Mayor Jay Gillian’s administration proposes spending $79.4 million over the next five years to catch up on long-neglected improvements to roads, public facilities, beaches, the boardwalk and the bay in Ocean City.
Gillian’s capital plan for 2015 through 2019 represents a $27.8 million increase over the five-year plan for 2014 to 2018.
His administration presented the plan to City Council during a public workshop Thursday (Jan. 15) at the Ocean City Free Public Library. Council must vote on a resolution to endorse the five-year plan (likely at a Feb. 12 meeting), and they ultimately will have to vote on all of the individual appropriations within the plan.
Gillian’s plan increases spending on bayside dredging from $2 million to $10 million over the next five years. It doubles the pace of multiyear boardwalk reconstruction project. And it dedicates $29.3 million to roads and drainage improvements alone — including about $7.9 million for 2015.
Perhaps no issue draws more passion than roads and drainage in Ocean City — where aging infrastructure often compounds street flooding that can damage cars and structures and leave residents stranded.
City Council and the city administration doubled spending on roads in recent years to about $5 million annually, and the new plan calls for another substantial increase. The plan outlines a schedule for road improvements and expenditures.
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See where your street falls on the list by visiting Ocean City Road Improvement Schedule 2015 to 2019 or by viewing the PDF below.
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The schedule tackles a flood-prone area between 31st and 33rd streets, Simpson and Haven avenues, in 2015. A pump station project for the area between Second and Seventh streets, Bay and West avenues, is scheduled for 2016.
Gillian’s dredging plan dedicates $5 million in 2015 to empty a spoils site near the 34th Street causeway that is filled to capacity. The material will be trucked off-site to allow new projects to begin this year after the start of a July 1 permitting window.
Lagoons and channels on the bay side of Ocean City are too shallow at many points in the tide cycle to allow boat traffic.
“Every year we don’t do something, it just keeps building up,” Gillian said. “We can’t wait any longer.”
The plan also dedicates about $3.9 million ($2.6 million of it from a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Grant) to use “thin layer disposal” of dredged material to restore wetlands.
The plan does not designate a schedule for dredging of specific areas on the bay side.
Gillian’s administration proposes doubling annual spending on a boardwalk reconstruction project to $3.85 million per year. The plan anticipates that crews will replace two blocks of boardwalk per year (the current pace of a project that started last year is one block annually). That would allow the boardwalk between Fifth Street and 12th Street to be completely replaced by 2017.
The plan calls for the construction of boardwalk pavilions (like at 11th Street) for the area between Fifth and 10th streets.
The plan anticipates a regularly scheduled federal beach replenishment project for the north end of Ocean City in spring 2016.
It dedicates $500,000 for an engineering and design study of a public safety building in 2015 and another $4.5 million for unspecified work in 2016.
The plan lists hundreds of other improvements — from Pickleball courts at the Ocean City Intermediate School to new record boards at the Aquatics and Fitness Center.
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See presentation on the 2015-2019 capital plan, including recently completed projects, 2015 projects, 2016-2019 projects and debt impact.
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The city is taking advantage of historically low interest rates on its borrowing, according to Finance Director Frank Donato.
He said the city will have $10.5 million in debt service payments in 2015, an increase of 6.7 percent. The city has a total of $58.9 million in bonded debt right now.
Check for copies and updates on the capital plan at ocnj.us/capital-projects/.
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