Lucy the Elephant took off Monday, April 8, 2024 to watch the total eclipse of the sun.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
MARGATE – The Board of Commissioners Thursday, April 4 approved a new lease for the iconic Lucy the Elephant structure located at Josephine Harron Park on Atlantic and Decatur avenues.
The new lease will fulfill the requirements of the Green Acres program that the city and Save Lucy Committee hope will help obtain grant funds to build an interpretive center at the park and make Lucy the Elephant more accessible to the public.
The new lease agreement will replace the prior agreement approved on Aug. 1, 2019, which created a perpetual 20-year lease term at a cost of $1 per year.
The lease will be for a 20-year term starting April 4, 2024. The city and the Save Lucy Committee will meet to discuss renewal of the 20-year lease term every five years, ensuring the lease term does not drop below 15 years.
“The terms and conditions remain the same, just some boilerplate legalese was needed for Green Acres,” Save Lucy Committee Executive Director Richard Helfant said.
Within six months of the agreement, the Save Lucy Committee will be required to submit a comprehensive management plan and a detailed description of its goals for the first five years of the lease. It will also be required to submit a statement of accomplishments three months before the end of the first five-year period.
Helfant said the Save Lucy Committee will be applying for funding from the NJ Historic Trust, as it does every year, to fund the creation of the welcome center.
“One of the requirements is that we have a lease that has been approved by Green Acres,” he said.
In other business, the board awarded an $83,900 contract to R.A. Walters & Sons, Inc. of Cape May Courthouse to create beach bulkhead access points at Benson and Sumner avenues. The city received five bids by the deadline on March 28, ranging from Walters’ low bid to a high of $137,600 from Arthur R. Henry, Inc. of Egg Harbor Township. The project is being paid for with the city’s allotment of funding from the Community Development Block Grant program.
The board also approved a resolution accepting a $1.8 million Hazard Mitigation grant from the NJ Department of Emergency Management for a resiliency project along Amherst Avenue in the Marina District. The project will help alleviate repeated nuisance flooding in the area.
The board also introduced a new ordinance regulating salt and de-icing materials on private property from being exposed to the stormwater management system. The ordinance requires property owners to store de-icing materials outdoors in waterproof or closed containers between Oct. 15 and April 15, to prevent the materials from leaking out and polluting stormwater, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean. Fines for violations may not exceed $100 per day. All municipalities in New Jersey are required to adopt such ordinances.
A public hearing on the ordinance will be held 5 p.m. Thursday, April 18.
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