Belmar Bonds for Road Improvements

The borough of Belmar issued bonds totaling $576,750 for road improvements throughout town at Wednesday night's meeting of the mayor and council. 

Three bond ordinances were opened to public comment and eventually approved by all members of the governing body except Republican Councilman Richard Wright. 

"I will be voting no," Wright said to his Democrat counterparts. The councilman explained that without seeing a debt schedule, as recommended by Governor Chris Christie's 2011 municipal best practices, he could not vote in favor of the infrastructure improvements.

The borough will not, however, bear the brunt of the cost of the projects alone.

Grants totaling $215,000 from the New Jersey Department of Education and $202,527 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant Program. 

Another $250,000 from the New Jersey Department of Transportation will be used specifically for improvements to 10th Avenue.

With this project the borough hopes to address longstanding issues at the intersection of 10th Avenue and Main Street. East bound traffic coming from Route 35 often becomes snared at the light for Main Street.

Officials hope a widening of the median separating the west and east bound lanes with parking spaces will help to alleviate vehicular congestion in the area.

Additionally, an assessment of up to $32,500 will be made on commercial property owners in the area to provide for new streetlighting in the 10th Avenue corridor between Route 35 and Main Street. The borough will bond for that money in anticipation of a later collection.

The borough has not set a timeframe for the construction.

The bonds will take affect 20 days from their first publication.