Mayor Small, Sen. Polistina call a truce, vow to work together for Atlantic City

“A lot (of what I’ve said) has been taken as criticism,” state Sen. Vince Polistina, R-Atlantic, said on Scott Cronick’s “Off The Press“ radio show on WOND last week. “I’m going to stop talking about those ... and try to focus on what we need to do to move forward.”

The resolution came near the end of the show, after Polistina and Mayor Marty Small had talked about some of their major differences. 

They continue to disagree strongly about some things, including the planned “road diet” for Atlantic Avenue. The first phase has already started, and it will pare the four-lane main artery through town to two vehicle lanes with parking and a bike lane on each side. It’s designed to increase pedestrian and vehicle safety, in part by eliminating many left turns off the road that slow traffic.

Small supports it and Polistina adamantly opposes it, saying the main road through town needs to keep all four vehicle lanes or the city will be gridlocked during busy periods.

But the two agreed on a much trickier issue — where social services for homeless, drug addicted and mentally ill should be located. Small and Polistina agreed they must be moved out of the Tourism District. “You can’t have a tourism area with social services in the middle ... You cannot have the needle exchange outside the doors of the Hard Rock (Hotel & Casino),” Polistina said.

Small agreed, and said he and City Council were ready to close the needle exchange two years ago but state government passed a law to prevent that and put all decisions on needle exchange locations into the hands of the state Health Department.

“I said move social services out of Atlantic City and put it in … take it to Ancora (Psychiatric Hospital),” Small said of the state facility in Winslow Township, Camden County, just west of Hammonton. “Move all social services out there … and all Atlantic City’s problems are over.” 
The state shot that idea down, Small said.

The two agreed to work with Hard Rock co-owner Joe Jingoli and others to try to find an alternative place for such services. “The biggest thing is New York gaming is coming, and people are going to stay in New York and not come down as much,” Polistina said. “We have got to focus on (Atlantic City International) airport and redirecting some of the money generated by the city back to the city for a period of time.”

Small has been arguing for a long time that more of the money generated here should stay here. Small then asked Polistina to get $2 million more in the state budget for programs for the city’s children and senior citizens.

“We got $650,000 from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, and $2 million for antiviolence programs. That funds our youth recreation, senior citizen and multicultural services,” Small said.”If you can do that, it will be a win for all of those populations, from children to seniors,” Small said.

The state shot that idea down, Small said.

The two agreed to work with Hard Rock co-owner Joe Jingoli and others to try to find an alternative place for such services. “The biggest thing is New York gaming is coming, and people are going to stay in New York and not come down as much,” Polistina said. “We have got to focus on (Atlantic City International) airport and redirecting some of the money generated by the city back to the city for a period of time.”

Small has been arguing for a long time that more of the money generated here should stay here. Small then asked Polistina to get $2 million more in the state budget for programs for the city’s children and senior citizens.

“We got $650,000 from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, and $2 million for antiviolence programs. That funds our youth recreation, senior citizen and multicultural services,” Small said. ”If you can do that, it will be a win for all of those populations, from children to seniors,” Small said.

By Michelle Brunetti