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OCEAN CITY - There is no shortage of gorgeous homes here, but the property with gray siding and blue shutters on Route 52 may be one of the most beautiful - both inside and out.

Made to resemble the Ocean City Yacht Club's former clubhouse, the new Ocean City Welcome Center along the causeway from Somers Point will open for the first time on Memorial Day, the last piece of the approximately $500 million bridge-replacement project.

With unparalleled views of the Great Egg Harbor Bay, educational signage about the history of the city and plans to feature local artwork indoors, it will not only provide information about events on the island but will also be a tourist destination of its own.

"They did a fantastic job," said Kim Wieland, one of the first Ocean City artists whose paintings will be on display inside this summer. "It's definitely going to add to the community."

The state Department of Transportation built the 4,000-square-foot building for the city because it had to demolish the much smaller welcome center that had been located along the former World War Memorial Bridge.

A few weeks ago, the DOT conveyed the property to the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, which will now operate it.

"Never did we think we'd have a project like this," said Michele Gillian, executive director of the chamber.

On Monday, chamber staff started moving items into the facility. About six employees will work there at the first-floor information desk and in the second-floor offices, and it should be open every day through the summer from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For this summer, the chamber will keep both the new building and its other office on Ninth Street open.

The new center is accessible by car from the eastbound lanes of the causeway through a driveway that runs behind the building and curves around to a parking lot with about 40 spaces. Pedestrians and bicyclists can also get there on the mixed-use pathway that runs along the entire southern side of the bridge.

Located on Garrets Island, it sits high above the water, providing an unobstructed view of the bay on one side, and overlooking the island on the other side. With restored marshland underneath that is already alive with waterfowl and seabirds, it is fully expected to be a draw for sightseers of all kinds.

"The views are incredible," said Wieland. "You think about things like Night In Venice and the fireworks and all, and it would probably be a great place to watch it."

There was not yet much inside as of Monday, but there was the original control panel for the drawbridge, which will be on display. There are also public restrooms inside that will be open even when the rest of the center is not.

Educational signs surround the exterior decking, complete with historical photographs of city landmarks and the other bridges that lead to the island. One explains that the building's design mirrors the Ocean City Yacht Club's three-story building that stood on Battersea Road between 1912 and 1944, when it was demolished following hurricane damage and the club's bankruptcy.

The third-floor deck on the west side of the welcome center is just for show, and not actually accessible to visitors. The east side of the roof is covered in solar panels that will help offset its energy usage.

"It gives off that nice charm of an old shore house but it's also state-of-the-art," Gillian said.

Along the walkway leading from the parking lot to the building is a plaque dedicated to Francisco Baez, a 29-year-old state road maintenance worker from Buena who was killed on Aug. 10, 1993, when two cars collided and one veered into the construction zone where he was working on the bridge.

"'Frankie will be sadly missed by his mother, father, family, friends and co-workers - Crew 4560 of the New Jersey Department of Transportation," the plaque reads.

Another ramp leads down from the center to the marshland below, where there is one of the causeway's four public fishing piers. Part of that area below the bridge was used as a staging site for the materials and heavy machinery used to build the structure, and it has since been turned back to wetlands.

In fact, that wetlands restoration was what delayed the opening of the facility. The chamber originally wanted to take it over in the fall, but Hurricane Sandy ruined much of what had been done underneath the bridge, pushing back the opening date.

There is still some evidence of the storm's impact there, such as the section of dock washed up on the rock seawall by the fishing pier that now sits abandoned.

On Monday, a sign on the causeway still said the center was closed, so there were few people there besides the chamber employees. One fisherman sat at the end of the pier, and a few bikers and runners went passed.

When fully operational, though, it's certainly possible that there won't be enough space for everyone to visit. Between fishermen, people picking up beach tags and concert tickets, sightseers and even groups of plein air artists, those involved expect it be yet another popular addition to the resort.

"It's going to be a lot of fun," Gillian said.

Contact Lee Procida:

609-463-6712

LProcida@pressofac.com

Follow @ACPressLee on Twitter

MILLVILLE — Just when seniors at Millville High School had a long year of reading William Shakespeare, they got something of a break Monday.

They got more Shakespeare, but this time it was accompanied by a sword swallower, juggler, a guy who walks on a bed of nails and a few more lads and lassies whose talents harkened to the times in which the writer lived.

Members of the New Jersey Renaissance Players were at the high school as part of a day-long event to help make the Shakespearean world the students — about 400 of them — read about come alive.

“This kind of entertaining is what they did,” David Darwin told students who gathered in a gymnasium to watch him juggle everything from a bowling ball to not-very-sharp knives. “They went from town to town.”

