Donald Wittkowski

City Council paid tribute Thursday night to the late Frank McCall, a former member of Ocean City’s governing body whose career in Cape May County politics and government service spanned more than 30 years. At the start of their meeting, the Council members bowed their heads to observe a minute of silence in McCall’s memory. McCall, 73, died Oct. 4 at his Ocean City home surrounded by family members, according to his obituary. He was remembered by the Council members as a consummate gentleman who distinguished himself in politics, government service and in athletics as a basketball player for Villanova University in the 1960s.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, heading into the final weeks of his re-election bid for his South Jersey district, is anxious for Congress to get a stimulus package approved to help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic. However, he is frustrated with what he calls the “political gamesmanship” being played by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “It’s important. We need one more traunch. We need one more time where we can help people, where we can help businesses, where we can make sure this economy survives,” Van Drew said of the proposed stimulus legislation. Van Drew also discusses an array of other topics in an interview with MediaWize, the publisher of OCNJDaily.com.

Ever since the Ocean City Life-Saving Station opened as a “living museum” in 2017, visitors have been treated to an authentic re-creation of what the building was like in its early 20th century heyday. But that is only on the first floor. The second floor of the architecturally striking yellow building, though, has been sealed off to the public, as if some great treasure more than 100 years old was locked behind the doors to protect it from prying eyes. Actually, it’s not that dramatic. The museum has been slowly going through a multiyear transformation that is about to enter its fourth and final phase – the renovation of the second floor.

One of the grand dames of Ocean City’s Historic District has seen better days. The three-story house at 615 Wesley Avenue has a weather-beaten exterior, overgrown vines creeping up its steps and a battered white fence. But this 118-year-old home dating to the Edwardian era is considered historically significant – so much so that the Ocean City Historic Preservation Commission wants to save it from demolition. In September, the commission rejected plans to demolish the house and is expected to formalize its action in a resolution at its Oct. 6 meeting.

The good-natured chants resounded through the Ocean City Farmers Market on Wednesday morning. “Four more weeks! Four more weeks!” the vendors at the popular summertime market called out in unison. Unfortunately, though, the farmers market closed out its rather unusual – but ultimately successful – season on Wednesday after a 14-week run amid the coronavirus pandemic. Fear not, market aficionados, it will return next summer. “All of the farmers did just as well this summer as last year. We had good crowds, too,” said Rose Savastano, special events coordinator for the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce, the sponsor of the farmers market.

Tabernacle Baptist Church, Ocean City’s oldest surviving church, has been saved from a tax sale. Shari Thompson, chairwoman of the Tabernacle Baptist board of trustees, said a community fundraising effort has helped the church pay off virtually all of its overdue taxes for 2019 and 2020. “This community has been very nice to us,” Thompson said in public remarks during City Council’s meeting Thursday night. She also extended her thanks to the Council members and Mayor Jay Gillian for their help in solving the financial crisis just days before a tax sale was scheduled for the historic church property on Oct. 1.

Imagine a gigantic sock filled with sand and buried in the beach or dunes. Well, you’ve pretty much got the idea of what a geotube is and how it looks. Despite their decidedly low-tech design, geotubes are considered an important tool to protect shore communities from coastal storms – essentially acting as a bulkhead to block destructive waves from crashing ashore. Now, Ocean City wants to add new geotubes to some of the beaches in the north end of town that are particularly vulnerable to the ocean’s wrath.

Joe Fornara, a 55-year-old electrical contractor who lives in Warrington, Pa., has no trouble traveling to his summer vacation home in Ocean City. While many other summer visitors heading to the shore are stuck in heavy traffic on the Garden State Parkway or other roads, Fornara takes off from the airport in Doylestown, Pa., for an easy flight to Ocean City in his Cirrus SR20 single-engine plane. “I know everyone pretty well here. If I’m 10 miles out, they’ll say, ‘Joe, this is what the weather is like’ and they’ll tell me about the winds,” Fornara said of his cockpit radio transmissions with the airport staff. Recognizing the importance of the airport for pilots like Fornara, as well as its potential as a magnet for other visitors, Ocean City officials are discussing tentative plans to give the facility a facelift that would make it more attractive.

Ocean City is working with the Tabernacle Baptist Church to solve a property tax debt that has created a financial crisis for the town’s oldest surviving church. The historic church lost its tax-exempt status “through no fault of its own” when it came under private ownership in 2019 during a sale of the property to its former pastor, according to City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson. McCrosson told City Council during its meeting Thursday night that Mayor Jay Gillian’s administration is trying to craft a payment plan for the church to pay its overdue taxes and avoid a tax sale on the property scheduled in October.

Ocean City’s aggressive seagulls were back to their old tricks again earlier this summer – brazenly swooping down to steal a quick meal of French fries, pizza or funnel cakes from unsuspecting tourists. But that was before the “police” arrived to chase away the pesky birds from the Boardwalk and beaches. Now, the menacing swarms of seagulls have all but disappeared. “It’s worked out really well. It’s been a big success. I’ve had tons of positive comments,” said Erik Swanson, owner of East Coast Falcons, a company that uses trained raptors to control the gulls. Swanson loosely describes his group of fierce-looking falcons, hawks and an owl as the police of the skies.