Council to Consider Dredging Agreement for $1.3 Million in State Funding

DWitt

By Donald Wittkowski Ocean City will receive more than $1 million in state funding for a major dredging project to clear out sediment-choked lagoons along the back bays. At its meeting Tuesday, City Council is scheduled to approve the funding agreement with the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Office of Maritime Resources for the dredging of the Carnival Bayou lagoon. Council is holding its meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, instead of its normal schedule of 7 p.m. Thursday. The DOT will kick in $1.3 million toward the nearly $1.5 million total cost of the project, according to a copy of the agreement attached to Council’s agenda. The DOT will help pay for the project because the dredging work will also clear muddy sediment from state channels along Ocean City’s back bays. “The NJDOT will pay for all eligible costs attributable to dredging the State Channels,” the agreement says. Those costs include designs, permitting, testing and inspection for the project, as well as the actual dredging work itself, the agreement notes. Carnival Bayou, between 16^th and 17^th streets, is one of three major dredging projects planned by the city beginning in September. South Harbor, between Tennessee Avenue and Spruce Road, and Sunny Harbor, between Arkansas Avenue and Walnut Road, are the other two. Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Council is expected to award a $732,514 contract to Mobile Dredging & Pumping Co. of Chester, Pa., for dredging work at Carnival Bayou. Mobile Dredging submitted the lowest bid among three contractors that sought the work, according to documents attached to Council’s agenda. The city began the first round of dredging last year as part of a $20 million program proposed by Mayor Jay Gillian for 2016, 2017 and 2018. In 2017, the town plans to spend $7.5 million for dredging projects, said Frank Donato, the city’s chief financial officer. The city has permits for the dredging projects at Carnival Bayou, South Harbor and Sunny Harbor this year. Last December, the city applied for a permit from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct dredging along the entire length of the island. City officials expect to receive word by year’s end whether that permit has been approved. Some of the silt-clogged lagoons are so shallow that boat owners are trapped at their slips or must wait until high tide to gain access to the water. The city’s marinas are also threatened by the thick sediment.