Margate Commissioner John Amodeo ‘has a really big mouth’. That’s the word from WPG Radio’s, Harry Hurley, as he spoke to listeners on Friday morning 8/16. Why won’t the Margate Commissioners share their thoughts on rebuilding the Margate Boardwalk?
‘Sometimes leadership works against their own people’, says Hurley as he chatted with Director of Margate Boardwalk Committee, Glenn Klotz. Listen below to Hurley & Klotz:
Glenn Klotz: ‘They’re mostly afraid of losing. That’s why the Margate Commissioners are attempting to shut down any debate. The Commission doesn’t seem to have any problem being on one side or another, on these kinds of issues. Acting like a bunch of deer frozen in the headlights of an oncoming tractor trailer’.
Why are the Margate Commissioners so afraid of polling residents?
Glenn Klotz
The pros & cons of rebuilding the Margate boardwalk. Why not take a poll ? Take the residents temperature. Are they for… or against… rebuilding the Margate Boardwalk ?
Listen to Audio >
A standing room only crowd, overflowing into the hallway. The Margate commissioners, Amodeo, Blumberg and Mayor Becker, getting an earful.
Changing the character of Margate? Too late for that. You just got a giant golf attraction / semi-amusement park smack dab in middle of town. Let’s not forget plans for an Amherst Ave water park. And how about those high-rises next to Lucy? Nice. The governing body has already started to transform this once, sleepy little town.
To date, only one of three commissioners (Blumberg) have hinted at their thoughts on re-building the Margate Boardwalk.
Did you know? Margate Commissioner Maury Blumberg not only attended the boardwalk committee’s presentation last month, but Mr. Blumberg actually signed the petition….requesting the city polls it’s residents. All of them.
“A Margate Boardwalk for the 21st Century”
Glenn Klotz, President of the Margate Boardwalk Committee, followed recommendations from Commissioners Amodeo and Blumberg.
- Mr. Blumberg suggested that Klotz collects 500 signatures. Glenn collected 613.
- Mr. Amodeo recommended to Klotz that a poll be taken. Glenn agreed.
- The Mayor of Margate, Mike Becker has mainly played neutral in all of this. Nervous that a poll may not come out in his favor?
Margate Commissioners, and a vocal handful of beach block homeowners, wouldn’t mind seeing the Margate Boardwalk discussion go away. The 3 Commissioners have yet to take a public stand, yes or no.
Read the 26-page, Rebuilding the Margate Boardwalk report here.
Also presented to the Commission: Safety study by Stockton University professor. Safety would likely increase by having a non-commercial boardwalk. Beach block homes would benefit from a boardwalk. That’s all due to having more eyes on the area. Keeping tabs on less trafficked, potentially vulnerable, beach blocks.
The Margate dunes, built by the Army Corp of Engineers, created blind spots. 14 ft of sand hides questionable activity, or someone in need of help.
Army Corps of Engineers >
Jay Weintraub, President of the Margate Homeowners Association, presented results of a poll his group executed. A majority of those polled are pro-boardwalk.
- 400 yes
- 186 no
- 52 not-sure
The Margate boardwalk. Real Estate values, costs, safety, accessibility.
Some local real estate execs lobbying hard for NO boardwalk. Afraid that home values would be affected. Too late for that. The dune project already stripped away ocean views and easy beach access.
Comment: Where were local real estate execs leading up to Summer 2017? The #1 asset of Downbeach was being changed forever. Industrialized. Real Estate agents pretending the ‘beach & water view’ didn’t matter that much.
Some good news. A Margate boardwalk would soften the blow of the dune boggle. A rebuilt Margate boardwalk would stabilize…or increase values….because the ocean and beach would be more accessible.
The Margate Boardwalk committee submitted report & over 600 signatures to elected leadership. What’s next?
- Take this request seriously. Research & discuss?
- Take temperature of taxpayers, conduct a poll?
- Hold a referendum. Should we rebuild boardwalk?
- Lay low. Bury head in sand. Wait til it all blows over.
There will be people who love the boardwalk proposal and others who do not like the idea.
I firmly stand by my public statement at the commissioners meeting that it is incumbent of our elected servants of Margate to run a poll of all taxpayers of Margate to see how they vote on this matter.
If there is a clear majority against, then the subject is closed.
If the majority is for ,then a voting public referendum MUST be run .
That is why we have elected officials.
