Funding Approved for Road, Drainage and Dredging Projects

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI City Council approved an $18.4 million bond ordinance Thursday night to fund a series of infrastructure improvements that include road, drainage and dredging projects throughout town. Although the bond package was adopted by a 7-0 vote, there was some infighting among the Council members over a few last-minute changes to the city’s capital plan. Projects included in the bond ordinance represent a key part of the first year of Mayor Jay Gillian’s five-year capital plan. Gillian has proposed a $141.2 million capital plan for 2021-2025, but must secure Council’s approval to fund the projects for construction. Big-ticket items that are included in the new bond ordinance include $5.5 million worth of road construction projects and $5.5 million in drainage improvements to ease flooding in neighborhoods vulnerable to stormwater. Flood-mitigation projects are slated from Ninth Street to 18th Street on West Avenue to the bay and on West 17th Street. Another $2 million will go toward improvements to public facilities, including restrooms on the Boardwalk. The Council members stressed the importance of having more bathrooms to accommodate the thousands of visitors who stroll the Boardwalk each night during the summer and patronize the local businesses. Another major project scheduled for 2021 is the continuation of the city’s multi-year dredging program for the shallow lagoons and channels along the back bays. The bond ordinance includes $2 million for dredging work scheduled this year for Carnival Bayou, Venetian Bayou, Sunny Harbor and South Harbor. More dredging projects will be done in shallow lagoons along the back bays. The capital plan serves as a broad blueprint for road construction, flood-mitigation projects, dredging work and other infrastructure improvements from 2021 to 2025, but the city is heavily focused on this year to take advantage of federal funding. Altogether, the plan calls for $78.5 million in proposed projects for 2021. The idea is to have those projects ready to go now to position the city to grab a share of funding contained in the federal government’s massive, $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill, city officials said. After a lengthy discussion, the bond ordinance received unanimous support from Council. However, a related resolution that amended the 2021-2025 capital plan drew some objections from Council members Karen Bergman and Peter Madden. Although Bergman and Madden cast dissenting votes, the resolution was approved by a 5-2 margin. Bergman said the resolution was “disheartening” to her because it was not discussed with her in advance and caught her by surprise. She questioned whether the resolution was even necessary because Council gave its formal approval to the five-year capital plan at the Aug. 26 meeting. Bergman said the resolution had the effect of “recreating the capital plan.” “We approved this (the capital plan) and all of a sudden this is going to come out,” Bergman said of the resolution. Madden said the capital plan already includes the projects outlined in the resolution. He called the resolution “redundant.” He also characterized the resolution as another example of the “politicizing” of the city government amid Council’s ongoing battles with Gillian’s administration. “I hope we can focus on Ocean City, not on ourselves,” Madden said. The five-year capital plan serves as a blueprint for an array of infrastructure improvements throughout the city. Council President Bob Barr, who wrote the resolution, said he wanted to formalize Council’s wishes for key projects in the capital plan “to make sure they get done.” George Savastano, the city business administrator and senior-most official in the Gillian administration, assured Council that all of the projects are already part of the mayor’s capital plan. “We all want to accomplish these projects,” Savastano said. Among the changes, the resolution proposes to speed up the construction of the second phase of a flood-mitigation project to protect the city’s Merion Park neighborhood from stormwater. The resolution calls for construction documents to be ready for public review by Jan. 1, 2022, and the project itself to be completed by Jan. 1, 2023. “Those people have waited long enough. This should have been done a long time ago,” Barr said of Merion Park’s homeowners. The resolution also looks to accelerate the construction schedule for two new restrooms on the Boardwalk, one at 10th Street and the other at 11th Street. Council wants both restrooms built this year and to be fully operational by April 15, 2022. Savastano said the capital plan proposes to have both restrooms ready in time for the 2022 summer tourism season. “We will still get the bathrooms built before next summer,” he said. In another change, the resolution proposes to switch the location of new pickleball courts from the city’s 34th Street recreation complex to 18th Street and Haven Avenue. Pickleball courts already exist at 18th and Haven. Gillian has proposed the 34th Street location as the best site for new pickleball courts, but told Council he would be willing to consider 18th Street as well. “We’re going to do what’s right,” Gillian said, noting that the location of the pickleball courts will be studied to consider the overall impact on the neighborhood, including noise and parking. Barr said he believes that new pickleball courts at the 34th Street location simply would not be used enough to justify placing them there. There is disagreement over whether new pickleball courts should be built at 34th Street or at 18th Street and Haven Avenue. Members of the public were divided over whether the new pickleball courts should be built at 18th Street or 34th Street. Residents who spoke during the public portion of the Council meeting expressed concerns about excessive noise from the pickleball games and whether the new courts would exacerbate parking shortages in their neighborhoods. Don Hepner, a longtime advocate for pickleball, said the “vast majority” of the city’s pickleball community wants to see the new courts located on 18th Street. In other business, Council unanimously approved a restructuring plan for the Ocean City Police Department that was requested by Police Chief Jay Prettyman. The Council members praised Prettyman and the police department, saying that they do a “phenomenal” job in protecting the city and helping to preserve its family friendly image. “We can never have, in my opinion, too many police officers to maintain the brand of Ocean City,” Councilman Jody Levchuk said. The restructuring plan paves the way for the hiring and training of more seasonal officers to help out during the busy summer tourism season. “It will allow us to capitalize on the use of seasonal officers,” Prettyman said in an interview after the Council meeting. The police department has been adding more seasonal officers to meet the growing demands of public safety. This summer, for instance, the department dealt with groups of rowdy teenagers that gathered on the Boardwalk or rode their bicycles in the middle of traffic on local streets. The new restructuring will also give the department more flexibility to recruit and hire experienced full-time officers. Police Chief Jay Prettyman is overseeing a restructuring of the department. Prettyman explained that the restructuring will be critical in helping the department provide new services and respond to new demands that are part of a new paradigm in policing. New Jersey’s legalization of recreation marijuana and the state’s new policies for juvenile justice reform pose new challenges to police departments statewide, officials say. Another major facet of Prettyman’s restructuring plan is the creation of the new position of deputy police chief. Prettyman said he already has someone in mind to become deputy chief, but is not yet ready to make an announcement. The deputy chief will be another senior manager for the police department. The deputy chief will take on some of the administrative duties of running the department to free up Prettyman for more planning and to become more involved with the community, Prettyman said “We both can work in tandem to deliver more police services to our town,” Prettyman said of his working relationship with the deputy chief. The department’s reorganization also includes removing some old language that dates to the 1940s from the city’s existing police ordinance dealing with such things as sick time, vacation pay and work rules. Those issues are already covered under the city’s collective bargaining agreement with the police union, City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson said.