During our March 14 City Council meeting, Mayor Desiderio announced that he and City Council President Bill Kehner were planning to attend a Cape May County Bridge Commission meeting on March 16 to express Sea Isle’s opposition to adding E-Z Pass to our County bridges, because the addition of E-Z Pass would result in substantial toll increases.
Ordinances 1607 and 1608 were introduced during the March 14 meeting, both of which pertain to a new paid Emergency Medical Services Division being added to our City’s Police Department.
Ordinances 1601 and 1602, both of which pertain to Watershed Management, were also listed on the March 14 City Council meeting agenda for second reading and public hearing. Ordinance 1602 requires Master Plan consistency review by the Planning Board and was on the March 13, 2017 Planning Board agenda; however the Board lacked a quorum and therefore was unable to review it prior to the City Council Meeting. Council made a motion to postpone the public hearing on the Ordinances until its April 11, 2017 meeting allowing for the Planning Board’s review on April 10, 2017.
Also on March 14, Ordinance 1600 (establishing salaries for our future EMT’s and seasonal employees), Ordinance 1603 (authorizing the use of capital surplus) and Ordinance 1604 (amending our parking ordinance to reflect changes to parking permit regulations) were each passed on second reading.
Each of the Resolutions on the March 14 agenda was approved, including…
- Resolution 048, which authorized the award of a two-year contract to Atlantic Ice-Cream, LLC, of Rio Grande, NJ, for the sale of ice cream products and bottled water on our City’s beaches.
- Resolution 049, which expresses Sea Isle City’s opposition to the County’s proposed toll increases along the Ocean Drive Bridges once E-Z Pass is installed. The increases would require motorists to pay an additional $1 more per toll during the summer months and 50-cents more during the off season. City Council is in agreement with Mayor Desiderio that these toll hikes would be too drastic.
During the Citizen Comment portion of the March 14 meeting, numerous residents expressed their concerns about flooding in our streets. Afterwards, the City’s Business Administrator re-capped the details of a Flood Mitigation Study that is currently underway in Sea Isle City and will continue through 2017. The goal of the study is to identify possible solutions that will alleviate Sea Isle’s flooding problems. Any improvement projects that would result from the study would be included in the 2018 Capital Budget.
Our next City Council meeting is Tuesday, March 28 at 10:00 a.m. in Council Chambers, located on the third floor of City Hall. The agenda will include the public hearing on the 2017 Municipal Budget. We hope to see you there.
Best regards from the members of City Council,
Council President Bill Kehner (wkehner@seaislecitynj.us)
John Divney (jdivney@seaislecitynj.us)
Frank Edwardi (fedwardijr@seaislecitynj.us)
Jack Gibson (jgibson@seaislecitynj.us)
Mary Tighe (mtighe@seaislecitynj.us)
