Construction at 9th and West prompts temporary sidewalk issue
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – Ocean City Council approved changes to ordinances governing the Ocean City Police Department, supporting Chief Jay Prettyman’s request to add a deputy chief position and allow an alternate means to hire new police officers.
The reorganization, unanimously supported by council at its meeting Sept. 9, creates the deputy chief position and rather than having to hire new officers from civil service lists, the police chief would be able to hire qualified officers from other departments.
The new ordinance states personnel of the department consists of one chief, “a deputy chief of police as needed and such number of captains, lieutenants, desk sergeants, street sergeants, and other officers, detectives, patrolmen and employees as deemed necessary for the proper management, control and efficiency of the department.”
As city solicitor Dorothy McCrosson explained at the Aug. 26 council meeting, New Jersey permits an alternate program for appointing police officers who have been trained and are working for other departments. She said Prettyman would like to have that option.
Under the section “Appointment and Promotions,” the language says all applicants have to be residents and qualified under Civil Service rules and regulations and that the department may also appoint officers under the alternative programs.
The other changes to the ordinance cleaned up language that spelled out items now contained in the collective bargaining agreements. The language moves things such as sick leave, vacation policy and working hours into the collective bargaining agreement.
Republic Bank construction: sidewalk lacking
Administration and council members said there have been several calls complaining about the construction of the new Republic Bank at the northeast corner of Ninth Street and West Avenue.
The work comes extremely close to the streets at Ocean City’s busiest intersection and the site is in compliance with all the approvals received. Although there was no requirement for a temporary sidewalk, the contractor installed a narrow one.
A full legal sidewalk will be installed before the Certificate of Occupancy is given.
Council President Bob Barr said he is upset by the situation and showed a photograph of how there isn’t room for him – he uses a wheelchair – to use that temporary sidewalk. He said two people couldn’t pass on that narrow walk.
He was there with Councilman Keith Hartzell and Barr said a woman carrying groceries couldn’t get by because of the narrowness of the walk.
“I can’t believe that is considered OK until the building is complete,” Barr said. “It is a massive safety concern” and an “accident waiting to happen.”
“We need to change it. I don’t know how it got approved,” he said.
Neither Barr nor Hartzell said they were blaming the administration for the issue, but asked if there was a way to get it fixed.”
City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson said the construction official thought it was preferable to have a temporary sidewalk than no sidewalk at all, but the city could talk to the contractors about the width.
Ugly entrance at Moorlyn Terrace
West Avenue resident Donna DeRocher asked if something could be done to improve the look of Moorlyn Terrace leading up to the boardwalk.
During public comment at the end of the Sept. 9 meeting, she said the entrance to the boardwalk, which leads directly to the Ocean City Music Pier, had been beautified but now it is not attractive, with garbage cans at the end.
She said the city should make a good impression on the celebrities and dignitaries who come to the Music Pier, but that isn’t the case with how it appears now. She also said the way vacationers hang their towels on their railings on porches on the street make it look like a tenement. “Maybe we can get an ordinance to prevent that,” she said.
Mayor Jay Gillian agreed with her, saying Moorlyn Terrace is on the city’s radar.
“It is horrible,” he said. “It should be a grand entrance.”
Gillian said he has been talking to the owners of the boardwalk buildings on either side of Moorlyn Terrace with the idea of making it an impressive entrance, but that it will take time. “We will be getting something sooner rather than later,” he said.
“It reminds me of when my father was mayor, he couldn’t stand the towels over the railing,” Gillian said, but he noted, “We are a seashore resort.