A New Police Captain List ... Just in Case

Pottstown's incoming Police Chief? Maybe.

As some of you may have read in this space on Oct. 23, Pottstown Police Chief Mark Flanders, who is also the interim borough manager, is one of three finalists for getting the borough manager's job on a permanent basis.

Recent information suggests he is the leading candidate.

Borough council has put the matter of hiring a new borough manager on its agenda for Tuesday night's meeting.

Because he took an early retirement incentive, Flanders must retire as chief by April.

As a result, borough council is also looking for a new police chief.

Wednesday night, they indicated that they will take the steps necessary to clear the way for Rick Drumheller, the current police captain, to take the helm as chief.

What council agreed to do, at the urging of Safety Committee Chairman Mark Gibson, is begin the process of Civil Service Commission testing to create an eligibility list for the rank of captain.

Pottstown's outgoing police chief? Yup.
Pottstown's new borough manager? Maybe.

"We do not have a person in mind" for the new chief, Gibson told council, "but if we do decide to hire from within, we do need to have the eligibility list ready."

Flanders explained to council that going through the Civil Service Commission process takes four to five months.

Although the police department currently has adequate people on the list to move up to the ranks of corporal and sergeant, should Drumheller become the new police chief, there is no one ready to step into the captain's position.

"We were asking ourselves 'what if?' and if we go that route, we would like to see all the promotions occur together at the same time," Gibson said.

Flanders, who himself became chief after serving as captain for a number of years, said it would be best to be prepared so that if Drumheller is selected "there will be no break in the chain of command."

Going Green

The next installment in the YWCA Tri-County Area's girl Talk Series will be held Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the YW at 315 King St.

This installment, called "Going Green" is a workshop on how people can decrease their impact on their environment by learning more about everything from the plastics to the cosmetics they use.

Those attending can also learn specifically about how teens are getting involved such efforts.

Those attending are reminded to park in the Evans Street parking lot off King Street, across from the YWCA and to use the permit spaces only.

For more information go to www.ywcatricounty.orgwww.ywcatricounty.org, or call 610-323-1888.

It's the Numbers Stupid (an election post-mortem one day too late).

(Blogger's note: I learned after I wrote this post Wednesday that Quigley has not yet conceded and wants to wait until all the absentee votes are counted. If it changes the outcome of the race, we'll have to see how relevant the analysis below really is.)

Tom Quigley's loss Tuesday night in the 146th district statehouse race was a surprise to nearly everyone -- except maybe Tom Quigley.

(DISCLAIMER: Understand Mark Painter fans, this is not a knock on your candidate, who is an earnest and viable candidate. I'm sure he will do fine. This is just a post-election look at the numbers).

Were I a younger man, I would have written this Tuesday night for you all to read Wednesday morning, which is when such analysis is traditionally published.

Tom Quigley

But I'm getting older and Tuesday night was difficult enough as it was and, frankly, I just didn't have the energy.

Anyway, back to my engaging lead sentence.

Obviously, I've known Quigley for many years, ever since he won the seat and took over for the previous Republican holding the seat, Mary Anne Dailey, who took over from the previous  Republican who held if before her ... and so on and so on.

You get the idea.

Anyway, several years ago, Quigley calmly explained to me how well he understood his district.

Given Pottstown's tendency to vote for Democrats, the 146th has always been a balancing act.

He told me, and I'm paraphrasing here: "I know if I break even in Pottstown or fall just short, I'll be OK because I can make it up elsewhere in the district."

And given that the Republican Party in the 146th has the most effective vote counting apparatus around, I've watched those numbers get counted there many times over the years.

As retired dISTRICT Judge Tom Palladino and I were reminiscing Tuesday night, on many election nights I've sat at the right hand of the numbers compiler (or at least looked over their shoulders) since it was Janet Garner in the Elks Club on High Street, using a adding machine and a pencil and, for all intents and purposes, wearing a green eye shade.