Darwin swallowed a sword as part of his act. He told the students that some sword swallowers allow the sword to be pulled out by a member of the audience.

“I want to do it,” 17-year-old local resident Rachel Rivera called out quickly.

“No,” Darwin replied. “I’m not quite ready for that.”

But Rivera was not disappointed, saying the day’s events were “a lot of fun.”

Her friend, 17-year-old city resident Ashley Sheppard, became part of Darwin’s act for a while, tossing him small balls to juggle.

Sheppard said Monday’s events helped illustrate much of what the seniors learned in literature classes all year. She said the day’s events also spurred her to see something else.

“I want to go see Cirque du Soleil,” she said.

Monday’s program grew out of a meeting involving the school district’s Teachers of Excellence Committee in September.

English teacher Tara Cotton said Superintendent of Schools David Gentiles challenged committee members to develop something unique that would be both entertaining and bolster what the students were learning in class. She said she developed the idea of having members of the Renaissance organization bring their talents to the high school.

The idea resulted in 18 of the members showing up Monday.

“I went big,” Cotton said.

Caroline Leipf, who oversees school and educational programs for the Renaissance players, said Monday’s event was the largest event at a school in which the troupe participated.

The event was not just all juggling and sword-swallowing. Some parts — such as a Shakespearean version of Jeopardy — were designed to challenge the mind.

Levander Guilford, another 17-year-old local resident, sat in the high school auditorium watching a not-so-serious performance of “Romeo and Juliet.” He said the performance was another interesting way to learn about Shakespeare’s plays.

But with graduation just a few weeks away, Guilford did not want to offend his literature teachers.

When asked if the performance was better than learning Shakespeare from a book, Guilford smiled and replied, “No.”

Contact Thomas Barlas:

609-226-9197

TBarlas@pressofac.com

ATLANTIC CITY -- Horses and a stagecoach paraded under a light fog before reaching Boardwalk Hall on Monday morning to promote the return of the Boardwalk Rodeo in October.

As the caravan traveled from the Tanger Outlets mall onto the Boardwalk and finally the arena, visitors stopped to see the pony and a dozen horses, including a red horse pulling the stagecoach. Some took pictures with the horses, while others used them as a backdrop for photos.

Sally and Tom Thomas from Freeport, Pa., said the sight of horses along the Boardwalk was unusual.

"Maybe it wouldn't have been at the turn of the century, but now it is," Tom Thomas said.

"I figured it had something to do with a rodeo," said Sally Thomas.

Atlantic City will kick off the 2013 rodeo season for the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, which begins at Boardwalk Hall on Oct. 5 and 6, said event producer John Barnes, from Sutherland, Iowa.

Contestants from all over the country, including Texas, Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota, as well as other parts of the world including Canada and New Zealand, will compete in the two day event, he said.

At the kickoff event, Mayor Lorenzo Langford said he was excited for the chance to ride a horse at the start of the event in October.

Ticket sales begin Friday for the rodeo, which will take place for the third straight year in the resort.

Boardwalk Rodeo chairwoman Janet Markowitz said the previous two years the rodeo was held in April over three days, but this year all the events will be consolidated into two days for logistical reasons. The event will open the association’s year, which Markowitz said she hopes will draw more people from around the East Coast to the resort.

“It’s just so exciting to be the first of the season,” she said. “We notice we get a lot of local people as well as people from Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. We hope this will bring even more people this year.”

Boardwalk Hall's capacity for the rodeo has been 8,696. The first year, the three-day attendance total was 17,685. Last year, it was 13,921.

Despite there being only two days of competition, the prize money this year will be the same, Markowitz said. Last year, it was about $94,000 total.

“I think it’s just so different,” she said. “It’s something that’s never been held in Atlantic City before. When we didn’t have it in April we had people were calling saying ‘oh, please don’t tell me it’s been canceled.’”

Contact Anjalee Khemlani:

609-272-7247

akhemlani@pressofac.com

Follow Anjalee Khemlani on Twitter @AnjKhem

Contact Joel Landau:

609-272-7215

jlandau@pressofac.com

Follow Joel Landau on Twitter @landaupressofac

A local legislator is changing his approach to ensuring that owners of alternative-fuel vehicles fairly contribute to maintaining state bridges and roads.

State Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, said Monday he will revise bill S-2531, which he sponsored in February to tax electric or compressed natural gas vehicles for the miles traveled when they were inspected or sold. The money would go to the state's Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for the upkeep of state bridges and roads through fuel taxes.

Whelan said instead of a tax per mile, the owners of alternative-fuel vehicles would be charged an annual fee - about $50 per year, though that is not final - to go to the fund upon annual registration.

