Cape May to Wait for New Council to Act on Convention Hall

CAPE MAY – City Council will not act on bids for a new Convention Hall until three new council members are sworn in on July 1.
Council spent two hours and 15 minutes in closed session during a special meeting June 8 to discuss Convention Hall contract negotiations. When the meeting reopened to the public, Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. announced all participants in the closed door meeting: current council members Terri Swain, David Kurkowski and Linda Steenrod along with council-elect members Deanna Fiore and Jack Wichterman, “had come to a total agreement” that no further action in the form of a resolution or ordinance by council would take place until the new council takes office July 1.
Deputy Mayor Niels Favre was absent following knee surgery.
“Both the existing council members and the council members-elect are in total agreement on the process and procedures to take place after that date,” said the mayor. “We will announce the complete process and procedures at our next council meeting next Tuesday evening at 7 o’clock on June 15.”
Mahaney said he was very heartened by the interest and dedication everybody had shown to the process. He said he believed council would move forward in a united fashion.
The mayor said he would not provide any further information on how the city was going to proceed on the Convention Hall project.
It would appear the city may have to build either a smaller facility or a Convention Hall with fewer features to keep it within a $10.5 million bond ordinance approved by voters in a referendum last year.
Nine construction companies submitted bids June 3 to construct a new Convention Hall here again exceeding a $10.5 million bond. The nine bids were down from down from 11 bids received on March 30. All bids received March 30 were rejected for being too high.
City Council approved an amended agreement June 1 with architect Kimmel Bogrette for the proposed new Convention Hall for $47,530 to produce specifications for a less expensive facility. The lowest bid submitted June 3 was $11.7 million from Domus Construction. That included $10.5 million for the building, $700,000 to bump out the Promenade towards Beach Avenue and $505,370 for a geothermal heating and cooling system.
During their campaigns, the three council-elect members: Fiore, Wichterman and Bill Murray called for a smaller convention hall. Fiocca said at candidate’s night if the building was smaller, perhaps remaining in its original footprint, there may not have been delays in a starting construction. “Cape May is always going to be a small town, we don’t need to have this huge monolith of a Convention Hall because it is only going to cause more problems with the parking,” said Fiocca at the time.
Murray recommended scaling back the building during candidate’s night. He said the city needed to live within its means.
That night, Wichterman questioned building a facility one third bigger than the present hall when it only played to a sold out crowd once in 30 years.