Donald Wittkowski

Ahlanah Kelly, a third grader at the Ocean City Primary School, held an oversized children’s book in her tiny hands. The title was “My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World.” “I’m going to take it home and read it with my mom and sister,” the 8-year-old Ahlanah said in a soft voice. Ahlanah and about 140 of her classmates from the second and third grades got a jump on reading “My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World” and other children’s stories during an event Monday morning that could be loosely described as the Super Bowl of reading competitions.

There was a lot of snow shoveling during a monumental cleanup from Monday's major storm. There was also some fun. People strolled the Boardwalk to marvel over the winter scenery. Some of them even made a snowman on the Boardwalk.

This was not what you would call a conventional, family-style celebration on New Year’s Day for the Haydens. Nor for any family, for that matter. Kate Hayden was wearing a blue bathing suit, while her husband, Bryan, and sons Logan, 9, and Colin, 7, were bare-chested in water that was chilly enough to make their teeth chatter. The Haydens, of Woolwich Township, Gloucester County, joined hundreds of other revelers on Ocean City’s Eighth Street beach to celebrate New Year’s Day in perhaps the wackiest way possible – with a plunge in 46-degree water.

Marty Mozzo recalls when stormwater would swamp Ocean City’s flood-prone Merion Park neighborhood for days, leaving homeowners trapped in their houses unless they ventured outside wearing fishing boots. The city finished the first phase of a flood-mitigation project in Merion Park in 2014, including three new stormwater pumping stations, drainage pipes and road reconstruction. But Mozzo and other Merion Park homeowners have waited patiently the last seven years for the second phase to be completed to give the neighborhood even more protection from flooding. In a key step for the project, City Council awarded a $325,600 consulting contract Monday for conceptual designs for the second phase.

Whether you’re having dinner with friends or family or sipping drinks while savoring bayfront views, the Deauville Inn offers the ideal setting to celebrate the holidays. The historic restaurant overlooking Corson’s Inlet in the tiny town of Strathmere combines old-fashioned charms with modern amenities as part of its transformation under owner Tim Fox, who bought the Deauville in late 2019. The Deauville is welcoming visitors for the holidays with a lineup of entertainment to complement the food and drinks.

Drivers crossing over the Corsons Inlet Bridge between Ocean City and Strathmere must carefully navigate their way through all of the potholes that have pockmarked the roadway. But the agency that operates the toll bridge is planning to fix the potholes as part of a larger rehabilitation of the 75-year-old structure that will get underway this winter and cost millions of dollars.

On his family trips to Disney World in Florida, Jody Levchuk has been impressed with the way Downtown Disney has blended its parking garages within its resorts instead of making them looming, unsightly structures. “They’re pretty, not ugly, structures. The experience starts there, the moment you pull in,” he said of the role the parking garages play in enjoying the overall Disney attractions. Levchuk, a city councilman, wonders whether something like that could be done in Ocean City. He believes the city should explore the possibility of building a parking deck or parking garage that could be integrated into the community in a location that wouldn’t be obtrusive.

The Cape May County Bridge Commission is planning a three-stage toll increase that would raise the fare by a total of $1.50 on the five coastal bridges it operates. According to a summary of the plan released by the agency Tuesday, the toll would increase by 50 cents in 2022, 50 cents in 2023 and 50 cents in 2024. The current toll of $1.50 for cars would double to $3 once the increase is fully implemented by 2024.

Dozens of unpaid appointees sit on a variety of boards and commissions that may not be generally well known to the public, but are still an important part of Ocean City’s local government. They include the planning and zoning boards, the Historic Preservation Commission, the Library Board of Trustees, the Tourism Development Commission and others. There is even a Shade Tree Commission that oversees the planting and maintenance of trees and shrubbery on public streets and property in town. City Council approved an ordinance Thursday night to temporarily end term limits for the appointees on those boards and commissions to avoid the need to make “massive appointments” by the end of the year.

The agency that operates five toll bridges linking the Cape May County shore communities along the scenic Ocean Drive is proposing a 50-cent fare increase to generate extra revenue to maintain antiquated bridges dating to the 1930s. Karen Coughlin, executive director of the Cape May County Bridge Commission, said that the toll increase, if given final approval, would take effect sometime in 2022 and be the first one since 2009.