Donald Wittkowski

Cape May County is preparing to start construction on the second phase of a project at Cape May Airport that will help to diversify the local economy and create new jobs in the high-tech industry. A ceremonial groundbreaking for the Tech Village II complex is scheduled for Tuesday, April 23, at noon at the airport in Rio Grande. The public is invited to join the Cape May County Commissioners and other officials at the ceremony.

An Ocean City condominium complex with a history of alleged structural problems dating back more than 40 years has been declared unsafe and was closed down by the city. Ocean City’s construction official issued “unsafe structural notices” and ordered the Seaspray condos to be vacated until repairs can be made, city spokesman Doug Bergen said.

Ocean City’s public housing agency continues to wait for the state to complete a lengthy review of the bidding documents for a 60-unit affordable housing development before construction can start on the project. The state Comptroller’s Office, which scrutinizes major public projects in New Jersey, began reviewing the approximately 1,000-page bid package for the Ocean City Housing Authority’s Pecks Beach Village development last October. Officials at the housing authority had hoped that the Comptroller’s Office would finally wrap up its review in April, but it now seems that May is a more likely scenario for the work to be finished, an attorney says.

Ocean City’s Boardwalk, roads, police facilities and more will be improved under a nearly $160 million capital plan that also includes flood-mitigation projects to protect low-lying neighborhoods from stormwater. City Council voted 5-0 Thursday night to formally approve the capital plan, a sweeping blueprint proposed by Mayor Jay Gillian’s administration for construction projects and civic improvements across the island in the next five years.

To some, it may sound like something straight out of a science fiction movie: A robot named da Vinci that performs surgery. But in this case, the da Vinci Xi surgical robotic system at Shore Medical Center in Somers Point is a high-tech tool that helps doctors to perform an array of minimally invasive surgical procedures with greater precision.

Ocean City unveiled a nearly $160 million, five-year capital plan that includes flood-mitigation projects, road construction, improvements to the Boardwalk, the dredging of local waterways and a $30 million renovation of the antiquated public safety building. At the same meeting of City Council on Tuesday, a presentation was given on the proposed 2024 municipal budget – a $110.1 million spending plan that includes a 3.7-cent increase in the local tax rate.

The likelihood of Ocean City building a new parking garage seems remote following a feasibility study that found such a project would be expensive to develop and would be a money loser to operate. A parking consultant looked at the possibility of the city building a multilevel garage at three potential locations near the Boardwalk and one in the downtown business district. All of the sites are owned by the city and currently serve as surface parking lots.

A proposed 60-unit affordable housing development in Ocean City is entering the final stages of a months-long review by the state Comptroller’s Office and appears “100 percent” on track to begin construction later this year, officials said Tuesday. The Ocean City Housing Authority hopes to begin soliciting construction bids for the project on April 3 if the Comptroller’s Office, as expected, soon wraps up its review of the proposed Pecks Beach Village development.

With each thrust of its giant metal claw, an excavator on a floating barge scoops out gobs of gooey black muck from the mouth of an Ocean City lagoon. It may seem like a monotonous process, but the dredging work is part of an unprecedented project in New Jersey that may serve as a model for Ocean City to prevent its waterways from being choked with muddy sediment.

Ocean City is kicking in an extra $850,000 to pay for the rising cost of cleaning up contaminated soil from property that it acquired through eminent domain and plans to preserve as open space. However, city officials stressed that Ocean City will receive credit for the environmental cleanup costs from the property’s previous owner, Palmer Center LLC, once the work is finished and a final price is determined for the land.