Oceanport council to set fees for rental of boro properties

By KENNY WALTER
Staff Writer

OCEANPORT — With the completion of the Blackberry Bay Park Pavilion, the Borough Council will begin allowing residents to rent the outdoor facility for parties and other events.

The Borough Council voted Nov. 6 to introduce a pair of ordinances allowing rentals at public buildings and setting fees for the rentals.

“Right now we are obviously not in the position where we are renting out any of our buildings,” Business Administrator John O. Bennett III said.

“However, with the completion of the Blackberry Bay Park Pavilion we will have the opportunity where we are renting out again, so we wanted to put in place an ordinance that will allow us to assess a fee.”

Under the fee ordinance, residents would be charged $100 to use the Blackberry Bay Park Pavilion, the Old Wharf House or the Port-Au-Peck Firehouse.

Residents wishing to rent a borough facility would be required to obtain their own insurance.

“When they come in to rent, they will fill out an application and they will be given the link to a website,” Borough Clerk Jeannie Smith said. “It will give them an assessment for the cost of the insurance for that event.”

Smith said the insurance fee structure is split into four categories for different types of events.

“From what I understand, it is very reasonable,” she said. “The more liability, the greater the cost, of course.”

Blackberry Bay Park is a 15-acre tract located off Port-Au-Peck Avenue and alongside Blackberry Creek. It has two softball fields, two soccer fields, two tennis courts, a basketball court, roller-hockey rink, pool, playground and boat ramp.

Earlier this year, the council awarded a contract for construction of a pavilion to provide space for a snack bar, restrooms and storage space at the park, replacing the pavilion that was damaged in a fire a few years ago.

While there have been several delays in construction, the project is in the final stages of completion.

In the past, the pavilion was a popular site for events such as birthday parties, bridal and baby showers, and graduation parties, Smith said.

The rental fee ordinance is the first in what will likely be a series of council actions to update various borough fees.

“We are going through a program where we are updating all our fees, so this is just another layer in that,” Mayor Michael Mahon said.

While the council will examine fees in the coming months, Bennett said there is no ordinance in place regarding the rental of borough properties.

“We found that we actually didn’t have any ordinance that authorized us to charge a fee for the rental of our municipal buildings,” he said.

Under the ordinance, only Oceanport residents would be eligible to rent borough properties.

Renters are barred from having alcoholic beverages on municipal property.

“Our policy has always been no alcoholic beverages in the buildings,” Smith said. “They all are told that, they all are given the rules.”