Bradley Beach Hears Proposals
By TOM CARDINALE
The Bradley Beach Borough Council heard from a parade of vendors this week with summer business propositions ranging from beach rentals to transporting visitors in pedicabs.
Howard Flood returned to the council to again discuss his plan to open a news stand at the beachfront and again offered a rendering of an eight foot by 10 foot building he thought appropriate. However, while his idea was again approved of by the council the building was once again met with some resistance.
“A lot of issues were being raised,” Mayor Stephen Schueler said, citing residence worried about their beach views being compromised.
“I felt that a kiosk was some you set up and take down at the end of the day,” Councilman Thomas Volante said.
Flood said the eight by 10 foot building was the smallest economically feasible size he could use.
“That’s basically the smallest size. We’re looking at an investment of $6,000 to $8,000,” Flood said.
An alternative solution that was raised was to allow Flood to rent part of the borough’s old pump house and use that rather than constructing a new structure on the beachfront. Flood was receptive to the idea.
“That would eliminate a lot of the problems,” Schueler said. “Take a look at it and let’s move this thing one way or the other.”
Joe Petracca also returned to the council with more information on the beach umbrella rentals he had proposed at an earlier meeting.
Petracca said he planned to begin with 35 umbrellas and 30 chairs, renting the umbrellas for $9 per day and the chairs for $7.
Petracca said he would make the rentals available seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and hoped to get started in time for May and continue through the end of September.
Petracca also offered examples of the types of umbrellas and chairs he planned to use, specifically the umbrellas which were designed to prevent them from blowing over and causing a danger to beach-goers. That was an initial concern of the council.
Petracca said he would also look into selling advertising to local businesses on the umbrellas and chairs and offered a rendering of them featuring the logos of local businesses.
The council was in favor of the idea but reminded Petracca that it must be put out for public bid.
“This has to be a public bid, you know,” Schueler said. “It looks good, it provides a service for the people.”
The council unanimously approved a resolution to allow for the advertisement of bids, with a minimum bid of $1400 which was the cost the last time a similar business operated in the borough.
Finally, Nicholas Foster of the Diving Duck Cab Co. which operates pedicabs in Belmar, approached the council hoping to operate some cabs in Bradley Beach for the summer.
Foster said they have two cabs operating in Belmar and they typically run as long as businesses are open and people are around.
Foster eased the council’s concerns about safety, explaining that each bike is equipped with head and tail lights and turn signals and is completely street legal. He also said all of the drivers are licensed taxi drivers and the company is insured for $1 million in liability.
The council was receptive to the idea and planned to discuss it further and request to see the ordinance Belmar has allowing the pedicabs in order to formulate their own.
In other business borough engineer Phil Kavanaugh discussed the borough’s capital improvement project, for which the town has received a grant of $160,000 from the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Kavanaugh said in addition to phase two of the Fourth Avenue repaving project, which it is estimated will cost about $220,000, the borough also had approximately $90,000 in other improvements that were needed. These included a new curb near Fletcher Lake on Ocean Avenue, the repavement of the alleyway behind the municipal complex, and the installation of ADA compliant ramps at various points in town.
Kavanaugh explained that half the cost of the alleyway repavement would be paid by the developer of the project behind the municipal complex. Overall, he said the total needed to complete all the improvements would be about $310,000 with about $168,000 of that being paid by the grant and the developer.
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