Sea Isle City Taxpayers Assn.: Replace Bridges, Raise Taxes

CREST HAVEN — Seldom does a taxpayers group appear before freeholders seeking a tax hike, but it happened Nov. 25. Joe McDevitt of Sea Isle City Taxpayers Association addressed the Cape May County governing body asking for replacement of five aging Ocean Drive bridges, all products of Depression-era government projects.
Price tag for higher, heftier spans: $500 million.
Many would benefit, McDevitt told the board, not only island owners. Cape May’s fishing fleet, could accommodate larger vessels at Lower Township docks, not possible under Middle Thorofare Bridge.
Local sand mining firms could also barge their products away from the county via the ocean. He even said larger bridges could make the county a harbor for cruise ships.
In addition, he said new bridges could incorporate fishing piers, bicycle and walking and jogging lanes.
Ocean Drive would be more appealing to residents and visitors, and there would be fewer nuisance closings for vehicular traffic and fewer marine accidents.
“Obviously, the disadvantage is it’s costly, $500 million,” said McDevitt. “That would create a tax increase but there are mitigating factors,” he added.
The economy is ripe at the present with low interest rates and low inflation, and “Once we have new bridges, we would not have ongoing repairs of over $1 million in repairs a year,” he said. Further, he believes it would be possible to secure federal and state funds to ease the county share and burden on taxpayers.
McDevitt calculated the cost to taxpayers if the county undertook a $500-million project at 3.65 percent over 30 years would be annual payments of $27.45 million, which, his figures showed, would increase county taxes 27.9 percent.
As an example, he used Sea Isle City’s average appraisal of $700,000, and said the increase of $359.51 annually would cost the taxpayers there 98 cents a day more in taxes.
While the figure is considerable, McDevitt noted barrier island towns, as well as Upper and Lower township, along Ocean Drive would pay over 80 percent of the cost.
“That $500 million would have a really large impact on the county,” replied Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton. “I would definitely have to sit and talk to the treasurer and county engineer.”
While Thornton agreed with McDevitt that bridges need repair or replacement, he cited Middle Thorofare Bridge, which links Lower Township to Five Mile Beach, as having a projected replacement cost of $200 million.
“I am not saying you are wrong,” he continued, and acknowledged those five Ocean Drive bridges are deteriorating.
“I like what you are saying, but I’m not sure we could even get close to affording that,” Thornton added.
“How much could we handle? We would have to go to the local finance board to see how much one bridge would cost. There would be a lot of factors,” said Francine Springer, chief financial officer.
“I think it would be a very long process for us to absorb that much debt,” Thornton repeated.
County Engineer Dale Foster reminded the board that the county has responsibility for many other bridges, not only the Ocean Drive bridges in question.
Acknowledging the $500 million price tag projected by McDevitt, Foster said “We still have work to do on the 96th Street Bridge, and there is a functionally obsolete one in the south end of Stone Harbor. There is a tremendous need for bridge money in Cape May County.”