New decorative lighting will be added to the Asbury Avenue retail corridor one block each year.
Ocean City’s downtown shopping district will be brightened up a bit – and made more festive for the holiday season in years to come – with new decorative lighting on Asbury Avenue.
The first part of the project will be done on Asbury from Sixth to Seventh streets. The city is currently seeking bids for that phase of the work.
Mayor Jay Gillian said the city plans to add decorative lights on Asbury at a rate of one block each year, starting at Sixth Street.
“We will meet with the Downtown Merchants to go over the construction plans and timeline,” he said in a statement.
Overall, the city’s goal is to complete the decorative lighting from Sixth to 14th streets in yearly increments along the main shopping corridor of Asbury Avenue, city officials have explained in earlier interviews.
Gillian called it a state-of-the-art system that will allow the city to control the lighting levels downtown.
The new lighting will not only illuminate the shopping district, but also replace the existing fixtures that are not tall enough to provide adequate height for the holiday wreaths, bows and garland that create the festive atmosphere each year during the Christmas shopping season.
“The posts will be able to accommodate our holiday decorations,” Gillian said of the lights.
For years, the city has installed temporary, 20-foot-high poles to provide a way to display the Christmas wreaths, wrapped garland and bright red bows. They are taken down every January.
The new light fixtures will be tall enough so that the temporary poles will no longer be needed, city officials have said.
Also as part of the lighting project, a separate, low-height bollard system will be used for speakers, preventing noise from disturbing residents who live on the second floor of downtown buildings, Gillian noted.
The bollard system in the lighting will allow the city to play festive music on the street level instead of from buildings.
Contractors have until Nov. 20 to submit competitive bids for the new lighting from Sixth to Seventh streets. In the past, city officials estimated that the project would cost an estimated $1 million for every two blocks of new lighting.
Temporary 20-foot-high poles are used now to hang the holiday garland above Asbury Avenue in the downtown shopping district.
