OCEAN CITY, Md. -- Four days of back and forth and heated debate wrapped up in Ocean City on Thursday. Town officials were finalizing the capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2024, which resulted in the Baltimore Avenue project being delayed.
It looks like it will now be at least a year before any construction crews break ground.
"Right now we've pushed this off until next year," said John Gehrig.
Gehrig, an Ocean City Councilmember, said one thing that concerned him was the price tag of this project increasing since it was first proposed.
"We had a spirited debate over the project, it's very expensive, it's gone up in cost substantially since it was originally proposed," said Gehrig.
The estimated cost for the project is $44 million. It includes burying utility lines and poles underground, widening sidewalks, adding street scaping and lighting from N. Division Street to 15th Street.
If the money is raised through the sale of bonds, Gehrig said that price tag could go up even more.
"You have to add interest to that, so when you're talking about a $60 million project, it makes you sit up straight," said Gehrig.
It's why over the next year, the town will be looking for grant funding to help fill in the gaps.
"The goal is come back with about 50% of that funding so that we can proceed with the entire project," said Mayor Rick Meehan.
The project is now slated to be completed in phases. When each phase will happen depends on money being available, but the goal is to have everything done within three years.
Before that can happen though, Ocean City officials will have to nail down their plans to pay for it.
"No one's discussed how we're going to pay for it yet, it was a question that has not been answered yet," said Gehrig.
Gehrig said he is not opposed to this project, but wants to make sure it gets done without breaking the bank and affecting Ocean City taxpayers.
The exact start date for the Baltimore Avenue redevelopment project is still unknown and there is a lot of discussion left to be had among town officials. But, finding the money to pay for these improvements still looks like the first box the town needs to check.
