Mayor's Message: March 6

The building that houses our Ocean City Police Department dates back to the 1800s, and for far longer than most of us can remember, the city has been planning – and re-planning – to provide our officers with the modern facilities they need to keep our community safe.

I’m proud to announce that a new police substation at Eighth Street and Boardwalk opened Friday. I was joined by Police Chief William Campbell, former chiefs Jay Prettyman and Chad Callahan, current officers, and a host of police retirees for the final roll call at the old building Friday morning.

I want to thank each of these exceptional chiefs and officers for their patience and assistance in developing and executing the ideas and designs for new police buildings.

The new substation will serve as a base for Boardwalk and citywide operations and as a temporary home for police while the existing station is replaced by a modern facility.

This administration has succeeded in addressing long-overdue infrastructure improvements across all parts of the city, and this is one of the last major projects necessary before we can move into a maintenance mode. I will keep you updated as we work to construct the new station at 835 Central Avenue.

    Police and city officials stand outside the old public safety building to mark its closing. (Photo courtesy of Ocean City)
  

With rain and warmer temperatures, last month’s blizzard may seem like a distant memory. But I want to take a moment to thank Atlantic City Electric for their work in maintaining and restoring service during the major winter storm.

We’re all dependent on reliable electricity service, and I understand the frustration of residents who experienced outages. But we’re lucky to have a provider so committed to serving its communities.

ACE has invested a lot in infrastructure improvements in Ocean City to minimize the impact of service interruptions, and in the aftermath of the storm, they mobilized a massive effort to restore power to tens of thousands of homes across the eight counties in their service area.

The storm did extensive damage to the netting around the Ocean City Municipal Golf Course on Bay Avenue and swamped the fairways and greens. The facility is not yet open for the season, and I want to ask everyone to stay off the course until the course can dry out and temporary netting repairs can be completed this week.

The city will install “smart” lights on the 600 block of Asbury Avenue, and work is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 9. The initial phase to install conduit, wiring and concrete foundations is expected to take four weeks. During this phase, parking will not be permitted on the side of the street where work is actively taking place.

Work will start on the east (ocean) side. The work is part of an ongoing project to provide downtown Asbury Avenue with a state-of-the-art lighting system that can accommodate holiday decorations, along with a separate street-level sound system.

The Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority contractor discovered a failed 20-inch sewer main last week and closed West Avenue between 31st and 32nd streets. The failure will require the CMCMUA to replace 830 feet of the pipe.

Crews have begun digging test pits and developing the detailed plans for the replacement, which is estimated to take approximately eight weeks. West Avenue will remain closed from 31st Street to 32nd Street. Additional road closures are anticipated in the coming weeks on 31st Street between West and Haven avenues.

Wesley Road will be closed to through traffic from Battersea Road to East Atlantic Boulevard this week as New Jersey American Water continues work on another emergency sewer repair. Please be aware that detours will be in place for traffic to and from the Ocean City-Longport Bridge.

Our rescheduled Public Safety Recognition Ceremony is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, at the Ocean City Tabernacle. This ceremony recognizes men and women from the Ocean City Police Department, Ocean City Fire Department and Ocean City Beach Patrol who performed heroic actions in the course of duty. I encourage you all to come out to support our first responders.

I will deliver my annual State of the City address at the next City Council meeting on Thursday, March 12, at City Hall. At the same meeting, the administration will present City Council with the proposed budget for 2026.

This is the start of an extensive annual budgeting process that continues through the spring. I want to encourage anybody interested in this process to attend the City Council meetings during this process. Budgets, audits and financial documents are always available at ocnj.us/finance.

Ocean City Coffee Company co-owner Calvin Corvaia passed away last month and I want to extend deepest condolences to his family, Joan Williamson and the entire O.C. Coffee Company family. Small local business owners like Calvin and Joan are the backbone of our community, and he will be missed.

Check out this week’s edition of the “Inside City Hall” video series below to get a behind-the-scenes look at new services and projects in Ocean City, including the new police substation, OCFD training, Read Across America, boardwalk reconstruction, and an amazing victory for the OCHS boys’ basketball team.

Warm regards,

Mayor Jay A. Gillian