The Atlantic City Council will hold a regularly scheduled meeting beginning at 5:30-p.m., on Wed., April 21st. On their agenda, is a Public Hearing on adoption of the Final, FY2022 City of Atlantic Budget. The Council Originally set the date of the public hearing during their March 3rd meeting, and approved the budget during their March 17th meeting.

City Administrator John Lund said “An error in the State’s budget software resulted in the public notice being produced without the time, date, and location of the public hearing.” The mistake was caught by County Auditor Dale Sunderman, left the City to hope the Dept. of Management would grant a budget extension, or be frozen at the FY21 property tax dollars. “Fortunately,” Lund says, “The Director of the Dept. of Management did formally grant the extension.” The Council then reset the Public Hearing during their meeting April 7th. Following the hearing, the Council will move to pass a Resolution to adopt the Budget as presented.

There will also be a Public Hearing on “Authorizing [an] application for Financial Assistance to [USDA] Rural Development, to finance the purchase of cat cages, examination tables, polyurethane on the floors, and equipment for, the Atlantic Animal Shelter,” as part of an shelter addition that is to be constructed. The Shelter is requesting $50,000. Some of the funds will be used to update the old building, as well. The USDA will cover 35% of the costs of a project, which means a total of $142,857 would need to be spent. The City’s match share would come to $92,857. John Lund says “Since the City awarded a bid to Henningsen Construction for $215,422 (earlier this month), the City will easily meet the grant requirement.

The hearing will be followed by action on agreeing to apply fr the USDA-RD funds. In other business, the Council will hold the second reading of amended ordinances calling for: changes to the Zoning Regulations and snow removal. The latter would change the current 72-hour time-frame following the end of a snow event for removing snow from sidewalks and vehicles from the streets or city-owned parking lots, to 24-hours.

The Atlantic City Council will also act on passing a resolution calling for a Public Hearing on the Sale of Real Estate (at 211 W. 6th Street). Jeff Pross intends to build a new home on the property, which the City has decided to sell to him for $1. During the Council’s meeting on March 17th, there were concerns the residence would have steel siding. Since that time, Pross has updated the proposed exterior materials to comply with the Zoning Ordinance. Before this (or any similar) deal can go through, however, the public must be allowed to comment on the sale of City-owned real estate.

And, at the start of Wednesday’s meeting, Dolly Bergmann, with the local Trees Forever organization, will make a Tree City USA Award to the City. It’s the 25th year for the award in Atlantic, which is one of only 3,500 communities across the County to receive the honor. Afterward, Mayor Dave Jones will sign a Proclamation recognizing April 30th as Arbor Day in the City of Atlantic.