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By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
Margate City will soon accept bids for its annual beach vending license, which permits a single vendor to sell ice cream on the beach from May 1 to Oct. 1.
The auction will be held 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 19 at the Municipal Building, 9001 Winchester Ave. in Margate.
The minimum bid amount is $50,000 and the winning vendor will be required to submit a $20,000 deposit no later than April 1.
After receiving a high bid of $93,000 from ice cream vendor Paul Van DeRijn of Jack and Jill Ice Cream of Egg Harbor Township in 2017, Margate saw its ice cream vending revenue nearly cut in half for 2018. Van DeRijn threatened to sue Margate because the dune building project of 2017 severely cut into his profits, he said. He later submitted a bid and agreed to a $54,000 contract for the 2018 summer season.
Van DeRijn also failed to renew his 2017 contract with the Borough of Longport, which would have increased his $36,300 fee by 5 percent to $38,115 for 2018.
The borough then went solicited bids for the license with a minimum bid of $30,000. Van DeRijn submitted a bid and won the contract for $30,000 for the summer of 2018.
Longport could find itself in the same position this spring.
According to Borough Clerk Monica Kyle, the municipality is waiting to hear if Van DeRijn will accept his option to continue the license for 2019 with a 5 percent increase, which would bring the fee to $31,500.
If he does not accept his option with a 5-percent increase, the borough will advertise for bids, she said.
Ventnor City officials will continue offering ice cream vending licenses to 16 individual veterans but will increase the license fee this year, and in the future, limit the number of licenses to 10.
In past years, the city charged veterans $55 for a license to vend ice cream on the beach between May and September.
The Board of Commissioners had considering going out to bid for a single vendor like their neighbors to the south but decided against it after a backlash from citizens who called officials unpatriotic for even considering the issue.
Last November, members of the ad hoc Citizens Advisory Committee created to advise the Board of Commissioners about issues affecting homeowners, recommended increasing the fee.
According to Commissioner Tim Kriebel, the board will hold first reading of an ordinance increasing the fee to $500 a year on Thursday, March 14.
"We are also proposing a decrease from 16 licenses to 10 through attrition," he said. "All existing vendors will be granted new licenses but if any vendor allows a license to lapse, it will not be renewed until 10 licenses are reached."
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