Happy Birthday North Wildwood

NORTH WILDWOOD TAKES THE CAKE
By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, (609) 463-6716
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Friday, April 14, 2006
Updated: Friday, April 14, 2006

NORTH WILDWOOD — Talk about a pound cake.

Weighing anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 pounds, the city's centennial birthday cake would be a challenge for even the heartiest appetite.

(Of course, since it's main ingredient is wood, it would be a challenge for really anyone except a very hungry termite.)

But edible or not, the cake, now sitting at the base of the Route 147 bridge that leads into town, is a fitting tribute for the grand celebration the city has planned to mark the day.

The town, formerly known as Anglesea, assumed the name North Wildwood on May 16, 1906.

North Wildwood residents Charlie Kochensky and Rodrigo Velasquez “baked” the towering cake in the course of several months.

Kochensky, a contractor and longtime mummer, was used to building just about anything for the annual mummer's events in Philadelphia, so why not a giant cake.

“We take on all kinds of crazy things and build them,” Kochensky said.

Some of his work includes a riverboat for this year's New Year's Day parade, mountains and a living flower garden all built for Philadelphia's lively mummers parades.

His wife, knowing her husband's building talent for the unusual, volunteered him for the cake project.

“We took a piece of paper and drew a giant circle on it. Then another and another,” Kochensky said.

The red, white and blue cake complete with glitter — a “mummer's touch” —stands 12 feet tall and has a 15-foot diameter at the base, he said.

And unlike traditional cakes, this one will not crumble.

Kochensky joked that the finished product, made of wood planks and plywood decks, is sturdy enough to hold all 270 pounds of him.

“It's built to last,” he said.

Now, Kochensky is on to his next project — a smaller version of the cake for City Hall.

“I just hope they have a good celebration,” he said.

To e-mail Trudi Gilfillian at The Press:TGilfillian@pressofac.com