$18.4 mil bond approved; talk is of bathrooms, pickleball courts
OCEAN CITY – Ocean City Council unanimously approved an $18.4 million bond ordinance proposed by the Gillian Administration for big capital projects to be completed over the next year.
Of all the money being spent, the most attention at the Sept. 9 meeting was paid to bathrooms and pickleball courts, lower on the cost factor but high in interest among members of the public and council.
The bond covers $5.5 million for road and alley work, $5.5 million for storm water drainage systems and $2 million for lagoon and back bay dredging.
There is another $2 million for work on buildings, including new public restrooms at 10th and 11th streets and the boardwalk and replacing the roof on the Ocean City Community Center, and just shy of $1.5 million for construction, rehabilitation and repair of public facilities.
Those public facilities include all types of recreation courts in the city – basketball, bocce, tennis and, apparently most important of all, pickleball.
There also is $753,500 for vehicles for the police, fire, beach patrol and public works departments, $636,000 for equipment for those departments, Community Services and the Aquatic and Fitness Center, and $412,000 for communications equipment throughout the city.
Bathrooms and pickleball
When Mayor Jay Gillian proposed the $141 million five-year capital plan, presented by Chief Financial Officer Frank Donato and approved after a lengthy debate at the Aug. 26 City Council meeting, it included building new public restroom facilities at 10th Street and at 11th Street and the boardwalk. The proposal had one facility to be done this year and the other the following year, but council members said they wanted both bathroom facilities done in time for the 2022 summer season. At that meeting, Gillian agreed and said he was glad to work with council on what they wanted in the capital plan.
Although he agreed and Donato explained the capital plan is not written in stone and priorities can be altered, council President Bob Barr drafted a late resolution and had it put on the Sept. 9 meeting agenda. That late addition caused sparring among members of council and between council members and the administration.
The resolution called for amending the capital plan to have both boardwalk bathroom facilities operational by April 15, 2022, change the timing of the Merion Park II flood mitigation project to get construction documents ready for review by Jan. 1, 2022, and to move new pickleball courts proposed for the 34th Street recreation area to the 18th Street recreation area, expanding the pickleball courts there.
The resolution was put onto the consent agenda, but Councilman Karen Bergman asked that it be pulled to allow discussion and debate. Bergman said she was all for building both bathroom facilities in time for the 2022 season and for expanding pickleball courts, but questioned the need for the resolution, which came from Barr, not from the administration, which is normal for capital projects.
“I don’t know why we had to add this,” she said.
Although Councilmen Keith Hartzell and Jody Levchuk supported the resolution, Pete Madden did not. “I agree with Karen. It’s already been addressed. I’d like it removed.”
At the beginning of the evening’s meeting, public comment was dominated by citizens talking about pickleball. One said pickleball players were “100 percent united” to only have pickleball at 18th Street because 34th Street is a “public safety nightmare” with no parking. Others talked about the importance of the camaraderie of the pickleball community and having enough courts together so amateurs and newcomers to the sport would feel welcome among the more experienced players.
Two people who live near the 18th Street courts complained about the noise and that it is a public safety issue there because of all the traffic for the courts where there is a bike lane and golf carts. Others, like Bergman, suggested more than one location for pickleball, whether at 34th Street or the south end.
Supporters of the 18th Street location, behind Ocean City Intermediate School, agreed there should be work done to mitigate the noise there.
Hartzell, who plays pickleball, said he favored pickleball at the 18th Street location.
Barr said the city needed to move forward with the courts at 18th Street, not 34th, and said there is sufficient technology to reduce the noise level to make it satisfactory for the neighbors.
The mayor said he appreciated the passion of the pickleball players but before making a final determination of the location of new courts, the city had to think about safety, the local residents and the lack of a lot for teachers, who have to park on surrounding streets. He said he would also work with the players but wanted to make sure the addition of new courts is done correctly and is not necessarily limited to one location.
Another resident who wanted to ensure tennis courts aren’t sacrificed noted in Florida, where he also resides, pickleball and the attendant noise has become a legal issue. He urged the city not to make a decision on the court’s location at the meeting.
Politics over process?
Although council inevitably voted 5-2 to approved Barr’s resolution (Madden and Bergman voted no), it became clear the resolution was not legally binding, even though it stated council “wishes to formally amend” the five-year capital plan and for the resolution to take effect “immediately.”
Business Administrator George Savastano said the resolution was not needed.
He said they already agreed to move up the work on the second phase of Merion Park flood mitigation project. “We don’t need an amendment to the capital plan to do that. I told council at the agenda meeting that we were working on it,” he said.
“At the last meeting, mayor said we would work on restrooms at 10th and 11th. We don’t need an amendment to the capital plan to do that,” he added.
Savastano noted if there was anything necessary, it could be another funding resolution in case the cost of doing both bathroom facilities required it. “We said this at the last meeting we were going to do this, we said this at the agenda meeting. We all want to accomplish these projects.” The resolution is unnecessary, he added, “but it’s your council meeting and you can do that if you wish.”
“Frank (Donato) didn’t put this resolution together,” Madden said. “Bob, you emailed this out Tuesday, after the agenda meeting. What is the point?”
“This simply memorializes council’s wishes that these things get done in the timeline we expressed,” Barr responded.
After city solicitor Dorothy McCrosson pointed out the ordinance said council “wished” to amend the capital plan, to actually amend the plan would require rewriting the ordinance.
“It’s just an expression of our wishes,” Barr conceded.
Later in the meeting, Madden spoke up again about Barr’s resolution, both about the fact it was potentially denying new amenities at 34th Street and that it should have come from the CFO.
“A month ago I said things were getting political and it worried me. We should be looking for the best interest of Ocean City as a whole, not an individual council’s personal interest, any type of political gain, any type of campaigning for any type of office,” Madden said.
“I think we need to be very careful with what we’re doing, listening to the community – all of the community – and that we’re adding amenities wherever we can for the community.
“I’m hoping we can focus on the community, not on ourselves,” Madden said.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
