Jersey Shore’s iconic Lucy the Elephant stays in place

The Margate Board of Commissioners made it official and voted Thursday to approve a new lease for the iconic Lucy the Elephant to stay right where she is.

The vote puts an end to speculation the local landmark would be leaving the spot she's been since 1971 to make room for a hotel or other development on Atlantic Avenue.

The three commissioners voted unanimously to accept terms of a 20 year lease with a five year review, according to Richard Helfant, executive director and CEO of the Save Lucy Committee.

"Every five years the city and the Save Lucy Committee will sit down and go over the last five years and determine what's working, what's not working, does anything need to be amended to the lease and then it will be automatically renewed for another five years," Helfant said.

Helfant said that Lucy's 138th birthday celebration, complete with food, rides and games, will go on as scheduled Saturday despite the extreme heat. The elephant is air conditioned.

"With all this crazy heat coming Lucy's going to be the coolest place to be," Helfant said.

The next project for Lucy will be a $500,000 refurbishment of the elephant. Her paint will be stripped to the bare metal and then repainted.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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