OCEAN CITY – The City Council is reorganizing how the city deals with capital projects.
In its most recently adopted capital plan, the council included 30 projects with $150 million in new debt if all go forward.
With this much activity and tens of millions of dollars involved, a new ordinance unanimously introduced Dec. 19 seeks to reorganize the way projects are managed.
The ordinance breaks up what City Attorney Dorothy McCrosson termed a “super department,” the Department of Public Works, creating two departments in place of the one. Public Works currently is responsible for operations, engineering and the management of capital projects.
The ordinance would create a more traditional Public Works organization, McCrosson said, responsible for all road, infrastructure and facilities maintenance and upgrades. The units taken away from the current department would be reorganized into a department focused on capital programs, project management and engineering.
Some of the significant capital efforts that are projected for the city’s 2025 and 2026 time frames include a $6 million police substation on the boardwalk and a $30 million renovation of the police station the following year. Upgrades to the boardwalk are also planned, as is a major, multiyear dredging program.
The ordinance will come up for a public hearing and potential vote to adopt at the Jan. 9 meeting of the City Council at 6 p.m. in City Hall.