Now we use spreadsheets.

And for the numerically challenged among us (Yes, I'm head of the class), spreadsheets really paint a plain picture.

Along the right hand side of where the vote totals for each votingprecinct were being entered, was a number showing by how much Quigley was either ahead or behind in each township, or the borough.

As a result, Quigley knew how close it was going to be early on and each precinct that came in was crucial.

How ironic, I thought, that the clearest evidence that "every vote counts" comes in a year when an unprecedented number of people voted. (More on that later).

All numbers are, of course, unofficial, and include no provisional ballots. But the picture they paint is clear nonetheless.

In Limerick, Quigley was ahead by 657 votes; in Lower Pottsgrove by 487 votes.

In Upper Pottsvgrove he was ahead by 299 votes and in the southern portion of New Hanover that is part of the 146th, he was ahead by 290 votes.

So where was the loss?

Well, in West Pottsgrove he was down by only 51 votes and in Royersford, of all places, by 94. Although surprising, that sure wasn't enough.

Mark Painter

It was in Pottstown, where there was no shortage of straight-ticket voting, that Painter won his victory. There, Painter was ahead by 1,914 votes.

With just one precinct to go, Quigley was down by 326 votes, and he needed the results from Limerick's second voting district, headquartered at the township building on Ridge Pike and home to more than 2,000 registered voters, to make up the difference.

In previous elections, Quigley had won that precinct handily, but this was no regular election and although he won it, he did't win it by enough.

Throughout the 146th, and the county as a whole, voters had turned out in droves and not in the usual patterns.

There was huge voter turn-out Tuesday.

According to unofficial results posted on the Montgomery County web site, no Pottstown polling place had fewer than 400 voters. This in places that are lucky to break 100 in an off-year election.

Those same results show nearly 75 percent of Montgomery County's eligible voters showed up at the polls.

Maybe that's why lines of voters in places like Upper Pottsgrove and New Hanover were out the door and, in Upper Pottsgrove's case, even snaked down Farmington Avenue.

In places like Pottstown's first ward, Obama won more than 80 percent of the vote.

"I think for some of these voters, they weren't even cognizant of the races lower down on the ticket," said Quigley. "Many of them probably did't even know who Tom Quigley is."

As you moved away from the borough's core, the Obama percentages dropped, but were still significant -- 60 percent at Pottstown Middle School.

And it was the numbers, not just the percentages, that really created the wave that blew Quigley out of the water.

The middle school hosted more than 1,200 voters. It is sometimes lucky to break 200, said Judge of Elections Mark Lawler.

In the fourth ward, it was the same -- more than 1,200 voters, 56 percent of whom voted for Obama. In wards five and six, the same: More than 1,000 voters and Obama won both, clocking in at 62 and 63.5 percent respectively.

More interesting was Pottstown's gloriously divided seventh ward.

Voting at the Ricketts Center, just under 1,000, gave 82 percent of its vote to Obama. Further down the ticket, painter won 646 votes to Quigley's 161.

In the Seventh Ward's Rosedale section, Romney won 54.5 percent of the vote and Quigley got 400 votes to Painter's 240.

But while Pottstown's Obama tsunami gave Painter a crucial and immediate advantage, there was a more subtle shift evident as well.

Many more were voting Democratic even outside Pottstown.

Consider some of the totals from the presidential race, totals that actually had me muttering "unbelievable" under my breath.

In Lower Pottsgrove's second district, all results for Obama Vs. Romney were literally within 20 votes of each other, with Obama winning all of them.

Obama won in West Pottsgrove as well and even in Upper Pottsgrove, where Romney won, it was only by a mere 41 votes.

In his analysis Tuesday night, Quigley mentioned not only the Pottstown tsunami, but the changing demographics in places like Limerick, which had previously served as his back-stop.

Limerick hasn't changed that much, with Romney winning all but the fourth precinct.

