Ocean City Plans To Buy More Property

Good morning. Lots of updates in the email today— Playland’s arcade, what to do with open space on 16th and 17th Streets, Ocean City plans to buy another property, and more.

Let’s get to it.

In the email today:

• 📆 Upcoming Events in (and around) Ocean City

• 🚜 Extreme Makeover: Ocean City Edition

• 🏴‍☠️ The Latest On Playland’s Arcade Re-Opening

• 🏠 City Council Pitches Another Real Estate Purcha …

• 🧼 Lagoon Cleanups Will Be Tough Mudding

• 🔗 News Links

• 🤳 Recommendations

• 📊 Poll For Owners Who Rent

📆 Upcoming Events in (and around) Ocean City

Saturday, Nov. 9

• 👻 The Night Side | Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point | 7 p.m., more details here

Monday, Nov. 11

• 🇺🇸 Veterans Day Program | Ocean City Tabernacle | 11 a.m.

Saturday, Nov. 16

• ❄️ Winterfest By The Sea | Ocean City Civic Center | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., more details here

See more local events right here.

You can see the full list of events in all nearby Shore towns with the following links: Ocean City | Sea Isle | Margate | Avalon | Stone Harbor | Somers Point | Wildwood | Cape May | Ventnor

Also note the Ocean City Library has many events for adults and kids alike on their calendar, which can be viewed here.

🚜 Extreme Makeover: Ocean City Edition

What to do with that $20 million swath of land City Council just bought?

ICYMI: Ocean City has acquired the entire city block from 16th to 17th Streets between Haven and Simpson Avenues, plus a section on the opposite side of 16th Street.

The city recently sought public opinions on how to develop the corridor between 15th and 20th Streets near the Ocean City Community Center and Ocean City Intermediate School.

Mayor Jay Gillian said close to 200 suggestions have been submitted. The general gist of the ideas:

• Open space/passive recreation (i.e. an amphitheater, gardens, trails)

• Active recreation such as pickleball courts and a skating rink

• Additional parking or affordable housing

The final approach could also be all of the above, Gillian said. No decisions have been made yet. He pledged City Council will work with the public and the local school district throughout the process.

What would you like to see done? Reply to this email with your ideas.

🏴‍☠️ The Latest On Playland’s Arcade Re-Opening

When one local amusement institution closes, another's long-awaited re-opening is apparently in sight.

The arcade at Playland's Castaway Cove has been shuttered since a four-alarm fire damaged the building (and destroyed the iconic pirate ship sitting atop it) in early 2021. The re-opening has been pushed back several times due to various delays. But now, a few weeks after Wonderland shut down, it looks like the stops and starts have come to an end.

Playland now expects the arcade to re-open in the spring of 2025, according to a recent Facebook post.

Plans for a new family-friendly roller coaster sitting atop the park, as we previously reported, are pretty much at a standstill. That may still take years.

🏠 City Council Pitches Another Real Estate Purchase

Ocean City wants to follow up its recent real estate deals with yet another acquisition: A three-story home that sits next door to City Hall and is right around the corner from the downtown business district.

City Council has introduced a $750,000 ordinance to purchase the house from its current owner and occupant. SaltWorks, a custom framing business, approached the city after learning the town had dropped $3.3 million to buy two private parking lots near City Hall.

A public hearing and final vote is scheduled for Nov. 21. The city would use the building for office space in the short term, but it may eventually be demolished to create even more parking spaces as plans move forward with the much-needed renovation of the Public Safety Building.

As we said in our last email… they paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.

🧼 Lagoon Cleanups Will Be Tough Mudding

Ocean City has awarded the Marmora-based Scarborough Marine Group an $820,000 contract for the annual dredging of back-bay lagoons. They will have excavated about 11,000 cubic yards of muck and mud from the bottoms of Snug and Sunny Harbors when the work is done.

The work will deepen smaller lagoons and allow bayside residents to use their boats without getting stuck during low tide. Dredging is also expected to have positive enviromental impacts, increase bayfront property values and make the lagoons safer for swimming. The excavated mud will then be transported to a Corbin City nursery to replenish the soil there.

A key note for property owners in town: Scarborough Marine will be able to dredge privately-owned boat slips and docks once its work for the city ends. While owners will need to reach private agreements with the company, they will be able to piggyback off the existing dredging permit granted by the city, which will expedite work.

🔗 News Links

• Ocean City gets $2M affordable housing grant 💲

• Congressman Jeff Van Drew - a staunch opponent of offshore windmills - won bigly this week 🇺🇸

• Margate doctor gets 15 months in fraud scheme 🚔

🤳 Recommendations

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📊 Poll

Have you taken our subscriber survey yet? We want to learn a bit more about our readers so we can continue to bring you THE BEST Ocean City content. If you haven’t already, take 30 seconds to tell us about your favorite part of the island, pizza, and ice cream. Take the subscriber survey right here.

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Thanks! Enjoy the weekend.