If funds cannot be found to make repairs to Gloucester County’s boat ramp at Gloucester Point Beach, there’s a chance the ramp might have to be closed next year, said Carol Steele, Gloucester’s director of parks, recreation and tourism.

Steele said she plans to include up to $30,000 in her department’s budget request to the Gloucester Board of Supervisors for FY2012, which starts July 1, 2011, that would pay for repairs and possibly improvements to the ramp. The ramp was built in the mid-1990s as part of the widening project at the George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge.

Chris Smith, Gloucester’s superintendent of parks, said that tugboats and Navy vessels sometimes tie up at the county ramp and he believes that one or more of those vessels may have knocked off a portion of the finger piers and caused some damage to the walkway.

According to Smith, a portion of the northern finger pier has been closed to the public, but the other section remains open.
...