SEA ISLE CITY – Sea Isle City Council held its Sept. 22 meeting for the first time in the new City Hall in its dedicated chambers on the third floor. Built at a cost of $11.8 million the complex, which also houses the police and fire departments, municipal court and other city offices, replaces facilities damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held Sept. 21.
Business Administrator George Savastano reported that the city’s bond rating has been set at “AA” which directly influences the interest rate available for its borrowing and other fiscal requirements.
“This bond rating is good news for our future financing since we’ll have access to the very low rate of 2.48 percent interest,” said Savastano.
Master Plan
Council member John Divney updated council on the recent questionnaire put out by the city which went to all taxpayers regarding a variety of administrative, zoning, land use and planning and other topics.
“The deadline to submit input was this past weekend; we’ve had over 3,000 responses and received over 1,000 pages of written comments. So we’ll be busy in the coming weeks to organize all this data and then interpret it which should be by about mid-October,” explained Divney.
During the public comment period, a resident expressed frustration and concern that the zoning board “Is making it too easy to obtain variances, especially for front-yard setbacks for substandard lots. It seems that even though neighbors object, the definition of ‘hardship’ to the property owner is easy to meet and overcome as a barrier to these variances and harmful precedents are being set,” he complained.
Council chairperson John Gibson responded, “I fully agree with you, an adequate front-yard setback is really important, and as we go through the master plan with upcoming workshops and public input opportunities comments such as yours are going to be critical.”
Monthly Firefighters Stipend
Council unanimously passed on first reading an ordinance which amends the city’s general administrative ordinance so that it can “establish a nominal monthly stipend program” for individual firefighters who “volunteer on a regular basis to the Sea Isle City Fire Department.”
Criteria of the program include that for every monthly drill, meeting and fire call an individual firefighter participates in she/he will receive $25 per activity up to a maximum of $150 per month.
“This is a very fair solution, we’ve been working on developing this plan for some time and we have set the level of the stipend to the level of responses each volunteer is involved in,” said Solicitor Paul Baldini. Second hearing and public comment period for this ordinance will occur at council meeting Oct. 27.
Seek Better Beach Access
During the public comment period, a resident asked council to improve access for those who are handicapped or otherwise physically disabled.
“I asked that you do something three years ago to improve access to the Promenade which, of course, is the only way to get to the beach. There’s still only handicapped access at 44th Street to my home at 45th Street and the next closest one is at 57th Street. The handicapped should have just as easy access to the beach as everyone else,” said Gibson, “You’re right and this is a good suggestion; Sea Isle City wants to be a leader in this area and we need to improve on what we’re doing.”
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.
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