But Quigley could have made his demographic observation about the entire district, or even the entire county.

Obama squeaked out a victory in some unexpected places, like precincts of affluent Upper Providence and he won two out of three precincts in Collegeville, and one out of three in Perkiomen Township, although Obama was a lost cause in neighboring Trappe.

The same was true in Douglass (Mont.), where Romney held a comfortable lead, as he did in all three New Hanover voting precincts.

But even in places like Schwenksville, Pennsburg, East Greenville and Green Lane, Obama won, barely, and in Red Hill, it was a an effective draw.

And Obama won in two out of three precincts in Skippack, those wins by sizeable margins too.

And in Royersford, Quigley's home town where he was once a popular mayor, turnout in the borough's second voter precinct, where Obama won by 204 votes, Quigley lost by 72 votes.

It seems, therefore, when looking at the numbers, that Quigley lost the election probably not because of anything he did, or Mark Painter did, but because in the 146th, Barack Obama either won most contests or at least fought Romney to a draw.

The election machine tickets told the story.

I didn't have time to check them all, and not all precincts arrived at the old Lakeside Inn that way. (Remember, we still had a newspaper to get out for Wednesday.)

Also, the results posted on the county web site do not list the percentage of straight party voters, but on those tickets I did get to examine, it was an obvious factor.

So what does all this number-crunching mean?

The answer is surprisingly simple.

Every vote counts.

And even in the face of efforts to suppress votes through voter ID, or draw district lines so heavily Democratic or Republican voting blocks can be balanced out by other areas -- a big turn-out can turn all those careful calculations on their head.

And although I find it inspiring, it also stirs the cynic in me to safely predict it won't happen again for another four years, and even then only if we're lucky and the presidential race is as hotly contested as this one was.

In the meantime, for local elections that have a disproportionately larger effect on our lives, the numbers will, in all likelihood, tell a different story.

$2.5 Million Grant to MCCC Helps Give You Credit for Life Experience

Blogger's Note: The following is provided by Alana Mauger, director of communications at Montgomery County Community College.

Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) has been awarded a $2.5 million Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The grant will enable MCCC to build on the recent launch of JobTrakPA, a joint initiative of Pennsylvania’s 14 community colleges to train and place underemployed and unemployed residents of the Commonwealth in high demand jobs.That will occur at both its Blue Bell and Pottstown campuses.

JobTrakPA is funded by a $20 million Department of Labor TAACCCT grant awarded to the colleges in 2011.


MCCC will use the funds from the latest grant to develop a robust Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) model and stackable credentials that will be added to the JobTrakPA framework shared by the 14 Pennsylvania community colleges.

The project will focus on awarding PLA credits in the high-demand programs outlined in that framework, including advanced manufacturing, regional energy, health information technology, health care patient services, transportation and infrastructure, and science and technology industries.


PLA is the process used by many institutions to determine if an individual’s prior educational, workforce and life experiences can be translated to college credits. Assessments can include evaluation of military or corporate training, review of portfolios, customized tests, and evaluation of completed non-credit courses, among others.


According to a 2010 report issued by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), more than half of the nation’s colleges and universities accept some form of prior learning for credit. Furthermore, CAEL finds that students who were granted PLA credits have better academic outcomes, better degree completion, better persistence, and shorter time to completion than non-PLA students.

Ask about the program at MCCC's Pottstown Campus

“It makes sense for Pennsylvania’s community colleges to build on the momentum of the JobTrakPA framework by developing a process that will shorten the time it takes individuals to get retrained and back to work,” said MCCC President Dr. Karen A. Stout. “Through this project, we intend to create a uniform standard for the practice and promotion of PLA in our state, with academic rigor and process transparency among the hallmarks of the program’s implementation.”

“This grant awarded to MCCC will be a great addition to the important work being done by the state’s 14 community colleges through JobTrakPA,” said Diane Bosak, executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges. “The PLA will enable the colleges to rapidly train students and get them back to work in high-demand, family-sustaining jobs.

