Ocean City Proposes 24% Hike In New Five-year Capital Plan

OCEAN CITY – Ocean City Council organized a capital budget workshop Jan. 19 at the Public Library for the public.
Last year, Mayor Jay Gillian proposed and introduced a $ 79-million, five-year capital improvement plan that ran from 2015 to 2019. This year’s capital plan runs from 2016-2020 and is for a proposed amount of $98.5 million, an increase of $18.9 million or nearly 24 percent. 
Plan Cost to Increase
“We realize we are proposing a significant increase in this plan over last year’s significant increase but we are responding to what the public has said it wants,” said City Business Administrator James Mallon.
Mallon, in his introduction, emphasized that this was “only a plan, and we are going to have a lot more discussion, feedback from residents and council, questions and answers and then we will need to go to council for approval of bond ordinances and then move to the bidding and contracting stage.”
The funds are earmarked to address the city’s needs for dredging, boardwalk replacement, beach replenishment and improvements to the city’s notorious drainage problems, paving and bay side and downtown improvements among numerous other items.
In a written statement received by attendees, city administration stated, “The city will continue its major commitment to improving all parts of the city from beach to bay…Because of Ocean City’s exceptional bond rating and low interest rates we are in a unique position to proactively address these projects in the upcoming five-year cycle.”
Variety of Projects
Chief Financial Officer Frank Donato presented details of the plan that reflects the large increased level of spending for this year. “Some of the additional funding is for paving and drainage which we’ve been striving to improve although we have a lot more work to go,” he said. Donato explained if there are no major changes to the five-year capital plan, city council could approve it as early as February. 
The city, per the information it shared at the workshop, expects to spend $29 million for paving and drainage over the next five years. This category of capital spending has been identified as one of high priority to alleviate street flooding in certain areas of the city from 26th to 34th streets where residents say they are especially plagued by habitual flooding.
Another high value item is $10 million for what has been termed “earmarking” for dredging.
“On Jan. 25 we will have a dredging workshop and engineers and experts will be there to answer all questions and present their findings,” said Donato.
Workshop Purpose
Donato explained that the workshop was organized as the initial introduction of the capital plan and as a result details and specifics of various projects were not plentiful.
One area of some discussion was what would become of parking, already limited when or if the city moves forward with construction of a new police department building on a city-owned lot behind City Hall.
Another project which elicited some comment was a project to unify the appearance of sidewalks and signage in the downtown area.
Overall the capital plan addresses myriad projects ranging from an increase in the number of security cameras at the municipal airport; improvements to public and recreation areas throughout the municipality including the still-vacant gas station site at Ninth Street; and how to provide for better bulkheads along the bay side of Ocean City.
“The substantial increase of this capital plan will have ramifications on the City’s budget, borrowing, affordability and tax rates,” concluded Donato.
For information on the city’s capital plans, visit ocnj.us/capital-projects.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.