Lake Takanassee Dredging Could be Coming Soon for Long Branch

The city is taking the necessary steps for the county to dredge Lake Takanassee in the near future.

Long Branch Administrator Howard Woolley said the county dredges two lakes per year and is now interested in Lake Takanassee.

"We did a study a while back and found it would cost us several million dollars to dredge it ourselves, but (Monmouth County Department of Public Works Director John) Tobia has offered to do it for us at very limited cost to the city," Woolley said during Thursday night's Long Branch Council meeting.

He said the city's first task is to test the sediment at the bottom of the lake to see if it is clean and can be used by the county as cover for its landfill.

"If it comes up clean, we've got a great deal, if it comes up not so clean, then we have other issues, but we might as well know that anyway," Woolley said.

He said it would cost $17,000 to do the testing of the sediment and that a budget transfer would be necessary.

Lake Takanassee has never been dredged, but has been filling with sediment that flows into it from the upstream bodies of water of the Whalepond Brook Watershed.

Long Branch Department of Public Works Director Fred Migliaccio said the lake is deeper at its center than originally thought. He said that will make it easier and quicker to dredge the lake because less material will have to be removed.

Woolley said Tobia will be attending a future meeting to give a presentation on the potential dredging of the lake.