Dredging, Flooding Highlight Conversation at Ocean City Council Meeting

Ocean City, NJ -- Ocean City Council appointed a lobbyist to help handle the back bay and lagoon dredging program for the next year on Thursday night.

City Council voted 6-0 to approve a $55,000, 11-month contract to Tonio Burgos and Associates to develop a dredging program at Thursday night’s council meeting. Council Vice President Peter Madden was absent.

The lobbyist will assist the city in any aspect of the dredging program that’s needed, including identifying spoils sites and getting the necessary permits to dredge, Mayor Jay Gillian said.

The appointment came three nights after ACT Engineering and the city administration updated residents on the dredging efforts, which makes up $20 million of the mayor’s proposed five-year, $98.5 million capital plan.

“We’re doing the best we can,” Gillian said during Monday night’s meeting at the Chris Maloney Lecture Hall. “It’s painstakingly slow, but at least we’re trying something.”

The program Burgos and Associates has been contracted to conduct includes a strategic plan to discard dredge spoils, that will be both economically and environmentally responsible, according to the letter from the company sent to the city and included in this week’s agenda packet.

If the city doesn’t get the services it anticipates, it can cancel the contract on 30 days notice, City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson said.

The firm describes itself on its website as a “uniquely focused regional lobbying firm in the Northeast with a visible presence in New York City, Albany, Trenton and Washington.”

Its team includes former lawmakers, city/state officials, communications professionals and crisis management experts.

“We have to experiment, and I think $55,000 is a reasonable price,” Councilman Michael DeVlieger said.

Also at Thursday night’s council meeting, Eric Sauder head of the OC Flood Committee raised lingering concerns about flooding in the city following the weekend blizzard.

“People are being flooded and we’d like to see a resolution telling us what the city is doing,” Sauder said.

Gillian said Business Administrator Jim Mallon and Michael Baker will meet with the committee to discuss flooding.

Councilman Peter Guinosso suggested looking into creating an avenue for the city to act in situations where bulkheads don’t exist or property owners aren’t maintaining them.

If even one bulkhead gives way in a flooding situation, it can create a problem for everyone in the area. Council members and residents feel this isn’t fair to those who maintain their bulkheads.

Currently, all the city can do is fine someone who isn’t maintaining their bulkheads. It has no way to force them to upgrade, or even install bulkheads, which can be costly and may be out of a resident’s price range.

“The court can order them to do it, but if they can’t afford to, there’s nothing we can do,” McCrosson said.

Resident Dale Braun suggested looking into a loan program, in which the city could borrow money and offer it to residents with a low interest rate.

“Even if it costs the city just a little bit, it would save us in the long run,” Braun said.

“We’ve been looking into it,” Gillian said. “Believe me, we’re looking at everything.”