The Mayor in many personal meetings with me and other MHA board members clearly stated he represents ALL the taxpayers of Margate.
Time to prove it.
All TAXPAYERS should be allowed to speak on this issue. The majority of people who pay the taxes are the one’s who are in Margate for 10 – 15 weeks a year. The boardwalk is going to bring a lot of problems with it, not just easy access to the beach. Street lights, bathrooms, accidents (then they sue the city) maintenance of the boardwalk etc. etc.
Not a good idea.
Nope, sorry. Locals cannot afford to let temporary visitors vote on local issues. Next they’ll be voting on school budgets. Then police and fire budgets in the winter. Then next the library. Then ???.
Out-of-towners have no reason to fund the critical things that locals depend on. We cannot allow them to vote at all, ever, end of story.
Like you said, they’re here 15 weeks a year. If they don’t like the taxes, it’s easy to move. Some locals have been here for generations and we’re not about to be forced out cause tourists don’t want to pay $20 more a year.
Margate boardwalk funds. Here are some suggestions for funding a Margate boardwalk.
Prosecute and seize the property of all those involved with the pharmacy benefits public employee scandal. Establish a free boardwalk fund for public, state, green acres, all monies recovered.
Close down one school in Margate or open a private high school in the same building. Start runs and walks with some proceeds to benefit Margate boardwalk. Make working on the boardwalk part of work-release programs for offenders.
Allow only veterans to sell ice cream and water on the beach and boardwalk, with some proceeds going directly to Margate boardwalk. Allow students to have a class outside on the boardwalk. Teach them the importance of being outside.
Organize senior volunteers to pair up with youths on fundraising activities to help the community. This would cultivate the minds of youth and teach them to give back early on, be satisfied inside and have some self-respect. Learn to be honest, not greedy.
Let all homeowners vote, with second homes counting as half.
Michael K. Dale
Margate
Let everybody vote even the The 2nd home owners
This is a slippery slope. If out-of-towners get to vote on the boardwalk, what stops them from voting on our school decisions? Or our winter-time police/fire resources?
An out-of-towner doesn’t care about our schools. Their kids/grandkids/cousins don’t go to them.
Out-of-towners don’t care about our safety in the winter.
If they want to vote here, they can move here and spend money here all year. Otherwise, tough cookies.
OK so maybe you would like all those people to sell their homes, move to another beach town, and leave you with the bill. This attitude of second home owners not participating in a vote is wrong.
You pay for the school salaries, you pay for the Police and Fire etc.
Margate will be a ghost town or another Atlantic City.
Cute, but there is no shortage of people that will buy those homes. Look at Ventnor.
Letting outsiders vote on our tax inflows and outflows will gut this town for locals. No library. Reduced police/fire/emergency during winter. No or poor schools.
No local will vote for transients’ voting rights. Let it go.
I resent your assertion that second home owners don’t care about schools, police and fire, safety and other “year round issues”. Many second homeowners come here all year round. Some would like to live here but work or other responsibilities won’t let them. Regardless, we bought here because we love it, perhaps as much as you do. And we don’t necessarily want to see it change because of a very vocal few. We non locals feel this is taxation without representation, and we fought that war 245 years ago.
Before we build it is important to gather all facts. Safety? How many nonocean rescues on the beach occur and how many beach block break-ins are off season in daytime when a few passers by might notice? These are weak arguments.
What is the true cost to maintain and build? 35 blocks is alot of maintenance expense. That would be paid by all taxpayers since this is non commercial.
Hiring the estimated six more police would be expensive. $95000 salary plus 30% benefits is one million per year. That alone is more than the $20 quoted by the commission’s self proclaimed expert.
It’s quite simple. They have no skin in the game. Which can be clearly seen with one of our schools being quietly shut down as we speak.
Your police argument is short sighted. When non-residents realize that private security is cheaper, the police will be axed. This is currently happening with pay-per-pickup trash collection for non-residents.
And no, it’s not taxation without representation. You have a vote in your home town. Starbucks does not vote in your home town. Nor Walmart. Why should a real estate investor get a vote!
Not to mention that your plan would give non-US-citizens the right to vote in the USA! That’s insane!! Non-citizens can buy property. Would you want rich foreigners to come in and take over control of your city? Nope! Ask China about the Mandarins. It did not end well for China. They even built a Great Wall about it. Lol.
