Council Approves Plan to Fund Lagoon Dredging, Life Saving Station, Paving

City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a bond ordinance that borrows $2,851,900 to pay for improvements to the city.

The ordinance appropriates $3,002,000 to complete the second half of Ocean City's capital improvement plan for 2011.

Projects included in the plan are:

• Dredging of the lagoon mouths between 17th Street and Waterway Road (near 32nd Street): The work would be part of a larger bay dredging project and add to a disposal site off Roosevelt Boulevard. The original capital plan called for spending $250,000 on dredging, but an additional $750,000 budgeted for a beach fill project was diverted to bring the dredging total to $1 million. An equal amount of money could be moved from dredging to beach fill in the future -- when the city has a beach replenishment project scheduled.
• Paving and Boardwalk repairs: The plan allocates $210,000 for new street paving projects (working from the top of a long priority list) and $150,000 for replacing isolated sections of Boardwalk, ramps, stairs and railings.
• Renovations to the historic U.S. Life Saving Station: The city's $300,000 and a $190,000 Community Development Block Grant would be matched by a $490,000 grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust. The sum will be sufficient to complete all exterior renovations to the Life Saving Station, which operated in Ocean City until 1915 and is .
• Improvements to public buildings: The plan spends $485,000 for HVAC projects at City Hall and the Ocean City Music Pier, restroom renovations at the Music Pier, Ocean City Fire Department kitchen, bathroom and locker improvements and sewer upgrades at the 46th Street firehouse, 35th Street ball fields and the Aquatics and Fitness Center.
• Parking and traffic signals: The plan spends $355,000 for a new traffic signal and Fifth Street and West Avenue and new timing for signals between Eighth and 10th streets. It also renovates "public parking and streetscapes in the downtown" (including the lots behind City Hall and at the City Hall Annex).
• New 911 equipment: The Ocean City Police Department's 40-year-old 911 equipment would be replaced and enhanced with $400,000.
• Equipment and trucks: A storm truck would be replaced and a van with a lift for the disabled for use in emergency evacuations would be purchased a part of a $212,000 plan.