OCEAN CITY – In the brief this week, the City Council told an uptown construction project to “keep on rolling” and stressed that they wanted to have the final say on what happens with a new resolution they created.
Jamestown Work To Continue
Residents of Jamestown Road in north Ocean City have been dealing with construction work for several months, as crews have been working to replace 2,200 lineal feet of sewer line beneath the road and then repaving over the replaced pipe.
The project was slated for completion by mid-May despite a temporary halt on the project last month after a permit issue, which was quickly resolved.
For better or worse, depending on how you look at it, the construction is going to continue after Public Works Director Hal Adkins discovered that an additional 748 lineal feet of sewer line needs to be replaced.
Adkins described to the council on Monday the camera that was initially sent underground to show what kind of shape the sewer line was in did not reveal how bad the entire line was.
“We made a decision after watching the tape that the first 2,200 lineal feet of asbestos pipe was in worse condition and that was what was designed and was what was bid,” said Adkins, “but, as we excavated heading westward and removing the old pipeline, we realized that things were way worse than what the camera was visually showing us.”
Adkins asked the council to use almost a total of $120,000 of additional funding (coming from the wastewater fund which sits at roughly $3 million currently) to complete the project.
Adkins will allot an additional $89,360 to Teal Construction’s contract to finish the job and said that since the project can “keep on rolling” from where they already are, he was confident that “we’ll be out of there by Memorial Day weekend.”
“This is one of those things that come up while you are doing projects like this”, said Councilman Jim Hall, who along with his fellow councilman unanimously approved Adkins’ request. “You run into stuff that needs fixed that you just didn’t see, so it makes no sense to pave a road over bad pipes.”
New Resolution For Air
Show, City Wants Final Say
The OC Air Show is the only group or outside entity that has ever been allowed to sell alcoholic beverages on the beach by the town of Ocean City and the county’s Board of License Commissioners, and for the second time, the council took the first steps to allow that to happen again.
The council voted 5-2, with Margaret Pillas and Doug Cymek in opposition, to create a “franchise” by way of passing a new resolution (2009-3 for the record), which will eventually be awarded to OC Air Show LLC.
The resolution essentially gives the OC Air Show the town’s blessing to go to the license commissioners asking permission to sell alcoholic beverages on the beach.
City Solicitor Guy Ayres stressed that the license commissioners will have the final decision on whether or not the Air Show will be allowed to sell alcoholic beverages on the beach.
There was some debate amongst the council on the OC Air Show merchandise that will be sold on the beach, but Pillas, who voted against the resolution and also owns a store on the Boardwalk, said merchants wanted at least a slice of the action.
“What concerns me, is that Mr. (Air Show promoter Brian) Lilley said that he was going to wholesale these T-shirts that he plans on selling to the boardwalk merchants, and if he does that, it’s one thing,” said Pillas, “but to just compete with the Boardwalk businesses, I have a problem with that. We don’t have a problem with him selling merchandise, we just want to be a part of it.”
Mayor Rick Meehan contested that the value for the Boardwalk merchants lies in the high volumes of people that will be in that area of town during the three-day event, and Councilman Jim Hall downplayed the decision even further by saying it was just a step in the process.
“Mr. Lilley was supposed to talk to the city solicitor about what exactly he wants to do and where he wanted to put things and come back to us, and this resolution allows the conversation to happen and put this part of the air show together, but we will have the final say,” Hall said.