Dear Friends,
Following the publication of a recent news article, I received a few calls regarding the city’s proposed purchase price on a former car dealership lot to protect it from development. As everybody knows, I like to stick to the facts. The city has an opportunity to acquire the majority of a city block for $9 million. This price is based on fair market value as determined by independent appraisers. By law, our tax assessors had valued the property based on its prior use as a car dealership, and obviously this is much less.
I’d like to thank the Klause family for working with the city to preserve this important property for public use. We all know they could have sold the property to developers. I hope the remaining families follow suit and allow us to acquire the rest of the block. This block is the final piece to create a continuous public corridor between 15th Street and 20th Street, which will enhance our educational and public facilities.
I want to be sure you know our bayside dredging program will begin shortly after Labor Day. The city has issued a contract to Southwind Construction to conduct our hydraulic dredge program for Ocean City Channel, Bluefish/Clubhouse Lagoon, Carnival Bayou, Venetian Bayou and Waterview. Trident Marine was awarded a mechanical dredging contract for Snug Harbor, Bay Bridge and Sunny Harbor.
Southwind will start its work in the vicinity of Clubhouse and Bluefish lagoons with work between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Some work will take place at the disposal facility starting at 9 a.m. Sundays. Please know that both submerged and floating pipeline will be present during all dredging operations. Boaters should use extreme caution while slowly navigating within these areas. Trident will begin its work in the area of the Ninth Street Bridge and Snug Harbor with its barges crossing the channel to off-load material at the disposal facility along the Route 52 causeway.
Once the city dredging contracts are complete, owners will have an opportunity to work with the approved contractors to have their private slips dredged. More information on this process will be provided shortly. The city is making good progress in dredging the bay side, and we all look forward to continuing to enjoy our beautiful back bay.
Finally, I’d like to remind everybody that the once-a-week trash and recycling pickup schedule resumes on Monday, Sept. 10. More information on the schedule and locations is here.
I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and enjoy all that Ocean City has to offer.
As always, I urge our residents and guests to swim only at guarded beaches, and you can see an updated list at www.ocnj.us/ocbp. Be sure to check out our list of special events at oceancityvacation.com .
Warm regards,
Mayor Jay A. Gillian