To learn more about JobTrakPA visit www.JobTrakPA.com.

Fusing Art and History at ArtFusion

Blogger's Note: Once again, we present information provided by John Armato, information czar of the Pottstown School District.

ArtFusion 19464, formerly The Gallery School of Pottstown, helped to bring history alive for over 500 Pottstown School District fourth graders and middle school students by hosting field trips to the gallery’s exhibit “Threads of a Story: Continued.” 

The exhibit features work of artist Charlotta Janssen. Her body of work was inspired by the Freedom Riders and Bus Boycotters of the 50’s and 60’s. 

Threads evolved as a way to visually thank participants of the civil rights movement for their work and dedication that made the moment possible. The artist’s goals to transport the viewer back to this moment in time to create a living history and bring awareness to a collective conscientiousness where segregation seemed normal and fighting it was a daunting task. 

Erika Hornburg-Cooper, Executive Director of ArtFusion, explained, “We are proud to be able to display this beautiful expression of art which helps to explain a very significant time in the history of our country. Sharing this with students allows us to play an active role in developing a conscientiousness and awareness of citizenship.”

The field trip began with an age-appropriate historical talk on the civil rights movement. (For example, younger students had read to them a story about Ruby Bridges and discussed how the struggle for civil rights affected children who were close to the same age they are now, and older students were introduced to Strange Fruit, written by Abel Meerople and sung by Billie Holiday.) A student secretary took notes, keeping track of the issues and questions they discuss.

This interactive discussion provided a backdrop for the artwork the students came to see. 

Part of the talk included the students boarding an imaginary bus for a virtual Freedom Ride to the south. A facilitator engaged the students in conversation about the people portrayed in the artwork, both the famous like Rosa Parks and also the everyday heroes who are not so well known.

After the gallery and historical talks were finished, students were split into two groups. 

One group watched a video of the artist as she paints and then participated in an art project themselves. The second group remained on the gallery and worked on a scavenger hunt. 

The purpose of the scavenger hunt was to get the students to take a close look at the artwork and learn more about the people represented in the portraits.

Before students left they were encouraged to talk to their friends and family and ask about memories and stories they may have about the time. 

Lincoln Elementary Principal Treena Ferguson noted, “Our students had an opportunity today to see living history and develop an understanding for the sacrifices that many people made in order for the people of our country to share equally in our freedoms.” 

After taking the tour School Board member Mary-Beth Bacalloao wrote; “The content you provided to the Rupert students during the field trip I attended was compelling and really held the kids' interest. Ruby's story, the scavenger hunt and your very animated "trip" on the Freedom Riders virtual bus was right on the kids' level and I could tell they were engaged from the minute I joined the trip. 

Rupert teacher Allen Ferster said, “ I can't remember a field trip having that much of an impact on an entire class. When we returned to the building, all the students wanted to talk about was either the art, or the civil rights movement and the Freedom Riders. I can safely say that thanks to your hospitality, both my class and I received more information in a two hour period than we could have ever learned from clips, articles, and the reading textbook. Once again thank you for allowing us to come visit and see such a wonderful display.”

You Don't Need a Photo ID to Vote Tomorrow!

Misleading billboards like this one, paid for by Clear Channel,

a company that supports Republican causes, have been

posted in Hispanic communities around the Commonwealth.

Folks, it seems that sometimes, people don't pay attention until the last minute.

Hey, I'll confess it's true of me sometimes too, like just before my wife's birthday.

But sometimes, that can lead to misunderstanding and mis-information (or sleeping on the couch.)

Apparently that's the case now as lots of people are telling campaign workers they don't intend to vote because they never renewed their driver's license.

Folks, wake up. You don't need it.

Last month, a Pennsylvania judge suspended the new photo voter ID law for tomorrow's election.

Read about it here.

