Wednesday, October 24, 2012
'Breakfast With the Candidates' scheduled for Saturday at Woman's Club building
Manasquan Borough Council candidates are scheduled to speak this weekend at a breakfast hosted by the town's beach improvement association, organizers said. Republican candidates Mike Sinneck and Greg Olivera and Democrats Michelle Batista and Peter Pappas plan to speak at the Manasquan Beach Improvement Association's Breakfast With the Candidates 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Woman's Club, 62 Main Street, according to MBIA President Mary Ryan. "All are invited to attend and encouraged to submit questions beforehand to the MBIA," Ryan said. Questions can be sent to: P.O. Box 231, Manasquan, 08736. Residents may also submit questions the morning of the event at the Woman's Club, Ryan said. No questions will be taken directly from…
Friday, October 5, 2012
Black and Veatch Engineers making $10,000 for services
The Manasquan Borough Council this week hired an engineering firm to help resolve ongoing problems at the new water treatment plant. Black and Veatch Engineers were retained at a cost of $10,000 — to be reimbursed by the borough's regular engineering firm, T&M Associates — for chemical feed engineering services, the resolution says. The firm is tasked with analyzing key drawings and documents related to the construction of the plant and guiding officials in its operations, the resolution says. An operations manager visited the plant last week. A draft report is expected by the end of this week, officials said. “We’re moving forward with addressing our needs at the water plant,” Borough Administrator Joe DeIorio said. Attorney Mark …
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Manasquan Beach Improvement Association asks council to ramp up pressure on county to replace decaying historic bridge
The Glimmer Glass Bridge on Fisk Avenue between Manasquan and Brielle has got to go, according to one organization and several locals. The wooden drawbridge built more than 100 years ago is decaying from the inside out and poses a danger to drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians, according to Al Sauer of the Manasquan Beach Improvement Association. Sauer at Monday's Manasquan Borough Council meeting pleaded with the governing body to put pressure on the county, which controls the bridge, to move forward on a replacement project that, he said, for nearly two decades has remained in the planning stages. Nearly every resident who spoke following Sauer's presentation before a standing-room-only crowd inside council chambers agreed that the …
Monday, October 1, 2012
Missed the meeting? Read the chat transcript.
During the governing body's Monday work session, a spokesman from the Manasquan Beach Improvement Association pitched the mayor and council on replacing the 100-year-old Glimmer Glass bridge. Borough Engineer Charlie Rooney and Administrator Joe DeIorio provided an update on the borough's new water treatment plant, which officials have had issues with since it came online earlier this year. The council appointed a corrosion expert engineer for the treatment plant. Black and Veatch Engineers will receive $10,000 for chemical feed services. The borough's engineering firm T&M Associates will provide a reimbursement. The council also approved a $1.29 million contract to for the Squan Plaza renovation. Mark Woszczak Mechanical Contractors, …
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Telephone company says it won't pay taxes to nearly 200 NJ municipalities
Manasquan on Monday joined forces with Hopewell, in Mercer County, in its fight against Verizon to continue receiving property tax payments from the telephone service provider. Verizon Communications recently notified nearly 200 towns across the state, including Manasquan, that since the provider covers less than 51-percent of landlines in those towns, by state statute it no longer had to pay property taxes to the muncipalities. Hopewell, however, continued to bill Verizon, which took the borough to court and won, officials said. On Monday, Manasquan's Borough Council passed a resolution to join Hopewell, also being backed by the League of Municipalities, in an appeal of that decision. "We're hopeful that we'll be successful because …
Environmental Commission purchase frames discussion on use of municipal funds
The Manasquan Borough Council's Republican members on Monday failed to block the approval of a $350 payment for t-shirts purchased by a borough organization. Republicans Patricia Connolly and Marilyn Jacobson voted to reject the purchase order filed by the Environmental Commission, which used $353 from its budget, funded by taxpayer dollars, to purchase seven shirts for its members to wear during public functions. Connolly, who raised the issue during the governing body's work session, said taxpayers should not fund such purchases and instead suggested the bill be paid personally by the commission's members. The notion sparked an intricate debate regarding the borough's purchase order approval process, resulting in some council members …
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Officials having trouble reaching stable pH needed to advance remediation
Five months in, the water woes on Willow Way continued Monday as the Manasquan Borough Council debated what steps to take next, if any, to end the discolored water flowing from residents' taps. While several remedies apparently exist to solve the problem plaguing an entire neighborhood on the north end of town ever since the borough's new multi-million-dollar water treatment plant came on-line, any action taken too soon could only further disrupt the system, officials said. Borough Engineer Charlie Rooney on Monday said that tuberculant, or iron build-up, inside the pipes likely was the culprit causing rust-colored and odorous water flowing from the taps of Willow Way and other surrounding residents. However, since officials have not …
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Borough Council unanimously adopts ordinance intended to discourage puppy mills
Any potential pet store owners looking for a home at the Jersey Shore will have to look outside Manasquan after Monday when the Borough Council adopted an ordinance banning the retail sale of dogs and cats inside borough limits. The governing body voted 6-0 to adopt the ordinance -- which still allows for private breeders, kennels and animal shelters to sell dogs and cats -- intended to discourage "puppy mills" and "kitten factories," known for overbreeding and mistreating animals. Citing research from the Humane Society of the United States, the ordinance says that many licensed breeders in fact breed dogs or cats "in relatively inhumane conditions." Owners of so-called puppy mills and kitten factories have been known by authorities to…
Monday, September 17, 2012
Missed the meeting? Read the chat transcript!
The Manasquan Borough Council at its Monday meeting adopted unanimously an ordinance to ban the retail sales of cats and dogs in the borough. It also introduced an ordinance that would allow interior renovations on non-conforming structures so long as they do not increase the footprint or height of said structures. Another proposed ordinance introduced Monday would create various through streets and add stop signs at several intersections in town.
Manasquan Council expected to make retail pet sales illegal
The Manasquan Borough Council at is expected to adopt an ordinance at its Monday meeting making illegal the retail sale of cats and dogs. The governing body last month introduced a proposed ordinance that would have banned the sale of dogs and cats in Manasquan pet shops, but defeated it the following meeting after Borough Council members decided certain language in the draft might have created unintended consequences for private breeders. Councilman Joe Bossone last month said he wanted to redraft the proposed ordinance, which was up for final vote, and remove any language that would have unintentionally banned dog and cat breeding in Manasquan homes and kennels. "The original intent of this ordinance was not to affect or target …
Ron Jacobson
5:21 pm on Saturday, October 6, 2012
The water plant is almost 6 months late for acceptance. We are hiring an engineer from Kansas City (a good engineering house with a good reputation) to fix the problems our engineer created. But there are equally good engineers here, in New Jersey, for less money. Our engineer was not only the designer but also the construction manager of this plant so, in one or the other position they approved … more ›