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By Lee Procida/Press of Atlantic City

OCEAN CITY — John Stauffer says that Ocean City's boardwalk is too soft and he wants voters to decide whether it should toughen up.

His issue is with the southern yellow pine that primarily makes up the wooden walkway. Comparatively cheap and sustainable, it begins splintering and cracking after only a few years.

"We have, I think, the best boardwalk in the world, except for the boards themselves," said Stauffer, owner of Johnson’s Popcorn, which has three boardwalk storefronts.

How to build a better boardwalk is a question that has occupied beach towns for years — their choice comes down to durability, reliability of supply, cost and rarity.

Foreign hardwoods — such as Brazilian ipe and greenheart from Guyana — are steadily taking the place of domestic pressure-treated pine. They can be twice as expensive but last several times as long. Not only do they resist the elements, but contractors have to drill holes in the boards because they are too dense to hammer nails through.

But environmental advocates staunchly resist using these South American varieties, deploring the destruction of the sensitive rainforests where they come from and the added carbon output that comes with them.

"It’s all going to affect global warming and sea level rise, which directly affects your boardwalk," said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "If you’re shipping that wood thousands of miles to build a boardwalk, then you’re adding fuel to the fire that’s going to destroy your boardwalk and community."

The last time Ocean City moved to install hardwood on its boardwalk, in 2008, the city received thousands of emails protesting the move. The shipment of wood was more than a month late, the company sued the government when it tried to refuse payment and the city eventually settled.

Stauffer thinks the Ocean City Council should put a question on the November ballot and let voters decide whether hardwood should be used. The council would have to do so by Aug. 17.

"To me, it should be left up to the public, but council needs to jump on it," he said.

The city council has so far agreed it needs to look into alternatives to pine. On July 26, it rejected 13 bids to replace the boardwalk between Fifth and Sixth streets, a projected $1.4 million project.

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"It wouldn’t have been very fiscally responsible for me to put this pine down because it wouldn’t have lasted long at all," said Mayor Jay Gillian, owner of Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, which is adjacent to the area being improved.

Work is the first phase of a project to replace the boardwalk from Fifth Street down to 12th Street — essentially the heart of the walkway’s commercial section.

There are other alternatives to pine than tropical hardwoods. Black locust, a North American hardwood, is often touted as the answer, but builders say it is not readily available.

"Black locust looks great on paper. It’s sustainable, it’s domestic, and it’s got great properties," said James Hertler, general manager of Dockside Marine Supply Co., in Barnegat Township. "When people try to source it they come up empty. There isn’t a steady supply."

Wildwood tried to use black locust in 2008 but instead opted for the Brazilian ipe when city officials said a shipment of black locust was of poor quality. Environmental advocates protested there as well.

There are a wide variety of composite materials, most of which use a recycled plastic material mixed with woodchips. The boards can last decades, and they are actually less expensive than some hardwoods. "We see some new stuff on the horizon in terms of nonpolluting material," said Hertler. "There are some things out there that have some promise."

There have been concerns with those composites bending under intense heats, which makes them not safe to hold emergency vehicles. There is also a concern that tourists will not accept anything that does not look or feel like wood.

Still, Atlantic City, which has begun replacing its pine sections with hardwood in recent years, plans to test a new composite material on one boardwalk section starting this fall.

Public Works Director Paul Jerkins said he’s aware of the concerns with past composites, but he says a new material should solve many of the structural, financial and environmental concerns found with other materials.

"The biggest problem is getting people used to something different and new .. It’s not about whether it will work. I believe it will work. It’s more about finding out how it’s received by the public," Jerkins said.

In Ocean City, Stauffer said he just wants something that’s safe. He said his mother-in-law cracked her hip once when she tripped on an uneven board and his wife got a nasty splinter caught in her foot before. "I cringe when I see people walking on the pine in their bare feet," he said.

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