But apparently, there is more than just not keeping up to speed with the latest news that is leading people to believe something that's untrue.

Not only did the City of Philadelphia screw up and send out incorrect information to 34,000 retired city workers, so too did PECO -- to 1.3 million customers in seven Pennsylvania counties.

With the poll numbers narrowing in Pennsylvania and it's "swing status" potentially revitalized, it is very important that every eligible person vote tomorrow, and not let the belief that they need photo ID stop them.

And according to at least one lawsuit filed earlier this month, PECO's error is dwarfed by the Corbett administration's continued dissemination of information inferring that photo ID will be requires tomorrow, when it will not.

Only the tiny print on the bottom of this ad

informs you that you are not required to show

ID this election. Talk about the fine print!

State ads on the sides of buses in Pittsburgh and elsewhere are plastered with a "Show It" ad and a hand holding a photo ID.

In much smaller print the photo ID, is the sentence: “Voters will be asked, but not required, to show an acceptable photo ID on Election Day.”

Incorrect information about voter ID was also recently sent out by the Pennsylvania Department of Aging in a Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly mailing.

Earlier this month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that some PennDOT driver's license centers around Pennsylvania are still distributing materials saying photo ID is required to vote Nov. 6, despite a ruling to the contrary a week earlier from a Commonwealth Court judge.

(UPDATE): Apparently I missed the Friday story on KYW radio that the judge who suspended photo voter ID for this election rejected a request to force the state to change its misleading advertising campaign  regarding photo ID.

Clear Channel billboards, prepare to be surprised, targeted Latino communities with Spanish language advertisements that read "if you want to vote, show it."

Don't be misled.

They may ask for a photo ID at the polls, but you DO NOT HAVE TO SHOW IT.

If you have questions about whether you are registered, need a ride to the polls, or need to find out where to vote -- call 855-834-VOTE (8683).

Go out there and be an American tomorrow.

Go vote. 

High Speed Real Estate

I spent my first 10 summers, for two weeks a year, on a barrier island.

After spending several summers in the house owned by my great-grandfather, my father's parents purchased a beach house of their own on Long Beach Island in, where else, Brant Beach.

The summer stints were shared with my late Uncle Charles and his family, although he eventually built a house across the street where he and his six children enjoyed the beach at their own convenience.

For two weeks every August, my family took up residence on Farragut Avenue. In later years my sister and I were each allowed to bring one friend.

There were a number of set activities to which I was deeply attached, as young children tend to be. Each day we went to the beach in the morning (no late sleeper my mother), returned for lunch, then went back.

(Heaven forbid if you had to use the bathroom. The walk back was four blocks, including crossing the highly traveled Long Beach Boulevard, which runs the length of the 18-mile long island.)

On one night we would walk down the beach to Lucy's Fudge in Ship Bottom; one night we would got to the amusement park in Beach Haven; one night we would play miniature golf. Like clockwork.

My grandparent's house (now jointly owned
by my cousins) is the brown house at center.
My cousin Jim found this picture on a random
street cam. It seems wet but otherwise undamaged.

Even still, I recall with a puzzling fondness, nights sweating in sunburned pain on scratchy sheets in the upstairs hot box of a bedroom; the seagulls, cawing on top of the utility poles, waking you up too early in the morning; or sitting on the rusting glider on the front porch, with the sun-cracked vinyl cushions cutting at the back of my knees because my legs were too short to reach the porch itself.

These are strong memories and form a solid core of my personality. I will always prefer the sea over the mountains, despite just as many hours hiking in the Hudson Highlands with my parents.

My father, whose blog I sometimes quote here, is even more attached. He and his late brother Charles spent every summer on LBI, escaping polio their parents thought, and re-invented themselves.

My father, the awkward younger brother in Westfield, N.J., a town where everyone knew everybody and everybody knew and admired my uncle, became an accomplished sailor and learned how to be at peace when alone, and depending only on himself when in the fens of Barnegat Bay.

