With demolition of the downtown post office nearing its end, Ocean City Public Works Director Hal Adkins said the project to convert the site into public parking will begin next week.
Adkins told members of the Ocean City Council on Tuesday that demolition work is expected to wrap up by the end of the week. One crews clear out, he said, the public works department will go in next week and begin converting the old post office lot into paid public parking.
“So my ultimate goal … is this lot will be done, up and running for paid parking by June 11, a day or so in advance of the air show,” he said. “That’s our goal, and we are on track to do so.”
On May 1, the U.S. Postal Service moved its downtown location from a city-owned building at 5th Street and Philadelphia Avenue to a building owned by the Ocean City Development Corporation at 102 Worcester Street.
With no tenant occupying the space, the city spent the following two weeks on asbestos abatement and lining up the demolition contract. And last Monday, crews began razing the building to make way for a new public parking lot, one that would mirror an existing parking lot next door.
Adkins said the demolition work has also unearthed a rare find: the concrete slab of an old 65-car parking garage constructed in the late 1920s.
“Lo and behold, as we are tearing down the building, we are excavating below another foot or so – what do we find?” he said. “The slab is still there.”