Ocean City Council tables $1 million contract for 16th St. site work
OCEAN CITY — Neighbors may be fed up with the ugly appearance of the empty lots on 16th Street and Haven Avenue that used to be home to a car dealership, but that doesn’t mean they’re keen on spending $1 million to beautify them for the summer tourism season.
After public comment and extended debate, Ocean City Council tabled a contract April 24 that would have made improvements to the site that has been vacant for years due to legal battles and contamination cleanup.
The resolution was for $1.012 million for Lexa Concrete of Hammonton, which was the lowest responsible bidder among seven vying to do work on the vacant site that is just north of the Ocean City Free Public Library between Haven and Simpson avenues.
Ocean City acquired the site after a few years of legal wrangling with the owners. The city was going to buy the site for $9 million in 2018 but was blocked after taxpayer group Fairness In Taxes (FIT) raised objections and initiated a successful petition drive that killed the deal. After years of legal wrangling, the city ended up spending $20 million to get the property from the Klause family. The final vote from City Council on the last expenses for the acquisition came in early 2024, but work had already begun on environmental cleanup because of the Chevrolet dealership that operated there for years.
The city spent another $7.2 million this past January after a legal battle over adjacent lots along 16th Street the city acquired from John Flood through eminent domain.
The city has solicited ideas for how to best use the site, but there have not been any decisions made.
Speaking during public comment at the start of last week’s meeting, resident Susan Cracovaner said it is “unconscionable” that no decisions have been made on what to do with the site after all the years the city has been dealing with it.
She said the city was going to burden taxpayers with another $1 million expense with the promise of more costs to come.
Third Ward Councilman Jody Levchuk said he wasn’t going to pull the resolution for the contract from the consent agenda for further dicussion, but he wasn’t going to vote yes for it. He said he hadn’t seen a schematic of what was planned with the latest contract.
“It’s years this has been going on,” Levchuk said. He agreed something needed to be done there, and he was sorry for the neighbors who had to look at the blight, but said “we’re in a little bit of a budget crisis here.”
Mayor Jay Gillian said there would be a Town Hall meeting to discuss the final plans for the site, but he was just trying to clean it up for the neighbors before the summer tourism season.
“Whatever you want to do, I’m with you,” he said.
Second Ward Councilman Keith Hartzell did ask for the resolution to be pulled from the consent agenda. He said he would vote against the contract.
Fourth Ward Councilman Dave Winslow and At-large Councilman Sean Barnes both suggested the measure be tabled. Both were concerned with how much of the contract would be for temporary improvements and how much of it was for permanent improvements such as sidewalks and curbing.
Business Administrator George Savastano said the lion’s share — 80 to 85 percent — is permanent. He said they haven’t advanced a final plan for the site because there have been so many ideas offered for it.
He and the mayor both noted they could not improve the site until the environmental cleanup was finished.
“We could not do anything until we got the green light,” Gillian said.
“They didn’t want us to lay anything down on the site until we got the approval from the DEP,” Savastano added. “We could not pull the trigger, we could not go out to bid.”
Council Vice President Terry Crowley Jr. said he was fine with having more discussion about the ordinance, but the city has a responsibility to the neighbors who have to look at it every day.
“We do have to allocate some money there because we own it and it looks horrible,” he said.
Winslow said tabling the contract for two weeks would allow council members to be more comfortable with it.
Council President Pete Madden responded that since Savastano explained at least 80 percent of the $1 million contract was going to permanent work, they should move forward with it so it could be completed before Memorial Day.
Savastano said he thought all the council members had seen the plans, but Levchuk disagreed.
“I’m the Third Ward councilman. I never saw the plans. I’m sorry, sending it to me in a text message is not conducive to me getting a yes for a million dollars on something we’ve been talking about for years,” Levchuk said. “I don’t like you beating us up.”
He said he was fine waiting for two weeks so he could learn more and get feedback from his constituents.
“We’re in a tough spot,” Madden said. “We’re damned if we do or damned if we don’t.”
If the council tabled the contract and approved it two weeks later, construction work would be taking place during the summer season kickoff over Memorial Day weekend. He tried to get a resolution to move forward, but it failed.
Council then voted to table it.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff