Thursday, December 27, 2012
Agenda includes flood plane elevation discussion, appointment of new council president and approval of UEZ projects
The Long Branch Council will hold its final meeting of the year on Thursday night and there are several items on the agenda. The meeting will begin with a workshop session at 6 p.m. with a discussion of Lake Takanassee and FEMA's advisory flood plane elevation. The council will then move to executive session and will reconvene at 7:30 p.m. with its regular meeting. A new council president will be appointed at this time. Councilwoman Joy Bastelli is expected to replace Kathleen Billings in the role. The 2013 council meeting schedule is also expected to be approved. The council is also expected to approve several Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) projects including a year-round shuttle service for the city and a gazebo-replacement project for West…
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
City expects to receive new map later this month
Big changes are expected to be coming on FEMA's flood zone map for Long Branch in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Officials say they expect the flood plain area to be increased, thereby adding several buildings and homes to the area that were not previously in it. "It's going to be a big change," City Code Enforcement Officer Kevin Hayes said. "We are waiting for FEMA to set the base flood elevation, which is the level of your first finished floor in your building and what height it can be built to." City Attorney James Aaron said the city will have to amend its flood ordinance once the new FEMA flood zone map is released. "You're (the council) going to have to set on a municipal level what your elevations are going to be," Aaron said. "When…
Council still weighing options for reconstruction
The Long Branch boardwalk will likely have a different look once it is rebuilt by the city. Upcoming FEMA regulations and a desire for the boardwalk to not suffer the same fate from a future storm as it did from Hurricane Sandy may force the city's hand in building a new type of boardwalk, city officials discussed during Tuesday night's council meeting. "Our concern is that if we build it back in the condition it was in prior to the storm, we're inviting a disaster," Long Branch Business Administrator Howard Woolley said. "We're inviting it to be destroyed if and when there is another storm of this magnitude." "The intelligent thing to do is to build it possibly at a higher level with a more secure method of construction, but we don't have…
Monday, December 10, 2012
Ordinance passed by Eatontown, Long Branch expected to do the same
The JCP&L resolution crafted by Monmouth County mayors asking the utility company to improve its services is quickly being adopted by local towns. The Eatontown Council adopted the resolution at its meeting last week and now the Long Branch Council is expected to do the same during its Tuesday night meeting. The resolution stems from comments and suggestions made by various Monmouth mayors and officials at a regional summit held in Tinton Falls last month to discuss how JCP&L handled Hurricane Sandy. Officials at the meeting criticized JCP&L's lack of communication and information with their towns and agreed that the utility company should make some changes. Some of the suggested changes include smaller, regional calls between mayors and …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Officials stress that beaches will be open
Long Branch officials are still deciding what they will do to to rebuild the city's boardwalk that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy last month. Long Branch Administrator Howard Woolley stressed during Tuesday night's council meeting that whatever the future holds for the boardwalk, that the city's beaches will be open this summer. "We are going to have beaches and we are going to have access to the beaches," Woolley said. "The boardwalk is another matter and we are looking at different ways to possibly rebuild it." "We want to build something that has a 20-year useful life from what future storms may come," Woolley added. "The old method of construction is not necessarily what we are looking at. We are looking at possibly doing some …
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Freeholder Thomas Arnone addresses Long Branch Council
Lake Takanassee in Long Branch is on the county's list of dredging projects, Monmouth County Freeholder Thomas Arnone said during Tuesday night's Long Branch Council meeting. Freeholder Arnone met with the council to explain the Grow Monmouth program which aims to brings more businesses to the county, but noted that the lake could be one of the next projects the county pursues. "I know we are having some early discussions on doing some dredging for you," Freeholder Arnone said. "I will tell you that right now we are dredging a lake in Colts Neck and will then be moving on to Spring Lake. Our goal is to put two (dredging) projects a year on the books for our public works, that's pretty much all we can handle because we only have a certain…
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
City applying for Open Space, DOT grants to help fund project
The city is looking to improve passive and active recreation around Lake Takanassee by building pedestrian and bike paths around it. City engineer Gerald Freda gave a brief presentation of the project at Tuesday night's Long Branch Council meeting. Freda said the city is applying for a $250,000 Open Space grant to help pay for the project, which is estimated to cost $650,000. Freda said the city has also applied for a New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) grant to help pay for the costs, and said if those two grants are received, more than two-thirds of the total cost of the project would be paid. He said there are other grants the city could apply for to pay for the remainder of the project. Freda said there are DEP permits …
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
City expected to open new bids today
A Long Branch boardwalk improvement project expected to start earlier this year hit a snag when bids the city received exceeded the amount of money bonded by the city. The Long Branch Council recently passed a resolution rejecting bade bids of $998,397 by Circle-A Construction Inc. and $968,885 by Black Rock Enterprises, LLC. The Long Branch Council adopted a $950,000 bond ordinance last December for improvements to the boardwalk between Morris Avenue and Brighton Avenue. The appropriations included a $421,000 grant from Green Acres for the project and a $421,000 loan from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP loan is zero interest and is repayable over 20 year according to Long Branch Chief Financial …
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Council passes $24.9 million bond ordinance to get project started
Residents can expect construction of Pier Village Phase 3 to begin in the spring after the Long Branch Council unanimously passed an ordinance bonding $24.9 million to get the project moving, during its meeting on Tuesday night. Mayor Adam Schneider explained that for the project to be completed in the scope the city desires, the city had to bond for some construction costs. The money will be paid back to the city through a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program after the project is completed in about two years. "What we would have gotten without this, was not necessarily something we would have wanted," Mayor Schneider said. A PILOT is money a property owner pays to a municipality instead of real estate taxes on the improvement …
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Public will get so see plans for third phase of Pier Village
The public will get a look at the final plans for Pier Village Phase 3 tonight as the Long Branch Council will vote on an ordinance that would bond $24.9 million to finance a portion of the cost of the oceanfront addition. The money will be lent to the developer, Fountains Applied LWAG LLC, and be paid back in lieu of taxes after the oceanfront development is completed. According to the ordinance, the third phase of Pier Village will contain a 68-room hotel, retail and recreational space and off-street parking. The council has said construction is expected to begin in January and will be done in two phases. The plan that will be presented to the public tonight can be viewed in the PDF attached to this article.
Ken Jones
4:43 pm on Thursday, December 13, 2012
The FEMA flood maps are definitely not perfect. You can dispute the maps and get yourself out of the flood zone. Check out www.floodzoneremoval.com for instructions. more ›