The Stainton's building anchors Asbury Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets in downtown Ocean City.
To the editor:
Let me recap. In three minutes, I call Tuckahoe Turf and defeat the whole economic justification of artificial turf — $13,400 to resod between the hash marks and $40,000 for the whole field versus $1.2 million plus interest for 10 years of use. Yes, artificial turf wears out. No call made by the administration. No information provided on an alternative.
I walk up to the foreman doing the boardwalk project and ask about coating the pilings with fiberglass. Six hundred and thirteen pilings for this block at an extra $350 per piling (about $200,000). And how long will the pilings last that are being installed currently — 50 years, he says. And how long for fiberglass-coated pilings? Forever, he answers.
So fifty years from now, after having replaced the pine decking 5 or 6 times (that is another one), you have to do the whole boardwalk all over again. Let it be said the flow of the boardwalk replacement has been excellent.
I have never seen a group of people, meaning the mayor and City Council, not properly evaluate alternatives on such a regular basis. Folks, you gather up all the pertinent information for various alternatives and you weigh the relative merits. It is called pro and con.
Now we get to the preliminary idea of moving the Historical Museum to the second floor of Stainton's along with lifeguard museum at the Bayside Center. The pluses: more space, helps the downtown (maybe), room for expansion. No mention of any of the negatives: 2nd floor retail doesn't work (go ask Second Chance boutique, which moved out of the second floor onto Asbury Avenue) and the city would have to pay rent on 20,000 sq ft. Ignore the moving costs just a one and done, but it's still money. Then we get the nonsensical comment: we could promote it at Stainton's - true but also where currently located.
Finally we play the mystery game - what would you put at the historical museum space in its place? Maybe there is a much better use but what is the secret?
No wonder it's taken 4 years to figure out where to put the skateboard park.
Now watch for the next one coming down the road. Hire Czar Engineering to evaluate the police station. Capital plan shows $500,000 for planning a public safety building. Renovate existing building or build new next to Fire House? If you want to build new make sure you have enough parking for all the police and employee cars before you spend one dime on planning construction there. I need to say that because this is the group that puts new roofs on public housing when they intend to knock it down in two years.
Please publicize alternatives and all the pertinent facts. Anybody can spend our tax dollars given our $12 billion tax base. Please do your homework public officials and demonstrate you have.
Michael Hinchman
Ocean City
