OCEAN CITY — As part of her ongoing Maryland jobs tour, U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) toured downtown Ocean City on Monday afternoon with Mayor Rick Meehan and others to inspect the ongoing repairs to the iconic fishing pier and the beach and dunes.
Mikulski has long been an ardent supporter of the decades-old beach replenishment project in Ocean City and visited the resort to view first-hand the status of the resort’s beach on the brink of another summer season.
Mikulski, joined by Meehan and City Engineer Terry McGean, also inspected the ongoing repairs to the iconic Wicomico Street Pier, which was damaged again during Winter Storm Jonas in late January.
“I’m here on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to talk jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Mikulski on Monday. “In Ocean City, I’ve seen first-hand the impact that public investments in our coastal infrastructure have had in rebuilding and sustaining Maryland’s tourism economy.”
Mikulski was referring, of course, to the ongoing beach replenishment project. Beach replenishment began in 1994 through a 50-year agreement with the Town of Ocean City, Worcester County and the State of Maryland partnering with the federal Army Corps of Engineers, which provides over 50 percent of the funding for the massive undertaking. The Ocean City beaches are routinely replenished every four years in a normal cycle, with periodic emergency projects as needed following coastal storms and other natural events.
Despite Winter Storm Jonas in January, which ravaged the resort beaches and the dune network, no emergency repairs were required this year and with a little help from the town’s Public Works department, the beaches and dunes have filled in naturally for the most part with another summer season quickly approaching. In the two decades-plus since beach replenishment first began in 1994, the program has been credited with saving hundreds of millions of dollars in potential property damages and losses.
“According to estimates from the Corps, beach replenishment has protected Ocean City from more than $900 million in damages and saved Ocean City from Super Storm Sandy,” said Mikulski. “I will never stop fighting so that the people of Maryland have a government on their side, supporting jobs today and jobs tomorrow.”
As Ocean City and coastal communities around the nation continue to grapple with severe weather events, including Sandy and Jonas for example, beach replenishment projects protect jobs along with billions of dollars in public and private infrastructure. Mikulski has been a fierce advocate for federal investments in coastal protection and erosion prevention measures such as beach replenishment in Ocean City and successfully fought for $14 million in emergency supplemental funding following Sandy.
For his part, Meehan shared the news of the senator’s visit with his colleagues during Monday’s Mayor and Council meeting.
“I had the opportunity to meet with Senator Barbara Mikulski this afternoon on the Boardwalk and it was a very informal meeting,” he said. “As you all know, the senator is retiring this year and Barbara Mikulski has been a good friend to the State of Maryland and the town of Ocean City.”
Meehan said Mikulski was instrumental in pulling in the federal government as a major partner in beach replenishment two decades ago.
“I can probably venture to say that we may not have that beach replenishment project we have out here without Barbara Mikulski,” he said. “She certainly laid the ground work and set in stone in the Senate and the federal government just how important beach replenishment is.”