I would like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s Community Day activities on May 7. Even though it was a rather stormy day, many people placed bids during the Municipal Bicycle Auction and attended our gathering inside the Community Lodge, where City officials and representatives from local civic organizations answered questions and distributed literature and giveaways.

I am especially grateful to the people who were honored during the Community Day Awards Ceremony, including Helen Bennett, Regan Capone, Annette Lombardo, Lou and Dolly Minchelli, Monica Santarcangelo, and Dan and Mike Tumolo – each of whom received my “Do the Right Thing” awards on May 7. I would also like to acknowledge the Colonnade Inn and Braca Cafe, both of which were honored for their Green Practices; and this year’s Community Partnership Award recipient, First Bank of Sea Isle City.

You may have heard that some of our Community Day activities were postponed due to the bad weather. One event that did not take place as planned was the free Document Shredding Event sponsored by our friends at First Bank. Fortunately, the shredding event will take place this Saturday, May 21, from 9:00 am to 12 noon in the parking lot next to the Welcome Center, where you can safely dispose of unwanted documents and files. For more information about the shredding event, please see the special section in this newsletter.

Also this weekend, you can spruce-up your gardens by purchasing flowers at the Sea Isle City Garden Club’s annual Flower Sale, which takes place at Dealy Field on Friday and Saturday. Proceeds from the Flower Sale benefit the Garden Club’s charitable efforts – so, not only will you be beautifying your home and our community by making a purchase at the Flower Sale, you will also be supporting a very good cause.

Looking further afield, please mark your calendars now and plan to attend Sea Isle City’s 2022 Memorial Day Ceremony at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, May 30, at Veterans Park, where we will honor the countless men and women in uniform who gave their lives for our country. Immediately following our Memorial Day service, spectators will be invited to proceed to the JFK Boulevard Beach, where our local Boy Scouts and members of the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol will honor our nation’s deceased naval personnel by placing a floral wreath beyond the breakers.

Once again this summer, we will be playing the National Anthem (or an appropriate patriotic ballad) at 10:00 a.m. each morning over the speakers along the Promenade. I hope that everyone who hears the music will take a moment to stop and reflect on what a wonderful country we have – and how blessed we all are to live in such a great nation. The music will begin playing on the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend, so please take note and enjoy!

The next time you are at Excursion Park, please notice the new electronic message sign that we recently installed on the information kiosk, located where JFK Boulevard meets the Promenade. Throughout the year, the sign will display details about events and other pertinent information related to Sea Isle City that both residents and visitors will enjoy – so please check-it-out the next time you are downtown.

As a reminder, parking fees went into effect on May 15, which means you will need to pay to park in the numbered spaces around town through Labor Day. This year, we are going entirely cashless and will only be using the Park Mobile app system to accept parking payments. I realize this is a big change for many of us – but I remind everyone that there is a phone number posted on the bright-green signs in each parking area that will allow motorists who have not downloaded the Park Mobile app to pay for parking by using a credit card over-the-phone. Most importantly, I thank everyone for bearing with us as we make this transition to a cashless parking payment system.

This week’s “Shout Out” goes to the men and women at Sea Isle City’s Department of Public Works. This is National Public Works Week, which is observed each May to recognize the important jobs that are performed by Public Works Departments across the nation. Those jobs include (but are not limited to) collecting trash and recycling, keeping our towns clean, maintaining public facilities, fixing things when they break, caring for our beaches, ensuring that we have clean water to drink and that our dirty water flows out as it should, and so much more. My thanks go to all of our PW employees for a job well done year round – because we literally could not live in Sea Isle City without the services they provide!

Smile…You’re in Sea Isle,

Mayor Leonard C. Desiderio