Too little, too late
Brick lost a one-time chance to buy a township landmark when Ocean Ice Palace owner Joan Dwulet finally got tired of waiting and cut off negotiations with the township.

And there's plenty of blame to go around for losing the chance to own the prime 13.34-acre property on Chambers Bridge Road.

Township officials had been chasing after Dwulet for years, hoping to purchase the property that came with an operating ice rink, a field house, a 25-yard pool and acres of pristine fields.

Dwulet finally said yes early in 2007. Then-Councilman, now Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis trumpeted the news last July. He said then the township needed to buy the property as soon as possible.

"If we do not buy this from Joan, she is not going to wait and we are going to lose the opportunity of a lifetime," he said then.

He was right.

But what began as an admirable plan to transform a unique piece of property into a community center soon became muddied by politics and confusing concept plans.

Former DemocraticMayor Daniel J. Kelly called for a referendum last summer. The GOP-dominated Township Council said no way.

Acropolis told Kelly the upcoming mayoral election would be the referendum on the Ice Palace purchase.

The council adopted a bond ordinance last fall, then never followed through with its adoption.

The Ice Palace purchase plans seemed to go into hibernation over the winter. The council then introduced another bonding ordinance this spring, this time for $9.9million, to purchase the site and make initial improvements.

Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras gave an admirable, detailed plan on a scaled-down community center version at the May 27 Township Council meeting.

He outlined the initial revenue producers for the site - the operating ice rink and the construction of therapy pools. The $9.9 million bond ordinance, which included the $5.25 million purchase price, would end up costing the average homeowner a measly $1.05 per year, or 8.7 cents per month.

It was hard to argue with the numbers or the economic sense the plan made. But it came too late.

Had the scaled-down plan been presented earlier, the StopOverspending group would have had a much harder time gathering signatures to put the purchase on the ballot.

SOS group members insisted they were nonpartisan and merely wanted voters to have their say on the purchase.

That soon turned out to be a laughable claim. The BrickDemocrats.com Web site had a link to the SOS Web site up until about ten days ago.

"We are looking for volunteers to help stop the purchase of the Ice Palace…." club President Harvey Langer's message read.

That message was quickly yanked last week and replaced with a blurb about the club's upcoming outing at the Lakewood BlueClaws game.

So the chance to own the Ocean Ice Palace property is most likely over. And that's a shame. All the rumblings about debt service would have died, once the old Foodtown site was sold and the money put towards the Dwulet property.

It was a deal too good to pass up. And now it's gone.