they (officials) can’t pacify us to some degree.” As Pfeiffer and the O’Neills pointed out, however, rallying the whole community to organize for the cause is a challenge. The inhabitants of Mallard Island and Mud City are, by and large, the kind who keep to themselves, having chosen to live on a tidal marsh perhaps for the privacy and peacefulness offered there, sur- rounded by likeminded neighbors who respect each other’s wishes to be left alone. They’re not the type to show up at a town meeting and make a lot of noise. The irony is not lost on those who now want the town to address an age-old headache in their neigh- borhood but struggle to summon the collective voice. “Quietly, I was an adult who believed that Santa existed along with the rest of the people who lived and passed away,” she said. “If I be- lieved my grandpa still existed as a spirit who I felt around me and heard with my heart, why couldn’t it be the same way with Santa Claus?” Ford said that after all, Santa is often known as St. Nick, which is based on St. Nicholas, who lived in the third century A.D. He was known for his generosity to those in need, his love for children and his concern for sailors and ships. “So in this sense, you can tell your children that Santa was a real person and his spirit lives on today,” she said. “I found that the solution is to look at it from the spiritual side and that he can exist in our own, unique way.” Ford said that when sharing her concept of Santa Claus with friends, they told her she should “write a book about it.” “They told me there’s nothing out there like this,”Ford recalled. “Parents go through this conflict within themselves every year. Your story needs to get out there.” She added, “If we as parents still want to believe in Santa Claus, and our kids want to believe in Santa Claus, and people who have lived and passed away still exist in heaven as spirits and St. Nicholas did exist then why not fold that into the story of Santa Claus?” For more information, email info@iheard- santa.com. — Eric Englund [email protected]
