With approval of the construction contract during Thursday's City Council meeting, work will soon begin on a major flood-control project for the Merion Park neighborhood.
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Ocean City is moving ahead with a nearly $11 million project that will include pumping stations, road reconstruction and other measures to protect the flood-prone Merion Park neighborhood from stormwater.
City Council awarded a $10.7 million construction contract Thursday to Atlantic City-based L. Feriozzi Concrete Co., the lowest bidder among four companies that sought the work. Feriozzi’s bid was well under the city’s $11.9 million pre-bid estimate for the contract.
In 2014, the city completed the first phase of a flood-mitigation project for Merion Park in the south end of town. The project included pumping stations to channel floodwater out of the neighborhood much faster than it would normally take to drain off the streets after a storm.
Now, the city is getting ready to launch the second phase of the project. Work is expected to begin in the spring and be completed before Memorial Day weekend in 2025, said Vince Bekier, director of the city’s Operations and Engineering Department.
“We would like to begin as soon as possible,” Bekier said, noting that a preconstruction meeting will be held between the city and Feriozzi to nail down the project’s timetable.
Residents of Merion Park have waited 10 years while the second part of the project was being planned, discussed and refined, including the number of pumping stations that would be built.
As it stands now, three new pumping stations are planned along the 34th Street-Roosevelt Boulevard entryway between the foot of the 34th Street Bridge and Bay Avenue.
Other measures that are planned in the second phase include new drainage pipes, road reconstruction to raise the streets, landscaped berms that would act as flood barriers and new gutters, curbs and sidewalks.
The second phase of the project in Merion Park is expected to start this spring and be completed before Memorial Day weekend in 2025.
In other business at Thursday’s meeting, Council approved a $128,625 contract to bring back jitney service this year in an expanded form.
Ocean City launched jitney service in the summer of 2022 in partnership with the Atlantic City Jitney Association under a pilot program to see whether shuttle service to the Boardwalk and downtown business district would be popular with residents and visitors.
The contract with the Atlantic City Jitney Association has been renewed for this year, but includes some changes. The downtown route has been removed this year due to low ridership in the past.
This year, there will be a “primary evening route” that will run from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. in a continuous loop from 55th Street to Battersea Road, including service to the Boardwalk.
New for 2024, there will also be a “senior center route” to serve Ocean City’s senior housing communities, including Wesley by the Bay, Speitel Commons, Bayview Manor, United Methodist Communities at The Shores and Pecks Beach Village.
The senior center route will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. year-round and will be free to members of Ocean City’s Howard S. Stainton Senior Center.
In February, the city took over the senior center, which is housed in the city’s Community Center at 1735 Simpson Ave. Prior to that, the county operated the senior center.
The jitneys have been touted by city officials as a low-cost, convenient transportation service that saves riders the trouble of finding parking during the busy summer tourism season. The one-way fare is $2.
The jitney service will be expanded this year to include stops at Ocean City's senior housing facilities.
The jitneys carried a total of 14,735 riders during the summer of 2023. It was up from 12,000 riders in the service’s pilot year in 2022, according to city officials.
In remarks at Thursday’s meeting, Councilman Jody Levchuk praised the jitney service for its convenience, but said more needs to be done to boost ridership.
“It is a little low, and there’s a lot of room for improvement with that,” he said.
Levchuk noted that he has been speaking with some of the owners of the Boardwalk and downtown shops for ideas on how to attract more riders.
“We would like to see the ridership increase,” said Levchuk, co-owner of the Jilly’s shops downtown and on the Boardwalk. “There are a lot of great ideas out there as to how to persuade people to take the jitneys as opposed to driving. It’s a great service. It helps with our parking issues around town.”
One idea that is being discussed is to have Ocean City-sponsored information kits about the jitneys included in the welcome packets that vacationers receive when they check into their rental properties for the summer, Levchuk said.
