Rain-forest wood out in Ocean City

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - It looks like a missing tooth in the broad smile of this beachside town that calls itself "America's Greatest Family Resort."

On the boardwalk at Ninth Street - typically a crowded spot on a warm summer night - a block-long, 20-foot-wide section of the wooden walkway is stripped of decking down to the pilings, surrounded by an orange safety barrier.

The $1.1 million project to replace the boards has been at a standstill for months, as city officials awaited the delivery of about 15,500 pieces of a rain-forest hardwood known as ipe.

Now, it looks as if that wood will never be put in place.

Against the advice of Solicitor Gerald Corcoran, members of City Council voted unanimously Thursday night for a resolution declaring the Louis J. Grasmick Lumber Co. of Baltimore in default of its contract with the city.

The company has delivered only about 3 percent of the wood; another shipment is expected Monday. It is unclear when the rest of the wood - nearly 80 percent of the order - would be delivered.

The project has pitted environmental groups against the city administration, which pushed for the use of the lumber, sometimes called ironwood because of its durability and strength.

Mayor Sal Perillo forged ahead with the plan despite receiving more than 50,000 protest e-mails from around the world and repeated pickets outside his City Hall office.

He also went against a promise made by Ocean City officials 10 years ago never again to use rain-forest wood on the boardwalk.

Perillo, agreeing with Corcoran's advice, said he was against City Council's resolution to break its contract with Grasmick because he feared the lumber company might sue, making Ocean City look bad in its dealings with other vendors.

It was all right to use the wood, Perillo said, because new regulations crafted by South American governments and the Forest Stewardship Council certify that ipe being imported for projects such as Ocean City's meet stringent criteria for properly managed lumbering operations.

But the FSC, based in Bonn, Germany, has come under fire for allegedly slacking on its own rules, and has agreed to tighten its regulations for certification on the 73 million acres of forests it oversees. Last year, the agency issued about 6,200 certifications that materials had been harvested from "well managed" forests.

Despite the seal of approval, some environmentalists contend the use of Brazilian and Bolivian ipe, and other Amazonian wood species, continues to be linked to the destruction of rain forests. Scientists say that destruction contributes to global warming and other environmental woes.

Repeated delays in delivery by Grasmick dating back to August - with the company citing broken-down trucks, low river levels that prevented harvesting of the wood, and other problems - have put the city months behind on its boardwalk repair project.

"I think the biggest fear that everyone has is that this isn't going to be done in time for the beginning of the season, and that's going to cause all kinds of traffic and congestion problems along the boardwalk," said Holly Cockerham, manager of Shriver's Salt Water Taffy, directly across from the reconstruction site.

People can still walk along a much-narrowed section of the boardwalk between Ninth and 10th Streets, but one can't avoid seeing the construction while gazing out to sea.

"We are living in a glass house here; the world is watching us," City Council President Keith Hartsell said. "If there is even a perception with the public there is a problem with the boardwalk, this could become a big problem for the merchants in this town, who have a very limited amount of time to make a living here."

Other officials say they are ready to take a proactive approach to completing the project using other species of wood, such as American yellow pine or black locust, some of which the city has on hand.

"I'm ready to grab a hammer and volunteer to help, if I can get in the union," Councilman Scott Ping said. "This is something that has to get done before the season."

Environmentalists saw City Council's move Thursday night as a victory, although council members said the decision came down to dollars and cents.

But a victory is a victory, according to Rhonda Van Wingerden, director of a local grassroots group called Friends of the Rainforest.

"This is what we've been fighting relentlessly for a year, for the City Council to just wake up and put a stop to this," Van Wingerden said after a nearly three-hour session of wrangling between the six-member council and the city administration.