MARGATE – The Board of Commissioners Oct. 16 moved forward with the Washington Avenue streetscape improvement project.
The board awarded a $3,804,693 contract to low-bidder L. Feriozzi Concrete of Atlantic City to complete the project, which has come under fire by local residents and one commissioner.
The city received five bids for the project on Sept. 11, with the highest bid received at more than $4.2 million.
Commissioner Maury Blumberg said many of the people he has spoken with are “unhappy that Washington Avenue is going to be one-way.”
He previously requested the city conduct a public survey of the taxpayers to gauge their acceptance of the project, which will turn the two-way traffic pattern into a one-way street heading toward Amherst Avenue.
Administrator Pat Moran apologized, saying he started a conversation about preparing a survey but never formalized it.
“My feeling is this project is not one that the residents are in favor of, at least not the ones I talked to,” Blumberg said, asking if the board-appointed Citizens Advisory Committee weighed-in on the project.
Steve Altman, who is a member of the advisory committee, said his group was never asked to conduct a survey.
“If we had gotten that mandate from the commission to do that, I would have seen that it got done,” he said.
Mayor Michael Collins said he has not received anything in writing from the committee, but when he spoke at a recent meeting, they were “pleasantly surprised” with the concepts presented, despite some misinformation about it in the community.
“I walked out of that meeting with a vote of confidence from that group saying they felt their questions were answered” Collins said.
He said city engineer Ed Dennis Jr. “did a great job” listening to residents and revised the plan to suit their concerns.
Blumberg said he would like to see the award pulled from the agenda until such time as the commissioners could hear more from the public, “but I don’t think I’m going to win that battle,” he said.
During public comment period, resident Kathy Heitzman agreed with Blumberg.
“I have not heard…one positive person on this project, including our business people,” she said.
The final project is posted on the city’s website with a five-point explanation of changes, Dennis said.
During several meetings this past summer, residents pleaded with the board to revise the project and eliminate the switch to one-way traffic traveling toward the bayfront business district.
Collins said the project fulfills goals contained in the city’s 2016 Master Plan to connect the Central Business District with the Waterfront Special District; however, Blumberg said when the Master Plan was developed, the city believed the Washington Avenue corridor would have more commercial businesses, but instead residential properties were rebuilt.
The project includes water and sewer infrastructure improvements that the engineer says will help with nuisance flooding, paving, brick sidewalks, corner ramps, bump outs, curbs and gutters, decorative lighting and street trees. The original plan had a bi-directional bicycle lane, but that idea was changed twice after meeting with stakeholders.
The $3.8 million project is being funded in part with $162,000 from the DOT’s Safe Routes to Transit grant program, and $1.5 million from the competitive federal Transportation Alternatives Set Aside program. The remainder is being funded by taxpayers through a bond ordinance.
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