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9th
May 2016

Discussed at the Town Hall Meeting - May 2016

 

By Chris Lundy


    At last month’s Township Council meeting, public officials spoke in opposition to a proposed increase in New Jersey Natural Gas that could add up to more than $20 a month.


   A resident would see an increase of approximately 24 percent on their bill, according to NJNG figures. On a household using the average of 100 therms, there would be an increase of $21.69 per month. The increase is expected to occur next year.


   “The investments we make strengthen our system and provide greater resiliency to our customers and to the communities we serve,” said Laurence Downes, chairman and CEO of NJNG.


   New Jersey Natural Gas spokesman noted that due to the decline in natural gas prices over the years, that rates would still be 29 percent lower than 2008 rates. That was the year of NJNG’s other rate case. Since then, there has been $806 million worth of investments to the infrastructure. The total cost of construction covered in this filing is $148 million.


   The request was actually filed in 2015. It represents the first request for a rate hike since 2007, according to the press release.
   The increases will help pay for new mains, meter services, and distribution for its growing customer base. It will also provide for a liquification plant in Howell that will reduce the need to truck in liquified gas. There would also be a pipeline built. The “southern reliability link” would start in Chesterfield, and flow through North Hanover, Upper Freehold, Plumsted, the Naval Air Engineering Station in Lakehurst, and Manchester.
   The mayor and council passed a resolution condemning the increase.


   “These are difficult economic times for our seniors on fixed incomes and hard-working families,” Mayor Carmen Amato said. “An increase of this magnitude would no doubt have a negative impact on our residents, especially our seniors who did not see a Social Security cost of living increase this year.”


   He called the average increase to a homeowner’s bill, roughly $22 per month, “outrageous.” If government agencies are required by law to keep spending increases within a 2 percent cap, then utilities should be held to the same standard.


   The resolution that the council passed in opposition to this noted that the average resident can’t afford paying more than $260 a year on top of all their other expenses. It warned that residents might have to forgo other necessities to pay for this.


   Amato urged anyone who was able to attend a hearing on this matter. The public hearings on the rate increase were held on April 27, at the Freehold Township Municipal Building, One Municipal Plaza-Schanck Road.


   If residents were not able to attend, they should contact the Division of Rate Counsel, 140 East Front Street, 4th Floor, P.O. Box 003, Trenton, N.J. 08625. They can also be reached at (609)984-1460 and [email protected].

Scams
   Police Chief Karin DiMichele said that the IRS scam has been out in full force. If you get a call from someone who claims to be from the Internal Revenue Service, just hang up. The IRS never calls people. Additionally, don’t call the police department to report that this happened. The station was being inundated with calls recently, and it made it challenging to field phone calls about real emergencies.

Finances and Personnel
   A resident took issue with the governing body’s move to double the pay range of its authority board members. The ordinance, passed unanimously, will increase the maximum pay from $2,500 a year to $5,000 for members of the Municipal Utilities Authority and Sewerage Authority.


   “I don’t see the justification of $5,000 for attending one meeting a month,” said resident     Laura Wheeler-Shaw.
   The mayor and council members didn’t respond to her, but the town’s attorney and administrator did. Attorney Lauren Staiger said that none of the members have health benefits anymore, unless they were grandfathered in after the health benefits stopped. Administrator John Camera said he didn’t think there were any now who had benefits.


   “Like most boards, they do more outside of the meeting. They seem to put in a lot more time than one meeting a month,” he said.
   The governing body authorized the town to bond $11,409,000 for various improvements throughout town. The Manitou Park Fire Company will eventually be receiving a dive truck, as the council awarded a contract for purchasing it for approximately $150,000.


   The town applied for a Post-Sandy Planning Assistance Grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. It will provide funds for professionals to come up with engineering and other projects to make Berkeley more resilient to flooding.


   Gregory McGuckin, Christopher Dasti annd Timothy McNichols were appointed as conflict prosecutors. Kevin Riordan was appointed as conflict zoning prosecutor. Gannon, Hiering and McKenna were appointed as labor counsel.
    
Recreation, Awards, and Farmer’s Market
   Swimming fees for the township’s recreation department will be increasing from $65 to $100. Recreation director Tim Yurcisin said it was because Ocean County College’s pool is no longer available, and the YMCA charges more.


   Additionally, discussions have been made about the future of the now run-down skate park. After being misused by bicyclists, the equipment isn’t safe anymore, Yurcisin said. The company that built it has since gone out of business, so simple repair is not an option. It would have to be rebuilt, which would be costly. Due to the cost, the township would likely seek grant funding. A few residents at the meeting volunteered to help raise money through the community and online. There is also talk of moving its location to elsewhere in Veterans Park, where it would be farther from the playground areas frequented by little kids.


   The farmer’s market will return on May 10 to the recreation department building on Route 9, Councilman Angelo Guadagno said. There will be twice as many vendors this year as last.


   The governing body also gave out proclamations for National Library Week and the Fire Poster Contest Awards. The Mayor’s Award was given to Nate Brown, who gave hundreds of computers and laptops to children over the last few years. It was presented by Robert Taylor, who runs a basketball program in Manitou Park, who also gave proclamations to the owners of All-American Deli, Chuck’s Ice Cream, and Lou’s Deli, who sponsor teams there.
 


Do you know who your neighbors are?
 

Everyone moving into a senior community is supposed to fill out a form stating who will be living in their home. Part of this is so that the community can enjoy the protections afforded by the Housing for Older Persons Act (HOPA). But now, there are different reasons.
 

While HOPA states that 80 percent of the homes must have at least one person who is 55 or older, there are increasing instances where that is not the case. People in the various senior communities have been complaining about increasing instances where people are living in homes that are younger than 55. Sometimes, these arrangements appear to be illegal.
 

At a recent meeting of the Coalition of Holiday City and Silver Ridge Park, Councilwoman Sophia Gingrich said that these provide safety concerns for the community.

“Many homes are being robbed. There are more robberies than we’d care to think about,” she said.
According to police blotters published by the Berkeley Township Police, there have been a few recent issues in the senior communities. One was an arrest on March 23. A call for a suspicious person led to police arresting a man for a drug distribution charge out of Virginia. There were two arrests made in relation to separate instances of burglary this year as well.

 

This is why the leadership at each senior community will be reaching out to residents, asking for addresses that might be suspicious. Red flags include: young people living in a home, abandoned homes, or behavior that would normally be considered suspicious.


At the coalition roundtable, many people shared stories of situations in their own communities. In one, a squatter was living in an abandoned home. Another was using the property as a home base for a contracting business. Yet another had an issue of a grandchild living in the home while the owner, the grandparent, was in a hospital. A situation occurred where a live-in caregiver continued to live in the home after the owner died, and rented it from a relative of the deceased. In one case, a home was being rented out, and the rent collector didn’t even own the house. He had just been finding abandoned homes and renting them out to unsuspecting people.
 

There are multiple issues with these living arrangements, Councilwoman Judy Noonan said. Whenever there is a change in who is living there, the home must be inspected and provided a certificate of occupancy. Additionally, some properties are not being used in a permitted way, such as a business.
 

Gingrich said there are all types of arrangements that end up with underaged people living in the homes who might be causing problems. “It’s a difficult situation. They are family but they don’t belong here. They have issues.”
 

Gingrich urged people to report the addresses of these homes to the leaders of the community where it is located. Then, the authorities can take the proper steps to determine if the person who is living there is supposed to be there.