Egg Harbor City Moves Forward

• Lisa Jiampetti For The Press

Egg Harbor City’s government has been diligently pursuing redevelopment and revitalization for the past 10 years. Our plan focused on six crucial components: new housing, schools, business, recreation, tax stabilization and public safety.

Throughout those years, outside factors such as the downturn in the U.S. and local economies, the housing bubble burst, and the decline of the Atlantic City casino industry prolonged the process and made progress slow to say the least. Nevertheless, Egg Harbor City leaders pressed forward through adversity.

The facts show that there has been quite a lot done to revitalize Egg Harbor City and we have actually accomplished many of our goals and objectives. Consider just the following few examples: completed the Atlantic County Library Branch and Rose Mohr Learning Center on Philadelphia Avenue; completed Philadelphia Ave Streetscape improvements on the 100, 200, 300 and 500 blocks; built a parking lot on Cincinnati Ave to accommodate the library patrons and customers of main street businesses; built a new regional high school; and built a new state of the art water treatment plant.

We also built a new middle school; built a pedestrian boardwalk crossing bridge on Diesterweg Avenue; installed a bike path at Key Rec; built Rittenberg Manor — a 4 story senior housing complex on Philadelphia Avenue for ages 65 and older; planned and developed the new single family housing at Egg Harbor City North at Cedar Creek; built a municipal parking lot at the train station, creating a true transit hub; extended water and sewer lines to almost all areas of Egg Harbor City ; tore down the eyesore building at Philadelphia Avenue and White Horse Pike and built a new park that Leatherhead now rents for outdoor dining; renovated and professionalized the City Lake Park and added more family recreation and a professional campground manager; improved Kern’s Field; and replaced numerous sidewalks, roads and curbs.

Additionally, we have welcomed over 22 new businesses to the city. The most prominent are Leatherhead, Dunkin’ Donuts, Auto Zone and Dollar General, and our established businesses continue to do well and more businesses are coming.

Regarding home sales, there are many good buys for young families here. A quick check on Realtor.com shows that sales of normal (non-fixer-upper) homes ranged from around $88,000 to $187,900 in Egg Harbor City throughout spring and summer. Many houses in short sales are being scooped up and renovated.

As far as taxes go, yes they are high in comparison to other communities because we are a full-service community with only 4,300 residents. None the less, council has done its part to keep the municipal levy within the 2 percent cap without cutting services or jobs. In 2016, our local municipal purpose tax increased 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed value — that is a total budget increase of about $55,000. Council has no control over local and regional school and county tax increases, nor do other communities.

It is easy to simply vote no on budgets but it is quite another matter to offer suggestions as to where to cut spending or how to increase revenue! Hats off to the eight of the nine council members who actively participated in the budgeting process and had the courage to make the necessary cuts and hold the line on spending!

In conclusion, government is a difficult arena to accomplish goals and objectives in a timely fashion, let alone in times of economic downturn. Pressing forward through change and adversity and making tough decisions — true qualities of good leaders — is what is needed to be successful. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

That is just what the Egg Harbor City Council has done over the past 10 years. Haters are always going to hate and turn a blind eye to positive things for political gain. While not “saviors,” the majority of EHC leaders are good people who work together, pursue vision, achieve goals and objectives, and, above all, persevere through adversity! Stay strong EHC, don’t be fooled by haters. We will achieve our revitalization effort if we stick together, encourage each other, and keep moving forward! I am confident there are good things ahead for us! #harborstrong!

 Lisa Jiampetti is mayor of Egg Harbor City.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/commentary/egg-harbor-city-leaders-have-kept-moving-forward-despite-adversity/article_9221ee62-b0c4-534f-becf-d3d9040b618b.html