The Margate Boardwalk Committee (MBC) has submitted wording for the ‘Initiative’ that will let Margatians decide for themselves: Should we rebuild the beloved Margate boardwalk?
According to Glenn Klotz of MBC, the suggested ‘wording’ has been handed over to the Margate City Clerk for review.
Next step: submit petitions of notification from five petitioners.
Once ‘wording’ is approved by City Clerk & City Solicitor, the Margate Boardwalk Committee (MBC) will begin process of collecting (City Clerk specified) number of local voter signatures. This is necessary for ‘Initiative’ to be placed before the Margate City Commission… in a public meeting.
Glenn Klotz: We are committed to getting this issue on a ballot in 2020.
Margate resident, Jay Weintraub asks: Does Margate city attorney, John Scott Abbott have to respond? If so, in what time frame? Can they stall you? Glenn Klotz answers: They might try, but there are statutory limits to how long they can do that.
From Glenn Klotz & Margate Boardwalk Committee: As 2019 comes to a close, the MBC is busy preparing a voter Initiative for a 2020 ballot.
We’re also in process of updating our report; A Margate Boardwalk for the 21st Century. The second (bigger) edition of the report. Ready sometime in early 2020.
MBC also developing updated version of our public presentation. That’ll be available for the ‘Initiative’ election campaign. Sometime in 2020.
Preparing detailed response to City administration’s response to 1st edition of our BW report.
Klotz: You might not be hearing about us in the media these days. It’s not because we’ve gone away or given up. In fact, we’re busy working harder than ever to get a new Boardwalk built in Margate. In all our lifetimes.
Nobody said this was going to be easy.
Glenn Klotz Keeping Margate Boardwalk Rebuild Effort Alive
What do Margate City Commissioners think of this whole situation? They personally are too afraid to make a public statement. Don’t wanna upset a small handful of beachfront millionaires?
Margate business manager Richard Deaney (resident of Ocean City) says: ‘The position of Margate at this time is that such a poll as requested is not necessary or even helpful, and if desired, is way premature.’ No capital project undertaking of the magnitude proposed by Mr. Klotz and the Margate Boardwalk Committee ($24 million) begins with a poll.’
Deaney agrees a boardwalk would be a “nice amenity for Margate” and would draw many positive responses. But doing the poll “does nothing to move the discussion forward.”
KLOTZ: It’s pretty clear from the quote above that the City doesn’t desire to hear what the residents or the voters have to say about this subject and are even worried it might attract a lot of favorable responses. In any event, it appears they’re not interested in knowing.
This is odd since a year ago in a meeting with Commissioner Amodeo he’s the one that proposed a public poll as a start of the process.
Last winter, we received a letter from the Commissioner’s essentially asking us to send them $5,000 to cover application fee for NJDEP to start process of getting approval from the State.
Now everything is premature?
MBC believes the residents of Margate should make the final decision, but it appears the Margate City Commissioners don’t agree. Unfortunately for the Commission, NJ State law says otherwise.
Click to learn more about the Margate Boardwalk Committee.
Fix the flooding and make the beaches ADA compliant before burdening the taxpayers with a boardwalk. How many cars and homes need to get flooded before we fix the real problem in Margate?
As we get older, won’t we still want to access the beach? There were far more ADA compliant beaches before the dunes project. Let’s focus on these issues first, before we build a boardwalk.
No offense, but if we wait to fix the flooding we won’t need a Boardwalk anymore anyway because half the town will be underwater by then unless your planning on lifting all the homes, businesses and streets.
Oh and by the way the ACOE (Army Corp of Engineers) would say the flooding on the oceanside is now fixed. Of course, at a steep price as we all know.
The good things about a Margate Boardwalk are endless. It’s not a burden, its a bonus. It’ll be around long after the bayside is underwater… along with the promenade being built back there, at taxpayer expense. (which nobody asked for)
As for ADA compliant beaches, build a beach boardwalk and they’ll all be ADA compliant with ramps from most of the street ends. Just like in Ventnor.
Note: ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act.