Five Things to Know From City Council's Meeting on Thursday

At Thursday's public meeting, City Council approved more than $5 million in spending and borrowing that will help widen Ocean City beaches and rebuild dunes, and council balked at revising a zoning ordinance amid the uncertainty of an announcement by Gov. Chris Christie adopting new flood elevation requirements. But here are five other things that might be of interest:

• City Council voted to approve an approximately $260,000 budget for 2013 for the Special Improvement District (the retail section of the Ocean City Boardwalk, the downtown section of Asbury Avenue and the gateway section of Ninth Street). This budget does include money for marketing businesses, beautification and promoting special events, but it does not include funding for a full-time executive director of Main Street Ocean City. Marcia Shallcross was laid off earlier this month and a part-time replacement has yet to be hired. Council will cast a second and potentially final vote on the budget on Feb. 28.
• Business Administrator Mike Dattilo reported that about $200,000 worth of work to raise and replace traffic signal boxes and re-synchronize traffic signals will be completed by Memorial Day.
• City Council approved a $1.6 million contract to improve roads, including (but not limited to): Seventh Street (from West Avenue to Boardwalk), Eighth Street (from West Avenue to Atlantic Avenue), 11th Street (from Central Avenue to Boardwalk), all of Pennlyn Place, the 800 block of West Avenue and parts of Seaspray.
• Councilman Antwan McClellan announced that the city is seeking volunteers for a Peck's Beach Village cleanup 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Feb. 2. Residents displaced by Superstorm Sandy will return to the first 20 units at the end of next week.
• City Council voted to go into executive session to discuss appointments to the Environmental Commission, Ethics Board and Utilities Advisory Commission.