In the introduction to his book of short stories and poems, "The People Along the Sand," my father quotes the Robert Frost poem from which he took the title:

The people along the sand
all turn and look one way.
They turn their back on the land.
They look at the sea all day. 

The beach, he writes, is a place of transition, a place of "edges," a place where you feel like you can reinvent yourself.

All of which is true, and all of which is why we flock to the beach when we want to relax.

I say all this so as to cushion what I want to say next. I know the deep emotional attachment to the beach that so many of us ave.

I know you can take my strong memories, and multiply them by millions and generations, and you get a bond that even logic cannot always break.

But int he wake of Sandy, logic demands the answer to a question. Should we break that bond for our own good and for the good of future taxpayers?

Barrier islands are the Autobahn of geology.

My thinking on barrier islands was forever changed by a National Geographic article I read years ago. In it, a geologist called barrier islands "high speed real estate."

The phrase has stuck with me. In geologic terms at least, barrier islands are the Ferrari of land types and the eastern seaboard of the U.S., home to more barrier islands than any other place, is the earth's geological Autobahn.

Here is what the U.S. Geologic Survey wrote several years ago in a report called "Coasts in Crisis" that sums up this difference most people do not recognize:

"We think of land as stable and treat it as a permanent asset. For most land, this premise is reasonable because land generally changes very slowly. Although tectonic and geologic processes, such as continental drift and erosion, are always at work, they usually result in very gradual changes that are barely noticeable during a human lifetime.

Although not as unstable as beaches created by lava flows,

barrier islands are a poor real estate bet, where permanence

is an assumed asset.

Coasts, however, are not static; they are dynamic. They quickly change shape and location in response to natural forces and human activities. These forces and activities continually push and pull at coasts -- sometimes in the same direction, but often in opposite directions. As a result, the shape of the coast-line changes. Sand and other materials are moved onto and off of beaches by currents and waves. Seasonal movement of coastal materials creates broad summer beaches followed by narrow winter beaches in an annual cycle. During major storms, huge waves and storm surges can move large amounts of coastal sediments and can flood vast areas in a matter of hours.

Barrier islands are not permanent. This will happen again.

On a larger scale, the coast itself moves as it tries to achieve equilibrium with the forces acting on it. Barrier islands and offshore sand bars move landward and along the coast, driven by longshore currents. Headlands are eroded back, moving the coast inland. Sediment is deposited on river deltas, extending the coast out into the water. Coastlines also move in response to changes in sea level; even if the land remains stationary, a rise in sea level will move the coastline inland.

Then there is the problem of how we react to this reality. 

Which is to say we don't. We ignore it.

Despite its speed, coastal changes seem slow within the time frame of our lifetime, and so we act to preserve the places that were special to us without the realization that they were ever only the way we remember them for a short while, and that memory has no more validity than its current state.

Our desire to be close to the water usually does not end well.

As USGS put it: "Because we treat the coast just like all other land -- as a stable platform on which we can safely and easily build -- some of our actions directly conflict with the dynamic nature of coasts."

And there are more of us along them every day, which means more impact on a fragile eco-system and more people in harm's way when the inevitable change comes, sometimes violently.

Again the USGS:

Conflicts between people and nature have always existed along the coasts. The increasing desirability and accessibility of coasts as places to work and live have intensified these conflicts greatly over the past 50 years. The 1990 census shows that 25 of the 30 coastal States have had dramatic population increases since 1980; the largest increases were in Alaska (36 percent), Florida (31 percent), and California (24 percent). Coastal areas across the United States now have population densities five times the Nation's average.

75% of Americans live near a coast.

Currently, 50 percent of the Nation lives within 75 kilometers of a coast; this number is projected to increase to 75 percent by the year 2010. (This shows you how old this report is.) 

As the coastal population grows, so does the need for additional facilities for transportation, recreation, potable water, and waste disposal. Pollution is already severe near large coastal urban areas and has hurt recreation activities and the fishing industry.

