CAPE MAY POINT — The Veterans Memorial Design Committee has completed the first phase of a Veterans Memorial to be built off Oak Avenue.
The committee presented an update during the Borough Commission meeting Nov. 11, including the $165,500 budget to complete the plan as envisioned.
Member Ed Barnhart said the committee hopes to raise half the money through donations and the other half through a matching grant.
“We look forward to working with the community to see if we can meet that goal,” he said.
The first phase of the memorial is complete. Work included adding topsoil and grading, and installing a flagpole, carved granite, foundations and benches. The final cost was $51,888, funded by $50,000 from the Wrotny estate and a portion of a $2,785 gift from the Cape May Point Taxpayers Association.
Memorial origins
The project originated with a bequest from the estate of Cape May Point resident and U.S. Air Force veteran Mark Wrotny to the CMPTA. The bequest includes a one-third interest in the proceeds from the sale of his home, contingent upon using $50,000 of the money to erect a veteran’s memorial on borough property at the north end of Lake Lily.
Subsequently, the CMPTA formed the Veterans Memorial Design Committee in 2023. Members are Barnhart, Cathy Stambaugh, Borough Administrator Ed Grant, Environmental Commission member Sandy Allison, Civic Club member Anne Marie Patton and veterans Jim Fraatz and Lynn Smith. CMPTA director Patty Shull joined in the process.
The goal of the project was to create a calming place of reflection with seating, enhance the entrance to Cape May Point and provide paths accessible for all to visit the memorial.
The plans include minimizing the visual impact of the existing electrical panel and minimizing the need for maintenance.
“We wanted to make sure that we respected the aesthetic character of the Point in what we did and set up the memorial as an overall park to benefit the entire community,” Stambaugh said
The committee created a master plan with the belief that the goals could not be met with the $50,000 from the Wrotny estate, Stambaugh added.
“At that time, because the Wrotny estate would not release the money until we committed to the $50,000 project, and not wanting to hold up the closing of the estate, we created the project so we could accomplish moving forward,” Barnhart said.
Phase one
The site plan includes installing a flagpole along the axis toward the south end of Lake Lily and creating a raised knoll with benches facing the lake. The memorial includes engraved granite reading “All gave some, some gave all.”
Barnhart showed architectural renderings he created of the site plan, including recognition of Wrotny’s gift at the base of the flagpole.
“To give an economic summary so people can understand how this money was spent — all of it was spent on direct construction costs,” Barnhart said, adding that donations of material and labor helped the committee stay on budget for this phase.
The Department of Public Works removed some elements on the site and Barnhart noted the department contributed that labor to the removal.
Barnhart said excess fill from the Yale Avenue project was used at the site.
Remaining work
The remaining aspects of the master plan include creating a crescent-shaped hardscape podium to serve as the foundation for other superstructures and provide a hard surface suitable for wheelchairs.
The next component is the east pavilion, which provides screening for the electrical equipment and leaves space for a bench. Barnhart said creating a path to Oak Avenue as the memorial’s main approach would provide handicap accessibility.
A west pavilion would create balance to the overall memorial, and the final component would be the lake loop path, connecting East Lake Drive to Cape Avenue.
“The hope would be that you could complete the memorial in a single phase of construction going forward,” Barnhart said. “As opposed to doing it in increments.”
The $165,500 total includes costs for grant applications, contingency and escalation to 2027.
Financial considerations
Deputy Mayor Elise Geiger said the team had done a wonderful job with beautiful vision and hard work. She asked if the budget to complete the master plan reflects the committee’s priorities.
“I was the one that came up with that sequencing, and all of this is certainly open to discussion,” Barnhart said. “I think everybody on the committee [would] like the electrical equipment dealt with sooner rather than later, just because it does not contribute to the sense of entrance to Cape May Point or the memorial.”
Geiger asked whether the committee had considered less-expensive options for the pathways around the memorial.
“The committee went back and forth on virtually options for everything and nothing is cast in stone by any means,” Barnhart said. “We heard from many constituents that they loved the pathway surface at the south end of the lake, so that was our starting point.”
Barnhart said the committee is now gauging how much support there is for the project and where it stands financially.
“There are other less-expensive pathway surfaces we could explore to match whatever funding becomes available,” he said.
Mayor Anita VanHeeswyk said aesthetics are important and she believes enough funds will be raised to complete the project.
“I think people in Cape May Point would like to see this done nicely,” she said.
Grant said the committee had investigated various financing options, including grants from the County Open Space Board.
He said that involved two options — a 50-50 split or a 60-40 split, which would allow the board to choose materials, signage and other aspects of the project.
Grant added that the 60-40 projects could involve delays and other issues.
“There are no other grants out there that we could identify,” he said. “The only other one we looked at, the minimum to be considered had to be in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, and we certainly didn’t want to go that far with the project.”
Commissioner Suzanne Yunghans asked if matching funds from the community were required before accessing the Open Space grant.
“You should, because you want to go in there with what you want to do,” Grant said.
Geiger asked where the money would go. VanHeeswyk said it would go to the CMPTA. Grant said the money would go into a reserve, and if the project did not come to fruition, it would be returned.
“I still have an issue [because] this is public land where things have to be built, so maybe I have a different perspective that the borough owns the property and has the last say,” Geiger said. “I don’t think we can really lose sight of that.”
Grant said Geiger made a good point: the money must funnel through the taxpayers group to the borough as a grant and not be commingled with other monies.
“It would be set up just for that project, and if there was any monies left, it would be up to the people that contribute, in other words the taxpayers,” Grant said, adding the money could be returned to the group or set up in a trust for another phase.
Geiger asked at what point the borough takes over and what role the committee has going forward.
“I’m just trying to feel out how we move this thing forward so there’s an understanding of everyone’s role here,” Geiger said. “It’s not the Taxpayers Association’s job to do this memorial. Now who is responsible for the actual accomplishment of this and going for additional fundraising.”
Yunghans said it would be the borough, which falls under Public Works’ purview.
“I think that it would have to be working hand in hand, because if the Taxpayers Association is interested and willing to be the fundraising agent and manage a piece of it, then we would do construction,” Yunghans said. “The grant application has to come from the borough as well.”
VanHeeswyk said the project has been approved and more discussion could take place outside of the meeting.
“In the end, I think Mark Wrotny would be so pleased,” Yunghans said. “It was a group of folks that came together to envision this, so many people put volunteer hours into it, it was really a public-private partnership between taxpayers and the estate.”
By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Star and Wave
