OCEAN CITY — Resort officials this week gave tacit approval to the next stages of a major $25 million upgrade and expansion of the town’s vast public works campus and transit facilities along the bayside at 65th Street.
The town’s Public Works Department has been working with the Maryland Transit Administration for a decade on a plan to substantially upgrade and expand along the bay roughly from 64th Street to 67th Street. The public works complex, which includes administrative offices, bus and transit equipment storage and fueling, solid waste, maintenance and a myriad of other services, was last upgraded in 1983 and the department has outgrown the aging facilities.
Public Works Director Hal Adkins on Tuesday outlined the progress of the estimated $25 million upgrade to the town’s public works and transit campus at 65th Street. The project is now about 30 to 60 percent through the design phase bidding on some projects may start as soon as August.
Bids could be awarded as soon as next fall with construction following soon after. Because the public works campus needs to remain open during the renovation, the project will be done in phases and could take as many as 22 to 26 months to complete entirely, according to Adkins. The overall project will cost an estimated $25 million, with Ocean City’s share expected around $11 million. The Maryland Transit Administration will pick up the remaining $14 million.
The project includes a major reconfiguration of the entire public works campus with a new administration building, improved bus storage, fueling and maintenance facilities, expanded parking areas including a five-story employee parking garage with a designated area on top for a centrally located Med-Evac helicopter pad and other major improvements. Also taken into consideration will be the neighboring uses including the adjacent Public Safety Building, which houses the police department, emergency services and the District Court facilities among others.
Adkins presented a little history of the site purchased by the city in the early 1980s. He harkened back to a time when the resort’s transit bus system was a mere shell of what it has grown into today.
“What did the transit system look like then? We had short, little Mitey Mite school buses with a fleet of 12 vehicles,” he said. “Imagine what facilities were needed and what staffing was needed to accommodate that. Now, we have 61 buses ranging in size from 35 feet to as long as 60 feet for the articulating buses. Including the buses we borrow for the summer, we’re not around 70 pieces of equipment. We’ve come a long way from the 12 Mitey Mites.”
Adkins explained the project represented much more than an upgrade to the resort’s transit system facilities, saying the entire complex is essentially Ocean City’s nerve center.
“If you don’t live and breathe 65th Street seven days a week like I do, you don’t really appreciate everything that goes on there,” he said. “In the public works department alone, we have 500 employees during the summer months working multiple shifts in multiple departments, so you can see the challenges we face.”
Adkins said the design team is cognizant of the residential and commercial areas that surround the complex at 65th Street and had made adjustments to minimize the impacts.
“Even though we’re an industrial use, we are keenly aware of our residential neighbors,” he said. “To that end, we have included architectural enhancements and landscaping where necessary and possible.”
In response to questions about the validity of embarking on a $25 million capital investment on the public works campus, Finance Administrator Martha Bennett said the town’s $11 million share could be bonded and paid for over time when the bonds for other major projects are retired.
“All of our debt has been used for capital improvements,” she said. “You have invested in the city and its infrastructure. These are assets for which it makes a lot of sense to use bonds to pay for.”
When questioned about the county, state and even national debt, Councilman Dennis Dare pointed out the resort’s contributions to its neighboring jurisdictions as reason enough to proceed with the project.
“Ocean City is the goose that lays the golden eggs for Worcester County and the state,” he said. “Sometimes, we have to take care of the goose that lays those eggs.”
Mayor Rick Meehan agreed the resort’s long-standing policy of reinvesting in its assets was paying dividends.
“The cities that invest in their infrastructure stay strong, but other cities see their infrastructure get old all at once,” he said. “The town of Ocean City has avoided that by continuing to reinvest in itself.”
Bennett said the bond process for the project should be initiated soon.
“It certainly makes sense to do this in the next six months,” she said. “The rates could go up and even one percent represents a significant savings. I truly believe being able to bond these things and paying for them over time makes sense and represents the best interest of the taxpayers.”