But all this it silly. The State does not allow non-residents to vote. If you want to take this to the Supreme Court of NJ, go ahead. You’ll wake the beast of every local in every vacation town in NJ. Good luck!
The best thing About Margate is the low tax rate and it could be a lot lower
The Boardwalk project is a horrible idea. Brings more people to beach area and creates more traffic on beach block streets to get to boardwalk. Less privacy for beach block homes, worse views because now looking at a boardwalk and not just the dunes. Instead a wasting money on this why don’t we figure out how to clean up the polluted ocean water from outfall pipes!! This will be a negative to Margate and I can’t understand why people have got pants for this? Didn’t we mess up Margate enough in the last 2 years?? Build some handicap access ramps and call it quits.
Sorry, beach front homes don’t own the beach. We all do.
August 19th
The last Margate Board Meeting was very interesting. Commissioner Amodeo certainly did some back-peddling over the Amherst promenade question! The bigger question is . . .can we believe anything we are told by the Margate Commissioners?
And what about poor Scott Abbott complaining he was picked on. He has forgotten the old saying, “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen”.
Corruption and nepotism have gone too far for way too long. It’s time for the citizens of Margate to realize this and take a firm stand to end it.
Sincerely,
Concerned Citizens of Margate
Agreed. How are these bozos getting elected?! Time to send the Old Boys club packing.
Taxation without representation at its best.
Do you get a vote in your home town? Yes, you do. You are represented. One person, one vote. Period.
You don’t let Starbucks or Walmart vote in our town. So why would you let a real estate investor vote in your town?
I would like to know how MAC would be able to survive in Margate without the incredible high taxes we non residents pay to allow you to have the schools and services you enjoy on our backs. We certainly deserve to have a vote and I am sick and tired of the the mentality of people like MAC critizing non residents whose support you could not do without. I live on south side and don’t even get my trash picked up for my taxes as I am not there on Tuesday, so I pay ACCU extra to pick up.
Stop the fear mongering. We’ll be just fine without you. We were fine for 100 years before the post-Sandy housing boom and we will be fine for the next 100 years without outsiders over-inflating housing prices. If you move out, there are plenty of young professionals that will snatch up those homes. Margate is a great place to live. Look at Linwood, it’s no different. There is little to no transient population and it’s not the hell-scape you’re professing.
If you want to vote, make Margate your permanent residence and give up your voting rights in your current town/city.
Take it this way, if someone from China buys a vacation house in Margate, should they get the right to vote for Mayor? For Governor? For President? No, they should not have the right to vote unless they make Margate their permanent residence and spend the majority of the year there.
So unless you want to sell our country to China et al in the future, you better protect voting rights today, here, right now. This is much bigger than you.
Non residents could not do a worse job in electing public officials, if our vote counted.
We bought our home 35 years ago in Margate because of the beautiful beaches and small town flavor. All of this is gone because of the stupidly of voters electing self serving politicians. And by the way MAC in case you didn’t know it, Linwood is not a beach town.
Like I said, this is much bigger than you. But sure, if you want to vote, go to the NJ Supreme Court and fight for it. I will also be fighting to make sure that you do not get that opportunity. I live here, I get a say in our schools, police, fire, and library. Cherry Hill, Philly, or Beijing do not get to control my city because they invested some money and spend 16 weekends a year here.
Linwood is not a beach town, but there are plenty of young professionals living in Linwood that would be happy to move to Margate if the market wasn’t over-inflated. We’ll be just fine if you leave.
I’m done with you. Another geography lesson though,, Cherry Hill is in New Jersey and they do get to control your city.
We need our schools. That’s all our children know. They have best friends there. They love their teachers.
We need our library. It’s a safe and quiet place for our children to go. The librarians know each of our children and all their special needs.
We need our police and fire. Our children know them by name. They watch our children like they’re their own.
Allowing outside voting will end all that. If you want to break that up so some vacationers can save a few hundred dollars a year, shame on you.
I suspect you don’t know what you’re arguing for. Voting rights have been linked to permanent residence in NJ since the beginning of NJ. And remember that when you change laws that project our communities, that law no longer exists when it doesn’t work out for you. Like if Chinese investors buy up 51% of Margate. They will be able to do whatever they want with the place. This is happening in California as we speak. So if these rights aren’t worth a few hundred bucks a year to you, then I can’t help you.
How much money does the library tax bring in. Is there a surplus on the library tax?