Mayor’s Update- August 14, 2020
August 14, 2020
Dear Friends,
I want to thank the Baptist Resource Network and SOAR church for providing masks and organizing a giveaway to members of our community this week. I also want to thank volunteers SOAR Pastor Thomas Dawson, Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, Cape May County NAACP President Alexander Bland, Cape May County Prosecutor Jeff Sutherland, Police Chief Jay Prettyman, Perry Mays, Business Administrator George Savastano, Mayor’s Aide Mike Allegretto, Patrolman Brian Liess and Councilman Tom Rotondi for their help in distributing the face coverings.
As summer comes to a close, the city is beginning to prepare for a new round of road and drainage projects.
The Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority will return after Labor Day to complete their wastewater main replacement project and then repave Bay Avenue between Eighth Street and 31st Street.
We are currently seeking bids for projects that include drainage and paving work in the area around Atlantic Avenue from Fifth Street to North Street and in the neighborhoods on either side of Gardens Parkway at the north end.
At the same time, we’re in the beginning phases of new flood mitigation work. We have been pleased with the success of our three neighborhood pumping station projects to date, and we learn more with each one. City Council last night approved a number of resolutions funding design work for new projects. The next likely area to be addressed is the flood prone Simpson-Haven corridor from 9th Street to 18th Street. This and a second phase of work from 18th Street to 26th Street will close the gap between two of our completed projects. This 300-acre project would be our largest and work is anticipated to begin in fall 2021.
Using new LiDAR surveys that give us extremely precise elevations, we are also looking at concept and design for flood mitigation projects at the southern end of the island: Merion Park and the area around the Four Seasons condominiums, the stretch along West Avenue from 36th Street to 52nd Street, and the Ocean City Homes neighborhood between 52nd Street to 55th Street.
Ocean City lost two of its finest citizens. I’m sad to report on the passing of Jerri Dukeman and Caren Broadley.
Jerri lived in Ocean City for more than 50 years. She and her family gave us the Hobby Horse Ice Cream Parlor, a favorite spot for many of our residents and guests. She was an active member of the Ocean City Hotel-Motel Association and Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce, and is survived among others by her sister, Carol Heenan, a former Chamber president.
An Ocean City High School graduate, Caren lived most of her life in town and was an active member of St. Peter’s United Methodist Church. She was a nurse by trade and volunteered for mission work in the Dominican Republic and helped children as part of the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program.
I hope you all will join Michele and me in extending deepest condolences to the families and many friends of Jerri and Caren.
Warm regards,
Jay A. Gillian
Mayor