Whelan faced criticism when he introduced a bill. Opponents said the tax would hurt sales of fuel-efficient vehicles, did not specify which cars would be taxed in the original draft and that the mileage tax would penalize owners for driving out of state.

When told of the change in the bill Monday, Atlantic County Sheriff Frank Balles, Whelan's Republican opponent in November, said the change still could hurt the sale of energy-efficient cars.

"It's just another tax," he said. "We need to support the idea of having energy-efficient vehicles to help reduce the use of fossil fuels."

Whelan said when he introduced the bill, for which he was the lone sponsor, he intended for there to be discussion and possible changes to the bill. He said he will modify the document this spring and hopes it could be voted on in the fall.

Whelan said his fear was that, as these cars became more popular, the state's trust fund would generate less money. The fund receives about 14 cents per gallon of gasoline sales. The fee paid by the efficient car owners would be based on a formula of what the average car owner pays in the gasoline tax a year, he said.

"The electrical and natural gas cars are out there driving the same roads and bridges as everyone else does," he said. "But they're getting a free ride."

As cars become more fuel efficient and gasoline sales drop, Whelan said, there is concern about a depletion of the trust fund. His colleagues said that issue should be tackled at a later date.

Contact Joel Landau: 609-272-7215

JLandau@pressofac.com

Follow @landaupressofac on Twitter

WILDWOOD — Eleven-year-old William Portalatin has already earned a place in the history books, or at the very least a well-deserved pat on the back.

The fifth-grader at Glenwood Avenue Elementary School won a districtwide marbles tournament Monday afternoon, meaning he will represent Wildwood, Cape May County and all of the Garden State at this year’s National Marbles Tournament.

He and a girls champion, who is likely to be decided today, will be the first contestants to represent the state, let alone the city, at the national competition, held each June in Wildwood, since 2001. That year, boys Pat Bocchicchio and John Gray played from New Jersey, while Rita Salladino played in the girls competition.

And New Jersey has never had any boy or girl walk away with the coveted king or queen of marbles title, despite hosting the tournament for decades, including in Wildwood since 1960.

Marbles officials say Wildwood also hosted the tournament from 1937 to 1948, though the competition was held in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1943 and no tournament was held in 1944 or 1945 because of World War II. From 1949 to 1959 it was held in Asbury Park.

“It’s been a dream of mine to get some local representation. It’s a dream come true,” said Beverly Trapp of the Wildwoods Convention Center.

Trapp has spent years working with the National Marbles Tournament officials, developing a fondness for the game and what it means to the city’s past.

She and John Lynch, the center’s director of sales and entertainment, worked with the school district and teacher Betty Harshaw to finally revive marbles at the local level.

They were both on hand Monday watching Wildwood history in the making.

Lynch, who operates the Lunch with Lynch Foundation, is a longtime supporter of the school. He purchased T-shirts for the students that read “Glenwood Avenue Elementary and Wildwood Middle School Marbles Team 2013.”

Students in the school’s after-school program take part in the marbles competition, and on Monday, William and eighth-grader Eddie Kane, 13, faced off in the school’s tournament held at Ringer Stadium, the same set of concrete rings where the nationals will be held the week of June 17 at Wildwood Avenue and the beach.

On Friday, during the early rounds of the school competition, William said he had played the game before, but he initially wasn’t interested for the school. “But then I started to like it,” he said.

While the boys champion is already determined, the girls champion is still a mystery … at least for a few more hours.

About 15 girls competed for the spot, about double the number of boys involved, meaning their competition took longer.

Harshaw, a former marbles player who represented the Greater Philadelphia area at the national tournament in 1968, said the girl’s winner will likely be decided this afternoon.

Griselda Bautista, 11, and India McClendon, 11, played in the finals Monday and are tied two games apiece in the best-of-seven finale.

The two girls took a break Monday as they waited to start play at Ringer Stadium.

“It will be cool. It will be like history,” India said at the prospect of representing Wildwood on the national marbles stage.

Griselda said the competition would also lead to other students learning to play, starting a new tradition.

“I would feel very proud and very happy,” she said of her chances of going to the nationals.

Contact Trudi Gilfillian:

609-463-6716

TGilfillian@pressofac.com

Residents of Atlantic City's South Inlet neighborhood are receiving notices to vacate their homes to make way for a still unfunded Casino Reinvestment Development Authority project.

Plans were announced last year for a redevelopment project expected to bring a mix of new housing, restaurants and shops to the neighborhood surrounding Revel. To make way for that development, the authority must acquire and raze several blocks of property between the casino and Absecon Lighthouse. That includes about 60 residences primarily in the Vermont and Metropolitan low-rises.

