Avalon Passes $25.3-million Budget, Residents Press Armacost Park Issue

AVALON – Avalon Borough Council passed its $25.3-million, 2015 budget March 25. The meeting began inauspiciously with the failure of the borough’s recording system. A back-up tape recorder was pressed into service and Council President Charles Covington fell back on the tried-and-true method from the past, Borough Clerk Marie Hood would take minutes.
That technical glitch proved the only obstacle as the budget moved smoothly to approval.
Presentations by Covington and Council woman Nancy Hudanich, along with Michael Garcia of Ford Scott and Associates, helped navigate residents through the numbers. Three budgets were under consideration: the municipal budget, which funds borough operations, and the two dedicated budgets for the water and sewer utility and the beach utility.
The municipal budget appropriates $25.3 million, and is $2.6 million less than 2014. Covington was quick to point out that the difference was due to normal variability in annual grant funds from the state for specific purposes.
The tax levy, the amount to be raised by local taxes, went up by just under $270,000, from $16.37 million in 2014 to $16.64 million in 2015. This number does not include the levy for the library, which increased by $30,000. The increase in the tax levy for municipal purposes moves the local purpose tax rate from .224 to .226 per $100 of assessed value.
The final water utility appropriation was just under $6 million and represented an increase of $115,845 and the beach utility went up by $18,871.
Questions during the public hearing focused on issues of total borough debt outstanding, a $22.5 million outstanding balance on general bonds and loans, and the need for road repair in the borough, especially on Ocean Drive, a county road.
An item of controversy came when Martha Wright urged council to look closely at the amount the borough spends with Lomax Consulting, an environmental consulting group involved in the borough’s Armacost Park rehabilitation efforts which some, including Wright, have opposed from its inception.
Armacost Park
The issue that continues to dominate public comment at meetings is Armacost Park.
The borough recently began its pilot project in the Healthy Forest Initiative, which consisted in phase one of what the borough called vine-control protocol. This has been an area of controversy between the borough and a group of concerned citizens who maintain that the park should be left to nature with little or no human intervention.
With the vine removal phase completed, the borough is ready to initiate phase two of its plan, which includes the planting of new indigenous trees in the pilot areas during the month of April. Citizens who had opposed the vine and understory removal are now urging council to either stop intervening in the park or move the planting to the fall when it is less likely to interrupt nesting for the many bird species in the park.
As has been true from the start, the debate is one of dueling views on the science behind the effort with the citizens group critical of the expert opinion the borough is relying on. This has put Lomax Consulting in the thick of the debate. The stated objective is the same on both sides of the controversy, a health ecosystem in the park and a sanctuary for the many bird species that make their home in the park in certain seasons of the year.
Wright took the council back to the interventions in 1973 when she said, “We mucked about with the naturally occurring saltwater marsh and engineered a freshwater system.” She sees that period of intervention, which included planting “a bunch of stuff including Virginia Creeper and Japanese Black Pine” as what “in large part created many of the problems we have today.”
She blames the “scientists and engineers” who advised on the project when “the park should have been left alone.” Four other residents supported Wright’s position in following commentary and all urged the borough, at a minimum, to postpone the planting until fall. Their true desire, clearly stated, is that the initiatives in the park stop completely.
One resident urged the borough to “stay the course.” Steven Malyszka spoke of the need to “separate fact from fiction” and said the borough needs to listen to its experts.
He claimed that the ecology of the park has changed markedly and the borough’s effort is necessary to ensure the health of the park.
Business Administrator Scott Wahl told council that he had researched the claims that a spring planting would be detrimental to the borough’s goals for the park. Citing a number of experts he contacted, including but not limited to Lomax, Wahl said the consensus was that a spring planting of the trees was preferable to a fall planting.
Council members expressed great respect for the passion with which those who oppose the effort have pursued what they feel is in the best interest of the park, but in the end, the council will rely on its expert advice. There was no change to the current plans for phase two of the park initiative.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.