Summer flooding on 30th Street in Ocean City, NJ.
City Council President Tony Wilson said this week that a resolution to award a $44,720 contract to an engineering company to come up with a plan to address drainage problems in one of Ocean City’s most flood-prone neighborhoods will be back on the agenda for the public meeting on Thursday (March 26).
The resolution would authorize a professional services contract with Michael Baker International Company for an engineering review of the low-elevation area bounded by 26th and 34th streets, West Avenue and Bay Avenue.
Ocean City has committed to spend $29 million over the next five years for road and drainage improvements, but City Council must prioritize and authorize spending on all individual projects.
“It's important to listen to all parties to make the best decision for taxpayers,” Wilson said.
The same resolution was tabled by council at the March 12 meeting.
“I would ask that you pull numbers 5 and numbers 10 from this agenda, and I’d really like you to hold public meetings so that people could come if they choose and discuss how you’re going to spend our couple million dollars,” said Suzanne Hornick, vice chair of the O.C. Flooding subcommittee of Fairness in Taxes and a property owner in the project area, during public comment on March 12. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking that, and I would please ask that you respect that before you spend one cent of my tax dollars on anything non-essential when we have a serious essential problem.”
(
See video of citizen comment with Hornick's comment starting about the 1:15 mark.)
Members of O.C. Flooding said that her comments were a request to “pull” the Baker study resolution and a five-year capital plan resolution from the “consent agenda,” a group of routine items considered as a batch. “Pulling” resolutions allows further comment during meetings.
But Councilman Mike DeVlieger interpreted Hornick's comments as a wish to delay a vote pending public input. He made the motion to table the resolution until the next meeting.
Regardless of the confusion, the measure will be back on the agenda two weeks later.
“It’s an ideal situation for us to go out there and see exactly what we need to do,” Councilman Pete Guinosso said on March 12. “We’re going in the right direction, and we have the right place.”
The proposed engineering work would include field visits, a review of existing conditions, preparation of a report (including estimated costs, design schedules, permitting requirements), presentation of recommendations to the public and project management.
Baker is the same firm that met with neighbors, conducted a study and made recommendations for improvements in the nearby Merion Park neighborhood, where
a comprehensive drainage project that included pumping stations was recently completed.
The new project area sits in a low-lying corridor that includes Haven and Simpson avenues and routinely floods — not only in storms and tidal events, but in heavy rain and even on sunny days (with tidal waters flowing backwards through the storm drain system).
The project is part of the
first year of a five-year capital improvement plan, and the recommendations from Baker would be complete in the spring.
Hornick spoke again in public comment at the end of the March 12 meeting, but ultimately was escorted from the podium because meeting rules prevent citizens from speaking on the same topic twice.
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