North Beach Ventnor maintains the welcome to North Beach surfboat plantings.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
VENTNOR – Although there may be fewer residents on the streets these days, a corner of the North Beach universe is a little brighter.
Volunteers of the North Beach Residents Association has completed its early spring planting consisting of pansies and daffodils in a surfboat at the northeast corner of Ventnor and Nashville avenues, across the street from its original location.
The welcoming surfboat had its first season about six years ago on the lot across Ventnor Avenue where Lou’s Deli once stood, thanks to resident Mike Carr who planted flowers and erected a welcome to North Beach sign. Local residents took turns nourishing the thirsty plants using milk cartons filled with water that were trudged to the site. That was until last June when the association was notified the site would be developed and the boat had to go.
“We were a little bit panicked at first until we talked to the owner of the lot directly across Ventnor Avenue,” association Secretary Richard Conklin said. “Her lot wasn’t moving, so she agreed to let us put the boat there as long as we let her ‘for sale’ sign stay on the lot and keep the lot mowed.”
Conklin agreed to mow it and asked the city’s Public Works Department to move the boat to its current location, near where the Ventnor Memory Park is currently being built.
“But first we had to empty most of the dirt out to lighten the load,” Conklin said. “Mario Maiese and I agreed to meet at the boat in the morning to unload it. By the time I got there, he had done 2/3 of the job already. We finished and notified Public Works that it was ready to go.”
City workers promptly showed up and moved it across the street.
“Of course, now we had an empty boat,” he said.
At a meeting, members discussed getting someone with a pickup truck to move the soil across the street. However, new member Debbie Griz offered to have a truckload of new topsoil delivered to the site.
“What a relief,” Conklin said. “Her husband showed up with a truckload of topsoil and shoveled it directly into the boat.”
But a new problem needed to be overcome – how to get volunteers to water the freshly planted flowers.
“In the past, we had taken turns driving over with gallon jugs filled with water,” he said.
A neighbor on Nashville avenue – a woman named Lauren, whom Conklin has yet to meet – agreed to let them use her outside hose bib and the group purchased a very long garden hose.
“Although some old dogs just can’t learn new tricks, (president) Richard Gober, who loves the boat, continued to carry jugs of water on Saturday and Sunday.”
In addition to Conklin, who watered on Wednesdays and Fridays, resident Bruce Balin covered watering on Thursdays.
“Monday was kind of hit or miss,” he said.
As the lot became choked with weeds, Paul Steinberg went over it with a weed-whacker and donated a gas mower.
The team created a volunteer schedule to mow every other week.
“Well, when it was Richard Gober’s turn, his wife came home from shopping that day and told him that Public Works was mowing our field,” Conklin said. “Long story short, after some questioning, it turned out that the city deemed it a beautification project and agreed to have Public Works do the mowing.”
As the growing season ended, Carr decorated the boat for the holidays with wreaths and pine rope – a “nice surprise,” Conklin said.
As the pine needles fell and the dead greens became unsightly, Conklin went out and bought the pansies and daffodils seen sprouting out of the boat today.
“At some time in another month, we’ll need to start planting summer flowers,” he said. “The entire association is proud of our boat and we plan to keep it until it falls apart or we have to move it again.”
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