Posted on October 11, 2021
LONG BRANCH – Lake Takanassee’s neglected western portions will get dredged in a beautification project to start next week.
The city also plans to add to two more paver patio seating areas, replace existing benches and install more native landscaping at the main lake east of the railroad tracks.
Lake Takanassee is the downstream portion of Whale Pond Brook and is divided into six basins, separated by roads or railroad. The basins to be dredged include the two between Woodgate Avenue and the NJ Transit railroad tracks. See the above video about Ross Lake Park, located in the brook’s watershed.
The dredging of the nutrient-heavy muck is expected to improve stormwater detention, decrease flood risk and improve the water quality of the coastal lake. All told, the city plans to remove approximately 16,000 cubic yards of accumulated sediment at the bottom of the lake — enough to fill over 3.2 million milk gallons with mud.
City Administrator George Jackson said the city received a $40,000 Municipal Open Space Grant through the Monmouth County Parks System for the project. Long Branch will provide a cash match of $40,000 as required under the program and is also funding the remaining balance of the project’s total cost of $96,031.
The contractor is Down to Earth Landscaping of Jackson.
The city, with county help, has been working gradually on improvements to the coastal lake, which once boasted a beach club on the beachfront. The last of its buildings were destroyed in superstorm Sandy. That property is under private development.
The coastal lake has been open to the ocean at times in its natural history, but now drains to the ocean via an outfall pipe.
Two years ago the city spent thousands of dollars removing invasive plant species parrotfeather and Eurasian watermilfoil that was choking the main lake. Last year, Monmouth County renovated the Ocean Avenue bridge over the lake.
“We look forward to the end product of all this work and to make this lake even more beautiful,” Mayor John Pallone said.