In other words, not only does this trend to the sea move in contravention to common sense, it also endangers an industry that is designed to meet a basic need of humanity -- food.

And the results of over-developed coastal development are no different than  salting a farm field. It poisons the ocean's nurseries.

Does this make sense in the long term?

The economic counter-balance to this concern is supposed to be tourism.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie 

Question is, do we need tourism to survive?

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who also grew up along the shore and evidently has a strong attachment to his memories, has vowed to rebuild the shore just as it was. 

That's an understandable thing for a politician with higher aspirations to say to a shell-shocked public, reassuring and comforting to those who lost everything in what, from an objective standpoint, is a questionable investment.

And, when you think about it, it is an investment being made by all American taxpayers, many of whom are not solvent enough to own a property at the shore or to spend two weeks a summer there.

For without federal and state money to re-build eroded beaches, without federal backing of flood insurance, would these properties be so valuable?

Why should taxpayers subsidize this poor investment?

How is this different than subsidizing housing or medical care from the poor, which we constantly complain we can no longer afford? 

Who deserves the taxpayers' help more? Those who can't find jobs and are stuck in poverty's cycle; those in schools without supplies or qualified teachers; or those who purchase a second home at the shore, which they rent out during the summer to cover their costs?

They congratulate themselves on their expertise, their ability to afford the investment. But they are not paying the true costs. We all are. 

Are the jobs created by tourism paying as well as those that would be created by investing that federal money in emerging green industry? Or our crumbling infrastructure?

Why are we preserving the frosting while letting the cake collapse?

Consider: It is taxpayers, including the ones from Montana and Iowa, who help to cover flooding damage losses from storms like this. 

Why? 

Because the private sector is too smart to take the risk.

Insurance companies crunched the numbers and concluded they would lose money trying to cover flood damage and losses at the shore.

Why?

Because it is going to keep happening, over and over. Whether you believe in climate change or not; even if sea levels did not rise, coastal areas, particularly barrier islands from Florida to Maine, will continue to flood. And, apparently, we all will continue to pay to bail them out.

Why are we paying to cover this bad risk, this bad investment? Gov. Romney likes to talk about Obama's bad investment in Solyndra.

After all, the market has already made it clear that an investment in barrier island real estate is a sure loser -- unless -- the government promises to cover your inevitable losses.

Long Beach, N.J. Does this really make sense?

It pains me to say this and no, it will not keep me from going to the shore whenever I can. But this is an emotional argument, not a practical or fiscally responsible one.

We are subsidizing an unsustainable lifestyle and that is not a good use of scant public funds. But don't expect any elected official to point this out.

After all, how could he or she win election when 75 percent of the nation lives within 75 miles of the coast for a reason? They like the coast.

As for the science of barrier islands, I don't expect you to take my word for it.

Below I have attached parts of a tutorial about how barrier islands work titled, conveniently, "How Barrier Islands Work," by Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

It is not complete, go to the link to read the whole thing, but a piecemeal collection of the parts I consider most relevant to this discussion.

Barrier islands are fragile, constantly changing ecosystems that are important for coastal geology and ecology. 

• Development has posed dangers to these ecosystems and has also increased the risk of property damage every year from hurricanes and Nor'easters.

• Barrier islands serve two main functions. First, they protect the coastlines from severe storm damage. Second, they harbor several habitats that are refuges for wildlife.

• Salt marsh -- a low-lying area on the sound-side of a barrier island. Salt marshes are generally divided into high and low marsh areas. High marsh areas get flooded twice each month with the spring tides, while low marsh areas get flooded twice daily with the high tides. Cord grasses stabilize the salt marsh area, which are one of the most ecologically productive areas (amount of vegetation per acre) on Earth. In fact, the salt marsh ecosystems of the islands and the coast help to purify runoffs from mainland streams and rivers.

