while a decade long battle has come to an end in North Wildwood that involved millions of dollars in fines and lawsuits over unauthorized work replenishing the resort Town's beaches Wildwood officials say they've reached a deal with the state to move forward with a project that'll widen beaches and protect the shoreline from erosion while also dropping claims on both sides and the pricey penalties that have come with it Ted Goldberg has more on what's in the settlement and what it means for beachgoers a contentious battle over North Wildwoods beaches ended with a whimper Tuesday Morning this resolution is duly adopted North Wildwood city council unanimously voted to reach an agreement with the state the city will drop its lawsuit against New Jersey while the state will erase a $12 million fine for unauthorized Beach replenishment more importantly in my opinion though that this sets a a clear path forward for several really important Shore protection projects projects that will cost about $57 million but could provide North Wildwood with some serious protection going forward against storms and flooding deed restricting Marshland on the west side of town uh that is already Wetlands second is doing some uh Wildlife enhancement along angle SE Drive uh behind the seaw wall and the third is returning the louth amphitheater uh to its natural state adune and Wetland area the be rep punishment this past summer was $17 million the um seaw wall extension is going to push $20 million um the islandwide Project's going to be over $20 million just for the North Wildwood share so again these short protection measures are expensive um but when you calculate what they're protecting and the economics the economy of what they're protecting the property that they're protecting uh I think it more than makes sense financially the city will pay about $7 million while state and federal money will pay for the other 50 these projects are almost generational Shore protection they are generational Shore protection projects uh particularly the seaw wall you know that's something that will be here 100 years from now and it offers the absolute maximum protection against Coastal storms what concerns me is uh uh not only from a business standpoint but also from just islandwide you know um you need to have uh beaches um so that it will protect the island Nick canus owns the Acropolis ocean Resort a Stones throw away from the famously thin beaches in North Wildwood it gets a little bit frightening when when the waters close to the bulkhead there's no question about it unlike its neighbor to the South North Wildwood has perilously thin beaches because of strong erosion concerned leaders ran a foul of State officials by doing unauthorized Beach replenishment and they felt they were ignored in favor of other Shore communities there was no choice because um it just things weren't moving moving and I think that uh I don't think that the the uh State realized the severity of the problem at first uh but I think you know absolutely that they came around and and uh uh jumped in for too long we were left on our own in that regard until the governor stepped in this past spring and along with Senator Tesa made sure that North Wildwood was included like every other beachfront community in the state um and so that to me was really what what what changed this I mean this this was not this was a this was a fight over um long-term Shore protection and making sure that the state was engaged and and they are now if there's any bad blood it's been washed away by the tide and by the major projects coming to North Wildwood we're very very grateful for what has happened here I feel good right now about the D they're they're very very actively engaged with um us on multiple Shore protection projects it was a great conclusion I think think that um uh the compromises that were made were excellent and I think that uh moving forward I'm very happy that both the state the federal and the city all got together to help us these beaches should become wider sometime next year thanks to a $57 million solution to a yearslong fight in North Wildwood I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news