OCEAN CITY – One of Ocean City’s recent large capital projects
continues to plug along and the approval of purchasing additional lighting
fixtures by the town’s elected officials during a work session of the Mayor and
City Council on Tuesday only helps to push the Bayshore Drive reconstruction
project closer to the finish line.
Public Works Director Hal Adkins came before the council
to make the request for an additional 30 poles and lighting fixtures to finish
lighting the 26th Street area. Both of the items would come from the same
company who supplied the initial set of lighting fixtures that have recently
been completed. The cost of each would be $2,249.40, the same as before, for a
total of $67,482.
“Things have gone extremely well since the council’s last
approval for paving,” he said in regards to the progress of the estimated $1.5
million project
The paving part of the project, approved back on March 19,
included a facelift of the roads that included full roadway width milling,
undercutting, sub-basing and base pavement following the serious damage they
undertook after the first phase of the project, water and sewer replacements,
was completed.
After that, it was time for the next step, which included
the lighting of the street. At a previous Mayor and City Council meeting on
Jan. 9, City Engineer Terry McGean said the lights the city planned on using
would be similar to the decorative ones used on Baltimore Avenue and the
Boardwalk.
As for the poles being used, McGean recommended the city
use the pre-cast concrete poles similar to the ones found on the Boardwalk as
opposed to the aluminum ones which have a finish that is known to not hold up
as well in the salt-air environment of a beach town.
Since the providers of the fixtures and poles are sole
source companies, meaning they are territorial and only distribute their
products to their areas, McGean had asked the council to waive the unnecessary
bidding process that would only consume more time for a project that has been
on the backburner for quite some time.
The installation of those first 19 lights, costing
$2,249.40 each for a total of $42,738.60, began in the spring and covered a
stretch of Bayshore Drive from Philadelphia Avenue to Sparrow Lane.
Following
Adkins’ simple request, a motion was made by Councilman Jim Hall, a resident of
the street who pleaded with town officials in the past to fund street repairs
as a capital improvement project, saying trees, lighting and sidewalks in the
area are either nonexistence or in poor shape, to approve the purchase for the
rest of the lights. Councilman Jay Hancock seconded the motion and it passed
unanimously.