From left, Commissioners Maury Blumberg and John Amodeo, and Mayor Michael Becker.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
MARGATE – The Board of Commissioners will hold public hearings Thursday, March 16 on two new bond ordinances appropriating funds to complete capital projects.
Bond Ordinance 04-2023 appropriates $1,160,000 for various capital improvements, including road repairs, and improvements to recreation and the city’s stormwater management system.
The bond provides $59,000 for technology equipment and network cable for the Margate Police Department. The bond sets aside $323,000 to resurface four tennis courts at the Sigmund S. Rimm Recreation Complex on Jerome Avenue. Other appropriations include $498,000 for reconstruction of the 200-block of N. Nassau Avenue, additional line painting for the Atlantic Avenue road diet, and design and engineering for the portion of Winchester Avenue between Clermont and Douglass avenues. The final appropriation of $280,000 is reserved for designing the Adams Avenue stormwater pump station which will help relieve nuisance flooding along the bayfront area.
Ordinance 05-2023 provides for capital improvements to the city’s water and sewer utility totaling $260,000, with $93,000 reserved for replacement of utilities along Nassau Avenue and Bayshore Drive, and $167,000 reserved for redevelopment of Well No. 8, including surveying, construction planning, engineering, plans and specifications, permits, preparation of bid documents and inspections and administration.
The total amount is the lowest amount bonded over the last several years. In 2022, the city bonded $5.5 million for capital projects along with $6 million for school improvements. In 2021 and 2020, the bonding amounts were $5.8 million and $5.5 million.
In other business, the board passed resolutions supporting shared services agreements through the state’s Local Efficiency Achievement Program, which provides $10 million in incentives for local government units to share services. The city will join Atlantic City in applying for a LEAP grant to purchase a pothole repair vehicle.
A second LEAP grant application will request $150,000 to study the feasibility of creating a central dispatch system within Atlantic County for fire and emergency medical services calls. The city is under no obligation to participate in the shared service if it does not benefit the city, Administrator Ken Mosca said.
The commissioners also authorized the receipt of $86,000 for WC Ice Cream, LLC of Wildwood to vend ice cream on the beach during the 2023 summer season. It is the second year of WC Ice Cream’s three year contract for the exclusive right to sell ice cream and water on the beach. In 2022, the company paid $85,000. If it returns for the third year of the contract in 2024, the price will be $87,000.
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