Citizens got their first chance at commenting on 2018 Ocean Shores budget priorities at the July 24 City Council meeting, and several common themes emerged.

Public safety and security are something that nearly everyone has at the top of the list, followed by items that improve the city’s responsiveness to citizens and maintain the underlying infrastructure without burdening residents with higher taxes, fees or reduction in services.

One of the biggest issues will be how the city pays for the salaries of seven firefighter/paramedics hired under a two-year federal grant that will expire at the end of the year.

“I personally think you should hire all seven of them,” said John Farra as the first to address the council with his budget priority.

Randy Peck said he was concerned with where the city would get the money to pay for all its looming expenses, such as the salaries to keep the firefighters.

“When you look at our priorities, we have lots of wishes,” Peck said, “but it was very weird that since early in the year when we were talking $8 million for (improvements at) the jetty, we haven’t heard a whisper on that.”

Add to that, a potential cost of $4.6 million to redesign and develop sidewalks, bike lanes and parking along Pt. Brown Avenue in the downtown corridor, and Peck admonished the council: “We need to start thinking what our true priorities are and realize that we can’t even pay for the roads at $500,000 a year.”

Shannon Rubin, general manager at the Canterbury Inn and a City Council candidate, focused her comments on the need to increase support for hospitality-driven priorities.

“In my opinion, we need to set aside marketing money to market the city since tourism is our primary revenue stream,” Rubin said. She also called for professional management of the Ocean Shores Convention Center, which has a debt payment that takes most of the Lodging Tax revenue the city now receives.

Rick Selby said health and safety should be the No. 1 priority: “You don’t put nothing hardly in there to arrest the criminals, and the abatement fund won’t even clean up the derelict condemned house next to me .”

“You get these criminals off the street, you get things cleaned up, then you will keep attracting more people to the city,” Selby said. “… Until you correct that problem there, nothing else matters.”

David Hutchins said he was concerned most with “the safety of people moving around” the city, especially on foot. Some of the bridges, such as those on Chance a la Mer and Albatross, have walkways that are closed as hazards, and Hutchins asked if there was any plan to fix those.

“I don’t think there should be more new projects when there are plenty of existing ones that haven’t been touched,” Hutchins said.

Don Williams submitted written priorities that included continuing to find innovative ways to pay off city debt and interfund loans, such as the recent bond repayments. He also advocated shifting money from an existing Local Improvement District (LID) bond guarantee fund ($420,000) into a dedicated fund to pay for street road maintenance.

“These funds are now sitting in the general fund. They came mostly from the 2007 street LID, and they should be used for that purpose only. So move them to a safe place where they won’t be spent willy-nilly,” Williams said.

He also urged the council to provide enough funds to hire a police detective, referring to a recent rise in the number of burglaries and thefts locally.

Susan Conniry, a Planning Commission member also running for City Council, advocated for an allocation to create a new city website “that can be used as a marketing tool, not to update the existing one.”

“If you view any of our competitors’ websites, including Long Beach, you can see why people go there and not Ocean Shores,” Conniry said. “Their websites provide information and it’s welcoming. It’s the face of the community.”

Conniry also suggested: “Let us waste no more time on Pt. Brown. Let’s focus instead on creating and maintaining a bike-friendly community. That’s what the public asked for. Include public restrooms — we need them. Trash receptacles, hanging flower baskets, benches, we need those too. Fix our bridge pedestrian crossings. Fix our beach access ways, including the stairs at Peninsula Court. We need to maintain our infrastructure in a way that services our citizens, our businesses and our visitors. … And how about that tsunami (safe) parking structure.”

Other suggestions included finding ways to adequately fund police and fire with new support from citizen volunteer efforts and possibly looking at a private ambulance service to provide transportation to the hospital for those who need it; and partnering with State Parks to create better beach access and services.

“Most of all, no matter what decisions you make regarding the budget, remember we all want Ocean Shores to be vibrant, but we need to make the process very clear and define the emphasis on keeping Ocean Shores as a place where families can afford to live,” Conniry said.

Longtime resident Lillian Broadbent said her “priorities in this town haven’t changed a lot. But we have come a long way in getting to the No. 1 priority, which is financial stability. I have to commend everyone on that.”

“My second priority is always health and safety,” she added. “I say financial stability because without it, we can’t fund anything else that we need. We have been there folks, and we don’t want to go back.”

During the recession that followed several years of critical state audits from 2009-2010, the city faced a budget crises during a period where the duties of the police and fire chiefs were combined and the city cut back on all but essential services.

“We need to set money aside for legislation and whatever we need to do to get the attention of the higher authorities to get more money into our budget. That may mean more travel and that may mean some more work with the Legislature, and I think we need to fund that,” Broadbent said in listing her other priorities. “Pay off debt, we’re almost there. With continued effort, I see a point in time where our debt is in balance with our revenues.”

Broadbent’s final priority: “Continue planning for future projects so that when grants are available, we have projects that are ready to go.“

We cannot apply for funds when we don’t have a complete design on things.”

Other priorities mentioned were purchasing two new heart monitor for city aid units, continued funding of spring cleanup, more city-sponsored town hall forums, and additional help for code enforcement.