LONGPORT – The borough will hold a groundbreaking ceremony 9 a.m. Thursday, April 10 at the soon to be created Dorothy McGee Park on 22nd Avenue.
“This is a truly great day started by an incredible woman who volunteered on many boards and committees for Longport,” Mayor Patrick Armstrong said. “Dottie’s generosity is now in perpetuity to all of us and we thank her and her family for this amazing gift.”
The Longport woman, who passed away in November 2023, bequeathed the borough two beach-block lots valued at more than $3 million, stating in her will that she always envisioned the lots next to her Atlantic Avenue house as a park.
McGee served as the borough’s school board secretary for more than 20 years, was a former Miss America Hostess and member of the Miss America Board of Directors, and was an active member of the Atlantic County Charity League for more than 30 years. She was also a member of the Longport Garden Club and the Longport Historical Society.
McGee said in her will that she wanted to see a gazebo built on the 162- by 100-foot double lot, with a low fence and landscaped with bushes and flowers. Her neighbors who live on 22nd Avenue, the only block in the borough that has yellow brick sidewalks, got involved and are contributing to the design and building process.
22nd AvenueThe NJ Department of Community Affairs also awarded the borough a $64,000 Local Recreation Improvement Grant to cover the cost of construction.
Preserving open space is a rarity in Longport, which has more than 55% of its land mass covered with huge luxury homes. The beachfront hamlet has very little in the way of public spaces, except for a tract of donated beachfront land that houses the borough’s tennis, basketball and pickleball courts and a playground. There is a park behind Borough Hall where fishers can cast a line into the bay, and Thomas B. Reed Memorial Park located on a triangular piece of land at the foot of the Longport bridge where the American Legion presides over patriotic ceremonies.
Armstrong said the gazebo was manufactured by members of the Pennsylvania Amish community, who will deliver and set the gazebo in place.
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