Staggered letters have been sent to property owners and residents in the redevelopment area stating they have 90 days to leave or face eviction. That timeframe gives residents - many of whom received letters in April - until sometime in July to leave, but CRDA officials insist the dates are flexible given that there is no schedule for new development. All but four property owners and tenants in the area have received notices, and the authority is still working on offers for some of the vacant lots, officials said.

The authority began meeting with residents last year to help them find alternative housing and inform them about the relocation assistance they'll be offered. A dozen have identified replacement housing. About six have yet to meet with the authority, CRDA spokeswoman Kim Butler said.

"We are currently in the process of scheduling those appointments and hope that as their neighbors move successfully through the process, they will gain more confidence in working with us," Butler said. "By approaching the project in smaller phases, we have been better able to accommodate the specific needs of each resident."

Announced last year as a project that would leverage investment through revenue streams from Revel, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority intended to help the CRDA secure $50 million in loans to back the development. In light of the casino's disappointing performance, the CRDA was forced to break the project into several smaller phases. No loans have been secured.

Instead, two allocations totaling about $9.8 million in CRDA financing have been devoted in the past year to land acquisition, demolition, relocation stipends for residents, legal services and site preparation. Still, funding for whatever will take the place of the housing units and vacant properties hasn't been secured, and there is no solid timeline for anything new to be built.

That prospect concerns Warren Massey, who doesn't live in the project area but became concerned when plans were announced last year. Massey, a former Atlantic City Housing Authority board chairman, NAACP Atlantic City chapter President Linda Steele and South Inlet resident Sandra Taliaferro have organized a May 25 meeting at New Shiloh Baptist Church for residents affected by the CRDA's plans.

"After 35 years of working in the casino industry, I believe the people who have suffered the most are the people who live here - the residents. We were sold a promise that did not come to fruition," Massey said. "Now with rapidly declining casino revenues, they want to uproot people who have lived through these years and tell them they can no longer live where they choose to live."

The eminent domain process is commonly used by municipalities for construction projects involving roadways or other public spaces. The CRDA also uses the process for commercial projects due to its mission as a redevelopment agency for Atlantic City.

Massey said the organizers are working to have officials from housing rights groups at the meeting, and residents will be invited to share their concerns. The CRDA will also be invited to attend, he said. Butler said the authority would like to have representation at the meeting and be part of the dialogue and provide information directly to the residents.

Some confusion over the project arose last year when residents said they were told at information sessions with CRDA housing officials that they would have to be out of their homes by December. When official letters never arrived, some residents became angered at what they called a lack of communication. At the time, CRDA Executive Director John Palmieri acknowledged that the authority needed to improve its communication. Residents needing more than the state-mandated 90-day notice to leave would be accommodated and no one with children would be displaced during a school year, he said.

No matter the timeframe, resident Paul Dalnoky said finding comparable replacement housing is difficult. He rents space in a house on Oriental Avenue - one of a few parcels affected along with the low rises. While the property isn't new, finding a rental property at a similar price in a safe neighborhood is difficult, he said.

"It just seems like they want us to get out of town, leave Atlantic City," he said.

The CRDA will help residents find other properties in the city, in neighboring towns or out of state. They're offered relocation assistance that's more generous than state regulations mandate. Renters are offered $9,600 over three years, plus $750 in fixed moving expenses or the cost of movers provided that multiple estimates are obtained.

The process has been used several times before with other CRDA projects, including redevelopment near the North Carolina Avenue corridor that affected 57-year-old Joel Clark, who was living in a more-than 100-year-old home where he'd grown up on Baltic Avenue.

A holdout for several years, Clark, who owned the property, moved last year after purchasing his aunt's home on Caspian Avenue. Because his property on Baltic had a rear deck, the authority provided a $10,000 allocation to help him install a deck at the new home, he said.

"Of course I didn't want to give up my property. I wanted my house, you know? At first we had a bit of an adversarial thing going on," Clark said. "But I'll give them credit, they helped with the deck. That was a big thing for me."

Contact Jennifer Bogdan:

609-272-7239

JBogdan@pressofac.com

Follow @ACPressJennifer on Twitter

South Inlet housing rights meeting

What: Informational meeting on housing rights for South Inlet residents

When: 2 to 4 p.m. May 25

Where: New Shiloh Baptist Church, 701 Atlantic Ave. in Atlantic City

Who: Organized by community leaders for residents affected by the South Inlet redevelopment project

Why: Organizers are asking residents to voice concerns about the relocation process and speak with housing rights experts