Council approves Ocean Ice Palace purchase Ordinance sets aside $5.45 million for new community center site BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer Chances are, Mayor Daniel J. Kelly will not get his wish for a referendum question on the November ballot to ask voters if Brick Township should buy the Ocean Ice Palace. "There is a referendum in November and it's an election," council President Stephen J. Acropolis told Kelly at the July 24 Township Council meeting. "People will either vote for you or they will vote for me. I guess that's going to be the referendum." Council members voted 6-1 to introduce an ordinance that appropriates $5,450,000 in bonds or bond anticipation notes to purchase the landmark at 167 Chambers Bridge Road, which includes 13.34 acres, a pool, a dormitory, and woods and fields, in addition to the ice rink building. Councilwoman Kathy Russell, the only Democrat on the council, voted no. "I would love to see a community center for the people of Brick Township," she said. "But I have too many questions about the building. I just really feel we are putting the cart before the horse, before we get these inspections done." The plan is to use the site for a long-awaited community center, where recreation and senior services will be consolidated in one place. The township currently pays $45,000 a year to rent the Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Adamston Road for senior programs. Appraiser Henry Mancini discounted the price of the ice rink building by 85 percent before coming up with an appraisal of $5 million for the entire property and the ice rink business, Acropolis said. Acropolis suggested that anyone with questions "pick up the phone and go out and walk the site." "This is not something that just popped up," he said. Kelly said he preferred that voters have their say on the purchase in a referendum. "I'm suggesting that we have an opportunity to show democracy in action," Kelly said at the meeting. "I suggest we put a referendum on the ballot. That's the way we should decide this." "It would have been good to see the mayor's salary on as a referendum four or five years ago," Acropolis replied. "It would have been nice to see Foodtown on as a referendum. What happens is that people vote for us to make decisions." Acropolis told Kelly at the council meeting that he "missed" him at the July 24 press conference to announce the purchase. "Because as the mayor of the town, whether you agree or disagree with the project, it would have been nice to have the mayor at the press conference instead of just sending in a statement in the mail or the fax," he said. Kelly said after the meeting that he did not attend the press conference "out of courtesy." "Unfortunately, it [the courtesy] got missed," he said. "I wanted to give them a chance, let them have their opportunity. If I disagree, I'll talk about it afterwards. You don't take their thunder away. It was their thunder." The mayor said after the meeting that he hadn't participated in the negotiations for the site and didn't really know they were going on until they were almost completed. "I want to see all the papers," Kelly said after the meeting. "I want to see what the numbers are. It's either in black and white or it's not. I'm for a community center. I'm just not sure if this is the one." The negotiations between Dwulet, her attorney and the township began in January and started to heat up in May and June, Acropolis said. Township officials are counting on up to $400,000 in revenue each year from ice rink rental fees from the Brick Hockey Club and the Brick Township school district. Residents will have a strong say in what programs are provided at the community center site, Acropolis said. A citizens advisory committee of 20 to 30 residents is being formed to solicit information about what the public wants on the site, he said. "It's going to be a pretty big committee," he said. "It's got to be a cross section of the township." Township officials hope to pay down some of the purchase price through the sale of the Brick Civic Center property across the street from the rink. The civic center property, which has been appraised at $2.8 million to $3 million, will be sold and the proceeds put toward the Dwulet property purchase. The recreation offices would be moved into offices inside the ice rink building. Dwulet's late father, Leon, a well-known northern Ocean County general practice physician, built the Ocean Ice Palace in the mid-1960s.