Ocean City Council Focuses on Veterans

OCEAN CITY – The City Council of this resort met Sept. 22 and quickly passed a short consent agenda of “routine in nature” financial items. 
Business Administrator James Mallon gave council an update on dredging work. He announced that operations at Snug Harbor were done, those at Glen Cove would be finished within a day or two, and South Harbor dredging would start in early October.
“The mayor and I also walked Site 83 and saw the work that is being done to build new wetlands, including those restored under the bridge, and watched the trucking out of material from the work there and everything is going smoothly,” continued Mallon.
Mallon reported that Atlantic City Electric will be doing an update of its “periodic restitution” and advised that certain areas of the island would see power outages Sept. 27.
“We are using reverse 911 for those neighborhoods which we anticipate will be affected to alert them to the outages as well as staying in close touch with the city’s Merchants’ Association and the Boardwalk merchants. We will continue to provide the latest and most specific information we have on our website as well as a map detailing where and when these outages will take place on Sept. 27,” said Mallon.
Some council members reported on a variety of activities they had attended related to honoring veterans, a Gold Star mother and their families.
“I want to highlight the upcoming events I’m participating in and one that I took part in today,” said Council member Tony Wilson. “This afternoon was the ‘Run for the Fallen’ which goes tip to tip of the state from North Jersey to Cape May. It is an absolutely moving event, and we got the chance to honor a Gold Star mother whose son did not come back from combat. The tribute was amazing, police cars, fire trucks, and runners in front of and behind the veterans’ group. On Oct. 13 we have our VFW golf outing. We cannot do enough for these veterans who have done so much for us,” said Wilson, with much emotion in his voice.
Council member Michael DeVlieger echoed Wilson’s emotions, “You cannot be human and not be moved by the outpouring of both sorrow and joy of the families who have lost a loved one in combat. I really encourage everyone to support these events.”
Council member Keith Hartzell said, “I feel guilty; I have not served so whatever I can do to support our service members I will do as does Ocean City and our mayor. I hear from other organizers that our town is well-known for our level of patriotism and while the hardest thing in the world is not to have your child come home from service, we want the families to know how much we appreciate their sacrifices.”
Council member Robert Barr added from his own experiences noting, “Every year I have participated in the city’s Walk for the Wounded. This year I will be there as well. It’s something everyone needs to do. I would like to see every single person in Ocean City be there.”
Mallon added Ocean City is looking to its traditionally busy fall schedule with all these events and others including the weekend’s air show and the fly-over Roar to the Shore.
“So I want to ask everyone to stay vigilant; our police are great and there to help, nothing is too small to tell them if you think something is not right, if you see something, say something,” Mallon said.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.