Once-in-a-generation building between West, Asbury to house police, fire
By BILL BARLOW/Special to the Sentinel
OCEAN CITY – Firefighters and police will share a headquarters if plans for a new public safety building move forward, replacing the current firehouse in the 500 block of West Avenue with a much larger structure.
City officials presented the plans at a sparsely attended town hall meeting at the Ocean City Tabernacle on Saturday morning, Oct. 24. As proposed, both the current public safety building at 821 Central Ave. and the fire headquarters will be demolished, replaced by a new building that will combine the two departments and the municipal court, along with emergency medical services and 9-1-1 dispatch.
The estimated cost is $35 million.
Mayor Jay Gillian has said for years that the current public safety building needs to be replaced. The building is more than a century old and once served as a school. According to those who work there, it’s crowded, too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer, along with other problems. Gillian said the current building is ill-suited to current police work. He presented a similar assessment of the much newer fire headquarters, which was built in the 1980s.
But as he said on Saturday, Gillian was never happy with the options provided for a new public safety building. For years, the city had shown $17.5 million in its capital plan for a new public safety building, and has publicly mulled several options, including placing it at the former car dealership property the city is working to acquire.
“It’s been an interesting ride. We’ve gone through so many ideas, so many designs, so many places,” Gillian said. He added he did not want to spend much time on the history. But for each plan, he said, he wanted to consider ways to consolidate services. “Every time something came forward, it never felt right in my gut.”
He compared the project to the long discussion of plans for Ocean City High School, which saw multiple options considered with the ultimate decision to demolish the old building and replace it entirely.
“I’ll tell you, that was a tough lift. It was a lot of money. But it was the right thing to do. And that’s where we are with this now,” he said. Gillian said it was the right time and the right place for the project.
At the Saturday meeting, city Finance Director Frank Donato described the proposed building as “the marquee project of a generation.” He also serves as the city’s emergency management coordinator, and said the new building would be far better suited as a headquarters for future hurricanes, blizzards, northeast storms and other emergencies, because it will be built to contemporary flood standards and at a central location with police and fire.
Donato and city auditor Leon Costello were at the meeting to discuss the cost. In their presentation, they outlined the city’s current debt and its annual cost to taxpayers, and how the cost of the new building can be paid for in the long term, with what they described as a minimal impact on taxpayers each year.
As mayor, Gillian has embarked on an ambitious regimen of infrastructure work, including millions of dollars spent each year on paving and drainage projects, as well as reconstructing the boardwalk, dredging lagoons and building beaches.
On Saturday, he said the main concern that he has heard from residents about the proposal is that building it would delay people’s streets being paved or other needed work. He said even with the economic downturn from COVID-19, the city is in good enough financial shape to undertake the project.
According to Donato, the city has continued to add ratables as property values climb in the current real estate market, and interest rates are extremely low.
The city appears to have won over some potential critics.
Dave Breeden, the president of the group Fairness in Taxes and a frequent critic of the administration, supported the proposal as both necessary and financially responsible. At the meeting, he said Gillian presented the plan to FIT’s board and that the city professionals spent hours outlining the plans and answering questions.
He described the cost as breathtaking, but said the city made its case that the project is needed.
“We are very pleased that the mayor is engaging in a process that is very open and transparent,” he said, stating that the mayor challenged FIT to take a critical look at the plans.
Some people have told him they expect FIT to oppose the plans, but that will not happen, Breeden said. He said the organization has always supported the capital improvement programs.
“From FIT’s perspective, we’re not against spending; we’re for wise investment and this project represents a wise investment,” he said.
Breeden also pointed out that when the two existing buildings were built, there were few female firefighters or police officers, so there are not sufficient restrooms or locker facilities for women in either.
Police Chief Jay Prettyman and Fire Chief James Smith were also on hand to discuss the project.
Prettyman said the new building will meet requirements for accessibility under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The main lobby will include public restrooms.
Officials said the emergency services have far more equipment needs than they did 30 years ago, both because the gear has changed and because the firefighters have taken on additional responsibilities, including water rescues. According to Smith, the current bays for the firetrucks are extremely crowded.
“We squeeze a lot into that apparatus floor,” he said. The new design will address some of that crowding.
Smith said the departments already work closely together, but this would build the camaraderie and morale, with members of the two first response departments sharing workout equipment in the new building and working more closely together, rather than seeing each other only at fire scenes, car accidents and other emergencies.
Firefighters stationed at the headquarters have already expanded beyond the physical building. In order to adhere to social distancing guidelines during the pandemic, some firefighters have been quartered at the Tabernacle building across the street.
Prettyman added that the design will include some green space and use permeable paving surfaces where possible to improve drainage.
According to Gillian, the city sought to incorporated as much energy efficiency as possible and take into account other environmental considerations. The city will also look at including solar panels, Gillian said, adding that the greener options cost more.
“It’s funny, they want you to save the world, but it costs double what it takes to just do it normally,” he said. “But we’re going to look into that.”
Gillian said there will also be a new home for the neighborhood and social services department, located at the current public safety building.
The plan has not yet been before City Council for a vote. Most members of City Council were at the meeting on Saturday, as was state Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, a former member of council. From the stage, Gillian told McClellan, perhaps only half-jokingly, that the city would accept any state grants available to help fund the work.
Once approved by council, as appears likely, the city could soon begin drawing up more detailed plans and be ready to go out to bid on the project in August 2021, with a potential to break ground about a year from now. The construction is expected to take about 18 months, during which the police department would function as normal in the existing building and the fire headquarters relocated to the Bayside Center on Bay Avenue in a temporary building. Smith said it would be similar to the setup firefighters had at the airport when the new fire station at 29th Street and West Avenue was under construction.
Plans call for parking underneath the new building. The Ocean City Skate Park next to the fire station would remain, as would the municipal parking lot at Fifth Street and Asbury Avenue. The Ocean City Clothes Closet building in that block would be moved, however. Gillian said the project is important to the city and to its residents, and would not be forgotten. Officials said the small building would be relocated somewhere downtown.
The site of the current police departments and courts would become additional parking for the downtown. One resident asked about the historic status of the building, saying she had properties in the city historic district and faced strict rules for what she could do with the home.
Gillian said the building is old, but questioned whether it could be considered historic.
According to Donato, the infrastructure work undertaken has cost the owner of a home assessed at $500,000 a few hundred dollars over the past several years. That’s a little less than the average assessment, he said, but makes the math easy.
Costello added that the impact was including the entire city budget, including operations, salaries and the debt service on taking on $180 million worth of capital improvements, calculating it at $375. In the meantime, he said, property values have increased because of that work.
“So your $375 is well spent in building your property value,” he said.
According to Donato, the timing of the project will mean the additional debt will have a minimal effect on the taxpayers.