OCEAN CITY — Ocean City is bonding $10.9 million to build a new facility at the municipal airport, rehabilitate and rebuild the Public Safety Building and repair and upgrade the pool at the Aquatic and Fitness Center.
City Council unanimously approved the bond on first reading at the Sept. 14 meeting. It is expected to go to a second reading and public hearing at the next City Council meeting on Thursday, Sept. 28.
Airport Terminal
In December 2022, Leon K. Grisbaum, owner of Berger Realty, and Mayor Jay Gillian announced that Grisbaum would donate $3 million to the city toward the construction of a new terminal at the Ocean City Municipal Airport.
The bond ordinance will fund $700,000 for engineering and design of the terminal.
A pilot who keeps his plane at the airport and is a past president of the Ocean City Airport Association, Grisbaum said at the time of the donation announcement, “I’ve been flying here since 1948, and I want to see it continue on.”
The donation is contingent on the city picking up the rest of the cost of the project, which would include an updated terminal and communications center; second-story restaurant with views of the runway, wetlands and bay; and a better facility for pilots. It also would house a pro shop for the Ocean City Municipal Golf Course, which is adjacent to the airport on Bay Avenue.
The new facility will be named the “Leon and Elizabeth Grisbaum Airport Terminal.” If the city does not complete the project, the money would be returned to Grisbaum.
The building is included in Ocean City’s five-year capital plan for $5 million. Combined with Grisbaum’s donation, the budget for the building is $8 million, according to Ocean City Chief Financial Officer Frank Donato. He said the city is actively seeking a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to offset some of the city’s cost.
The current terminal building was constructed in the 1960s. The airport opened in the 1930s and is the only airport located on a New Jersey barrier island.
Public Safety Building
Ocean City officials talked for years about replacing the aging and outdated Public Safety Building on Central Avenue, between Eighth and Ninth Streets, that houses the police department and the municipal court.
Different ideas have come and gone along with suggestions for different locations. The most controversial turned out to be a proposal to build a comprehensive facility at the location of the current Ocean City Fire Department Headquarters at the corner of Sixth Street between Asbury and West avenues.
Initial projections were for spending about $25 million to replace the fire headquarters with a new building for the fire department, police department and municipal court, but it involved a lot of moving parts, including relocating the skate park behind the Ocean City Primary School.
As the cost projections began to soar to $42 million, opposition arose on council over the price tag, moving the skate park, and having a police department across from the school. That idea was abandoned.
The administration finally decided the best — and least controversial — location is the current location.
In the five-year capital plan, $500,000 was included in 2023 for designing a renovation and rehabilitation of the Public Safety Building and another $25 million for police facilities work in 2024.
In April, the city awarded two design contracts to William McLees Architectural. One was for a 7,000-square-foot police substation at Eighth Street and the Boardwalk on city-owned property with vehicle storage on the ground floor, single-user restrooms on the boardwalk level and facilities for police on the second and third floors.
The idea was to ease the crowding at the main Public Safety Building during the summer when seasonal officers are added to the department to handle the crush of tourists.
The upper floors would have a triage room for walk-in patients, two holding rooms and one holding cell, a locker room with showers (one for males and one for females) for 55 to 60 lockers, an evidence room, armory, captains office, supervisors offices, work space, interview rooms and a break room/classroom.
The bond ordinance has designated $6.5 million toward the boardwalk facility.
The other contract was to look at design additions and renovations to the Central Avenue building. Minus the $6.5 million, the balance of the $25 million in the capital plan will go toward the work on renovating and upgrading the current Public Safety Building.
Aquatic and Fitness
The bond is putting $2.5 million into the renovation and upgrade of the pool at the Aquatic and Fitness Center, which is in the Ocean City Community Center at 1735 Simpson Ave.
Other future renovations are planned for the Aquatic and Fitness Center, including racquetball room conversion and locker room renovations.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
