By MADDY VITALE
Renovations are likely in the future for Ocean City’s public safety building. City Council will vote on a resolution Thursday night for an architect to draw up plans to update the antiquated police station, a key step for transforming it into a state-of-the-art facility.
Council will also vote on a resolution to authorize an $81,500 professional services contract for William McLees Architecture, a Somers Point-based company, to create the plan for a major facelift for the building at Eighth Street and Central Avenue that dates to around 1890.
In addition to designing improvements to the public safety building, the same firm would also design a new police substation at 8th Street and the Boardwalk at a cost of $193,750 in another resolution up for approval by Council on Thursday.
Over the past five-plus years, Mayor Jay Gillian's administration and City Council have gone back and forth on whether it would be prudent to renovate or best to build a new public safety building.
In March, Gillian revealed in his State of the City address that his administration would propose a new plan for renovations to modernize the police headquarters.
“Without going into too much detail right now, our plan will involve adding a substation at 8th Street and the Boardwalk and converting the current police station on Central Avenue into a state-of-the-art facility,” he said during the March City Council meeting.
An architectural rendering depicts a since-abandoned plan to combine the police and fire headquarters into a new public safety building. (Courtesy of Ocean City)
Gillian said the latest proposal would save money and also allow the city to finally update the old police station.
“This will result in construction costs much less than what we had projected and will allow us to move forward with this critical improvement,” he said.
However, the city has not yet disclosed the estimated construction cost for the project.
In 2020, the mayor proposed creating a combined police and fire headquarters at 550 Asbury Ave., where the fire headquarters is currently located.
But the estimated cost of that project was $42 million, and some Council members voiced concern that the price tag was exorbitant.
A new building would have meant demolishing both the police station and the fire department to make way for new construction.
Now, Gillian has revived plans for updating the existing public safety building instead of constructing an entirely new project.
While renovating the building was on the table as far back as 2016, Gillian and other city officials have said that it is the best direction to go in to provide an updated building that meets the needs of the police department without a hefty cost.