Barrier islands are constantly changing. They are influenced by the following conditions:

• Waves - Waves continually deposit and remove sediments from the ocean side of the island.
• Currents - Longshore currents that are caused by waves hitting the island at an angle can move the sand from one end of the island to another. For example, the offshore currents along the east coast of the United States tend to remove sand from the northern ends of barrier islands and deposit it at the southern ends.
• Tides - The tides move sediments into the salt marshes and eventually fill them in. Thus, the sound sides of barrier islands tend to build up as the ocean sides erode.
• Winds - Winds blow sediments from the beaches to help form dunes and into the marshes, which contributes to their build-up.
• Sea level changes - Rising sea levels tend to push barrier islands toward the mainland.
• Storms - Hurricanes and other storms have the most dramatic effects on barrier islands by creating overwash areas and eroding beaches as well as other portions of barrier islands.

The impact of storms on barrier islands depend upon qualities of the storm (storm surge, waves) and upon the elevation of the barrier island at landfall. To quantify the impact of storm damage, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has devised a "hazard scale" as follows:

Photo by Susan Burke Mangano

Sandy deposited so much sand into Ocean City,

N.J. it was easily and Impact 3 or Impact 4

hurricane.

• Impact 1 - Wave erosion is confined to beach area. The eroded sands will be replenished in a few weeks to months and no significant change occurs in the system.
• Impact 2 - Waves erode the dune and cause the dune to retreat. This is a semi-permanent or permanent change to the system.
• Impact 3 - Wave action exceeds the dune's elevation, destroys the dune and pushes sediment from the dune landward (approximately 300 yards/100 m), thereby creating overwash. This change in the system pushes the barrier island landward. 
• (As the photos and video that accompany my article in today's Mercury shows, one of which is shown above, this is what Sandy did to Ocean City, N.J.)
• Impact 4 - The storm surge completely covers the barrier island, destroys the dune system and pushes sediments landward (approximately 0.6 miles/1 km). This is a permanent change to the barrier island or portions of it.

Using taxpayer money to replenish beaches is a waste

when you consider the impact lasts for a few years at best.

Sand erosion by longshore currents and wave actions can dramatically change a beach.

To preserve the beach, humans must re-nourish it with sand dredged from other sources, a process known as beach nourishment. Beach nourishment is an expensive undertaking, often costing millions of dollars.

At best, beach nourishment is an expensive, temporary effort to halt the inevitable shifting sands of barrier islands.

(Freudenrich then provides an example with which many of you may be familiar.):

Ocean City, Maryland

Ocean City, which is located at the southern end of Fenwick Island along Maryland's eastern shore, has been a popular beach resort for a long time. 

In the 1920s, several large hotels were built there, and by the 1950s, development boomed dramatically and lasted almost 30 years. 

In the 1970s, ecological concerns about the island were raised, and laws were enacted to halt dredging of channels and filling in wetlands.

A hurricane opened the Ocean City Inlet in 1933 (the inlet separates Fenwick Island from Assateague Island to the south). To keep the channel navigable to the mainland, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed two rock jetties. 

Although the jetties stabilized the inlet, they altered the normal north-to-south sand transport by the longshore currents. The result is that sand built up behind the north jetty and the sand below the south jetty was quickly eroded. 

Jetty's interfere with ocean beach building and
add sand on one place, causing its loss in another.

The accelerated erosion has shifted Assateague Island almost one-half mile (.8 km) inland. In a very short time, human interventions have permanently altered the barrier island profile."

So to summarize.

We love the beach.

Each year, more and more people move closer to it.

As a result, even if barrier islands were not moving so fast, more people closer to where hurricanes hit means more loss of life and property, and more tax money to repair and replace what has been lost.

But of course, making such use of public resources unsustainable is the fact that barrier islands do move -- fast.

Should taxpayers be subsidizing this impractical investment? No.

Will any politician ever speak these words? No.