More than 100 people attended a meeting Saturday, July 13, 2018 to learn more about a proposal to build a boardwalk in Margate.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
MARGATE The Margate Boardwalk Committee Thursday, Feb. 20 issued its response to an administrative report the city issued on the committee's July 1, 2019 report on building a boardwalk in Margate.
The committee's response document, which was collaborative effort by members of the Boardwalk Committee, was handed to the Board of Commissioners with a request to review it and take action on the committee's request to gauge taxpayers' support for the idea. The Boardwalk Committee estimates it will cost between $16.7 million and $28.6 million to build a uniquely Margate boardwalk.
According to Boardwalk Committee Chairman Glenn Klotz, the document was put into the public record as the committee's official response to an October 2019 report filed by City Administrator Richard Deaney outlining Margate professional staffers' legitimate concerns that the committee may not have considered when it prepared its report, A Margate Boardwalk for the 21st Century.
The response document states committee members want the people to decide the issue of whether or not to build a boardwalk and that the city has failed to make a good faith effort to investigate the proposal and are merely looking for ways to dismiss the idea.
The city's report has failed to recognize the community needs better access to and views of the ocean, conclusions contradict boardwalk projects in other communities and uses fear tactics to convince the public a boardwalk is not feasible, the response states.
The ability to fund the boardwalk is a matter of choice how we want to spend our money as taxpayers, the response states.
Advocates estimate it will cost the average homeowner $220 a year over 20 years to build the boardwalk.
The response seeks to dispel any objections regarding public safety, cost estimates and legal issues that would likely arise, and states the city has done no research of its own, engaged in speculation, and created an adversarial strategy discounting the boardwalk.
The city has resorted to using fear tactics fear of fire, of crime, or wild and unrestrained increases in costs for what we believe are unnecessary and inflated expenditures rather than engaging in honest dialog, the response states.
The Board of Commissioners has not publicly discussed the proposal since Deaney issued the city's response in October.
Klotz said it's time to find out if the public wants a boardwalk or not and that it's too big an issue for just three commissioners to decide.
We are presently gathering signatures to place an initiative on the ballot in Margate for a referendum on the boardwalk issue this coming Nov. 7, Klotz said in an email to Downbeach.com.
Based on the results of the last General Assembly election, the committee needs 351 signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot or 527 signatures to force a special election.
Klotz said the committee has been collecting signatures for the last three weeks, but that he is unsure of how many signatures they have so far.
We have a great team of petitioners and they're busy collecting signatures. We have until sometime in July to get it done, he said.
Margate Boardwalk Committee Response
A Margate Boardwalk for the 21st Century
