City Hall in Ocean City
In a unanimous vote on Thursday (May 28), City Council approved spending $116,416 to equip the Ocean City Police Department with in-car and body cameras.
The vote authorizes the purchase of 15 in-car cameras and 19 body cameras, enough to outfit almost every police car and on-duty officer.
“The Ocean City Police Department has always taken pride in its relationship with the residents and visitors it serves, and in an effort to provide for and maintain the highest level of transparency, we plan to deploy a large-scale ‘in-car’ and ‘body camera’ system,” Ocean City Police Capt. Jay Prettyman wrote in a memo to the city. (Read more:
Ocean City to Vote to Give Police Body and In-Car Cameras.)
Council passed the measure without discussion as part of the "consent agenda," a set of routine resolutions considered together as a batch with one vote of council members.
Some other items from Thursday's meeting that might be of interest:
- North End Pumping Station: Ocean City learned this week that it received final approval for a grant of just under $5 million to build a pumping station to alleviate street flooding in an area roughly from Second to Eighth streets between Bay Avenue and West Avenue. Work is expected to take place in 2016.
- South End Beach Replenishment: Ocean City Business Administrator Jim Mallon reported that the Army Corps of Engineers contractor has pumped 39 percent of the anticipated volume of new sand onto Ocean City beaches, and the project is on schedule for completion in mid-July.
- Memorial Day Weekend: Municipal parking lot revenue was up over last year's holiday weekend, and the city sold 20,000 seasonal beach tags in four days alone. Last year's entire preseason included sales of 100,000.
- Spring Block Party 2016: Because Mother's Day falls on the first Sunday of May next year, the Spring Block Party in Ocean City, NJ will be scheduled for the second Saturday in May, a week later than usual.
- Bayside Dredging: Council approved a contract adjustment that paves the way for a company to haul dredge spoils to Wildwood. Read more: Contractor Still Waiting to Haul Dredge Spoils to Wildwood.
- Fourth Ward Meeting: Fourth Ward Councilman Pete Guinosso announced an open public meeting to discuss ward issues at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, May 30, at Our Lady of Good Counsel church on 40th Street.
