By Donald Wittkowski
City Council on Tuesday introduced a 2018 municipal budget that keeps local taxes the same and also awarded a construction contract that will bring the first public bocce ball court to Sea Isle City after residents clamored for one.
The budget totals $24.7 million, up slightly from last year’s $24 million spending plan. However, taxes will remain the same.
“This budget has no tax increase,” said Leon Costello, a partner with Ford-Scott & Associates LLC, the city’s auditor, told Council in brief public remarks.
The average homeowner with a house assessed at $645,000 will pay $4,481 in total annual property taxes, according to Paula Doll, the city’s chief financial officer.
Meanwhile, water and sewer rates will remain the same for the fifth year in a row under the city’s new $10.4 million utilities budget. The utilities budget is separate from the municipal spending plan. The typical utility bill for homeowners is $1,220 per year, Doll said.
Council has scheduled a public hearing and final vote on the municipal budget for March 27. The governing body will scrutinize the spending plan over the next few weeks for possible revisions, Council President Mary Tighe said.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio, while previewing the budget during his State of the City address on Feb. 13, said the spending plan reflects the city’s strong financial footing. He noted that the city began the year with a nearly $5 million budget surplus, representing a $1 million increase over 2017.
Most of the 2018 budget will be funded by $17.7 million in tax revenue. The city will also tap $3 million in surplus revenue as a major funding source. Beach tag sales will contribute nearly $1.3 million in revenue.
In other business Tuesday, Council awarded a $23,500 construction contract for a bocce ball court at the city’s Dealy Field recreation complex.
The contractor, West Bay Construction Inc., of Absecon, is expected to have the bocce court completed in time for the arrival of the peak summer tourism season.
A communitywide survey conducted by Sea Isle in 2015 found that bocce ball was one of the forms of public recreation local residents wanted to see in the city.
“Adding bocce ball at Dealy Field makes perfect sense,” city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said, referring to the survey.
Bocce ball continues Sea Isle’s trend of introducing new types of recreation to its residents and tourists. Last year, the city opened its first permanent pickleball courts on West Jersey Avenue, next to the recreation complex on John F. Kennedy Boulevard.
In another vote Tuesday, Council rescinded a $133,850 contract awarded Feb. 13 to Transformation Enterprises Inc., of Egg Harbor Township, to tear down three dilapidated trailer-like modular units that once served as an expansion at the former Sea Isle City Public School.
City Business Administrator George Savastano explained that Transformation Enterprises failed to disclose information that was required about a subcontractor. That represented a “technical defect,” prompting Council to rescind the contract.
The contract will now be rebid, which will delay the demolition project. Previously, the work had been scheduled to be finished by May 16.
Demolition of the weather-beaten trailers is the first step in the city’s plan to convert the old school into a community recreation center.
Among the options, the city will consider whether the existing school should be turned into a recreation center or whether an entirely new building should be constructed, including the possibility of adding an indoor community pool.
The modular units were added to the back of the school in the 1980s when more space was needed to accommodate what was then Sea Isle’s growing student population. When the school closed down in 2012 due, ironically, to declining student enrollment, the trailers became an eyesore.
